[lbo-talk] What bugs me about _One Market Under God_, a book I'm really enjoying

[Michael Dawson]

Frank is smart and funny, but I can barely read him.  He's cynical before
anything else.  Our problem lies mostly in our power structures, not in our
popular consciousness, yet Frank's stuff tends to leave the reverse
impression.  If people had options, they wouldn't quite fit Frank's
perceptions.  "Baffling" is not what we need.  We need direct explanations
of our dominant institutions and creative suggestions for replacing or
bettering them.

When it comes to explaining political apathy and confusion, I prefer Herman
and Chomsky and Csikszentmihalyi on the media, plus J.K. Galbraith on the
culture of contentment.  Real commoners are only very mildly affected by
market populism, despite its prevalence in the intellectual media.
Commercial TV and the DP are the much bigger culprits.

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of John Adams
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 5:01 AM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: [lbo-talk] What bugs me about _One Market Under God_,a book I'm
really enjoying

I'm about halfway through it--the book isn't a slow slog, but lately my 
life is--and I've put my finger on what bugs me about it and about some 
other left-wing writing.

I really do like the book--it's just that it's lacking two things: It 
doesn't delineate a larger political strategy and it doesn't provide 
guidance for living life under the current system. Since it doesn't 
have either of those two items, it can't then connect the two.