Tuesday, November 6, 2012

America is Always Right: Believe. Obey. Fight

On the eve of another election, some people are starting to realise that America isn't run by a president, it's run by capitalism and capitalists. A capitalist dictatorship if you like.

One of Mussolini's fascist slogans was "Mussolini is always right. Believe! Obey! Fight!".
Not that this could be applied to capitalist America or anything....
American's (not all, but plenty, and not just Americans) are convinced otherwise by a whole series of propaganda about a so called American Dream, and the importance of the success of the individual often at the expense of others around them.

During the election campaign we've seen this propaganda in full flow. Not so much from the candidates this time around, but from the misguided views about communism, socialism, and left wing politics in general - especially from Romney supporters especially like to pass of these left wing ideas as some sort of devil worshipping religion.

Some of this is brainwashing to a level that Joesph Goebbels et al would have been proud of.

Below are a few random thoughts from other writers about the power of the suggestion of the American Dream:

"I guess the trouble was that we didn't have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist"

John Steinbeck sums up the American view of the concept that a proletariat could exist in their country in his book America and Americans, and why Socialism is never likely to take off. This line is often misquoted as shown below:

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."



And below is a quote from a recent article by Rupert Cornwell in The Independent on Sunday, about how the US president dare not suggest that America is ever a lesser country than others, economically or otherwise.

"American exceptionalism, the doctrine no presidential candidate dare disown, has it that the US is special, and thus uniquely equipped to solve problems which floor lesser countries. In this way, harsh home truths may be avoided on the campaign trail and 2012 has been no different."

"Americans, by nature optimists, tell pollsters by a two to one margin that the country is on the wrong track, when the concentration of wealth is greater than at any time since the Crash of 1929 and when social mobility – a core element of the American Dream – is less than in scorned, sclerotic Europe."