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("Quid coniuratio est?")
BEEL CLEENTON SAY: 'CONOMY GOOD
Talking back to my television set, when I see news, for example, that this country is nearing a state of armed revolt, I keep saying to them: "Oh, but Beel Cleenton say, 'conomy good."
Is the increasing dissatisfaction in this country somehow related to the fact that the gap between haves and have nots has steadily increased for the last 25 or so years? As James W. Loewen writes in his devastating attack on current American History textbooks (Lies My Teacher Told Me):
Stressing how middle-class we all are is particularly problematic today, because the proportion of households earning between 75 percent and 125 percent of the median income has fallen steadily since 1967. The Reagan-Bush administrations accelerated this shrinkage of the middle class, and most families who left its ranks fell rather than rose.
But Beel Cleenton say, 'conomy good.
Coincident with the decline in the American middle class has been the "liberation" of women, who now get to trudge off to work along with their husbands. This dire necessity has been disguised as a "great leap forward."
The 'conomy is so good that the past decade has seen college graduates waiting tables and driving cabs. The lucky ones get to "intern" -- work at sub-standard wages -- for the corporados. The deal these semi-slaves get is like indentured servitude; someday they can join the insecure world of corporate employment.
Those who still nod their heads in agreement with the official line on the marvels of monopoly capitalism, the puffed up suits and ties you see on television, are well paid to nod their heads in agreement. How long before people stop being impressed by suits and ties, silken tongues, and Harvard diplomas?
A local radio show, News From Neptune, points this out: When they tell you that the economy is good, ask them -- whose economy is good? Yes, the economy of rich people is doing fine. But that is not most of us.
Studs Terkel, in his book Hard Times, conducted interviews of persons who had lived through the Great Depression. One thing that emerges is that those who were unemployed at that time often blamed themselves for their situation. They did not see the larger context they were living through. So too, underemployed Americans are counseled to "polish their resume," "dress for success," and "network," as if their declining standard of living is entirely their fault.
Are you having doubts about how great the economy is? Do you think you are having to work ever-longer and harder to stay afloat? Just turn on the television and see Harvard boys and Yale boys telling you it isn't happening, that the economy is good.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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