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To: ballsschweaty who wrote (68638)	9/5/2007 7:31:48 PM
From: pogohere	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

I suggest the class adjourn for a 4 part BBC series: "The Century of the Self": Adam Curtis' acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty. To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests? The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud. Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man's ultimate goal. More on the series: Episode One: Happiness Machines Episode Two: The Engineering of Consent Episode Three: There is a Policeman Inside All Our Head: He Must Be Destroyed Episode Four: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering bbc.co.uk Part 1: video.google.com

To: ballsschweaty who wrote (68638)	9/6/2007 12:50:22 AM
From: benwood	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

No, there generally was no gunpoint. Yet at the same time, I think you are completely ignorant of the advantages created with a massive power imbalance. Unions spring up at some point (or just violence, revolution) when the masses cannot take further declines in their standard of living. Just take a look at the income trends of the past 25, 30 years. Gargantuan gains for the wealthiest 1/2 of 1%. Almost ditto the top 4%. Less so the top 10%. Woe be to those in the bottom 60%, who've either treaded water or sunk. Your comment, "Those who are bankrupt and unemployed in the future are the victims of their own lack of financial prudence" shows particular contempt for the common man. What are you, 24 years old? Choice to be in a profession not in demand? Do you seriously think they all started out that way? Did they export their own jobs? Did they come up with a brilliant innovation that ended their profession? Did they inflate the economic base for fifty years so that, while there profession continued to be in demand, they weren't because somebody in Vietnam would do it for 1/25th the pay? How many simply could not afford the new profession, or did not because of some overriding consideration, e.g. an elderly parent? Woe be to those 50% of bankrupt families who weren't prudent enough to envision their upcoming medical emergency. Like my brother's neighbor who was helping his friend install a Dish on the roof, fell off, and became a quadraplegic. Lost his job, home, and went bankrupt. I love to joke about sheeple, but in reality, if you sat in the room with the 250k annual commission mortgage broker spinning a yarn as big as the Iraq War leadup to get some underpaid saps to sign the dotted line, easily deflecting any doubts that couple may have had, perhaps egging them on with Bushmeat's diatribe about ownership society, Greenboink's fawning comments about terrific new innovations in risk management making everything possible for everybody, then maybe you'd see that not all the subprime or high debt mess is caused by money grubbing rabble but also by people who have very little, far less than you and me, who are told they don't have to go through life like that. People who turn to each other and believe they can have a better life for their kids. And if they are one of they 90% of the public that has no real concept of how much debt they can take on, can I really fault them for believing the friggin' loan officer? My only hope is that the exploiters, enablers, hucksters, fraudsters, corporate shills, representatives who are liars and cheats, those who view the American people as cows to milk (or sheep) get what they've earned, as that group has earned time and time again in history. Not nearly often enough, either. For all those who've simply wasted their opportunity to save and instead binged like a drunken sailor on a 6-hour furlough after six years at sea, they deserve the wipeout they've created for themselves.