Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Oh Look! They Said "Circus!"

... I'm waiting for someone else to make the "bread and circuses" connection.

Chris Hedges | The Corporate Media Circus: The Truth Alone Will Not Set You Free
Chris Hedges, Truthdig: "The ability of the corporate state to pacify the country by extending credit and providing cheap manufactured goods to the masses is gone. The pernicious idea that democracy lies in the choice between competing brands and the freedom to accumulate vast sums of personal wealth at the expense of others has collapsed. The conflation of freedom with the free market has been exposed as a sham. The travails of the poor are rapidly becoming the travails of the middle class, especially as unemployment insurance runs out and people get a taste of Bill Clinton's draconian welfare reform. And class warfare, once buried under the happy illusion that we were all going to enter an age of prosperity with unfettered capitalism, is returning with a vengeance."
Tags: economics, news, politics
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  • 8 comments
mother2012

mother2012

July 1 2009, 22:06:05 UTC 12 years ago

Yeah. He said it all.
siliconshaman

siliconshaman

July 1 2009, 22:47:12 UTC 12 years ago

There is a very good reason why I'm looking to build a grid independent home, a safe distance from anywhere else...

I've got a pretty good idea what comes next, and it's ugly.
ysabetwordsmith

Yes...

ysabetwordsmith

July 2 2009, 03:47:42 UTC 12 years ago

... that contributes to my innate desire to hoard books. I keep hoping that we'll manage to avert the collapse of civilization, but such collapses have happened many times in the past, and I'd like to have appropriate materials in case I need to jump-start civilization.
siliconshaman

Re: Yes...

siliconshaman

July 2 2009, 10:41:57 UTC 12 years ago

Likewise... I've been planning and collecting material for a "Last Library" for sometime now.

One of the things I've been thinking of, and actually did for a while before my free hosting deal fell though, is putting together a web-site with all the materials/manuals I've collected. Kind of a "In Case of Emergency" site, where you can download the data and print it out before the lights go out.
ysabetwordsmith

Re: Yes...

ysabetwordsmith

July 2 2009, 16:56:46 UTC 12 years ago

Such a website would be very useful. Books, however, have the advantage of already being in the house. If I need to access their data, I can do so using the solar power that daily falls free from the sky.

Have you read the "Lighthouse Duology" by Carol Berg? Those two books are shiversome descriptions of an attempt (in a fantasy world) to create a stash of information that will survive the coming dark times.
siliconshaman

Re: Yes...

siliconshaman

July 2 2009, 17:11:04 UTC 12 years ago

I haven't heard of those books, but I'll look into it.

As for the website, the intent was to have a ready stash of critical information, available to download and print out prior to the worst happening. [I.e, before the lights go out]
mejeep

mejeep

July 2 2009, 06:15:45 UTC 12 years ago

My nightmare's coming true: there will be no American middle-class in my lifetime. And it's unlikely that I'll be among the rich, despite a masters' degree. No wonder American kids don't bother with college anymore.
ysabetwordsmith

*sigh*

ysabetwordsmith

July 2 2009, 06:34:52 UTC 12 years ago

The middle class is certainly diminishing right now, almost all of the shrinkage resulting in people falling to lower class rather than rising to upper class. Fewer and fewer people can even afford college; many of those who do, only "afford" it by going into debt.

I do not think the rich will find a middle-less America to be nearly as much fun as they thought it would be.