Norman Solomon Gets It Devastatingly Right
Norman Solomon adds devastating perspective to the realities of “too big to fail and too small to matter”…
“These times provide a crash course on the corporate state:
If a company like AIG is too big to fail, the government will rescue it. Mere people — too small to matter — are expendable.
The insurance industry is too big to fail. A person’s health is too small to matter, so — when it fails due to the absence or loopholes of insurance coverage — that’s tough luck.
The Defense Department is too big to fail. The people it’s killing in Iraq and Afghanistan are too small to matter.
The U.S. nuclear arsenal is too big to fail. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, undermined by Washington, is too small to matter.
Overall, the warfare state is too big to fail. The virtues of peace are too small to matter.
Agribusiness is too big to fail. Family farmers are too dirt-small to matter.
The leverage for the U.S. Treasury to subsidize Wall Street is too big to fail. The leverage to subsidize mothers and children kicked off welfare is too small to matter.
The political momentum for bailing out corporate America is too big to fail. The political momentum for funding adequate payment rates from Medicaid to reimburse healthcare providers is too small to matter.
The oil conglomerates are too big to fail. Global warming is too small to matter.
The prison industry is too big to fail. The need for preschool is too small to matter.
Corporate power is too big to fail. The ordeals of working people and want-to-be-working people are too small to matter.
Human worth as maximized by dollars: too big to fail. Human worth as affirmed by humanistic values: too small to matter.”
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September 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 am
Many young “healthy” working people see nothing wrong with that!
It is just so skewed and backwards.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:14 am
I don’t know whether that is because of frighteningly hard nosed pragmatism, unquestioning acceptance of the market doctrine or just both.
Either way, tell it to my politics class, who can bang on about the grand narratives till the cows come home but can’t see the people living on the breadline or children living in poverty, can’t see the individuals who suffer in war, can’t see the people who can’t afford healthcare, can’t see the inner city murders, can’t see those who need a hand up out of the mess they are in.
Sometimes I wonder if its not because these people can’t see themselves.
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:55 am
Common denominator: Corporate conglomerates Government agenda = Power= Money (makes the world go ’round)
A few people ruling over the entire world an its populace, despite the fact that the sum of it’s parts, which consist of the “rest of” the people, land and animals on this earth is infinitely bigger in size. We as the majority, are so grossly under represented… We are so much bigger in numbers, yet have little to no power and say. Our ability to exercise those rights, seems to be almost choked out, under the wants of the assholes running existence into the ground.
I still just picture this world (in time), becoming one of those desolate worlds you see in zombie movies, that are broken and charred and flooded. All that will left will be these morons in their suits, burning their bags of cash to stay warm….and when the cash is gone, they’ll just start throwing small children and other ‘expendable’ things in the flames.
Seriously, get me off this effed up merry go round…
* thinks of the scene from Fear and Loathing when the Hunter kicks his lawyer in the ass and he falls off the rotating bar*
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:56 am
Insert ” ” sign in above formula…
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 am
haha, okay…apparently one does not exist…
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Everything is so freaking backwards. Too bad the human race doesn’t get a “do over”. Then again would we have learned anything from our mistakes? The precedent so far is NO.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
The future for our children is too big to fail - the sacrifices we must make today are too small to matter.
Quoting Bruise Violet: “We are so much bigger in numbers, yet have little to no power and say. Our ability to exercise those rights, seems to be almost choked out, under the wants of the assholes running existence into the ground.”
I don’t want to sound preachy but I believe we each have the power to effect change. Our greed for the creature comforts, collective and individual, is what’s killing us. The answer lies somewhere in a renewed focus on the importance of family and children – away from the ‘me, myself and I’.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:38 pm
[quote comment="66154"]Common denominator: Corporate conglomerates
Government agenda = Power= Money (makes the world go ’round)
A few people ruling over the entire world an its populace, despite the fact that the sum of it’s parts, which consist of the “rest of” the people, land and animals on this earth is infinitely bigger in size. We as the majority, are so grossly under represented… We are so much bigger in numbers, yet have little to no power and say. Our ability to exercise those rights, seems to be almost choked out, under the wants of the assholes running existence into the ground.
I still just picture this world (in time), becoming one of those desolate worlds you see in zombie movies, that are broken and charred and flooded. All that will left will be these morons in their suits, burning their bags of cash to stay warm….and when the cash is gone, they’ll just start throwing small children and other ‘expendable’ things in the flames.
Seriously, get me off this effed up merry go round…
* thinks of the scene from Fear and Loathing when the Hunter kicks his lawyer in the ass and he falls off the rotating bar*[/quote]
Runaway corporatism is indeed very much like fascism in many ways. I wonder if there will be a public reaction to it at some point, or whether people will allow themselves to be increasingly tools and whores for (usually) a thinly-veiled exploitative corporate system. Yet in many ways we absolutely require corporations for commercial/economic success. Finding a good balance is extremely tough and I doubt we ever will.
There are times I wonder whether I am a closet anarchist. There are times when I wouldn’t mind a global economic-political destabilization and nuclear showdown.
It almost amuses me how many Americans loudly trumpet our much-deserved importance globally but remain scared shitless of the possibility of a major confrontation, which is exactly what we are risking in practically every foreign policy maneuver we’ve made for several years now. Yet they continue to support it, with little regard for its consequences.
In a sense I welcome the day the system completely lets itself down. That may not even be that far off.