Today Unity-Progress produces articles that are not directly tied to specific articles at Common Dreams or anywhere else.
And even when we do post a short writing in response to a Common Dreams article, we will seldom post comments of a third party anymore. But on the other hand, if we see a comment at Common Dreams that is so good that it is better than most of the main articles at Common Dreams, we might post the comment on its own. Here is the first ever example of that type of posting. So what follows is a Common Dreams comment that is as good or better than the articles there. Remember, I am not trying to gain credit for this great piece; the following great item is NOT written by the author of Unity-Progress (me).
mcoyote June 20th, 2010 9:19 pm
Both liberals and socialists empathize with the suffering of society's weaker members, and are sensitive to "man's inhumanity to man." However, the liberal is basically at peace with the socioeconomic system that produces this suffering, while the socialist recognizes that the system itself is the core cause of the suffering.
A liberal might get upset by militarism, but happily invests in Martin Marietta Corp, and rejoices when it increases its dividend. Liberals are also often susceptible to nationalist propaganda appeals, & thus can easily be persuaded to support wars like the NATO war in Kosovo, simply because it was cleverly marketed as a "humanitarian intervention." A socialist would never fall for this sort of ploy.
A liberal might be properly horrified by pollution, waste, hyper commercialism, and many of the ills of modern society, but pays little conscious attention to the underlying issue of capitalism which allows such things to dominate our lives. A liberal will vote for Democrats, despite the obvious fact that these contemptible worms are nothing but bought servants of corporate monopolies or oligopolies. The liberal sleeps easily, figuring, "Well, at least the Dems are better than the Repubs" as though this really implies some sort of resistance to rampant capitalism.
Basically, the liberal tut-tuts disapprovingly at some of the blatantly horrible end-effects of policies, politicians, and economic philosophies that, for the most part, he accepts. A socialist, on the other hand, is conscious of where the roots of these disasters lie....
Now is a good time to cue up some Phil Ochs:
I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal
======
"By the way, I would reach out to the first George Bush. You know, one of the things that I think George H.W. Bush doesn't get enough credit for was his foreign policy team and the way that he helped negotiate the end of the Cold War and prosecuted the Gulf War. That cost us 20 billion dollars. That's all it cost. It was extremely successful. I think there were a lot of very wise people. So I want a bipartisan team that can help to provide me good advice and counsel when I'm president of the United States."
- Barack Obama on LARRY KING LIVE: March 20, 2008
There it is.
Obama lauding the way GHW Bush "prosecuted" the Iraq War. Remember that? Incredible huh? Not at all. Birds of a feather.
Who is Obama? In a word, he's a company man.
Obama would never have risen so quickly and remarkably to his current position of national prominence and chief errand boy for Empire if he was anything like the egalitarian and democratic “progressive” that liberals imagined. In the corporate-crafted and money-dominated swamp that passes for “representative democracy” in the U.S., concentrated economic and imperial power open and close doors in ways that preemptively suffocate populist potential. Big money is not in the business of promoting genuine social justice or democracy activists.
Liberal thy name is hypocrisy. What's new?
Unity Progress Response:
Wow, just when I was calling liberals (establishment progressives in my terminology) wusses you explained why they are wusses in great detail and very nicely indeed.
The above is from the comments to this article.
-------------------------------------
CUSTOM FEED:
For a custom feed of the most important, best written, and most accurate news and commentary, see the Unity-Progress Feed
-------------------------------------
COMMENTS
We love our readers and comments are very much appreciated. Comments are moderated but all comments will be approved except for those that do not belong on Unity-Progress. For example, comments that contain any commercial advertising and ones that contain objectionable hatred will not be approved. Many comments that appear will receive a return comment by Unity-Progress. To comment click the green "comments" link at the bottom of this post. You can also send an email. The email address for Unity-Progress is unity.progress.mail at gmail. Use this address for all communications, including requests for link exchange if you have a good economics or political site.
No comments:
Post a Comment