Obama On Corporate Buyout of Democracy
In Obama’s weekly address given on January 23, he spoke of only one issue – that being his disgust with the Supreme Court ruling I highlighted a few weeks ago. That ruling allows corporations to use their vast financial resources to ensure the last few decades of cronyism and back scratching that favours corporate interests is taken to a whole new level. Politicians who want to do what’s right for people and place, rather than merely pander to the demands of Big Business, will find almost limitless funding aimed at keeping them out of office. Corporations who are increasingly in the limelight for externalising the true environmental and social costs of running business, are now on a more secure footing to facilitate ongoing plundering of remaining resources.
If you’d rather read the transcript, you can do so here.
If something like this had occurred a century ago, there would be riots in the streets and heads would roll. Today we sit dumbfounded and stupified, but apathetic. I can’t see any serious action against this ruling. If you know of something, do tell.
Obama says whatever people want to hear. This speech has a nice sentiment but he is an out and out liar just like every other politician.
Way back when Obama was voted in, I wrote the following post expressing my concerns over the unrealistic expectations I saw from jubilant voters:
https://www.permaculturenews.org/2008/11/06/new-beginnings/
In the end, he’s not too much like us – just a cog in the great machine. We can never find a ‘perfect leader’. Every four years we convince ourselves things might be different. But each president is absorbed into the system, and rarely makes more than just token changes. What do they say? “Same shit, different day”.
Participatory democracy is the way forward, where we’re reliant on the people around us, not one guy in a big white house far away.
I agree entirely. One of the things that excites me most about Permaculture is that it can give us a great help in moving towards a more participatory society.
I do not agree. Obama is smart and knows what he wants, and he’s talking to the public because the public needs to realize the problems he cannot solve all by himself. He may try, but the corporation guided politics system will destroy him. With the help of the citizens, he may actually achieve something. Your criticizing only helps the corrupt capitalist system we all want to fight against. Give him some time and support, it is not easy to make it work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MRykTpw1RQ&feature=related
How does criticising a capitalist puppet perpetuate the capitalist system? I think illusory notions of changing this system by supporting people like Obama just promotes the myth that you can change the system from the inside. History has proven over and over and over and over again that all who try to change corrupt systems from the inside are themselves corrupted by the system. The only advances we get are tiny and are stripped away as soon as we can. I don’t envy Obama, he has the impossible positions of governing a soon to be bankrupt country that can never hope to pay off the incredible debts of the USA