Posted 4 years, 5 months ago in the wee hours by oso
Maharidge finds historical precedents in post-World War I Weimar Germany for what he found as he traveled post-9/11 America “harvesting” stories of reaction and rage. Germany’s political and economic fall from power and the accompanying nationalism fed Hitler’s rise to power. Maharidge sees in today’s America the awful possibilities of a similar angry nationalism. “Many Americans long for a nation- that is powerful—at least in economic terms. Americans may not be lugging bushel baskets of money to buy bread, but they are trying to live on Wal-Mart wages paying Silicon Valley-level prices for mortgages and rents in the hinterlands. These Americans want back the America they remember.” Conservative talk radio, Maharidge writes, is “a virtual beer hall” where right-wing thugs like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly whip up their listeners with inflammatory racist and anti-immigrant—not to mention homophobic and sexist—blather
From Annette Fuentes’ review of Maharidge’s new book, Homeland and Samuel Huntington’s new book, Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity.
The irony is, of course, is that the United States is the most militarily, economically, and politically powerful state in the history of the world; the scale and reach of our influence and actions are absolutely unprecedented. We are hardly a contemporary Weimar Republic in any socioeconomic sense.
That said, I understand what Maharidge is getting at, all the same. The safeguards that helped ensure a high standard of living for many Americans in the immediate postwar period are gone. Rent and mortgage prices are ridiculous, health care costs are outrageous, tuition at private universities is almost unbelievable. And to make matters worse, one needs to buy all sorts of expensive goods and services (e.g., computers, an accountant to do one’s taxes) just to stay afloat.
The question than becomes how, or even if, we are going to address these problems before that harvested anger takes root. And although I’m hardly an expert on the subject, I’d start with the corporations that have so much power in people’s economic lives and wield so much unchecked influence in the world.
(And, as a total aside: Osito, did you get the reply I sent Wednesday morning? No pressure or anything if you have; you just tend to be quick with email, so I’m wondering if you didn’t receive it.)
I totally agree - and the way we are using our military, economic, and political power is also responsible for our domestic disintegration as well as the rise in anti-Americanism abroad.
Here in San Diego the average house now sells for $464,000 while the average Wal-Mart employee earns $8.23 an hour. (CEO Scott Lee earns 897 times that amount)
Yes, we need to put some serious restrictions on corporations and those CEOs that are purely profit motivated. In fact, that entire paradigm of business - that profit is purpose - needs to be dismantled. But like Gramsci 75 years ago I have a difficult time believing that conditions will change in the near future. The fact that Wal-Mart employees have made so few gains in unionizing, despite the fact that they are obviously being exploited, is a discouraging indicator.
Our waves are the same length today, Osito.
I don’t want to concentrate disproportionately on corporate governance (or lack thereof); there are other major problems in contemporary society–the abysmal state of public education, for one. But if people’s longing for a “powerful” nation is, as Maharidge suggests, economic at its root, tempering corporate power is where we need to focus. At least for now.