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| Dennis Kucinich and Ralph Nader (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Ralph Nader (Photo credit: neatnessdotcom) |
Ralph Nader, in a superb, revealing interview with The Real News’ Paul Jay, casts acritical eye over the history he has lived, and finds the United States fallingbehind the rest of the developed world, largely because they were so spooked byJoseph McCarthy that they became so empirical they were afraid to see the big picture,afraid of being called followers of some dreaded ism, like socialism. Everyone with a concern about the directionof the modern world should read this interview, here.
(“…even the '60s.
Number one, it was the Cultural Revolution, so they couldn't really say ism. You know, they might say
wastrelism or, you know, anarchism, but, you know, it wasn't some foreign
ideology. The other part was concrete reforms, civil rights, women's rights,
the beginning of gay-lesbian rights, the rights of students on campus, and then
consumer rights, and then environment. You see how programmatic it was.
Everybody avoided linking it together and basically saying, you know, big-time
corporate capitalism is an omnicidal momentum. I mean, it just has one thing in
mind, and it will destroy or weaken or co-opt anything in its way that is
civic, that is democratic.”)
(“The other
part is corporations have been very clever in distracting people, especially
young generation, with entertainment, with professional sports, turning them
into spectators. Now you've got, you know, 24/7 entertainment. There's no end
to it. And they've also been very good in making people internalize a sense of
powerlessness. And the moment people think they can't fight Exxon or City Hall
or whatever, they become powerless by definition. They create their own
powerlessness.”)
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