Challenge the Establishment

Monday, August 31, 2009

MUSIC: It's Not Just Bush!

The song "It's Not Just Bush" exposes the establishment-dominated world we live in. Both Democratic and Republican parties are "corporate parties," driven by money interests, while giving voice to the myth of a democratic society. This hard-driving acoustic music by Ryan Harvey is raw on many levels and well worth the 3-minute listen.

LISTEN: It's Not Just Bush

DOWNLOAD: It's Not Just Bush

Link to Ryan Harvey's page at Riot Folk

Riot Folk web page.

Source:

Ryan Harvey and Riot Folk brought to you by GDAE Podcast

Monday, August 17, 2009

Establishment Position on Health Care

Obama took the establishment "middle of the road" position on health care reform, and look where it got him? He is capitulating on a public option. My message to President Obama:

By taking the middle of the road on health care, your "compromise" position is falling far short of meaningful reform. I'm urging my representatives to say "no" to any legislation that does not have a strong public option.

I am tired of the establishment controlling everything from the media, to the financial system, to the health care system, to our system of government. So, the message is, "fight for a public option or start over." The next time, take the far left position of which you're being accused, then compromise in the middle. This is negotiation 101.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Golpistas

A "Golpista" is someone or an institution that is in favor of a coup. The word is receiving a lot of use in Honduras these days.

Judging from the widely accepted view that the US has ample influence to reverse the coup d'etat in Hounduras if it wanted to, it appears the US government is a "golpista" too. But the US has chosen not to use that influence.

Why doesn't this come as a surprise? Because the US and Honduran establishments are golpistas and they run their respective governments. This is described by ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya:

The coup in Honduras was made by a group of ambitious businessmen that want to maintain their privileges associated to multinational companies with political puppets and corrupt military. Trying to give it an ideological tint—left, right, Chavism, US right—is an intent to change the face of the coup and to distract attention to other ideological problems, when the problem are the economic privileges of the sectors that want to maintain it.

In other words, the golpistas are, in large part, individuals and institutions of the establishment. They want to maintain their power and wealth.

There are probably other words for the uninformed middle and lower class people who are duped or coerced into supporting the coup d'etat, but I don't know those words. In this country we call them Sarah Palin followers.

Sources:

Photo Credit, and teacher of the word "Golpista": Sandra Cuffe. More Photos by S. Cuffe

Saturday, August 1, 2009

On American Exceptionalism

Why does the issue of American Exceptionalism matter?

First, it's worth clarifying that American Exceptionalism isn't simply "patriotism." It is perfectly healthy to root for the home team, but that's different than having delusions of god-given, or founding-father given greatness. Taking pride in our country, and trying to make it good, doesn't necessitate mythologies that promote a false sense of unique, superior position among other nations. Exceptionalism is a belief in the later, which is different than healthy pride in one's nation.

I'll be exploring "exceptionalism" in Episode 17 of GDAE Podcast. It is relevant to challenging the establishment, because the myths of American Exceptionalism are used by members and institutions of the establishment to maintain their exceptional positions.... at the expense of the masses.

I'll be including audio clips from Media Matters that delve into they way ingrained beliefs in American Exceptionalism colors news reporting and other aspects of media. This exceptionalsm has many negative side effects. For example, the United States justifies hundreds of military basese across the world, the use of military force and horrific "collateral damage" on the basis of exceptionalism.

As another example, Americans have been led to believe that "we are great by definition," which creates the social attitude of a nation resting on its laurels. This malaize is expressed in the US falling behind other nations in education, health care, infrastructure and the knowledge to maintain its more complex elements, national debt and many other things.

We can care for our community, whether it be local or national, without having false notions of grandure. Because false myths of American exceptionalism are used to rally a national "manifest destiny" militancy, and quell dissent of people challenging our government and major US corporations, we must challenge the myths themselves.

Friday, July 31, 2009

jul31

Thursday, July 30, 2009

GDAE Podcast - Episode 16

Episode 15 - June 17, 2009

Taliban & US Right Wing

Briefly, Health Care Reform: Time for us to Make Noise!
A tid bit on Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
Who are the Taliban?
A Mid-East 101 by Chris Hedges
Sarah Palin's Future Plans: Will she help incite right-wing violence? (Re-visiting a theme of Episode 11)

Friday, July 24, 2009

Wikipedia on the "Establishment"

According to Wikipedia:

The Establishment is a term used to refer to the traditional ruling class elite and the structures of society that they control.

Through these "structures of society that they control," they control society itself... or at least have more control than the rest of us. Thus, if we want to change society, and the establishment does not want those changes, we have a conflict. Here in lies the motivation for this blog's title "Challenge the Establishment."

Because the establishment class is closely associated with wealth, that "conflict" to which I refer naturally includes a conflict among classes. It is taboo to speak of class conflict (class war) in the United States. This is due, in part, to an establishment that has helped perpetuate a myth that classes don't exist in the US. We are led to believe that, even if income and wealth differ among Americans, this is simply part of the American Dream playing out with different timing for different people. We are told that such differences are petty and that we are all bound together as Americans with a common "national interest."

Ah, but that "national interest" differs for different wealth classes. Here's an example. The US families that have benefited from United Fruit's corporate exploitation in Central America had the "national interest" of suppressing the democratic dreams of peasants in those countries. Their "national interest"was to support the local establishment that would use their power to keep foreign corporate taxes low, allow damage to the environment, maintain exploitative labor laws and allow the US military to participate in crushing the aspirations of the peasant class of those countries. Ironically, the grunts in the US military were typically themselves drawn from the lower class of our country. Hence the phrase "rich man's war."

I could go on, but won't. Read MORE on Wikipedia's take on "the Establishment."