BillyDkid
09-01-2009, 06:07 AM
From a piece by Jeffrey Snyder which compares conditions with those of the French Revolution as described by Dickens. I thought this paragraph below captures what many people don't see - what the pundits don't and can't get. The real reason why people are angry and real force behind the coming revolution is the sense that the vast majority of us are part of a rigged system that has been set up in such a way that we can not win and that we always end up losing. The system works as long as there are enough scraps left on the table that we can survive. For many of us, there will soon be no scraps left.
What road are we on? Is the anger we see in town hall meetings limited to Congress’ attempt to reform our health care system? Are some of these people mad just because Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have whipped them into a frenzy about socialism? Yeah, it’s possible, but then again, why were they able to do that? Some commentators have noted that the anger is being fueled by people’s anxiety and uncertainty over their jobs and what’s going to happen to them. No doubt that there’s something to that, but I suspect that it has a lot more to do with something they are not uncertain of at all, some fundamental truth that’s just been really rammed home, namely, that whatever happens, they’re the ones who pay. They’re the ones who must not only bear their own losses but recompense the losses of the architects of the disaster. They’re the ones who must adjust and whose income and lives must diminish, so that those who are too big to fail continue to receive their due, and can continue to live in the style to which they’ve become accustomed. They’re the ones who are supposed to be consoled by President Obama’s assurances that "our best days are ahead," apparently coming right after they’ve finished paying a few trillion dollars to assure that our financiers’ best days continue to be right now.
What road are we on? Is the anger we see in town hall meetings limited to Congress’ attempt to reform our health care system? Are some of these people mad just because Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have whipped them into a frenzy about socialism? Yeah, it’s possible, but then again, why were they able to do that? Some commentators have noted that the anger is being fueled by people’s anxiety and uncertainty over their jobs and what’s going to happen to them. No doubt that there’s something to that, but I suspect that it has a lot more to do with something they are not uncertain of at all, some fundamental truth that’s just been really rammed home, namely, that whatever happens, they’re the ones who pay. They’re the ones who must not only bear their own losses but recompense the losses of the architects of the disaster. They’re the ones who must adjust and whose income and lives must diminish, so that those who are too big to fail continue to receive their due, and can continue to live in the style to which they’ve become accustomed. They’re the ones who are supposed to be consoled by President Obama’s assurances that "our best days are ahead," apparently coming right after they’ve finished paying a few trillion dollars to assure that our financiers’ best days continue to be right now.