Saturday, June 14, 2008

Interview with AmericanGoy

The hedailyburkeman1.blogspot.com blog has run an interview with yours truly.

There are a few questions, and the blog runs them every few days.

The interview explains how my internet persona came to be, what motivates me, and what are my goals, as well as my views on a variety of topics.

We are now on question 3, and there is one more question and answer to be posted on the DailyBurkeman to be posted.

Bonus Material:
Here is Question 1 and the answer to whet your appetite.

Savrola:

"I want to primarily talk about Zionism and the
untoward Israeli influence on our Government.
But let’s briefly discuss political affiliation.
You’ve aligned yourself in the center of the political
spectrum. However, there are some issues like the
decline of our civil liberties regarding which one can
hardly maintain a middle-of-the road perspective.
On the other hand, you’re not a fan of free market
economics or our corporatist culture.
Would you call yourself an Economic Nationalist, a
Left-Conservative...or what?"



American Goy:

Man, if you expected a short answer, obviously you haven't read my blog much :-)

This is a good question, and so dear to all Americans who were weened off the so called "political" discussion shows on CNN, NBC, ABC, et al.

The whole classifying of a person with a glib one word description is bogus. If we are that simplistic, then Pat Buchanan could be classified as a liberal (because of his dislike of this president) and Miss Pelosi a staunch conservative (due to her support of this president's policies).

It is absurd to label a person with a one or two word label.

A normal person has multiple issues that he or she feels strongly about, and surprisingly, there are very few pure liberal or pure conservative types. A person cannot be simply classified as a "lib" or a "con", except on an issue by issue basis.

I think you are on the right track, and after reading my blog, you have a certain confusion as to how to label me - and that is correct, and this applies to every person in America.

Step out of the media's game of dumbing down politics - and welcome to the real world.

So lets take it issue by issue with me, as it should be done with every person.

Civil Liberties - I am a big fan of freedom, as much personal freedom as possible and safe for a country's citizens. I am for all illegal drug legalization - if you want to kill yourself with drugs, go right ahead! I am for citizens being able to buy guns and shoot them for sport when hunting, on a firing range or... to shoot to kill a criminal who just entered your house.

What am I? Lib, Con, Centrist?
Hard to pinpoint?
Good!

Free market economics - The so called "free" market is a myth. Many of us were taught in college that the free market is best, and were taught this nonsense conclusion from the Chicago School of Economics.

What really happens in the "real world" is this:
A corporation becomes more successful than others in its field, and according to the merciless laws of the "free" market tries to become as much of a monopoly and to squash its competition if at all possible.

The bigger a company gets, the more power it gets, the more money it can use to lobby Congress for laws to help itself and hamper its competitors. A company gets so big that it can lower prices in a regional market, lose money in that market, wait for its competitors to die, to wither on a vine, and then once its smaller competitors go out of business. And then the big company raises prices to their real level, now that its competition is no more.

Personally, I am for the free market, a "laissez fair" approach, but with government laws and intervention to prevent companies reaching such status and size that competition with them is impossible.

What we have in America now is very, very good, with the government enforcing anti monopoly laws, with the government enforcing food, water, car, electrical appliances safety standards - I shudder to think how many deaths would result if we had a Ron Paul type real free market, where everything goes - we would have a few big corporations, owning and producing everything, and making as shoddy a product as they could get away with (the natural tendency of an "anything goes" capitalism is ultimately a few companies owning everything and producing everything, monopolies in their niche markets, despite the nonsense being taught in American universities).

There is only one caveat, one but to the situation we have now in USA - the power of the various lobbies make it a non level playing field, and abuse is rampant. Also, for political gains, a government WILL ignore its anti monopoly laws... The clearest example I can think of is the situation in American radio, where all the American radio market is owned by... one corporation, Clear Channel Communications.

CCC owns virtually all radio in America, both AM and FM. Say you are into dance music, like I am. The result is that when driving your car in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Buffalo, Des Moines - you will turn on your dance music radio, and hear the exact same 10 songs, over and over and over and over...

The same with any genre of music - if you are into alternative rock, chances are your local indie artists are not played at the CCC radio station - and whether in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Buffalo, Des Moines - you will listen to the same 10 alternative rock songs whose albums are now promoted and "hot", over and over and over and over...

Same with country, and any other genre of music.

It is much worse in AM talk radio, as no matter what market you are in, on talk radio virtually ALL stations carry Rush Limbaugh... and Mark Levin. It is sad that, say, in New York City or Chicago, blue democrat cities if there ever was one, on AM radio we have no liberal voices, but Rush and the ever hateful Mark Levin is ever present.

As a consultant, I have traveled for my job all over this country, and if you don't believe me, listen in to the radio for yourself if you happen to travel this great country of ours.

It suited, and still does suit, interests in this country's government that this situation continues, otherwise CCC would be broken up like the AT&T phone company, and anti monopoly laws applied.

So, to sum up re: free market, I am for free market, with sane government intervention, and with corporations having no lobbying power and no lobbyists, who are ever ready to bribe our politicians with trips to Hawaii, Europe, and many times simply giving a politician money under the table. Or, legally, making a promise to a politician that if he/she does a good job for the lobby, many speaking engagements will follow for him/her - at $50,000 to $100,000 per speech.

This last is legal under our system... and destroying our democracy.


So, to sum up my verbosity, the political discourse in America is deliberately dumbed down by the media, because any nuanced discussion of issues facing this country is anathema to the soundbite crew just before a commercial must be run.

We have people who don't think about issues, who don't do research, but blindly vote for a politician because he or she is a "conservative" or a "liberal".

We have on TV and radio so called "political" commentators who shout down guests on their shows who disagree with them, and instead of a discussion we have a shouting match, with arguments and "logic" level you can see in any junior high school arguments.

And this shit is what passes for "news" shows in this country.

So, what am I? Liberal, conservative, centrist, communist, fascist, nazi, keynesian, what, who, huh?

advanced web statistics

1 comment:

Michael W. said...

"Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present: Michael B. Oren"

read it or be squared