Who should file for moral bankruptcy?
A very thoughtful post from Attaturk over at Rising Hegemon
Interesting post Attaturk. Thanks for writing this. Very thoughtful. Most of the funny people (like you) I know are also pretty thoughtful. Your post triggers something that I've been thinking about on a more personal scale. How big is the number of people who loath what they do for a living? When jobs are cut and cut it’s harder to hold out for a job that is in line with your moral system. This came to me reading about that gay guy who actively worked to deny rights to gay people.
How many people working in think tanks and offices work in the cause of destruction, selfishness and corruption because it pays the bills (or is the only job that even pays at all)? Maybe they are all true believers and have convinced themselves it is good to support Bush’s regimen of torture, pre-emptive war, crony capitalism and the destruction of social security. It seems like there is no money to be made in protecting civil rights. But if you want to smash gay marriage some church group will fund you.
George Lakoff brilliantly observed that the right is happy to spend tons of money on infrastructure to support their cause; whereas the left take pains to direct as much money as possible to the people they want to help. Destroying the environment, LOTS of money. Environmentalist, get out the begging bowl! Ya got to wonder how many smart people like David Brock are out there? I think of a lot of lawyers I know who hate what they are doing, but keep rationalizing their actions. There are lots of things that lock people in to jobs and feeling unconfident about the economy is one of them.
Can you imagine how many people who would ditch their crappy job if it wasn’t tied to continued medical coverage? Do you ever wonder if part of the growth of blogging is because of a large group of people who are underemployed or unemployed who feel the need to be subversive in their blog because they feel they can't live it in their work?
In real life Ralph would have laid off Sally Forth and sent her work to India. What I appreciate about this comic is it is addressing an issue about workers in the US and their lack of security in the first place. Continuing attempts by the government to strip away what little social safety net that exists saddens me. But if they convince workers that it's their fault they won't collectively say, "Stop rigging the system against us." I wonder what it would take for some of these laid off workers to get "religion" and see that "pro-business" policies are often anti-worker. The right and this administration works overtime to ensure there is no connection between their actions and the effects on workers.
Remember, 80 percent of Americans get their money from wages, not stocks, bonds and interest on capital. But if workers can be persuaded that labor is corrupt, "free trade" is more important than people, human rights and the environment and that any hint of regulation is bad, then they will have won. (And you thought it was the terrorists trying to destroy the health of America!)
You know, it would be funny to see a jerk like Ralph get his comeuppance if jerks ever really did their comeuppance. But like the good liberal I am, I have empathy for his situation.
Ultimately, the CAUSE you fight for determines the prism in which I, at least, view a figure. Lee fought for the side that he knew at the time was morally wrong on slavery for another cramped principal of fighting for his home. It's all very chivalrous...and morally bankrupt. I give some slack to Lee, as I give to any person trapped within their time, but ultimately, how much slack can you really give a man that chooses to fight for the side advocating the maintenance of human bondage? Link
Interesting post Attaturk. Thanks for writing this. Very thoughtful. Most of the funny people (like you) I know are also pretty thoughtful. Your post triggers something that I've been thinking about on a more personal scale. How big is the number of people who loath what they do for a living? When jobs are cut and cut it’s harder to hold out for a job that is in line with your moral system. This came to me reading about that gay guy who actively worked to deny rights to gay people.
How many people working in think tanks and offices work in the cause of destruction, selfishness and corruption because it pays the bills (or is the only job that even pays at all)? Maybe they are all true believers and have convinced themselves it is good to support Bush’s regimen of torture, pre-emptive war, crony capitalism and the destruction of social security. It seems like there is no money to be made in protecting civil rights. But if you want to smash gay marriage some church group will fund you.
George Lakoff brilliantly observed that the right is happy to spend tons of money on infrastructure to support their cause; whereas the left take pains to direct as much money as possible to the people they want to help. Destroying the environment, LOTS of money. Environmentalist, get out the begging bowl! Ya got to wonder how many smart people like David Brock are out there? I think of a lot of lawyers I know who hate what they are doing, but keep rationalizing their actions. There are lots of things that lock people in to jobs and feeling unconfident about the economy is one of them.
Can you imagine how many people who would ditch their crappy job if it wasn’t tied to continued medical coverage? Do you ever wonder if part of the growth of blogging is because of a large group of people who are underemployed or unemployed who feel the need to be subversive in their blog because they feel they can't live it in their work?
In real life Ralph would have laid off Sally Forth and sent her work to India. What I appreciate about this comic is it is addressing an issue about workers in the US and their lack of security in the first place. Continuing attempts by the government to strip away what little social safety net that exists saddens me. But if they convince workers that it's their fault they won't collectively say, "Stop rigging the system against us." I wonder what it would take for some of these laid off workers to get "religion" and see that "pro-business" policies are often anti-worker. The right and this administration works overtime to ensure there is no connection between their actions and the effects on workers.
Remember, 80 percent of Americans get their money from wages, not stocks, bonds and interest on capital. But if workers can be persuaded that labor is corrupt, "free trade" is more important than people, human rights and the environment and that any hint of regulation is bad, then they will have won. (And you thought it was the terrorists trying to destroy the health of America!)
You know, it would be funny to see a jerk like Ralph get his comeuppance if jerks ever really did their comeuppance. But like the good liberal I am, I have empathy for his situation.
3 Comments:
In Israel, many decent people leave the country after army service. The government employs 45,000 Judges social workers Rabbis and bureaucrats who trample on human rights. Fraud extortion kidnapping and white slavery are everyday occurrences judicial misconduct the norm. The criminal working for himself has a short life span. The honest man soon learns to keep his mouth shut.
And your point is?
I was talking to my son recently about this, trying to fight the despair I felt about the direction the United States is heading at this moment.
I was asking how could someone sell their soul to a monolithic corporation that is undoing every protection we have fought for since the turn of the last century. Where is the humanity of these people? How can we fight corporate zombies?
My son was being blunt and saying the competitive edge between corporations is making people work long hours and even set up cots in their offices. These worker bees no longer see the human faces of the people they overwhelm, but only the glory of overtaking their rival businesses.
The misery that is coming will be horrific. And most people will have no clue where it came from. Dear God.
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