"Moyers on Democracy"

[REASON]

I wanted to share this excerpt from Bill Moyers' new book Moyers on Democracy.

In our quest to bring our Individual Realities closer to Actual Reality, I think this bit of old style journalism by Mr. Moyers does a fairly good job of tapping into some realities about our nation that do not receive enough scrutiny.

One thing I've learned in life is that we cannot move toward improving our condition if we are unwilling to take a serious look at what is generating our dysfunction. Moyers' commentary does just that. And while many may find what he has to say rather unpleasant, it is a bitter pill we must swallow if we are to advance toward a better society.

I hope that you will read the entire segment at the link below and consider the picture that is drawn by the dots he connects.....and then comment on how that picture can be improved as you see it. And please, I am also open to international opinion because these are international issues as well.

Together, I believe we can establish a new course. One that truly values freedom, justice, and consideration of others, without sacrificing the dream of happiness, prosperity, and success. But we are going to have to do some things differently.

Democracy in America Is a Series of Narrow Escapes, and We May Be Running Out of Luck

Democracy in America is a series of narrow escapes, and we may be running out of luck. The reigning presumption about the American experience, as the historian Lawrence Goodwyn has written, is grounded in the idea of progress, the conviction that the present is "better" than the past and the future will bring even more improvement. For all of its shortcomings, we keep telling ourselves, "The system works."

Now all bets are off. We have fallen under the spell of money, faction, and fear, and the great American experience in creating a different future together has been subjugated to individual cunning in the pursuit of wealth and power -and to the claims of empire, with its ravenous demands and stuporous distractions. A sense of political impotence pervades the country - a mass resignation defined by Goodwyn as "believing the dogma of 'democracy' on a superficial public level but not believing it privately." We hold elections, knowing they are unlikely to bring the corporate state under popular control. There is considerable vigor at local levels, but it has not been translated into new vistas of social possibility or the political will to address our most intractable challenges. Hope no longer seems the operative dynamic of America, and without hope we lose the talent and drive to cooperate in the shaping of our destiny.....

[Essay]

What a pleasure to read such a thoughtful essay....
I always enjoy Bill.

I can just hear his voice as those long sentences wrap up.

As I read, I noticed that the problems always seem to come down to the desire for short-term profits- ...over long-term investment.

Maybe this is an important function of religion; to keep at bay the desire for short-term profits, and keep the focus on longer-term concerns.

...and becoming Type I would be a good focus too.

Thanks Bill,
Thanks Reason....

[Mike C]

Reason

I admire Bill Moyers too and would read anything he has to say about our political climate.

My solution to our problems is that we have 'runaway capitalism' that has created a great imbalance in the distribution of the wealth that the 'workers' actually create and are shortchanged regarding the wages they get.
True wealth is the kind we can see and feel like the skyscrapers, other building structures, automobiles and any other such 'tangible wealth.

Brains do not create any of this TW. Only HANDS do this.
And yet the workers are being forced to work for cheao wages the capitalists force on them because of the workers being used as a commodity only to be used by these capitalists.

I an not a communist but am promoting a Constitutional Democracy that promotes a 'representative government'.
Capitalism and communism are not representing the people and especially the workers that create this real tangible wealth.

I will post it here tomorrow if I can since I have been denied access to new posting.

Mike C

[Thunderbird]

I'm happy to see that I am not the only Bill Moyers fan around here. I allways try to catch is show "NOW'' on Friday night.


America's corporate and political elites now form a regime of their own and they're privatizing democracy. All the benefits - the tax cuts, policies and rewards flow in one direction: up.
Bill Moyers

As a student I learned from wonderful teachers and ever since then I've thought everyone is a teacher.
Bill Moyers

Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.
Bill Moyers

Democracy belongs to those who exercise it.
Bill Moyers

Democracy may not prove in the long run to be as efficient as other forms of government, but it has one saving grace: it allows us to know and say that it isn't.
Bill Moyers

For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington.
Bill Moyers

I own and operate a ferocious ego.
Bill Moyers


Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And politics is the bow of idealism.
Bill Moyers

Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.
Bill Moyers

Secrecy is the freedom tyrants dream of.
Bill Moyers

The printed page conveys information and commitment, and requires active involvement. Television conveys emotion and experience, and it's very limited in what it can do logically. It's an existential experience - there and then gone.
Bill Moyers

There are honest journalists like there are honest politicians - they stay bought.
Bill Moyers

This is the first time in my 32 years in public broadcasting that PBS has ordered up programs for ideological instead of journalistic reasons.
Bill Moyers

War, except in self-defense, is a failure of moral imagination.
Bill Moyers

We don't care really about children as a society and television reflects that indifference to children as human beings.
Bill Moyers

We see more and more of our Presidents and know less and less about what they do.
Bill Moyers

What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does.
Bill Moyers

When I learn something new - and it happens every day - I feel a little more at home in this universe, a little more comfortable in the nest.
Bill Moyers

[Thunderbird]

Hey Reason, have ya got a neighbor on American Idol ?

[REASON]

Originally Posted by Thunderbird

Hey Reason, have ya got a neighbor on American Idol ?

Yeah, I heard he won tonight. Congratulations to David Cook, a fellow citizen of Blue Springs, MO.

I didn't get to see it, my son had a ballgame (although I never really watch it anyway). But everyone is really excited around here.

He was in town a week and a half ago and I saw him at the Royals game singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame during the Seventh Inning Stretch.

Way to go David! Good luck with your new singing career.

[Thunderbird]

Originally Posted by REASON

Yeah, I heard he won tonight. Congratulations to David Cook, a fellow citizen of Blue Springs, MO.

I didn't get to see it, my son had a ballgame (although I never really watch it anyway). But everyone is really excited around here.

He was in town a week and a half ago and I saw him at the Royals game singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame during the Seventh Inning Stretch.

Way to go David! Good luck with your new singing career.

A Missouri boy, The people of Blue Springs say it could not have happened to a nicer guy, Congrate's to David.

[InfiniteNow]

So, this book by Bill Moyers... has anyone read it? I too liked the excerpt, but am curious if the full version offers something more. I've been in the market for a new book recently... what, with my rebate check and all.

[REASON]

Originally Posted by Thunderbird

I'm happy to see that I am not the only Bill Moyers fan around here. I allways try to catch is show "NOW'' on Friday night.

Those were all great quotes of Bill Moyers, T-bird. Thanks for including them. I have been a big fan of what Moyers has to say for quite a while now. He has a great program on PBS.

One of the causes I know he has been involved with is the call against new legislation that allows an even greater level of media consolidation than was passed in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 under Clinton. He has been a guest speaker at the National Conference for Media Reform.

Here is the speech he gave at last year's conference:

YouTube - Bill Moyers at NCMR 2007 -- PART 1

YouTube - Bill Moyers at NCMR 2007 -- PART 2

Media reform, where there is an effort to pass legislation intended to maintain and promote more independent and local media is an important change I'd like to see. We need a news media that finds value in scrutinizing the government and the corporate machine, and educating the public. This can only be achieved through competition in the industry, combined with public demand for accuracy and integrity.

We must reject the self serving interests of media that seeks to distort information, control thought through deceit, demonize segments of the population, and divide us as a nation. We must also reject the continual merging of media companies. We cannot expect to recieve unbiased information if all of the sources are combined into just a few conglomerates.

The mass media should be an important defender against a tyrannical government in a successful democratic republic.

[REASON]

Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

So, this book by Bill Moyers... has anyone read it? I too liked the excerpt, but am curious if the full version offers something more. I've been in the market for a new book recently... what, with my rebate check and all.

I have not read it, only the excerpt I posted. But I would like to read it. I don't believe you would be disappointed, INow.

By the way, I also highly recommend any of Scott Ritter's books. His latest is Target Iran. He can provide some very good insight as well.