Friday Movie Night - The American Ruling Class

hot buttered popcorn It's Friday Night! Party Time!   Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

 

This night's film is by request. It's a dramatic-documentary-musical on class warfare. Here is a synopsis and the wikipedia article. Happy New Year and Enjoy!

The American Ruling Class

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OK I watched it, but

at the end, the protagonist sold out. He wasn't even affected by Seger.LOL

So what's the moral of the story?
That we have to be in positions of wealth and affluence to make a difference?

The comment by Baker made me very nervous, too. We are to trust government officials to act with integrity in their use of power and persuasion?
We have government officials who molest pages, for crying out loud.

I'm all for everyone being aware and alert to the real machinations of our system. But, that does not mean we are collectively impotent. It just means ENOUGH people must be enlightened to be a catalyst for REAL change.

kind of what bothers me about "left-right" thinking

It's sort of this super-fiscal view of the world when often, policy underneath isn't what it appears to be on the surface.

That's why I keep harping on understanding policy effects and details.

This was a film by request and it's extremely popular in "left" circles too but for me, I want more Frontline types of documentaries or economists' lectures, equations and so on. (I love Lowell Bergman, he digs around deep!)

I agree it's not left-right

It's top-bottom and I think the program alluded to that.
But the ending wasn't congruent to the message throughout the program.

I'm with you on the Frontline documentaries. There's another series on BBC (can't remember the name offhand) that's good too.

Thanks Bob. I love the FMN's. I just had to throw out my opinion. :)

If you're waiting for

If you're waiting for enlightenment from the US population you're going to have a long wait.

Most in this country don't have a clue what the FED and Teasury have been up to this last couple of years, even if they do they feel powerless do effect anything.

The US working middle class have been strugling with rampant illegal immigration, on top of those granted work visas annually from India, China, Vietnam, etc. I don't know the numbers but you can bet they are staggering.

This deluge of immigrants, backed by big corporations in search of cheap labor and a complicit business orientated govn't, have worked to eliminate a once vibrant middle class.

Today, most people are struggling beneath stagnant wages, high unemployment, wealth destruction, uncontained health care indutsry profiteering and currency devaluation/destruction. In a struggle to survive and provide basic needs for ourselves and our families, who has time for enlightenment. It only serves to foster disdain and frustration aginst those that profess to serve the will of the American people.

It's not left-right but it's still confused

I must say that this is the most clever piece of "liberal" propaganda that I have ever seen and it purports to support a general populist uprising it is actually planting the very seeds of oligarchism that it claims to protest with confused ideas about Shay’s rebellion. They ask a good question in “whether or not doing well is doing good” but fail to locate where the source of doing good would actually be located in society. They say that we need “democracy” and appeal action of the collective as being the “good” as though the mere rebellion by the working classes is sufficient to replace rule by and for the few. There have been many revolutions throughout history and many ruling classes toppled but rarely has it resulted in the empowerment and good interest of the working class.

In ignoring the issue the issue of where is the “good” or the commonwealth of society located demonstrates a “soft power” play by suggesting we must act to “save the planet” and the environmentalist concerns are primary issues belonging to the working class. Externalities are never the dynamic that drives the oligarchical system but rather the internal logic so by diverting us away from the profound issues of nature of the common good into reactionary response to externalities of the system we are thus co-opted programmatic populist into impotent reactionaries.

FDR’s Second Bill of rights is an example of the programmatic populism and I will quote him as to the justification of why this program is truly for the common and not located in the discontents or ambitions of any class but rather true humanism.

Quote from FDR: “We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.
This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.
We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.”