Robert Johnson: Davos Man Fears Social Instability Due to Inequality and Injustice

"No country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order."

September 30, 1934

"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization."

January 9, 1940

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented...

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest."

Elie Wiesel

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe."

Frederick Douglass, Speech on the twenty-fourth anniversary of Emancipation,, April 1886

 

"Albert Camus, a great humanist and existentialist voice, pointed out that to commit to a just cause with no hope of success is absurd. But then, he also noted that not committing to a just cause is equally absurd. But only one choice offers the possibility for dignity. And dignity matters. Dignity matters."

David Simon

 

Related: 

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

Robert Johnson:  Ugly Money Politics

Robert Johnson:  The Convergence of Finance and Politics

 

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

Robert Johnson with Paul Jay: Ugly Money Politics

"The danger is that as dysfunction increases and the people subject to that dysfunction are a very, very large proportion of the population, you start to either experience social disruption or you experience what you might call authoritarian crackdown on that social disruption.

And at one level or another, it would be nice to see a political reform, what you might call a civilized tacking in a new direction, rather than a physical confrontation. But sometimes you have to have a crisis to make change. And it's not clear that the elite stewardship, whether it be corporate or individual, is sufficiently constructive right now and able to bring this, how would I say, onto a new, more healthy path without some crisis as a precipitating factor. It might be environmental, it might be social.

Often, as Bismarck used to say, when you can't solve your own problems, you go to war. I wouldn't rule that out, given the strength and the vitality of the military-industrial complex in this country. But the last two or three wars we've been involved in haven't really shown the American people much that they, how would you say, took solace from. I think warfare's changed quite a lot.

And we're at a juncture now where I think what we really need is a healthy revitalization of politics, first and foremost getting money out of politics."

The entire series is on The Real News Network.

Robert Johnson: How We Broke the Bank of England

This is a continuation of the Robert Johnson interview which had been posted here.

As you know, Robert Johnson is one of my favorite economic voices. He brings both theory and practical knowledge to bear on our current problems.

And he is a mature and intelligent trader who is able to speak with depth on broader social issues, which is far too often a rarity.

Great money does not ordinarily confer great wisdom and virtue on its possessors, alas, and far too often it does the contrary. This is a principle of human nature which has been recognized from at least the time that our Lord walked the earth, if not much further before that. 'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle...'


The Real News Network

Robert Johnson with Paul Jay: The Convergence of Finance and Politics

As you may know, Robert Johnson is one of my favorite speakers on economic matters. He does not get sufficient exposure, and certainly not on the mainstream media.

Here is an interesting perspective on recent financial history of the US, leading up to the development of our current system of finance and governance. It is an interview on The Real News with Paul Jay. You may find the interviews there with transcripts.

Reality will indeed assert itself at some point. The longer the wait, the great the force required to delay it, and the more dramatic the eventual reversion to the mean, whatever that might ultimately prove to be. It does vary, depending on the selected dataset and how one chooses to measure it.

Some would contend that the natural state of mankind is the dominance of the few and the enslavement of the many. Others would see it as an ever rising and falling impulse to freedom and virtue. Perhaps as Heraclitus contended, the only constant is change.

I will present the next segment on 'breaking the Bank of England' in the next segment as it becomes available.




Here are parts I and II of the same interview which consist largely of Johnson's personal background and development.