Fantastic post, Lisa. Lots of notable quotables here. I too am enthusiastically in support of the striking writers.
That's an interesting point re market fundamentalists supporting a system that ends up destroying family values. That's so true.
I think we need something more like 'enlightened capitalism' - capitalism with a heart. And capitalism that charges the TRUE cost. For example, in all mergers, funds must be set aside to take care of any laid off workers for a year. That should just be part of the cost of any merger. All oil production facilities should have to pay into a fund used to clean the carbon from our environment, one way or another. If capitalism included these other, hidden costs, the system would balance itself more honestly, and to everyone's benefit.
You're also so right that we live in an oligarchy. I call it a covert dictatorship, myself, but in any case, it's not quite the Democracy we all wish it could be. And that's really our fault, for not getting involved. People think they get democracy for free, being in America. But our freedoms are being stripped from us daily, and we'll soon start to lose ones precious to us if we don't make it part of our daily routine to expose and resist these motions, at whatever level we can.
Lastly, I had heard about Clash of the Choirs and thought I'd never have imagined such a guaranteed snoozefest would get on the air. (And this from an avid choir participant and a lover of music!) But "Farmer Takes a Wife"????? Oh my gosh, I think I just entered an alternate universe...!
Great blog. It must be difficult to have to cross the picket line. Some conservative acquaintances of mine made it a point to shop at stores where they had to cross the lines during the grocery strike.
I was glad to see that Steve Carrel refused to cross--even though I will really miss "The Office".
Lisa, you write beautifully. Your description of our upside down, degenerating value system is blatantly evident in so many facets of our society, today. Thanks for stating clearly, what many of us strongly believe and try to stand for.
I'm just glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read this:
Needless to say, it's tough to take management's pleas of poverty seriously when they pay a guy more than the annual total of all residuals paid to the WGA — for fucking up.The spit-take would have been the order of the day.
Lisa, one of your best posts ever (And that's saying a lot!)
Real History Lisa, I couldn't agree with you too more. We defeated the evil of Communism (we did, didn't we?), now we need to defeat the evil of capitalism - and might as well take down fundamentalism too while we're at it...
-D
Thanks, all...
John Edwards quotes the statistic that the wealthiest 300,000 people in the US control more wealth than the bottom 150 million.
This is just staggering.
I just wonder what, if anything, can be done about it?
Word. You hit it all.
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