tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post5877976886120830208..comments2024-03-28T19:18:40.387-04:00Comments on Northern Reflections: The Wealth CultOwen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-40007700849343615782018-04-30T12:33:55.628-04:002018-04-30T12:33:55.628-04:00I've just finished reading an article by Frank...I've just finished reading an article by Frank Rich in New York Magazine, Mound. He documents how elites in both the Republican and Democratic Parties -- and the lawyerly advice of Roy Cohn -- empowered Donald Trump. Trump could have been stopped long ago by so called "progressives." They chose to look the other way.<br /><br />The article is a really good read.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-68729214568243288032018-04-30T12:13:14.391-04:002018-04-30T12:13:14.391-04:00As I read Leger's piece I noticed a copy of Ja...<br />As I read Leger's piece I noticed a copy of James Galbraith's "The Predator State" on a corner of my desk. I strongly recommend it but that's not my point. What the book reminds me of is that there is plenty of analysis and prescriptive wisdom readily available but how many of us are bothering to read it? Of those who do read it, how many are willing to see the apple cart upset?<br /><br />I've tried to come to grips with neoliberalism, the failed yet stubbornly prevailing political/economic ideology that facilitated the rise of the predator state and the displacement of democracy by plutocracy. It's a malignant process that seems destined to evolve into a truly corporate state led by Trump or people less flamboyantly like him.<br /><br />I've paralleled that with an exploration of progressivism which, to me, is more of a philosophy of governance than an ideology. It's no coincidence that progressivism has declined along with the waning of liberal democracy. The first is likely symptomatic of the second.<br /><br />At the Liberal Party convention, the unwashed pleaded for a reintroduction of progressive principles in their party's platform but the government of the day eschewed the idea. The Liberal Party is now a B-strain of the progress-crushing Conservative Virus.<br /><br />From everything I've read and from the course of history, I'm left convinced that nothing save a progressive renaissance can remedy this inevitable decline and transformation of liberal democracy.<br /><br />Liberals imagine themselves progressives without the faintest idea what that means. They think being ever so slightly to the left of the Conservatives entitles them to the laurels of progressivism. Assuming that it still exists almost ensures it will never be restored.<br /><br />Chris Hedges argues that America is in a "pre-revolutionary" state. I see no sign of it. What I see is public indifference, apathy. The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.com