So as if I don't have enough on my mind, I've decided to write a new blog. I'm currently reading Profit Over People by Noam Chomsky, and yes, I am proud of the fact that I've delved into some Chomsky...next up Rushdie. In any case, Chomsky is great if you're into progressive polemical discussion. Sure, Chomsky comes of to the uninformed as excessively cynical, but maybe that is simply because we as Americans are so used to simply acceping ourselves as number one ( which isn't the case and is extremely childish...this isn't a major sports team we're talking about) But, I digress.
Chomsky is able to say many things I've always thought, but he is either able to say them more succinctly, or more intelligbly, I'm not completely sure which. Either way he does it better. I must note one particular quote which was something to the effect of the Untited States churns out, "consumers and not citizens." I feel like this is the chief issue of our times because it directly affects so many other facets of society. The reason American apathy toward politics and the world outside their own personal lives has increased is because of this. Civics is extremely important in a world where despotic regimes and totalatarianism lurks in the shadows everywhere we turn. The United States, and by the U.S. I mean the people as physical beings, not corporations, needs to get back to this basic maxim.
How can we do this? I feel grassroots activism is key, the media is also key, and the world outside of the United States is extremely important as they must not acquiece to our hegemony. The people need to be tought objective nationalism, not the blind kind imposed on them from the top of the power structure. The individual needs to be taught to love the institutions we have in this country, to love democracy and republicanism, yet to view the world through a relative and objective lense. Question authority, re-evaluate your assumptions, and constantly challenge yourself to justify your ideologies and beliefs. Complacency in intellect is dangerous, I feel this breeds the good vs. evil mentality this country has since complacency means you're feel comfortable you have the world figured out. This will never be so.
I haven't addressed what it means to churn out consumers. Business rules all right now in this country. From ethics to social programs, corporation's interests dictate policy of the government. The sad thing is that average citizens buy right into this idea that if it's good for business, then it's good for society, which is rarely so. I feel democracy and capitalism are mutually exclusive, that is to say that capitalism erodes free thought and free politics. Capitalism preaches order, stability, and voracious growth in the economy (note the growth in the "economy" means at the top, not in the form of increased wages for those below). So when profit takes importance over people, we all lose. However, Americans need to wake up and stop lapping up the liturgy of business that the bottom line is all the matters. Believe it or not, I am hopeful we can at least redirect the debate to issues that matter so that we have a society that values people over profit.
