The Divided States of America

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About

This page is currently the entry-point for work on a possible book whose working title is The Divided States of America: How Big Business Broke Up The Nation And Why Americans Helped Them Do It. So far, contributors include Wendy Cockcroft and Woozle. >

Topics to Cover

  • the way that automation dried up the flow of profits from owners to workers -- riffing briefly on jobsolescence but not going into a lot of detail -- just by way of explaining what changed, why this happened now instead of earlier.
  • the rise of centralized news media (and media consolidation), think-tanks that help special interests come up with successful memes to promote their agenda
  • 9/11 as both an agent of change (helping to foster the "with us or against us" mentality as well as general fear and a sense of being "at war")
  • The designation of Liberals as traitors, and the demonization of Socialism (the New Red Scare)
    • Wendy notes: I'm not kidding, we were visited by this Black American from Virginia who visibly jumped when I said the UK was "socialist lite."
  • The sharp lurch to the right and polarization.
  • The rise of the Libertarians.
  • The Tea Party and authoritarian conservatism.
  • Far right religion and its impact on policy.
  • Paternalistic interventionism and the "Special Relationship" with the UK (imagine Uncle Sam sitting a chariot pulled by the Lion and the Unicorn)
  • The legacy fossil fuel industry and their tightening grip.

Add stuff from this: http://falkvinge.net/2012/10/06/the-us-invaded-iraq-because-it-wouldnt-have-survived-otherwise

Themes

red/blue split, the science/ignorance split, the logic/faith split, the plutocracy/labor split

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