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Progressive News & Views (since 1982)
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More on Freedom //and Economic Enslavement
Freedom is often defined by its limits. Slaveholders defined owning slaves
is what made them free -- free not to work. Freedom is relational. In
America it relied for most of our history on slavery. Slavery limited
freedom by race. On the eve of the Civil War, the Dread Scott case said no
Black person could be a citizen of the United States.
Thomas Jefferson called our freedom, an "empire of liberty," one resting
on large measure on chattel slavery. The struggle of abolitionists, of
slaves themselves reinvigorated the notion of freedom as a universal
right.
Americans think of themselves as unique when it comes to freedom. Those
ideas were taught in our schools. It is only in the last 30-40 years, if
that long, that there has been a revisionist history at all - not exactly
taught, not widespread in its acceptance, but written about. All of you
should be familiar with Zinn's People's History - and there are others
too. They challenge the prevailing views but the predominant notion is not
the ideas of Zinn or those of us on the left but the great preponderance
of Americans who take the view that has been taught and continues to be
taught in schools across this country. Most of the text books are not left
nor right but the larger middle which includes ideas of patriotism and
capitalist supremacy, perhaps not as much as in the 50s - and 60s but
never-the-less, it continues to be the preponderant view )...
Unfortunately for most of us the real belief in this country is social
Darwinism (more appropriately called Spencerism). Those of us who are
progressives are struggling with these ideas trying to get a more humane
position accepted as the populist view - but we have not been so
successful except in small steps, like the New Deal which helped advance
the notice of freedom {greater economic security for the average man}.
Roosevelt had the advantage of the radio to sell the New Deal. We have the
Internet and not much more. The unions are practically dead. Corporations
are winning the battle for resource and labor hegemony. The freedom from
want is doing far worse than we would like.
By our needs we are being dragged down into economic slavery. There is no
job security in the market because the market is "free" to go where labor
is cheap. There is no protectionism of American jobs and labor because
with NAFTA and CAFE standards there are no tarifs and no protection from
economic exploitation by multinational corporations.
(It has nothing to do with Christianity Charles)
Hank
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