Your thoughts on the Occupy Movement?

[Nicole]

I'm sure you've seen the articles, the videos, and FB pages -

 MSNBC - Occupy Wall Street supporters demonstrate in cities from co...

Occupy Voting Booths 2012.

 

Click to here to join the Wall Street occupiers and demand real dem...

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-21/wall-street-aristocracy-go...

 

Occupy Toronto

 

 Occupy Philly protesters march to Liberty Bell | Deseret News

 

What do you think about it all?

[andrew]

How did OWS get it so wrong?

http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_1_snd-democratic-state.html

[andrew]

Some more commentary on the Greek crisis:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/pers-m10.shtml

And the same site takes aim at Sloterdijk:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/pers-m10.shtml

It really shouldn't come as much surprise that the philosophies of Nietzsche and  Heidegger are being voiced by new proponents like Sloterdijk. I wonder what Christopher Hitchens would have thought of this given his move to the right in latter years. Maybe Chris Hedges and Sloterdijk should have a go at each other. I guess i don't find it all that surprising that both camps are digging their heels in on this one, and i assume that the polarity will only become more pronounced as the coming decades go by. Does Sloterdijk really believe that the planet can sustain 7 billion people jet-setting around the world doing their best Anthony Robbins interpretation? 

[andrew]

Here is the link to the Sloterdijk article:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/slot-o26.shtml

[Balder]

Ah, don't burst my Sloterdijk bubble before I even crack open the $30 book by him I just bought 20 minutes ago!

Well, I'm giving it a try anyway.  Looks like quite an interesting read.

[Edward theurj Berge]

This from Andrew's first article sums it up nicely:

"The Greek debt 'haircut' is part of an international offensive against the working class whose aim is a massive redistribution of income and wealth from the bottom to the top."

And we're supposed to compromise with or try to fix the current system of the 1%? Really?

On a related note, while watching Fox news Sunday this morning even the Democrat on the panel completely ignored the fact that corrupt speculation accounts for 70-80% of the recent spike in oil prices. Just like all the other times since such speculation has been further and further deregulated. And the Dems (at least most of them, not counting Bernie Sanders, for example) go right along with this bullshit. Our system is rotten to the core.

[Edward theurj Berge]

Also see this McClatchy report on oil prices. The apparent good news is that the oil speculation task force has been ordered back into action. However I've learned not to trust Obama's rhetoric and apparent fixes, with large chucks of his election and reelection campaigns being funded by Wall Street, and his Wall Street cronies maintaining the same fiscal policy that created this mess.

[andrew]

Here is Harris and Hedges:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xj3R6GH3AY&feature=player_embedded

I don't think that Hedges is as bad in this as the comments make him out to be.....

I'm not sure what Sloterdijk is criticizing. Is his criticism specific to Germany? Germany and Europe? All nations? He points out an example of elitist corruption in Putin's Russia and yet is he still arguing that the elite can run just and healthy society's where their policies and actions are meritorious and ethical? Is his criticism of  the lazy masses specific to a cultural group within Germany or Europe or it his criticism ideologically systemic? If it's ideologically systemic then what's his solution to making 6 billion slackers productive to his standards? But i do like foamy bubbles!

When it comes to the big financial institutions: regulate, regulate, regulate....When it comes to the work-a-day world of the ordinary citizen: deregulate! 

Unfortunately, the system in place now has had an unrestricted narrative for the last 100 years propagated by master propagandists and it won't be easy to undo. Hope? Not much, really.........

[andrew]

Notwithstanding your correct cynicism of the Dems., i do have to part ways on the oil and gas issue; and here is why: i can't think of another substance that has been subsidized as much as petroleum! And even with that it's still doesn't cost much more than a liter of milk and certainly less than a bottle of scotch! My philosophy is that we won't get a 'clean' currency system until we invent and develop a clean energy source. Because of that, i think we should end most subsidies to the petroleum industry and let the cost reflect the true cost of production, which would force us to put limits on kilo. travel and how long we let a new car stay on the road. Which should be 7 years tops......There has to be stats out there to back up my intuition here? Thomas?

[Edward theurj Berge]

I'm with you on clean energy and eliminating oil subsidies. However the "true" cost of production is certainly not reflected in the current cost, which is inflated due to speculation. See the referenced McClatchy reports for those costs.

[andrew]

I believe that this is who Sloterdijk wants to run the world:

[andrew]

And an opinion on the true cost of oil:

http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/oil-price-fantasy-the-true-cost...

[Balder]

Here's an interview with Sloterdijk about the "Sloterdijk Affair."