tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post1126607496874783771..comments2024-03-28T16:08:29.578-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: What Do Those One Percenters Want, Anyway?Karen Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-49432519161816207862013-05-01T08:10:17.207-04:002013-05-01T08:10:17.207-04:00Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages...<br /><i>Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence.</i><br /><br /> John Kenneth Galbraith <br /><br />What do the one percenters want? Well, for one thing they want to be recognized for the experts they are: on trade policy, on labor economics, on education policy on health care policy, on tax policy, and because they truly are our renaissance men and women, as art connoisseurs.<br />That's all. That and everything else. Katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-19217311664376767302013-04-30T23:20:54.745-04:002013-04-30T23:20:54.745-04:00
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milba...<br />http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-at-obamas-press-conference-a-presidential-bystander/2013/04/30/42d640be-b1cf-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html?wprss=rss_dana-milbank <br /><br />Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-59737563625262308002013-04-30T18:00:05.948-04:002013-04-30T18:00:05.948-04:00The indifference of those one percenters…
“Where ...The indifference of those one percenters…<br /><br />“Where do people earn the Per Capita Income? More than one poor starving soul would like to know. In our countries, numbers live better than people. How many people prosper in times of prosperity? How many people find their lives developed by development?”- Eduardo Galeano, “Those Little Numbers and People”<br /><br />Eduardo Galeano’s “nobodies” are the victims of structural violence. Bullets and truncheons are not needed. Defenders of economic and social rights are silenced by “neutral” technocrats. Galeano’s acid commentary, “Professional Life/3,” links the “terrorism of money” to these “neutral” technocrats: <br /><br />“The big bankers of the world, who practice the terrorism of money, are more powerful than kings and field marshals, even more than the Pope of Rome himself. They never dirty their hands. They kill no one: they limit themselves to applauding the show. <br /><br />“Their officials, international technocrats, rule our countries: they are neither presidents nor ministers, they have not been elected, but they decide the level of salaries and public expenditure, investments and divestments, prices, taxes, interest rates, subsidies, when the sun rises and how frequently it rains.<br /><br />“However, they don’t concern themselves with the prisons or torture chambers or concentration camps or extermination centers, although these house the inevitable consequences of their acts. <br /><br />“The technocrats claim the privilege of irresponsibility: ‘We’re neutral,’ they say.”<br /><br />Protect the rights of the poor? <br /><br />“Our system is one of detachment: to keep silenced people from asking questions, to keep the judged from judging, to keep solitary people from joining together, and the soul from putting together its pieces.”- Eduardo Galeano, “Divorces”<br /><br />It is supposed to be the privilege of humans to live under the laws of mercy and justice. It is roaches and rats that live under the law of supply and demand.<br /><br />“Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes, but at least they have not stood aside, like an established society, and been indifferent. I would rather have blood on my hands than water like Pilate.” - Graham Greene, The Comedians<br /><br />“The Church is in the world, it is part of the suffering in the world, and though Christ condemned the disciple who struck off the ear of the high priest's servant, our hearts go out in sympathy to all who are moved to violence by the suffering of others. The Church condemns violence, but it condemns indifference more harshly. Violence can be the expression of love, indifference never. One is an imperfection of charity, the other the perfection of egoism.” - Graham Greene, The ComediansDenis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-20082608057349932902013-04-30T15:13:33.076-04:002013-04-30T15:13:33.076-04:00Correction: Galeano is not Ecuadorian, but Uruguay...Correction: Galeano is not Ecuadorian, but Uruguayan.Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-44289881038798113942013-04-30T14:30:41.669-04:002013-04-30T14:30:41.669-04:00What do the rich want? Lots of Nobodies.
The ric...What do the rich want? Lots of Nobodies.<br /><br />The rich have enough good 'cents' not to be mistaken for nobodies. If you want to be somebody, get some money. That's the only way just about everywhere, and especially so in the USA. Till then the wishes of nobodies don't count.<br /><br />Nobodies are around us in sufficient numbers to force a change; but it's in the nature of nobodies to settle for doing everything for somebodies and nothing for themselves.<br /><br />Eduardo Galeano, an Ecuadorian who contributes regularly to "The Progressive," is being celebrated today over at TomDispatch. He's the Latin Howard Zinn praising and prodding the nobodies. Here's Galeano's famous riff on the nobodies.<br /><br />"Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that, one magical day, good luck will suddenly rain down on them - will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn’t rain down, yesterday, today, tomorrow or ever. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day on their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms. The nobodies: nobody’s children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no-ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way. Who are not, but could be. Who don’t speak languages, but dialects. Who don’t have religions, but superstitions. Who don’t create art, but handicrafts. Who don’t have culture, but folklore. Who are not human beings, but human resources. Who do not have faces, but arms. Who do not have names, but numbers. Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the crime reports of the local paper. The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them."<br /><br />— Eduardo Galeano, "The Nobodies"Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.com