Humainologie creative dialogue Wednesday November 3 on Democracy and What We Can Do to Revive It

“Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising a question about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

“We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life.” – Jimmy Carter

“Democratic socialism means that we must reform a political system that is corrupt, that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy.” - Bernie Sanders

The foregoing quotes are given substance, depth, and breadth by Robert Reich in his 2020 book The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. My synopsis of the book, appended below, can be used as a reference for our dialogue this coming Wednesday, November 3. I’ll suggest Democracy and What We Can Do to Revive It as the topic. Here is a twelve-minute video by Robert Reich on how the rigged system works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_sjfchNsiM

To get your creative engines started, we might start with these questions:

Why are there so many poor people in such a rich country as the United States?

Is Canada heading in the same direction?

What can we do in Calgary to build a genuinely healthy democracy?

Here is the Zoom link and other information provided by Shinobu: Topic: Humainologie Dialogue Session Time: Nov 3, 2021 06:30 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) Every week on Wed, until Dec 29, 2021, 9 occurrence(s) Nov 3, 2021 06:30 PM Nov 10, 2021 06:30 PM Nov 17, 2021 06:30 PM Nov 24, 2021 06:30 PM Dec 1, 2021 06:30 PM Dec 8, 2021 06:30 PM Dec 15, 2021 06:30 PM Dec 22, 2021 06:30 PM Dec 29, 2021 06:30 PM Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. Weekly: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZ0rd-mrqT8jG9JE9uTYoYViXgJBRY6wBait/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGhqDsqGdORuRiBRpx5BIigc-nwtilEjfp3uUbwNxlcWzX_DuVoEIBGRs_y Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89600374916?pwd=OXg2dkF4NEtsMmNzSkdRdW1kdUV5UT09 Meeting ID: 896 0037 4916 Passcode: 12345

Robert Reich’s book is a wake-up call, and it includes evidence that the awakening is already beginning. At our dialogue on Wednesday, we can all contribute to that awakening.

Toot sweet!

Arthur

Book: (Robert Reich) The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It (2020)

Many people think that our political system is a “democracy,” but it would be more realistic to recognize that we live in an oligarchy, according to Robert Reich. This book makes it clear that a few very rich people have an influence in our government that vastly outweighs the influence the rest of the population can wield. That is not democracy. We the people can actualize a real democracy, but it will take relentless, well-informed, collaborative effort.

It is important to clarify what words such as “democracy” or “oligarchy” mean when we use them. In Chapter 3, of the book, for example, “Socialism for the Rich, Harsh Capitalism for the Rest,” the author points out that “’Socialism’ was the scare word used by the oligarchy of the Gilded Age when America began to regulate and break up their giant corporations. It was the term used by the American Liberty League in 1935 to attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposal for Social Security. ‘Socialism is the epithet they have hurled at every advance the people have made,’ President Harry Truman observed. …Every time over the last century Americans have sought to pool their resources for the common good, the wealthy and powerful have used the bogeyman of ‘socialism’ to try to stop them.”

What we find (if we remove the rose-colored spectacles of free market rhetoric) is that we do have a form of socialism. It’s exclusively for the rich. Sacrifices made by the poor provide the benefits of socialism to the rich It is the poor who experience the lay-offs, the long hours, the low wages, and the evisceration of government services inflicted by “free market” capitalism. These are not voluntary sacrifices. They are imposed by the rich, who make the rules.

In Chapter 1, “The Obsolescence of Right and Left,” Robert Reich has provided quantitative reference points such as this: “In the 1960s, the typical CEO of a large American company earned about twenty times as much as the typical worker; by 2019, the CEO earned three hundred times as much.” It is during that same time interval that “corporate social responsibility” has emerged as “the supposed answer to the failings of capitalism.” Indeed, extremely wealthy people do a lot of good things for society, and Robert Reich does not at all think of them as bad people. However, if we look at the numbers, those donations from the rich are dwarfed by the size of their profits, because the system is rigged to keep those profits flowing to the very wealthy.

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and this book lets us know who has rigged the system to achieve exactly that outcome. Reich quotes theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: “The powerful are more inclined to be generous than to grant social justice.” If we want to fix the rigged system, then it is best to think not in terms of “Right” versus “Left” or “Republican” versus “Democrat,” but in terms of the extremely rich and the rest of us, or as Reich puts it, Oligarchy versus Democracy.

The rich – and the author actually names specific individuals such as Jamie Dimon and Ray Dalio – often have very nice rhetoric and admirable philanthropic initiatives, yet behind that façade, what they say and do is relentlessly self-serving. Referring to Dalio, for example, who is “founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world, with $160 billion in assets under management…”and whose “personal net worth, as of April 2019, was estimated to be $18 billion,” Robert Reich writes, “Dalio proposes the system be reengineered not by stopping hedge funds and other big investors like him from forcing companies to squeeze out every ounce of profits, typically by pushing down wages and by abandoning workers and communities; not by changing corporate governance to give workers more say or giving them more ownership of the companies they work in; not by busting up giant Wall Street hedge funds and banks – not, in short, by doing anything that could possibly threaten Dalio’s own considerable wealth and power. Instead, he suggests convening a ‘bipartisan’ commission.’ Hello?”

The essence of the wisdom in this book comes in large part from Reich’s interviews with people from the middle class and below. In the autumn of 2015, he visited seven states. “I was doing research on the changing nature of work in America. During my visits I spoke with many of the same people I had met twenty years before when I was secretary of labor….What I was really seeking was their sense of the system as a whole and how they were faring in it.”

“Twenty years before, they said they’d been working hard and were frustrated they weren’t doing better. Now they were angry – angry at their employers, the government, Wall Street…. I heard the term ‘rigged system’ so often that I began asking people what they meant by it.” In 1964, a poll had found that close to two-thirds of Americans thought that “government was run for the benefit of all the people; by 2013, almost 80 percent believed the opposite – that government was run by and for a few big interests.”

Robert Reich asked people what candidates they preferred for the 2016 elections. Whereas the leaders of the Democratic Party were thinking of Hillary Clinton and the leaders of the Republican Party were thinking of Jeb Bush, Reich found that “no one I spoke with mentioned either Clinton or Bush. They talked about Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. When I asked why, they said Sanders or Trump would ‘shake things up’ or ‘make the system work again’ or ‘stop the corruption’ or ‘end the rigging.’” Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump were both very unlikely presidential candidates, and yet Sanders came very close to beating Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries and caucuses, and Trump – well, you know what happened. Trump won the presidency largely because he was believed to be someone who would punch the ‘rigged system’ in the face. His rhetoric suggested he would. It was a lie. Trump is part of the system. His record confirms exactly that. His defeat in the 2020 election does not solve the problem because the system is still in place. Concluding this chapter based on his 2015 visits to seven states (Chapter 12, “The Furies”), the author writes: “Democrats cannot defeat authoritarian populism without an agenda of radical democratic reform, a palpable anti-establishment movement. …Unless Democrats stand squarely on the side of democracy against oligarchy, much of America will continue to believe [Donald Trump] or any future politician who imitates Trump’s authoritarian demagoguery.”

Donald Trump served as a smokescreen for the oligarchy, doing exactly what the rigged system requires while convincing his outraged supporters that he was their champion. This is a hallmark of a demagogue and a warning sign of approaching tyranny. In Chapter 13, “How Oligarchies Retain Power,” Reich specifies three strategies: 1) systems of belief (religions, dogmas, and ideologies); 2) “bribes to the most influential people to gain their support”; and 3) “manufactured threats” – in the current context, usually veiled warnings against “the other” – immigrants, ethnic minorities, gays, etc. All three are deployed today. Elite colleges are helping: “At a time when the courts have all but ended affirmative action for black children seeking college admission, high-end universities provide preferential admission to the children of wealthy alumni – legacies, as they’re delicately called.”

In Chapter 14, “Why Democracy Will Prevail,” the author refers to a recurrent pattern in American history whereby wealth and power undermine democracy, but this prompts a counterattack: “Look at the progressive reforms between 1900 and 1916; the New Deal of the 1930s; the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s; the widening opportunities for women, minorities and gays, starting in the 1960s and continuing, in fits and starts; and the environmental reforms of the 1970s.” And then: “It is not possible to respond to the nation’s or the world’s urgent problems without a fully functioning democracy, and democracy cannot be achieved unless power is reallocated. …Your outrage and your commitment are needed once again. Millions will need to be organized and energized, not just for a particular election but for an ongoing movement, not just for a particular policy but to reclaim democracy so an abundance of good policies are possible.” If you care about your children and grandchildren, then hear this: “Few things we believe in will affect the lives of our children and grandchildren more fundamentally than our commitment to a fair and just society. That precious possession and that fundamental idea are both gravely endangered. They can be protected only by engaged citizens who know the truth and are willing to reclaim our democracy.”