As the present Masters of the Universe survey what they have wrought, they dismiss the young as lazy and pampered. But Henry Giroux writes that, across that universe, youth are in revolt:
As young people make diverse claims on the promise of a radical democracy in the streets, on campuses, and at other occupied sites, articulating what a fair and just world might be, they are treated as criminal populations—rogue groups incapable of toeing the line, “prone to irrational, intemperate and unpredictable” behavior.[16]
Those who belittle the young, however, don't understand what's behind the revolt:
Young people today are protesting against a strengthening global capitalist project that erases the benefits of the welfare state and the possibility of a radical notion of democracy. They are protesting against a neoliberal project of accumulation, dispossession, deregulation, privatization, and commodification that leaves them out of any viable notion of the future. They are rejecting and resisting a form of casino capitalism that has ushered in a permanent revolution marked by a massive project of depoliticization, on the one hand, and an aggressive, if not savage, practice of distributing upward wealth, income, and opportunity for the 1 percent on the other.
Rejecting the notion that democracy and markets are the same, young people are calling for the termination of corporate control over the commanding institutions of politics, culture, and economics, an end to the suppression of dissent, and a shutting down of the permanent warfare state.
The Masters of the Universe didn't see the Great Recession coming. And they don't see The Reckoning just around the corner.
8 comments:
There will be consequences. IMHO, the resistance will make the anti-Vietnam efforts of the boomer generation look like schoolyard scuffles.
And all it takes is time, as the events are already in motion.
Now, if the conservatives can only stay in denial for a little while longer, because the emergence of a "competent" conservative could be not good, for large values of not good.
Quite true, Ed. The wheels are already in motion. The truly competent people -- like Kevin Page -- have documented Conservative incompetence.
And, yes, the rising storm will be unforgiving.
There is an important documentary on youth unemployment tonight but if you miss it, it is available later on the cbc. site. See http://bit.ly/X72M3k
Harper is no Conservative. He is
flying under a false flag. Harper is a Dictator. He has, nor morals nor ethics, what-so-ever.
Harper was Policy Chief for his, Northern Foundation Party of 1989. Corporations supported Harper. They still do.
Harper made a speech regarding, Global Governance for Canada.
Harper also gave a speech in New York, at the Council of Foreign Relations. This was Sept 25/2007.
Whatever road Harper takes, will be bad.
Thanks for the tip, Anon. It's a story which has consistently been kept below the radar.
It's time we started paying attention to it.
You would think that, by now, Harper would have worn out his welcome, Anon.
Unfortunately, Canadians still don't seem to understand that, when he leaves our House, we'll have to clean up the mess he'll leave behind.
Some young people seemed dispirited when the Occupy movement appeared to fizzle. What they didn't see, and those who mock them still don't, is that Occupy was a response to a set of conditions. Those conditions, from inequality to climate change, are steadily worsening.
Today's younger generation and the two or three that will follow them are on a one-way street. They have to fight it because the alternative is to capitulate and lose everything. Theirs is a struggle, Owen, that you and Ed and I never experienced.
You'll recall what Hedges wrote a month or two ago is that our society is heading into rebellion but, if we don't master it now, it could turn into something truly hideous.
Unfortunately, Hedges isn't taken seriously by the powers that be, Mound.
However, he has witnessed the juggernaut first hand and close up. And he foresees better than anyone else what awaits our children.
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