RESPONSE:
Conservatives always seem to go coo-coo for cocoa puffs when someone disagrees with them on something.
Either the person is said to be “brain washed”, or they are personally working to “destroy” the country with their “Liberal” views.
It never occurs to them that they could either:
- a) BE WRONG
- b) Simply DISAGREE
- c) The have to UPGRADE their software
Using the politics of fear (emotion) and lies (manipulation), which is the bread and butter of the Republican party, is the very DEFINITION of brain-washing.
The Republicans are also fundamentally opposed to anyone else having the right to govern. That is why they always make everything the Democrats do sound like it is the end of the world.
As Stephen Colbert says, “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
FOLLOW-UP:
FDR ran the original version 1.0 upgrade (infrastructure, manufacturing, unionization, social security, etc.), which built the middle-class in this country.
President Reagan came in with version 2.0 (free-market monopoly capitalism), which this country has been running on over the last 30 years, and has proven to be a gigantic failure.
The software caused crashes, tore apart the middle-class, killed manufacturing, gave corporations more rights than people, and made the top 1% exceptionally wealthy.
Progressive Democrats are trying to take the best from both versions and upgrade to version 3.0, but are constantly blocked by the religion of 2.0 thinking.
Note: When Conservatives use the word “Liberal” they often follow it with the word “Feminist.” Interesting…
UNCOVERS:
Modern Republicans have a need to always be in power, they cannot handle issue complexity, altruism, nor the loss of control.
The ability to reason, think independently, or change one’s beliefs based on facts, is exactly the opposite of cult-like mind control.
SIDE POINTS:
Brainwashing (mind control):
Refers to a process in which a group or individual “systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated”. The term has been applied to any tactic, psychological or otherwise, which can be seen as subverting an individual’s sense of control over their own thinking, behavior, emotions or decision making.
Theories of brainwashing and of mind control were originally developed to explain how totalitarian regimes appeared to succeed in systematically indoctrinating prisoners of war through propaganda and torture techniques.
The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
June 28th, 2010Career analyst Daniel Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward. TED:
Here is the RSA version of the speech:
UNCOVERS:
FDR said, “Necessitous men are not free men.” Once a person is out of poverty, and makes a decent wage, the motivation for success and progress is not huge sums of money. The excesses of the last 30 years of failed Conservative Economics is based upon the “money = results” model of CEO pay, and Wall Street bonuses.
Since the great depression, the middle class grew due to strong unions, strong government oversight, and strong caps on what society looked at as unnecessary (and harmful) wealth. Once this wall was shattered by Friedmanomics, and Reagan in particular, the United States now has the most wealth disparity of any nation on the planet.
Our definition of success has been perverted.
Children are looking to become millionaires instead of curing sicknesses. The smartest among us are applying to finance jobs, rather than physics, chemistry, or engineering. Get-rich-quick schemes, and immediate gratification rates of returns are the assumption of success, not long-term, slow-growth strategies which bring stability and security.
Greed, for the lack of a better word, is NOT good. It is a cancerous byproduct when altruism is removed from Capitalism.
No comments »
Posted in Commentary, Offense
Tags: altruism capitalism ceo pay greed middle-class Motivation TED wealth disparity