USA: More Repressive Than North Korea (was Re: RES: a trip to

Michael Perelman michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Wed Apr 26 13:11:52 PDT 2000


Thank you. I am not snipping what you said from my response because it is worth repeating.

Dace wrote:


> Michael Perelman wrote:
>
> >I think that the measure of freedom should be the extent that people have
> >the opportunity to develop their abilities and capacities to the greatest
> >possible extent.
>
> The measure of freedom is *also* the extent to which people have the
> opportunity to collectively shape the political and economic policies of
> their society. Capitalism means sacrificing our capacity for collective
> self-determination in favor of maximizing personal self-determination.
> Freedom becomes a function of wealth. The more money you have, the more
> freedom you can afford. If you have enough money, you can even buy
> influence over the government and the economy. To the extent that the rich
> operate as a cohesive ruling class, they engage in collective
> self-determination. But it's the collective of the oligarchy, not the
> people. We are taught that plutocracy is democracy. To the extent that we
> go along with this, we act as our own jailers. The reason we don't
> experience the overt repression characteristic of communist societies is
> that we are already repressed inside. Giant murals of our great leader are
> not nearly as creepy as the ones imprinted on our own minds.
>
> Ultimately, personal freedom without collective freedom is an illusion. Of
> course, the reverse is also true.
>
> Ted

-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu



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