Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
> The fraud mentioned was the ideological propaganda that wealth and
> prosperity were available to all, provided financial capital was
> allowed to play previously forbidden games.
No. Propaganda isn't fraud, it's propaganda. It's a moral judgment to equate the two, and moral judgments fuck up political organizing. And also it's best to assume that those spreading the propaganda believe in it themselves.
Also, I think propaganda and ideology should be kept separate. We need more complete and complex ideological analysis, but roughly it consists of moralism, individualism, and d"realism" (the way the world is is the way the world will be). Those are all just common sense, obvious to anyone who hasn't somehow been jolted into reconsidering his/her basic assumptions. And I insist that moralism is a vital part of capitalist ideology, which is why I get so irritated when left political judgments are expressed in moralizing terms. It contributes to the enemy's ideological grip on us.
Propaganda takes off from ideology, and focuses on more specific elements -- such as the rightness of merit pay, for example. That's propaganda, now being spread by Obama, but it works because ity appeals to that common-sense ideology of individualism, moralism, and "realism."
Carrol