This photo of President Jimmy Carter and me along Spruce Creek was taken in 1995. The interview with Jimmy Carter can be found as a video w/ the link below. I want to add to his thesis by saying that the collusion and cronyism which has eroded participative democracy is most evident at the local level! Not only with the plutocrats.
Oligarchy suggests the conspiracy of billionaires whose broad influence I am not denying. However, even in the shire --- i.e. my home town, the tyranny of petty water authority fiefdoms, and political dynasties---think Shuster---which are linked into the highways, and convention centers in phase one, and later in mammoth multi-million dollar school contracts, the thugs on the ground level who are pawns for their masters, and every member of the school board, etc., etc... Of all the disturbing things in America today---perhaps the most disturbing to me is the futility of its educational system---from top to bottom. And the whole ballgame is wrapped up in the hands of 'petit bourgeois' millionaires. It is better to be a "big fish in a small pond" and I will tell you why: amongst the billionaires or one-percenters there is the prospect of global exploitation of every resource: big fish in a big pond. And of course there are little fish in a big pond---for example the Clintons. But what really cements the deal---are the big fish in the small pond. I am talking about mayors, the men and women who are on the boards of water authorities, utilities, municipalities, state level supervision and so on. It is at this level that democratic action is a possibility but it will require the awakening of the citizenry to actual political involvement on the level of one's own field of action. It is the schooling first of all which destroyed the sincerity of american political participation and not only in that it masquerades ineffectual ideals and never faces up to the local corruption in the media (WTAJ News, and the Altoona Mirror for example) who report street crime corruption but do not expose the corruption in the very political process of town hall meetings where these fracking projects and these new million dollar school contracts are being launched under the pretence of participative democracy. There are about three families who run Altoona.
The other part of the economy that is corrupt through and through and highly anti-democratic is of course medicine. A huge conglomerate like UPMC runs the state---and there is no democratic process. The AMA and the medical doctors are aloof from street level politics and are the pawns of insurance giants and the Pharma. American medicine demonstrates very little allegiance to the nation and its people.
Above all, Americans do not know what they have in common anymore. Association is the basis of political theory. People with similar religious views bond in associations for their aims. But what do americans have in common anymore---the entertainment is not democratically participative (think of the 60s). It is top down.
Love of money is the root of all evil, yes. Another root is the technocracy. Technological "culture" itself is highly undemocratic---compare a Bill Gates or a Zuckerberg to Thoreau or Franklin. Even a techie saint like Steve Jobs constructed a programmed fascism---democracy cannot be digital--the addition of apps and trinkets cannot assist in the fundamental citizen duty to be autonomous and educated in truth.
https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/
Oligarchy suggests the conspiracy of billionaires whose broad influence I am not denying. However, even in the shire --- i.e. my home town, the tyranny of petty water authority fiefdoms, and political dynasties---think Shuster---which are linked into the highways, and convention centers in phase one, and later in mammoth multi-million dollar school contracts, the thugs on the ground level who are pawns for their masters, and every member of the school board, etc., etc... Of all the disturbing things in America today---perhaps the most disturbing to me is the futility of its educational system---from top to bottom. And the whole ballgame is wrapped up in the hands of 'petit bourgeois' millionaires. It is better to be a "big fish in a small pond" and I will tell you why: amongst the billionaires or one-percenters there is the prospect of global exploitation of every resource: big fish in a big pond. And of course there are little fish in a big pond---for example the Clintons. But what really cements the deal---are the big fish in the small pond. I am talking about mayors, the men and women who are on the boards of water authorities, utilities, municipalities, state level supervision and so on. It is at this level that democratic action is a possibility but it will require the awakening of the citizenry to actual political involvement on the level of one's own field of action. It is the schooling first of all which destroyed the sincerity of american political participation and not only in that it masquerades ineffectual ideals and never faces up to the local corruption in the media (WTAJ News, and the Altoona Mirror for example) who report street crime corruption but do not expose the corruption in the very political process of town hall meetings where these fracking projects and these new million dollar school contracts are being launched under the pretence of participative democracy. There are about three families who run Altoona.
The other part of the economy that is corrupt through and through and highly anti-democratic is of course medicine. A huge conglomerate like UPMC runs the state---and there is no democratic process. The AMA and the medical doctors are aloof from street level politics and are the pawns of insurance giants and the Pharma. American medicine demonstrates very little allegiance to the nation and its people.
Above all, Americans do not know what they have in common anymore. Association is the basis of political theory. People with similar religious views bond in associations for their aims. But what do americans have in common anymore---the entertainment is not democratically participative (think of the 60s). It is top down.
Love of money is the root of all evil, yes. Another root is the technocracy. Technological "culture" itself is highly undemocratic---compare a Bill Gates or a Zuckerberg to Thoreau or Franklin. Even a techie saint like Steve Jobs constructed a programmed fascism---democracy cannot be digital--the addition of apps and trinkets cannot assist in the fundamental citizen duty to be autonomous and educated in truth.
https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/
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