Physical oppression and violence became symbolic oppression and violence, which are harder to recognise. The dour but necessary old socialist and communist narratives were ruthlessly weeded out and replaced with a jaunty consumerism which doesn't make personal, moral or intellectual demands. The media started repeating lies about economic theory, and the inevitability of the Wall St view with no space for possible progressive alternatives.
After Carter's career was murdered, the country lost its collective mind.
Ask your fellow countrymen to turn down the heat and put on a sweater, get kicked out, replaced some senile airhead from Hollywood who completely destroyed the country, and ridiculed for the next 30 years. It's a shame nobody listened.
Maybe that's why his favorable ratings are at an all-time high now. Perhaps the country's ready to finally shut the fuck up and listen.
Probably not. After all, there's always a new season of Dancing with the Stars coming. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
you are the media you consume.
People stopped living close to each other - poverty is always easier when it's invisible.
You hit on the head. Two year ago now I wrote on the rising incidence of economic segregation in the United States. When you have segregation of this type, the impact of economic policies that favor the wealthy is largely lost on the people who live in wealthy suburbs. Poverty literally becomes unseen.
Now thinking about the current context, with energy prices calling the suburban model into question. Think about what happens to American politics when you have people moving from the suburbs that are economically homogenous to mixed income neighborhoods. Maybe it will help them see the working class as human beings. And also less positively, think about the difference between social unrest when the wealthy are insulated by distance as compared to when they are cheek and jowl with the afflicted areas. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
