Monday, February 23, 2009
Opposing Fascist Initiatives
Over the centuries of its existence, the modern state has consistently made use of arrangements with the church and market to extend its control of the citizenry and extract wealth from the same. In recent times, it has become popular among pseudo scholars to speculate about the redundancy of the state in providing services and functions more appropriately and efficiently provided by the market. Yet, however much we might bemoan the corruption of centralized state bureaucracies, the market could not operate without the considerable subsidies of the state in everything from research and development of new technologies, to the guarantor of last resort as we have seen in the numerous bailouts, contracts and outsourcing on the public tab.
No doubt we have not heard the end of nonsense from the "free market" sector, but at least in the age of the Internet it is possible to do unmediated research to obtain facts as opposed to the propaganda proffered by parasitic mouthpieces like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
As President Obama works his smoke and mirrors on faith-based initiatives and stimulus plans for the golden parachute crowd, it will be important to keep an eye on key principles of democracy -- like separation of church and state, and equal protection under the law -- to prevent the federal monstrosity from morphing into an authoritarian nightmare. After eight years of arming the Far Right in the US at public expense, it is not unimaginable that all hell could break loose; with progressives now lining up for handouts from Obama, they are not the ones opposing his fascist initiatives. In that, we are alone.
No doubt we have not heard the end of nonsense from the "free market" sector, but at least in the age of the Internet it is possible to do unmediated research to obtain facts as opposed to the propaganda proffered by parasitic mouthpieces like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
As President Obama works his smoke and mirrors on faith-based initiatives and stimulus plans for the golden parachute crowd, it will be important to keep an eye on key principles of democracy -- like separation of church and state, and equal protection under the law -- to prevent the federal monstrosity from morphing into an authoritarian nightmare. After eight years of arming the Far Right in the US at public expense, it is not unimaginable that all hell could break loose; with progressives now lining up for handouts from Obama, they are not the ones opposing his fascist initiatives. In that, we are alone.
