The Radio Times had this to say, see left, for the program 'The Love Of Money':"The final episode of the documentary series reveals just how close the world came to the brink of economic ruin last autumn.......Few people, they argue, realise just how close society came to a truly catastrophic breakdown."
Because, after all, we just couldn't survive without our monolithic capitalist system could we? The mainstream media perpetuate this belief that we wouldn't be able to manage by ourselves so they devote whole programs to our beloved politicians telling us about how they saved us and there really is no need to worry and that, in fact, we shouldn't even bother thinking about anything at all.
Just keep working, keep shopping, keep consuming and our politicians will come up with the 'Big Ideas' and our media will either praise them or ridicule them. (I can hear Gordon's dulcet, Scots tones even now, "Just throw fucking tons of money at it!!") Our politicians and our media will play out this delicate little charade where the media will expose something, whether it be affairs, expenses or arms deals, and the politician or party will object or retort, withdraw or confess but they are both just part of the bigger machine. They feed off each other. If there were no politicians there would be no scandals to write about, no policies to decry and no expenses to feel outraged about. And in turn there would be no leaks to the press so the relationship is, at best, parasitic.
Our marvellous democratic freedom extends to the discussion of slightly different flavours of capitalism in the papers and on TV. It is self-evident in the underlying theme of 'The Love Of Money' and apparent in the tiresome 'Question Time' guest list. The two party democracy lumbers on with varying levels of commitment to reform of the one system country.
Discussion of the revolutionary alternatives isn't a possibility.
3 comments:
Oh but darling, you got one bit wrong. They only really want us to keep spending. The working part is optional and can easily be done by machines or people (are they people?) far far away. xoxo
Nice link to the libertarian socialism page on wiki.
If you ever get the chance, check out Rubel and Crump's 1986 book Non-Market Socialism in the 19th and 20th century.
It's a few years old but it's a good read, nonetheless.
It would help if the masses would rethink their priorities, and not flee to the shelter of marketplace rhetoric (to be bled some more) every time one of the "scary" alternatives is raised.
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