Carter on Social Security

Micah Timothy Holmquist micahth at umich.edu
Mon Jan 4 10:20:50 PST 1999



> Sure why not? The deep-seated distrust of govt. is only growing... This
> is a case where people want to believe something that can be shown is
> completely contrary to the facts. The question is, if enough people
> believe and act that way, doesn't it start to become a self-fulfilling
> prophecy?

The real danger seems to be that if people do not expect to get Social Security at all then they will not be upset with any cutbacks in the program. After all, they do not expect to get it anyway.


> Another question is: as politically conscious activists do we want to
> reinforce the antipathy to govt. or somehow bolster the image that "hey,
> it's not as bad as Rush Limbaugh wants you to think. The govt's okay,
> it's just a bunch of disinformation fed to you by people who want to
> control society in the name of a traditional Christian-fascist
> ideology"?

Is it ever o.k. to promote and encourage false conceptions? That seems to be a clear way to lose the potential trust of people.

Micah



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