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Study Concludes USA is an Oligarchy

posted by LaminatorX on Thursday April 17 2014, @10:26AM   
from the Also:-Sky-is-Blue dept.

Hairyfeet writes:

A study by Princeton and Northwestern universities shows that a small group of elite have control over the general population and the government only supports the rich and powerful while the masses have no say whatsoever. The 42 page report concludes "we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America's claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened."

• Re:So Now What? (Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday April 17 2014, @01:06PM

  by c0lo (156) on Thursday April 17 2014, @01:06PM (#32621) Journal

  Once you recognise the risks of revolution as being too great, the only other option is to fix problems one by one while trying to keep the greater structure intact.
  ...
  It doesn't have the emotional appeal of grabbing a weapon and shooting somebody you don't like, but it's the only method of reform that leads to good results.

  I disagree with the last assertion, not with the "no violence" part of it (which I agree with) but with the uniqueness of proposed approach.

  Preliminary: the stages of evolution - survive the medium, adapt to the medium, change the medium. When taught, the last step is omitted most of the times.

  Strategy:

  1. admit that you are no longer controlling the game (unless you are part of the oligarchy), so the medium is no longer under your control;
  2. look at what is your strength and discover it: the numbers of you
  3. look at the game the oligarchy proposes to you: competition.
     The illusion: everyone competes equally.
     Actual state of fact: no longer a competition between the many of you, but one between you and the oligarchy - and they already won it and control you
  4. refuse as much as possible to play their game and choose others - there are too many of you-s for the small number of oligarchs to control every aspect of your life (short of killing you).
     There [wikipedia.org] are [wikipedia.org] many [wikipedia.org] games [wikipedia.org] that can be played [wikipedia.org]

  Finally, note that it is not necessary for the current system to be totally destroyed to get back enough control over your own destiny (e.g. just look at open-source: closed source continue to exists, yet the OSS developers are not powerless. And neither Salman Khan [wikipedia.org] is powerless, even if others charge an-arm-and-a-leg [wikipedia.org] for what they call education [wikipedia.org] and its actually just conditioning [wikipedia.org])

  --
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

  Parent

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