New Post has been published on Whither Eudaimonia?
New Post has been published on http://whithereudaimonia.com/2015/06/05/lets-get-angry/
Let's Get Angry
If you are a nonaggressive adult on trial in America you can not legally be constrained by handcuffs or any other shackling device. Federal and state laws maintain that you have a right to dignity in such matters, and that handcuffs interfere with due process and the presumption of innocence. But if you are a teenage kid appearing before a judge, you may very well do so manacled. Most states permit it. Children as young as 10 and 11 are dragged before the bench in chains. Cops start the process on arrest, it may continue in jail, and there are few regulations (in most cases none at all) forbidding the youngsters from being bound by belly tethers at hearings. This has been going on in America since its democratic start. And it’s been occurring with little note. Where is the outrage? We live in a time when many people in many nations are taking to the streets to protest society’s uglifications. Social media can be tapped overnight to gather tens of thousands to demonstrate against everything from state oppression (Hong Kong) to restrictive austerity (fill in the blank). But there are few rallies anymore in the U.S. There was an egalitarian “occupation” of Wall Street a couple of years ago, and there are now demonstrations targeting brutal police habits, but, otherwise, as America approaches its 239th birthday, revolution is a faded memory. Where is the outrage, for example, that wages for almost all of the nation’s working people are dismally flat? The economy that tanked during the 2008 financial crisis has recovered, employment is up, production is up, corporate profits are up, and the stock marked flirts with record levels – but wages have remained essentially the same for decades. The rich are getting richer to be sure (400 filthy-flush Americans now own more money than half of the rest of the population combined), yet most others are having trouble staying where they are. The median weekly wage at the end of 2014 was $796, two dollars more than it was the year before ($794). Median household income is 8 percent lower than it was in 2008, and the same as it was in 1993. Where is the outrage also that while millions are either standing still or slipping back in the economic struggle, politicians have more money than ever before? There are about 260 millionaires in Congress, for example, the most ever; the median net worth of the 535 lawmakers is just about a million, another record; and the minimum net worth of the 50 most wealthy members is $2 billion, close to the entire budgets of states such as Vermont ($3.6 billion) and South Dakota ($4.3 billion). Many rich pols use their money to keep getting elected, and the average voter goes slavishly along with it; millionaires rarely lose reelection; incumbents have won eight of every ten congressional elections since 1964, and in 2012 they took 90 percent. Where too is the outrage that even when politicians do not make their loot while in office, they often shamelessly gather it in as a benefit of leaving office? In this, Bill and Hillary Clinton are the all-time hacks. When the husband entered the White House he was not long off a piddly $35,000 a year stint as governor of Arkansas, and Hillary had earned $92,000 a year as a lawyer. They claim they “almost went broke” in the White House, but, hey, they were able to capitalize on the visit. Since leaving office, the child-abusing Bill has earned as much as $100 million, and Hillary has commanded a rapacious $382,000 for a single speech (the average U.S. family-of-four income is $54.000 a year). Today, this king and queen of greed rule over a silent America. Speaking of rule, where is the outrage that America is facing the humiliating prospect that another Clinton and yet another Bush may well be the next nominated presidential candidates, setting up another dynastic control of the White House? Political dynasties are not new in the county; the Adams family created them soon after 1776; and a recent assessment found that a son born to a U.S. governor is 6,000 times more likely to become a governor himself than a son born to anyone else. Still, the notion reeks. Part of the reason the U.S. broke from England was to do away with hereditary rule. Democratic governance should not – ever – be a family affair. Choosing a wife, son or brother for public office is not the good way forward; it’s a sad retreat. And while we’re at it, here are some other – mostly neglected – concerns. Where is the outrage: That the average bank savings account rate is a useless .06%? That the average cost overrun of a large military acquisition is 50 percent? That Donald Trump, a disgusting buffoon, still gets serious news attention? That aside from beating and killing people, aggressive police thugs are seizing hundreds of millions of dollars from motorists and others who are not charged with crimes? Laws enable police to take cash away from people stopped on suspicion; many victims then have go to court to prove the money is legally theirs. Some cops compete to see who can grab the most loot. And, to continue, where is the outrage: That the Democrats have fallen so low, Bernie Sanders is become big stuff? That student loans have become so foolishly available that university types owe $1.2 trillion, an amount greater that all credit card debt? More than $100 billion is now in default. That two sons of Martin Luther King want to sell his Bible and Nobel Prize medal? That the U.S. is spending near $8 billion a day to bomb desert sand in Iraq and Syria? The total spent so far (one year) is a half-billion dollars, and for what? The enemy, Islamic State, keeps grabbing towns and villages, while the half-hearted allies bicker among themselves. Beyond this, some of those allies are terrorist organizations, little different from the opposition. And, finally, where is the outrage: That the Internet captures so much personal information about users, that shopping sites know shopper’s income status and can predict that certain customers will pay more for products. That one of every two congressional Republicans deny or question climate change. That many U.S. charities spend less than one percent of their funds on actual aid. That the U.S. has refused to join 133 nations in signing a treaty to outlaw landmines? There are 110 million active land mines in the world; someone steps on one every 20 seconds. Well, people, add your own grumps to this list. And get mad – for a change.
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