Editorials & Other Articles

marmar

(77,081 posts) Thu Mar 29, 2012, 08:25 AM Mar 2012

Thomas Frank: How Americans Have Gotten Played -- Over and Over and Over Again

The Baffler / By Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank: How Americans Have Gotten Played -- Over and Over and Over Again
In the 12 hapless years of this millennium, we have looked on as 3 great bubbles have inflated and burst, each with consequences more dire than the last.

March 28, 2012 |

The following article is an excerpt of a piece that first appeared in The Baffler.

The “sound” banker, alas! is not one who sees danger and avoids it, but one who, when he is ruined, is ruined in a conventional and orthodox way along with his fellows so that no one can really blame him.

—John Maynard Keynes

In the twelve hapless years of the present millennium, we have looked on as three great bubbles of consensus vanity have inflated and burst, each with consequences more dire than the last.

First there was the “New Economy,” a millennial fever dream predicated on the twin ideas of a people’s stock market and an eternal silicon prosperity; it collapsed eventually under the weight of its own fatuousness.

Second was the war in Iraq, an endeavor whose launch depended for its success on the turpitude of virtually every class of elite in Washington, particularly the tough-minded men of the media; an enterprise that destroyed the country it aimed to save and that helped to bankrupt our nation as well.

And then, Wall Street blew up the global economy. Empowered by bank deregulation and regulatory capture, Wall Street enlisted those tough-minded men of the media again to sell the world on the idea that financial innovations were making the global economy more stable by the minute. Central banks puffed an asset bubble like the world had never seen before, even if every journalist worth his byline was obliged to deny its existence until it was too late. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/news/154735/thomas_frank%3A_how_americans_have_gotten_played_--_over_and_over_and_over_again/

5 replies

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Highlight:

Thomas Frank: How Americans Have Gotten Played -- Over and Over and Over Again (Original Post) marmar Mar 2012 OP

Let's face it: Collectively, we're idiots. Loge23 Mar 2012 #1

Don't forget the coup de grace of Teabag "logic": deutsey Mar 2012 #3

Check this out-Glen Beck gets owned! DianaForRussFeingold Mar 2012 #5

Sadly I fear this is true. kenfrequed Mar 2012 #4

That's the smartest thing I've ever heard anyone say about anything tularetom Mar 2012 #2

Loge23

(3,922 posts)

1. Let's face it: Collectively, we're idiots.

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Thu Mar 29, 2012, 08:47 AM

Mar 2012

Mr. Frank, and probably every other socio-political commentator with a brain, knows that collectively Americans are stupid and getting stupider.
In today's news, there's a picture of an idiot with face paint and the now-ubiquitous tri-corner 18th century cap posing as a "tea-party patriot" that will be, mark my words, become the defining historical image of the impending collapse of the health care initiative. I'm sorry, but painting a red hand across your mouth because you think "socialism" is destroying your "freedom" is grounds for a long rest in a very quiet place in my world.
We now have large segments of the American population actually vigorously protesting against health care! Nuts! Of course, many of these ill-informed and socially deranged individuals also actually think that President Obama is a socialist and a Muslim. That's how whacked out we have become - these people are fringe lunatics but we have essentially, as a society, accepted them as legitimate political commentators and activists. They have, basically, become mainstream.
I am all for multiple political parties and diverse opinions, but how this country can support the idealogically bankrupt republican party as a significant political party at this point of history is truly telling.
Up is down, down is up. Racism is not racism. Elitism is populism. Stupid is smart. That's America in 2012, and that is simply unsustainable as a civilization. Unless a proverbial smart bomb clears the polluted air(waves) and brains of Americans, we are in for very dire days ahead.

deutsey

(20,166 posts)

3. Don't forget the coup de grace of Teabag "logic":

Reply to Loge23 (Reply #1)

Thu Mar 29, 2012, 09:03 AM

Mar 2012

Obama is a socialist AND a fascist who wants to impose godless Marxism on America as some kind of Islamic plot to make us submit to sharia law and worship Allah.

Trust me: it all makes sense when you see it laid-out on Glenn Beck's chalkboard.