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That's when the division of wealth and income began polarizing so that, by every measure, the country has now exceeded the extremes of inequality achieved during the first Gilded Age; nor are our elites any more embarrassed by their Mammon-worship than were members of the "leisure class" excoriated a century ago by that take-no-prisoners social critic of American capitalism Thorstein Veblen...
Then, as now, hypocrisy and self-delusion were the final ingredients in this ideological brew. When it came to practical matters, neither the business elites of the first Gilded Age, nor our own "liquidators," "terminators," and merger and acquisition Machiavellians ever really believed in the free market or the enterprising individual. Then, as now, when push came to shove (and often way earlier), they relied on the government: for political favors, for contracts, for tax advantages, for franchises, for tariffs and subsidies, for public grants of land and natural resources, for financial bail-outs when times were tough (see Bear Stearns), and for muscular protection, including the use of armed force, against all those who might interfere with the rights of private property.
So too, while industrial and financial tycoons liked to imagine themselves as stand-alone heroes, daring cowboys on the urban-industrial-financial frontier, as a matter of fact the first Gilded Age gave birth to the modern, bureaucratic corporation -- and did so at the expense of the lone entrepreneur. To this day, that big business behemoth remains the defining institution of commercial life. The reigning melodrama may still be about the free market and the audacious individual, but backstage, directing the players, stands the state and the corporation.
Crony capitalism, inequality, extravagance, Social Darwinian self-justification, blame-the-victim callousness, free-market hypocrisy: thus it was, thus it is again!
... However, the wheel turns. The capitalism of the Second Gilded Age now faces a systemic crisis and, under the pressure of impending disaster, may be headed back to the future. Old-fashioned poverty is making a comeback. ..the global economy, including its American branch, is increasingly a sweatshop economy....
...the current break-down of the financial system is portentous. It threatens a general economic implosion more serious than anyone has witnessed for many decades. Depression, if that is what it turns out to be, together with the agonies of a misbegotten and lost war no one believes in any longer, could undermine whatever is left of the threadbare credibility of our Gilded Age elite.
..Today, the myth of "ownership society" confronts the reality of "foreclosure society." The great silence of the second Gilded Age may give way to the great noise of the first.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174922/steve_fr...
All true I'm afraid, frankly Americans of intelligence like Twain, have warned of the "eternal vigilance" required to prevent tyranny, in our silence we have failed and are complicit in the rise of corporate-elitist fascism.
I would add this :
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
- Thomas Jefferson
Now they don't challenge our government, they own it.
Zinn's "People's History of the United States" suggests that, once in a while we the people wake up and take care of business.
Abuses by capitalists during the industrial revolution led to labor bosses being attacked and even killed until capitalists felt compelled to at least offer some basic worker "rights." Most of those have disappeared.
Of course, now they've mostly disarmed ordinary citizens, have standing armies, and have put in place all the tools for a totalitarian regime our founders warned against so we the people have no recourse.
And I don't see any of the 3 presidential candidates seriously examining this--all 3 are still siding with corporatists or totalitarian petty leaders who seek to infringe more rights--they just choose different ones to infringe.
Well the weapons have changed since the revolutionary days quite a bit. What would Jefferson do (aside from throw up)if he were here today? My guess is buy a newspaper. The media is the primary weapon being used against us. An empowered independent media is the most powerful political weapon available. Imagine if there were one independent news channel that investigated and reported on events honestly and freely and pointed out or questioned the Bush supremacies propaganda and lies .
We the people can't fight guys with private armies (blackwater) or have our own fleet of stealth bombers. So armed overthrowing of the government is a losing bet, though that IS the reason for the 2nd amendment. The weapon of choice for me seems to be media.
Civil disobedience can be powerful, however, and frightening to big business and leaders. Wealthy women got the vote by illegally lying down on the capitol steps and blacks secured more rights through their rioting. Boycotts and walk-outs have produced results.
Asymmetrical warfare is pretty formidable to even the strongest army. I think there might just be another tool in the box that could work if it gets that bad.