Despite what some may have you believe, the Boston Tea Party was NOT about defending the desires of large corporations to exploit those smaller then them as the video below will prove.
In honor of those who have taken up the patriots task today I made this video. Enjoy
A good post. Lowly (apprentice) and I have discussed the Tea Party (current) in its present-day form, slightly. Originating with the Libertarians, apparently the Tea Party was 'hijacked', at some point, which has more or less dragged them to their current abysmal lack of ethics. There are still some who carry the torch of the party's original intent, I believe, although locating them is proving problematic, given the cacophonous din from the usurpers.
ReplyDeleteFor a long time, I've held the Tea Party - AND the Libertarians - at arm's length, owing to my perception of their corruption by the corporations, as well as the Libertarians apparent naivete regarding human nature and greed vs. their 'faith' in the 'innate' concept of acting out of enlightened self-interest...however one recent phenomenon has intrigued me: the 'new blood' in the Republican party, consisting of Tea Party members, primarily, has insisted that the old-guard Republicans ALSO leave the PENTAGON military budget on the cost-cutting table, as far as paring back national spending goes.
I'm sure this doesn't sit well with the old-guard republicans, who have been in the hip pocket of the Military / Industrial complex for generations, now, and it will be interesting to see just how incorruptible and pure of intent these newbies are when they're called into the offices of Mitch McConnel and John Boehner. As I told Lowly, I now find myself looking at what I'm seeing in the news about them, blinking, pinching myself and wondering if I'm dreaming or not...and thinking "perhaps I was WRONG about them...?" My 'jury' is still OUT on this matter, but it does give one pause to wonder: could the Tea Party actually prove instrumental in pulling the fangs of the most monstrous creation ever devised (the military / industrial complex)...or will they be corrupted, bought-off, or liquidated, as-needed---? Interesting times...
---TheMercilessEye
@TME You know, I hear about the tea party being hijacked but I have yet to see proof of their original better intent. I would like to. Thanks for commenting. I don't get many.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure. Actually, I got the basis of that information from a 'primal' Libertarian on YouTube, shanedk - I don't recommend him to most viewers, though, since he is rude, abrasive, bullying, and one of the 'nastier customers' on YouTube (which is saying quite a bit, really.) My few interests in tracing the origins of the Tea Party have been mostly short-circuited by my knowledge of the fundamental Libertarian agenda, which is minimal government and minimal regulation of business, allowing the marketplace free rein to pretty much do as it pleases and to be 'self-correcting.' Shane, along with the rest of the Libertarian fundamentalists, is VERY naive when it comes to taking an honest look at how employers once exploited the hell out of the working class. I get the impression that, in a lot of ways, Libertarians are a lot like religious fundamentalists, only in an economic sense. They have this 'starry-eyed' belief in the inherent goodness of humanity. Now, don't get me wrong - I think that people are inherently good, also...but I've seen far too many examples, in the course of history, of what kind of behavior greed can engender in people...and it ain't pretty...
ReplyDeleteHave you had a chance to view "Maquilapolis" like I suggested? It's a fairly recent documentary, but it really brings home exactly how far some companies will go to completely exploit their workers, particularly beyond the reach of U.S. laws. It also underscores just how awful NAFTA and globalization, in general, have been for workers both inside and outside the United States...
---TME
TME –
ReplyDeleteLibertarians of that sort – free market fundamentalists, really – are the mirror image of fundamentalist Marxists like Nuclearnight and the rest. Both have some incredibly simplistic and outdated ideas on the ways that economies work, and are convinced that either completely unrestrained capitalism, or conversely, total state control of the economy will bring a perfect society, and no halfway measure is acceptable. Never mind the fact that economies need markets and non-state economic activity, but that the larger economy nonetheless needs regulation, and that commercial activity needs the same reasonable commonsense rules as any other part of society. Its all or nothing with these people
An interesting reply, iamcuriousblue.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I appear to have found the comment character LIMIT with my reply (notice appearing in a red line under this box: "Your HTML cannot be accepted: Must be at most 4,096 characters." Pfft...imagine...limiting content based on a numerical system algorithm. Criminal.
This necessitates me sending you my reply via YouTube PM (which suffers no such restrictions (as yet.) I'll cc a copy to Divinity, also, as a courtesy.
---TME