'The United States Has Essentially a One-Party System' »
Posted By jovial 8 months, 3 weeks ago in Political NewsThe linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky has long been a critic of American consumerism and imperialism. SPIEGEL spoke to him about the current crisis of capitalism, Barack Obama's rhetoric and the compliance of the intellectual class.
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jovial
Grew up In Brooklyn. Joined the Navy in 1976 stayed in 10 years. Aircraft Electronics tech. Worked for Major Govt. contractor then settled in California ...
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alakazam8 months, 3 weeks ago
SPIEGEL: After travelling through the United States 170 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville reported, "the people reign over the American political world as God rules over the universe." Was he a dreamer?
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I share the dream of Tocqueville.
A Land of Free Men, Justly Represented. -
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Mdiar8 months, 3 weeks ago
This is a very interesting article and Chomsky makes some good points. He most definitely points out the things I've always considered the best about the United States but he also points out the farce of both parties; they each have pretty much the same goals, but a different means of attaining them. If you reject the goals of each party outright then you're fairly screwed in who to vote for.
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Thanks for the invite.-
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earthlingerer8 months, 3 weeks ago
Same goals, same donors, same masters.
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We need a new party that actually represents what America believes in. It's certainly not the "better of two miserable f'ing lying, thieving, treasonous a-holes" we have now.
That's BOTH McCain AND Obama.
Only insurrection can save the republic at this point...
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jordan118 months, 3 weeks ago
I disagree that both party's are the same, and the differences aren't found in the leaders but in the people who support them.
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"This Sarah Palin phenomenon is very curious. I think somebody watching us from Mars, they would think the country has gone insane.">>>>
You don't need to be from Mars to have figured that out.-
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Eagle_Eye8 months, 3 weeks ago
I agree jordan, the parties are different regarding the people that support them, it changes when the candidate goes to Washington and gets sucked into the political machine. New ones are overwhelmed, middle of the roaders know they have to play ball, and the old ones are the most corrupt since they have been and are part of the corruption.
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Grrr8 months, 3 weeks ago
But it IS the same CON playing both ends of the ideological spectrum against the middle.
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altnrg8 months, 3 weeks ago
"
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Chomsky: Yes, but if it is well managed, like Goldman Sachs, it will cover its own risks and absorb its own losses. But no financial institution can manage systemic risks. Risk is therefore underpriced, and there will be more risk taken than would be prudent for the economy. With government deregulation and the triumph of financial liberalization, the dangers of systemic risks, the possibility of a financial tsunami, sharply increased.
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I agree with this that it is never black and white, There must be a certain level of regulation in order to prevent scammy manipulations. -
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JohnGault8 months, 3 weeks ago
Thanks for the article, interesting read amongst the trash. I don't believe the markets are inefficient, on the contrary they are the most efficient. If you look at it in the short term, I could see how you could see it that way.
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The other is lack of personal responsibility. We should all be accountable for our action.
also brought up Hans Morgenthau, ones whose book, we should all read.-
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DarkWizard8 months, 3 weeks ago
JohnGault,
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Interesting perspective on your part. You sound like the people I argued with over a year ago that insisted that our economy was strong and no eminent danger was to be seen. Of course, we know how that turned out. However, I do like your optimism that that this is a short-term problem and that the markets will quickly adjust (not stated, but implied).
As for the personal responsibilty, I couldn't agree more, but what of the corporate responsibility and the governmental responsibilty? The weasels are watching the chicken coop and you're preaching about individual responsibility. That seems like an irresponsible statement to me!
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humemacdonald8 months, 3 weeks ago
Thanks jovial!
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I always enjoy reading Chomsky- e always seems to have some "nugget" that I like to mull over. The article was timely for me because Sumptuous and I were just talking tonight about the role of religious fundamentalism in the American political realm. As a Canadian I still find this religious aspect of American society such a contradiction amidst the over the top consumerism that it sits side by side with.
Anyway, the point Chomsky made in this article that struck me the most was the following:
"The intellectual world is deeply conformist. Hans Morgenthau, who was a founder of realist international relations theory, once condemned what he called “the conformist subservience to power” on the part of the intellectuals. George Orwell wrote that nationalists, who are practically the whole intellectual class of a country, not only do not disapprove of the crimes of their own state, but have the remarkable capacity not even to see them. That is correct. We talk a lot about the crimes of others. When it comes to our own crimes, we are nationalists in the Orwellian sense". -
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cowboygrandpa8 months, 3 weeks ago
jovial:
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I enjoyed reading this. Somethings I agree with others I do not.
The financial institutions that took such a huge risk on the continued false valuation of properties, risked more than their well being.
They gambled and lost with our immediate as well as long term futures. No company or corporation should have that right.
They acted as a consortium and pushed the values beyond breaking points, taking away the American dream and freedom.
This is not what America is supposed to be.
Risk has to be relevant to all of those who are involved with the risk.
When were we asked if we wanted to risk our futures so a few would become wealthy beyond reason while most would pay for the gain with abject misery and the falling hope of ever regaining what we lost.
Hope this makes sense, I haven't slept for a day now. LOL-
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earthlingerer8 months, 3 weeks ago
This is exactly the point.
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It's too bad that we watch other nations actually uprising against against bad government, risking life, limb and LIBERTY to guarantee themselves a good government, while americans sit, wait for NOTHING to happen, and then get angry once it does.
When you gather all those who gave up the government to those in power now....
Let ME be the one to pull the trigger on "Joe SIxpack". Of course, he won't realize what's happening, but sometimes they have to put out of the WORLD's miserey.
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Spadecaller8 months, 3 weeks ago
Before we can win back our country, the corporate dictatorship will have to be dismantled. That is not going to be easy or pleasant. The corporate fascist regime that is now in power has even altered capitalism; we now privatize profits for the elite and nationalize debt, so the masses become the servants of an indulgent elite group of corporate dictators. That is what we have now.
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rimbaud8 months, 3 weeks ago
John McCain wil regain his reputation, after the politics are over. He is just this year's sacrifice Republican candidate, following 8 years of George W Bush. He is doing his best to run as an independent, in opposition to his own party. The truth is, the Democrats and Republicans belong to the same club. They may call each other names in debates, or to get elected, but they will have a good laugh about it later, over drinks, at the club. It would be nice, though, if they kept their sport out of the Congress and would roll up their sleeves to get some real work done on behalf of the country and not just their contributors... Wait! they didn't allow those special interests into the club, did they?
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earthlingerer8 months, 3 weeks ago
Yeah, once he's back to being the guy who sold out america TWICE to give his baker buddies bailouts, rather than the lame, sick, old do-nothing he is now.
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The "other guy" is JUST AS BAD.
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Harbeas8 months, 3 weeks ago
I disagree, we have a two party system. Neither one of them is worth a damn though! for more than 100 years we have had either a republican or a democrat running our government. Look at the mess we are in now and we will probably vote one or the other back into office again! I think our single digit IQ is beginning to show.
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reallypsst8 months, 3 weeks ago
I agree both party's can be bribed with a dollar what worries me the most is can anyone person brake up the corruption at the top its like the mob there always a soldier ready to move up and take control maybe we can take away the one tool in government that corrupts THE MONEY!
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onlyonesecret8 months, 3 weeks ago
They both are abusing the Rule of Law and ignoring the Constitution.
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"In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant."
-Charles De Gaulle -
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Grrr8 months, 3 weeks ago
The parties are just the symptom of a disease that manifested a long time ago.
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"Certainly no nation ever before abandoned to the avarice and jugglings of private individuals to regulate according to their own interests, the quantum of circulating medium for the nation -- to inflate, by deluges of paper, the nominal prices of property, and then to buy up that property at 1s. in the pound, having first withdrawn the floating medium which might endanger a competition in purchase. Yet this is what has been done, and will be done, unless stayed by the protecting hand of the legislature. The evil has been produced by the error of their sanction of this ruinous machinery of banks; and justice, wisdom, duty, all require that they should interpose and arrest it before the schemes of plunder and spoilation desolate the country." --Thomas Jefferson to William C. Rives, 1819
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