09 October 2014

Robert Johnson: US System Is Broken and Heading Toward Social Conflict


"We are on an unsustainable financial trajectory, the financial system has been unmasked as unstable and unfair, and that contributes to inequality, part of which comes from the operations of the financial sector, and is a formidable, formidable cause of social instability in the medium term."

Robert Johnson

The English-speaking people are marvelously unaware and uninformed of what is happening in their own countries. 

Peaceful demonstrations and grievances such as Occupy Wall Street are systematically stifled and crushed.  Non-sanctioned opinions are marginalized and ridiculed.

A vocal minority is energized by stimulating their fears, hatreds, and paranoia.   The majority are 'diverted' and confused.   The professional class is acquiescent to the status quo.  The intellectuals hide in their studies.

The plutocracy's standing order of the day is 'keep a lid on it.'   Until when?  The increasing use of force? And then what?

There will be change in finding the right issue, the fulcrum of change that will enable diverse groups with different perspectives to come together and energize themselves in a common cause.   Favorite causes and individual egos will continue to be an impediment to this.  The Occupy movement lost focus because it chose to protest in favor of everything and became enamored of process over substance.

I thought Johnson's idea of eliminating private schools was in the wrong direction.  Consolidating the schools and eliminating diversity while giving them to an unreformed and corrupt political regime does not seem to be in the first priority for change.  Social engineering tends to be longer term, divisive, and debilitating.  And I don't think eliminating choice is the key to achieving progress.  It sounds somewhat statist.

The focus of effective reform needs to be struck at the root, which is the financial sector and the mechanism of financial looting, and the money corrupted political process which is how injustice is propagated.

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

Related: The Problem In One Picture