[lbo-talk] Re: gorgeous moscow subway stations

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Carl:
> I hate to be crude, simplistic and "unrealistic," but I don't see any
> solution to this problem other than socialism of some type.  Without
strict
> controls on disparities of income and wealth, there can be no genuine
social
> progress.
> 
> I don't think the problem for most Americans is aesthetics at all but a
> deepening sense of *material* insecurity -- the problem of having an ever
> dwindling number of constants in your life (steady earnings, fringe
> benefits, SS, etc.) to help in planning for housing, healthcare and

I think it is not just uncertainty per se, but uncertainty vis a vis
expectations.  Few peoples in the world (outside Western Europe) enjoy the
same level material stability that all but the handful of homeless people in
this country do.  Yet they do not feel threatened and trapped the way many
people in this country do.

I think what explains is the schizophrenic nature of the US society.  On the
one hand, it creates an illusion and expectation of security by lavish
outpour of security fetishes - from countless insurance schemes, to crime
prevention measures, to the regulation of every aspect of the everyday life
and to elaborate hedging schemes against all kinds of risk.  On the other
hand, this society is bombarded with a constant barrage of fear mongering
and threats to sell something: from political candidates, to automobiles,
houses, security gizmos, insurance products, cultural products, to remedies,
snake oil and what not.

So here you have it people who are told that they live in a society that has
the greatest level of security ever created and at the same time every
aspect of their everyday life is threatened by a message form the army of
advertisers, commodity peddlers, newscasters, political campaigners, moral
entrepreneurs.  Hence the pervasive sense of insecurity amidst one of the
most safe and prosperous environments on Earth.

Wojtek