03-08-2017, 07:41 AM
Donald Trump did what every successful demagogue does -- rejecting rational discussion and going for visceral concerns. He overplayed dangers and let people assume that he had a secret solution. His secretive solution seems to be "All for the Few -- once and for all".
As the markets for most manufactured goods are saturated and when fossil fuels become a non-growth activity., the proletariat involved in manufacturing such things loses whatever economic clout it ever had. The basis of modern capitalism was that workers had to become a market for the goods that they produce in 'modern' factories so that they don't become the angry proles that Marx predicted. But what happens when the economic order can produce everything that people need easily?
Donald Trump recognized the despair among such people just as the fictional Music Man "Professor Harold Hill" recognized the boredom of kids and the concerns that parents of "River City" had for the lack of structure in their children's lives that might lead them to the pool hall. But "Professor Henry Hill" has a viable solution and doesn't even know that it can work. Donald Trump's solution is to inflame ethnic, religious, and cultural bigotry (which has never worked well anywhere) as an excuse for a reactionary ideology intend upon restoring the huge profit margins that once existed for energy manufactured goods in the expectation that such will create jobs needed for a prosperous America.
Yes, it will be a prosperous America -- but only for about 5% of the people. That is as raw a deal as there can be. Unlike the flim-flam of "Professor Henry Hill" which can turn out well, the Trump scam can only fail.
"Make America Great Again"... if you liked the 1920s you will like Donald Trump. But I have never known anyone (and don't expect to know anyone because such people are now centenarians if still living) who had any nostalgia for the 1920s even if they knew the Great Depression even better. For some reason The Great Gatsby never succeeds as a cinematic enterprise -- could it be that not-so-rich Americans don't love the idle rich?
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As the markets for most manufactured goods are saturated and when fossil fuels become a non-growth activity., the proletariat involved in manufacturing such things loses whatever economic clout it ever had. The basis of modern capitalism was that workers had to become a market for the goods that they produce in 'modern' factories so that they don't become the angry proles that Marx predicted. But what happens when the economic order can produce everything that people need easily?
Donald Trump recognized the despair among such people just as the fictional Music Man "Professor Harold Hill" recognized the boredom of kids and the concerns that parents of "River City" had for the lack of structure in their children's lives that might lead them to the pool hall. But "Professor Henry Hill" has a viable solution and doesn't even know that it can work. Donald Trump's solution is to inflame ethnic, religious, and cultural bigotry (which has never worked well anywhere) as an excuse for a reactionary ideology intend upon restoring the huge profit margins that once existed for energy manufactured goods in the expectation that such will create jobs needed for a prosperous America.
Yes, it will be a prosperous America -- but only for about 5% of the people. That is as raw a deal as there can be. Unlike the flim-flam of "Professor Henry Hill" which can turn out well, the Trump scam can only fail.
"Make America Great Again"... if you liked the 1920s you will like Donald Trump. But I have never known anyone (and don't expect to know anyone because such people are now centenarians if still living) who had any nostalgia for the 1920s even if they knew the Great Depression even better. For some reason The Great Gatsby never succeeds as a cinematic enterprise -- could it be that not-so-rich Americans don't love the idle rich?
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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.