I watched this earlier.  She makes a many valid points, connecting the dots between false hope and economic failure.

Of possible interest ... Here's a Wall Street Journal review of two books with related theses, one of which is Bright-Sided. The other is We Are Doomed, which approaches the subject from an opposite (conservative) perspective.

skepticalthinker, differentpointofview or whatever you want to call yourself, why don't you just f*ck off.  I could have said that much more nicely with grammar fit for the printing presses at Princeton University, but you don't deserve such decent treatment, as you are a non-entity--a sexist, racist, parasitic fart--a spritual and intellectual cancer--that has no place on this forum other than to leave behind FOX news, psych-op turd droppings that belong in a toilet or down Glen Becks throat.

AND you have the nerve to cite the WSJ, owned by Murdoch, as if that piece of shit rag is of any merit whatsoever?????!!!!!

Please die!

Eternity

I was interested to read the WSJ writer's "opinion" (I so rarely read that publication...). I find this interesting:

To recapture our republican virtue, Mr. Derbyshire argues, Americans should embrace a realistic, which is to say pessimistic, view of human nature. We can achieve this, he argues, if we will only accept what humanity is really like: "If we expect too much of people, we'll be disappointed, and our schemes will fail."

What schemes? Spoken like a true right winger. Is this guy armed?

Here is a brief list of the truths Mr. Derbyshire wishes us to face: that human nature is not infinitely malleable or even tameable; that biology increasingly really does seem to be destiny; that Diversity (his capital D) does not strengthen societies but makes them worryingly fissiparous; that foreigners cannot be trusted to share our interests; that Americans with different skin colors demonstrably prefer segregation to integration; that higher education is an expensive racket designed to certify worker bees (because Diversity prohibits other forms of screening); and that the wellsprings of American music, poetry and literature have dried up. "Happy talk and wishful thinking," Mr. Derbyshire says, "are for children, fools, and leftists."

fissiparous, huh? Ooooh, Ms. Gurdon has a thesaurus. But she is getting at something interesting here - the disintegration of the political parties - or was that Derbyshire she's quoting?

If as Mr. Derbyshire purports, diversity does not strengthen societies, he has missed the Bush administration's memo about the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. He shoulda checked with a Mexican immigrant who was recently ejected from the US after years working in the meatpacking industry via an INS raid called by the meatpacking company head. Diversity is reality, Mr. Derbyshire, and based on seeing your white face, I can let you know that, like me, whitey is in the global minority, so buck up, maybe a "diversity in the workplace" policy will help you to get a job at a chicken ranch (corporation/business) one day like the rest of us who slave to pay back the fed's usury.

I agree that higher education is a racket, but education all together? Get a grip, Mr. Derbyshire. This brit tells all in his curriculum vitae including this admission: "A disagreeable, disorganized, neurotic introvert who is moderately open to new experiences? Sounds right." Doesn't sound like an author I'd rush to read however.

"because Diversity prohibits other forms of screening" - no, I think that is the never ending search for the "yes boy" or the "yes girl" which prohibits other forms of screening.

"Happy talk and wishful thinking," Mr. Derbyshire says, "are for children, fools, and leftists." And, I would add for right-wing fundamentalists... don't leave them out. They have drunk so much Koolaid they are drowning in it.

Ehrenreich's track record is more appealing to me. I'll read her book first.

For the past few days my sister was visiting me. I told her some stories about food and Monsanto, ADM, Cargill, the Federal Reserve, bailout bullshit, - we watched Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and Bill Moyer's Journal with Marcy Kaptur and Simon Johnson. She's always been on the left, but these revelations didn't have her looking for a silver lining - she's mad as hell. She wants to know - where's the bus - she's ready to take that "freedom ride".

Susan,

Well, there it is...exactly.  And God bless you for having the time to dissect the right-wing rhetoric in a way that even the morons @ FOX can jibe with.  Because, all told, I am so unflipping-believably sick-and-tired of being sick-and-tired of the heaps of Orwellian--Machiavellian double-talk that I have neither the time nor the patience for even the most basic of common courtesy when it comes to the evil, fork-tongued, acidic, slovenly bastards, many of whom masquerade as "conservative" when they are nothing more than anti-American, anti-Democratic, anti-Christian asswipes.  These are the same individuals who would have us believe that it's perfectly sane and normal that 1% of the population has 95% of all the wealth and resources of this nation...as Michael Moore so succinctly addresses in his talk with Tavis Smiley. 

Moore's recent chat with Smiley echoes my recent comment to a post made by Jeff B; also indirectly, though ever relevant, echoing a very lucid quote by Hugo Chavez about his coming of age, Afro-Latino awakening; also tying into Nancy Pelosi's reply to the racist--sexist GOP's comment that she should be "put in her place."

Wha..wha..wh...w...wha...wha...WHAT?????

Yep, they actually said that about the Speaker of the House.

Obama gets called a LIAR by a Jr. Senator from the Confederacy and Pelosi gets told she need to be "put in her place."

WELCOME TO THE GODDAMN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Bottom Line:  Rove, Murdoch, Bush, Rice, Cheney, Geitner, Summers, FIX News, the WSJ et all deserved to be bludgeoned to death in the most cruel, inhumane, horrific way possible...and this comes from a man who thinks the death penalty should be abolished.  AND THE WOMEN AND BLACKS WHO BUY INTO THE FIX NEWS ANTI-BLACK, ANTI-WOMEN, ANTI-GAY RHETORIC, SHOULD BE SENT TO THE GAS CHAMBERS PRONTO.

Those rotton SOB's.  I have only venom for the whole stinking lot.

I am furious, to say the least!

AND NO APOLOGIES

NO APOLOGIES

And yet, I know that love is needed, it's always essential to life.  We need more love in the world...we really do.  HOWEVER, when it comes the that group of sorry f*cks I just described, I just can't help but think the world would be better off without 'em.

Lord have mercy!

Eternity

Norm,

I live in a neighborhood that's middle-class.  It's nice, but nothing special.  The homes are not expensive (about 160K) but the subdivision is quite cohesive.  Nonetheless, in all the years that we've owned this house, the only times when we've had homes broken into was at the end of the first Bush's presidency (remember the S& L bailout crime?) and at the end of W's pResidency--the Great Depression (part deux). 

So, the answer to your question is yes.  AND, it makes perfect sense.

People want to be heard--felt--appreciated--validated--respected--loved.  And when they are not, that energy--blocked by the crushing consumption mentality of the imperialistic aristocracy--which would otherwise be channeled into something well and constructive, becomes poisonious, coming out in some other form; whether as violence, obesity or addiction, etc.

Case in point, just look at what the disease of capitalism did to the indians.  And on this very principle, given the resources, I have every confidence that I could assemble a legal team to argue successfully in a court of law that a methodical, willful conspiracy of depravity, abuse and neglect of an individual or a populace is a crime...a high-crime with perps who are easily identifiable--namable; falling into the category of the criminally insane, belonging in some sort of maxium security locked-down facility.

I don't know if you've had a chance to read my latest article in ArtWorks (available @ Barnes & Noble) where I talk about the digital dilemma in fine art institutions.  That piece talks about art and museums and so forth, but I'm also working on a piece I hope to get published which speaks to the issue of what I call "post-digital lynching" or "electronic apartheid."  This type of maniacal disenfranchisement doesn't leave a corpse in it's wake, but it is no less virulent and destructive.  And I'm not the only one tuned into the 21st century form oft the most vile, deplorable, insidious forced servitude, as there was just recently an article published which spoke about the exact same thing.  That piece is entitled "   AND there was also an article posted @ Common Dreams talking about Obama's economic plan; which is considerable less than effective...to put it mildly.

We Westerners (namely Americans) are in a socio-economic sinkhole of galatic proportions, but guess what, the whole freaking thing--this endless nightmare--is completely man made; in the exact say way that the whole aftermath of Katrina was a fantastically orchestrated genocidal massacre, a form of disaster capitalism just like Operation 911, and the multi-trillion dollar transference of wealth instituted by the Bush-Paulson-Geitner's of this world.

Eternity

 from the interview and book review, but ok.

I was thinking more along the lines of personal integrity. We have those folks in our communities that rah-rah sis-boom-bah! and denigrate others who complain. Not only is this disingenuous and erroneous criticism towards the complainer (perhaps to silence?) but it is offensive as well. And I would agree with Ehrenreich that realism is a more constructive approach.

and I would agree - Fox sucks. and Mr. Fox should come to the good ole USA and live in the mess he has helped to create instead of slummin' it over in China with his grandchild-girlfriend.

Chris Hedges brings it all together in his new book "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle".

Hedges, at the end of the interview, talks about "totalitarian mindset" and "social therapy as a way of molding compliance". This is turn "destroys moral autonomy and destroys capacity for authenticity".

If you watch or listen to nothing else today, make it this:

there's a better and more thorough interview at http://www.writersvoice.net/ but I can't access it at the moment.

"destroys moral autonomy and destroys capacity for authenticity"

That one line right there is what all the aforementioned people are talking about--each addressing it from her/his own field of expertise and experience.

Eternity

Feeling grumpy 'is good for you'

OK, I like to feel good as much as the next guy. But really does anyone want to gloss over reality? Really?!? It doesn't work for me no matter how much I walk. Maybe it's the wheat and dairy.

I was fascinated again to (this time) watch Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire on PBS recently. I read the book a couple of years ago.

In the book (and now the documentary), Pollan and collegues discuss 4 plants. Cannabis is among them. In this video of the full program at about 42 minutes in (just use the slider), Pollan and his colleagues discuss the effects of cannabis on the brain.

When I was a kid there were more feel-good drugs in the medicine chests of parents than my hippie friends and I could even imagine. Big pharma was cashing in on the feelings of despair and helplessness felt by widows and the abandoned children of soldiers killed, POW or MIA in Vietnam. (I grew up around military bases.)

Maybe certain foods, like this illegal plant, have effects on the anandamide which naturally occurs in the brain. Productive forgetting... hmmmm. I can think of a few things I'd be better off forgetting. How does that song go? Pack up all your cares and woe, here I go singing low...

Why hasn't big pharma (or Altria) caught up with science? This stuff is ancient.