Thursday, May 03, 2007

Joe Bageant: Redneck Liberation Theology

Joe Bageant: Redneck Liberation Theology

: "In truth, there is no left and no right, just a belief system called politics, generated and dominated by the love of power, followed attentively (or not) by those who either suffer its consequences or enjoy its material benefits."

5 comments:

Jack Mercer said...

Mike-O!

How long have we been saying this!!

-Jack

SheaNC said...

Of course there is a left and a right, along with shared behaviors to which both are subject. All three conditions can coexist, and do.

Mike of the North said...

It's the shared behaviors that really define u.s. politics as it exists today. Like Gore Vidal says and I paraphrase, "There is only one party in the u.s., it's the business party."

SheaNC said...

Ah, I see. I was thinking of ideologies, rather than political parties. You're right about the parties. I draw a distinction between peoples' values at the grassroots level and party politics at the organizational level. Like, I am generally pegged as a leftist, but I am just as generally not supported by the democratic party (I'm still a registered independent, for what it's worth).

Mike of the North said...

Most definitely understand the immediate reaction to separate oneself from right wing ideologues. I myself have the same kneejerk reation. Unfortunately the "party" uses our differences to distinguish one candidate from the other in a way that totally hides the agenda that both candidates are mandated to forward by the "party" It's an age old game of divide and conquer. I fear that unless we learn to identify and accentuate the mutual needs and desires of the common folk we are doomed to forever having our strings pulled by the puppet masters of corporate capitalism.