While I appreciated your sentiments, I think you're giving the people a bad rap.

During WW1, Wilson sought to use public relations and propaganda to control public opinion about the war. Propaganda had been used before, but never to such a calculated level. This new field was further developed by Walter Lipmann (among others), who sought to regimate the minds of people the same way armies regimate bodies.

Those who have been in bed with corporate interests have also been hard at work in manipulating people in order to get them to accept certain injustices. There's a reason why in trailer parks all across America you will find people holding political views that are idential with Steve Forbes'.

When you have organization's, whose sole purpose is to preach the virtue of selfishness and greed (as I'm sure JohnGalt can testify to), then you have a society that increasingly accepts those values, even to it's own detriment.

What's more surprising, is that millions of Americans have yet to have their own humanity drilled out of their heads. For the incredible amount of investment the far-too-comfortable have put into this, the majority of Americans still believe in basic progressive values. Sometimes it's just beneath a propaganda-driven surface, but it's there, and it comes out in sometimes startling ways.

A few years back, I passed a newspaper article in a store that asked in a poll, should social security benefits be cut to make social security more solvant, or should we remove the FICA cap and more heavily tax the wealthy? Nearly 80% thought taxing the wealthy was a better idea.

In more polling, you find that on the health care debate, people thought the reform bill didn't go far enough by a 2:1 margin compared to the people who thought it went too far.

And even with the propaganda machine running right now to shape public opinion on the Bush tax cuts, a new CBS poll found that 53% favored extending the cuts to the middle class ONLY, while only 26% thought all of them should be extended. Here's the link.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20024494-503544.html

When asked what our biggest priorities should be as a nation a poll from last month put it like this:

Economy and jobs 56%    
Health care 14%    
Budget deficit/National debt 4%
Immigration 2%    
Taxes/IRS 2%

Even after the election, when people were asked what Congress' highest priority should be, here were their answers:

Passing new stimulus bill 38%    
Cutting federal spending 24%    
Repealing health care law 23%    
Extending all income tax cuts 8%

I would note that this is particularly interesting, because nobody on the left or the right in Congress have even been talking about a new stimulus bill, because politically, it's just not in the cards.

In other words, what I'm suggesting here is that we have a growing and very real democracy deficit in this country.

When elected leaders ignore a nation's most pressing concerns, to focus on it's least concerns, and can only get a tiny fraction of support for it, even with all the turd-polishing propaganda that comes with it, then you know something is seriously dysfunctional.

I think our Congress critters and the puppet masters pulling their strings should live it up while they still can. It is said that every nation is three meals away from revolution. And it looks like the GOP is looking to block unemployment compensation again. I'll go grab the popcorn.

Joseph De Maistre.

A prime example on this board is Breaker Morant--------he excoriates the BHO administration, ( which deserves some of it ) while being a dedicated acolyte of George W Bush, one of the worst POTUS's ever. I've never seen such uneducated sophistry in my life, particularly his views on the Viet-nam war. ( Btw, BM, I responded to your Nam/Korea query down below ).

The "dumbing down of America" has been going on for a long time ; Many factors, but 2 most prominent, IMO, are drugs & right wing media ( Fox News & talk radio. )

As for the evils of "cretinish consumption", here's a link to mein's excellent OP on that subject-----be sure to watch the video :

-- Modified on 12/3/2010 6:27:58 AM

to what you are saying BigSky. I see a lot of people who want to be fed World Wrestling Entertainment, receive government handouts and become mindless souls without purpose except to secure the newest edition of Xbox. I was hoping the financial crisis of 2008, would have been a wake up call, but it has so far failed.  

Then again I do see BigSky, a lot of people who still believe in hard work and thriftiness as a motto for success.  I'm holding up hope, buddy, but its hard when I see this Presidential Adminstration as the biggest collective group of zombies since... hell I don't know when.

Would you be surprised to learn Glenn Beck has been saying the same thing for months?

He is in almost complete agreement with you on the situation. He also offers up a cause and makes a pretty good case that it has been Progressive ideas that helped create much of the situation (there are Progressives in both parties; GWB was fairly progressive). He has also been proposing steps towards solutions. They of course do not include additional progressive ideas. His 8/28 project culminating in the Washington Mall rally, his 40 day and 40 night challenge and his most recent book “Broke” are at the center of his ideas.

But he must be ignored and destroyed since he’s either a selfish, greedy capitalist puppet master or just a “kook”.

...i have a short enough attention span as it is.

Much easier reading, & I will read it all...next time.

Thanks.

Have a nice weekend.

...i have a short enough attention span as it is.
Much easier reading, & I will read it all...next time.
Thanks.
Have a nice weekend.
See what I mean.

See what I mean.