Keeping the public out
posted Nov. 22 - 12:31 pm by Keely
I no longer feel embarrassed for my lack of understanding in how our economic system works. I feel angry.
One theme I discovered in this conference is how the system itself is designed to keep the public out. Jim Stanford touched on this with regards to the language of economics (see my first blog post). In his talk, Joel Magnuson discussed how the concentration of power has served to keep the public outside. The system favours the oligarchy of corporations and government officials that run the financial sector. With the crisis, a movement towards even more centralization of corporate power was facilitated. In the US, the government and Wall St. have effectively formed a merger, all the while holding the real backbone of the economy (the real people, the workers) hostage for bailout money. Derrick Jensen, in his entertaining way, described the government as a government of occupation. And he lamented that the system has grown to serve itself and not the people. In the same discussion, Marjorie Cohen described the crisis as a crisis of power and who is in control.
So in the end, I realize that there are many mechanisms at work to keep me unaware of the system. From the language it uses to the structure it takes, the system is not working for me.
So why didn’t this crisis reform our system? Why are we still stuck in it? I have a feeling it involves the fact that those oppressed by it, the workers, are the very ones kept in the dark.
