The Pathology of the Rich: Disposable Citizens

[Vox]

Once upon a time there was a man called Joseph Kennedy Senior. A flawed man. A sinful man.

But he gave America gifts in two of his sons.

One was a good child who loved his land and wanted every one to succeed.

One child was torn between his two brothers. But had great promise. Sadly he could not fulfill his destiny.

The son left could never fill the shoes of his older brothers He became a liberal. And gave America a legacy of hell.

Karl Marx wrote "(t)he ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships..." do you think it's likely the Kennedy family embraced that notion any less than the Bush family did?

"The fact is, if you're poor, you only get one chance. If you're wealthy like Bush, you get chance after chance after chance after chance. So you're a C student at Andover, and you go to Yale, and you go to Harvard Business School, and you're AWOL from your National Guard unit, and you're a cokehead, and it doesn't really matter. You don't even really have a job till you're 40 and you become president of the United States."

The Pathology of the Rich - Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt1

"The fact is, if you're poor, you only get one chance

Bullshit. Big time bullshit.

I've had so many lives. I'm like Lazarus or Freddie. I keep coming back. That's my nature. And my nature is to be a winner at whatever I do.

It's called spirit. And wanting to be the best you can be. Now I hit the top. That's me.I rocked.

So do others.

Someone though might be out there tonight being a good waitress, just doing her job but being extra special nice to the poor mom with three kids coming home from dad's place.

With all the kids saying "Daddy gives us this".

And the waitress without adding it to the bill gives all the kids and the mom the pumpkin pie saying "you won today; you're our winner".

You see? You never just get one chance. Every minute you breathe is a new chance. Every day is a new chance.

This is the difference between a progressive than me. I keep breathing. And I believe in tomorrow.

Why? Because it's a new chance.

When I was a babysitter the talk once came around the table ( I was eating dinner with the family I was working for) and the boys, aged 8 and 5 started talking about poor, I don't exactly remember how it started, but at some moment they were both shouting "Vox is not poor, poor are different". We all laughed, because technically I was dirt poor - poorer than those on handouts ( I was not on them), no insurance, living with roommates and working 3 jobs simultaneously to pay for my immigration.

But those kids were absolutely right - it is the spirit of the person which makes you poor or not. even if you don't have anything to eat for the night.

 

[Mr Natural]

How is it that you never heat of the rich singing the praises of the working people?

 

[georgephillip]

There is truth to that, George. But to carry that discussion further, we would have to talk about unions and how they initially drove the manufacturing base to other countries.

I'm willing to concede how rich corrupt union management sold out US workers during the Cold War, but when we discuss other countries we should also consider German labor unions which had voting members sitting on the boards of directors of the corporations they worked for. When ultra-rich Germans suggested moving "their" factories to China, German Democracy said "No!"

Then what happened?

Detroit didn't happen

 

[Vox]

[SIIts NOT THE RICH who are screwing over us and our nation.[/SIZE]

It is a very select group of people (some very wealthy, of course,) and their TOOLS in GOVERNMENT who are responsible for our current state of affairs.

A curse on the leaders of OWS for turning what should have been public examination of the specific crimes of SELECT GROUP OF BANKSTERS into a CLASS WAR against the "1%".

it is THE LEFT which is screwing our country

 

[zeke]

What I don't get about a lot of todays Dems and Repubs is that they can look at history and see when the ultra rich tried to bend the world to their benefit and control. And mostly succeeded.

But somehow, today those kind of people don't exist.

Plutocracies are no longer desired.

The ultra rich don't want to control the world.

And money don't allow that to happen.

I don't get how todays dems and repubs came to believe what they believe that somehow, today, the ultra rich are on the side of the common man.

 

[Moonglow]

The rich enable me.

In which sense?

"en·a·ble
enˈābəl/Submit
verb
1.
give (someone or something) the authority or means to do something.
"the evidence would enable us to arrive at firm conclusions"
synonyms: allow, permit, let, give the means, equip, empower, make able, fit; More
antonyms: prevent
make possible.
"a number of courses are available to enable an understanding of a broad range of issues"
2.
COMPUTING
make (a device or system) operational; activate."

https://www.google.com/search?q=enable&oq=enable&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i65j0l4.5155j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

Nola meant #2

 

[Moonglow]

The rich enable me.

Yup, you done got you a pickup truck, Cleetus....

Cleetus should be thankful for the rich snob.. He wouldn't done got him that pickup truck without that rich snob.

So that is why his breath smells like shit!

 

[Vox]

As if the poor aren't ruthless.

much more, for that matter, because of many factors involved.

They are also far more generous with each other than you would think possible with their limited resources. Matters of bare survival are somewhat removed from questions of morality, many simply do not have the luxury to think about such things because an empty belly makes up a person's mind for them pretty quick.

nope, they are not. not in our society.

that's a reality of the REAL poor in the closed societies.

But not the quasi-poor, like in the US. Nobody is on the edge of survival in the US. Unless they are sick, but that is a totally different realm.

That is actually the major horrible side effect of the system - making people greedy and vile, those at the bottom.

not everyone, obviously.
But they live in the very close proximity to crime ( and are intertwined in it) and that does not make anybody generous or kind.

 

[Moonglow]

so one of the kicked out from the circle still holds his grudges and can let go?

oh, what a revelation.

Chris, grow up. The amount of money does not make you happy. or mature

Some can adjust, others have to sublimate.

 

[Vox]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

Conservatives sometimes find it hard to let go of old mistakes:

"Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx all began from the premise there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the masses. 'Those who have too much of the goods of fortune, strength, wealth, friends, and the like, are neither willing nor able to submit to authority,' Aristotle wrote in 'Politics.' 'The evil begins at home; for when they are boys, by reason of the luxury in which they are brought up, they never learn, even at school, the habit of obedience.'

"Oligarchs, these philosophers knew, are schooled in the mechanisms of manipulation, subtle and overt repression and exploitation to protect their wealth and power at our expense. Foremost among their mechanisms of control is the control of ideas."

Chris Hedges: Let?s Get This Class War Started - Chris Hedges - Truthdig

the person who in all seriousness puts Karl Marx as somebody, whose words he deems the ultimate truth, can not be considered bright enough.
Or sane.

p.s. neither of the others EVER was writing about the "natural antagonism" - that is the marx's premise, but certainly not Adam Smith's.

 

[Vox]

so one of the kicked out from the circle still holds his grudges and can let go?

oh, what a revelation.

Chris, grow up. The amount of money does not make you happy. or mature

Some can adjust, others have to sublimate.

exactly. they hurt his feeeeeelings so his crusade against them is endless

 

[Moonglow]

much more, for that matter, because of many factors involved.

They are also far more generous with each other than you would think possible with their limited resources. Matters of bare survival are somewhat removed from questions of morality, many simply do not have the luxury to think about such things because an empty belly makes up a person's mind for them pretty quick.

nope, they are not. not in our society.

that's a reality of the REAL poor in the closed societies.

But not the quasi-poor, like in the US. Nobody is on the edge of survival in the US. Unless they are sick, but that is a totally different realm.

That is actually the major horrible side effect of the system - making people greedy and vile, those at the bottom.

not everyone, obviously.
But they live in the very close proximity to crime ( and are intertwined in it) and that does not make anybody generous or kind.

Oh stop talking about Bernard Madoff.

 

[Vox]

They are also far more generous with each other than you would think possible with their limited resources. Matters of bare survival are somewhat removed from questions of morality, many simply do not have the luxury to think about such things because an empty belly makes up a person's mind for them pretty quick.

nope, they are not. not in our society.

that's a reality of the REAL poor in the closed societies.

But not the quasi-poor, like in the US. Nobody is on the edge of survival in the US. Unless they are sick, but that is a totally different realm.

That is actually the major horrible side effect of the system - making people greedy and vile, those at the bottom.

not everyone, obviously.
But they live in the very close proximity to crime ( and are intertwined in it) and that does not make anybody generous or kind.

Oh stop talking about Bernard Madoff.

bernie maddof is not worse than the icons you are worshiping. he just got caught. the others did not. YET.

 

[TheShinyOne]

Everything is a kind of boat. The state is a boat. The banks are boats. The corporations are boats. Rather amphibious, but that's all there is. Boats.

 

[PixieStix]

The Robin hood mentality, never created jobs. It only make one seem pathetic, envious and apathetic to any responsibility to ones self.

Some people just need to put their big girl panties on

 

[boedicca]

The real Pathology of Disposable Citizens is with our Big Government Overlords...the ones who think it's no big deal that millions of people are losing the Insurance They Liked and the Doctors They Liked just because said overlords think they are too stupid to recognize that their plans are substandard.

 

[Vox]

The real Pathology of Disposable Citizens is with our Big Government Overlords...the ones who think it's no big deal that millions of people are losing the Insurance They Liked and the Doctors They Liked just because said overlords think they are too stupid to recognize that their plans are substandard.

 

[Moonglow]

nope, they are not. not in our society.

that's a reality of the REAL poor in the closed societies.

But not the quasi-poor, like in the US. Nobody is on the edge of survival in the US. Unless they are sick, but that is a totally different realm.

That is actually the major horrible side effect of the system - making people greedy and vile, those at the bottom.

not everyone, obviously.
But they live in the very close proximity to crime ( and are intertwined in it) and that does not make anybody generous or kind.

Oh stop talking about Bernard Madoff.

bernie maddof is not worse than the icons you are worshiping. he just got caught. the others did not. YET.

please, oh please show me where and when I have worshiped these "icons" or stop thinking you know something you do not.

 

[Vox]

Oh stop talking about Bernard Madoff.

bernie maddof is not worse than the icons you are worshiping. he just got caught. the others did not. YET.

please, oh please show me where and when I have worshiped these "icons" or stop thinking you know something you do not.

you icons of the big government nanny state

 

[Moonglow]

The Robin hood mentality, never created jobs. It only make one seem pathetic, envious and apathetic to any responsibility to ones self.

Some people just need to put their big girl panties on

How big are yours? I might need to borrow a pair. Why is it a pair when there is only one?