"Cornel West: Market-driven culture has destroyed virtue"

[rhett o rick]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/27/cornel-west-market-driven-culture-has-destroyed-virtue/

Cornel West speaks out on how America has been corrupted by materalism.

The failure of civil rights leaders to address “Wall Street criminality” illustrates how money has corrupted American culture, according to Professor Cornel West.

“The fundamental difference between 1963 and 2013 is these days everything and everybody is up for sale,” he said. “It’s a market-driven culture. Just dangle enough money, dangle enough possessions, dangle enough assets, and folks will come running — which means we don’t get too much integrity, honesty, decency, and virtue. You get folks obsessed with having assets, folks obsessed with having wealth and position.”

See video at link.

[dawg]

1. He's not wrong.

[marmar]

2. k/r

[Adrahil]

3. I don't necessarily disagree, but...

... what is his alternative model and how does he propose to get there?

[Bluenorthwest]

12. Sounds to me like he's talking about aspects of our culture that have deminished since

1963, back then we had the same 'model' and basic system as we do now, but people retained some ethics and standards and that is not about changing the economic system it is about healing the corruption that has taken over our culture so fully.

[Armstead]

20. The answer is pretty fucking simple...But not easy

We've gotten into this sorry mess because it's our own damn fault.

We as a society allowed people with rotten values and ethics con and bulldoze us into accepting a phony set of principles.

The answer is that we wake the fuck up and collectively start acting better and demanding better from out institutions, government and leaders.

The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves.

[Blue_Tires]

4. ttt

[TBF]

5. What corrupts America is the capitalism ... nt

[rhett o rick]

18. Which thrives on materialism. nm

[kelliekat44]

6. Yes, Mr Weat you are correct. nt

[Zorra]

7. It is sad to see people metamorphosing into heartless, cutthroat Ferengi-like beings en masse.

Mass marketing consumerism as a norm is primary in destroying individuals, cultures/societies, and the planet itself.

It's another reason why the Third Way is so insidiously deadly; it replaces the needs of human beings with the needs of the global free market as the core of Democratic Party ideology.

[KatyMan]

8. The Society of the Spectacle...

Guy Debord, 1967. A summary from Wiki:

The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in which "passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity". "The spectacle is not a collection of images," Debord writes, "rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images."

I think the Situationists were really onto something...

ETA: “... just as early industrial capitalism moved the focus of existence from being to having, post-industrial culture has moved that focus from having to appearing.”

and:

“The story of terrorism is written by the state and it is therefore highly instructive… compared with terrorism, everything else must be acceptable, or in any case more rational and democratic.”

[dionysus]

9. he makes 30-50k per speaking engagement.

http://internationalspeakers.com/cornel_west/

I think he's pretty well off. he makes a year's wage for lower middle class folks per speech.

[Bluenorthwest]

13. And what's that got to do with what he's saying? I did not read him say he was opposed to

making money, just that making money into the central be all and end all life is a problem. He's a Christian, their teaching is not that money is evil, but that the love of money is indeed the root of all evil. The difference between the two things is not rocket science and far from original to West. It's basic Jesus 101.
So where do you disagree with what he's saying?

[QC]

21. Michael Moore has a fancy apartment! Billy Bragg lives in a big house!

It's a cherished belief on the Right--and like many other Rightist talking points, increasingly common on DU--that progressives who have money are hypocrites.

This is especially true of progressives who have criticized You Know Who, which is West's real sin here.

[woo me with science]

10. Thank the few voices speaking the truth

amid the OBSCENE PROPAGANDA and LIES.

[rhett o rick]

17. Exactly. nm

[WinkyDink]

11. True, but a society that felt more economically secure might live for more than carpe diem.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. An example suited to this day: few Americans ever hear Dr King's entire 'Dream' speech

because it is in fact a hotly protected commodity brokered by his family, such as Bernice the homophobe, which controls the use and demands large fees for that which they did not create as if Dr King had been a Tin Pan Alley tunesmith instead of a minister and national leader. To hear his words, you have to pay the family, and they do not care for much of the text to be known, they fear it would diminish the value of the famous bits if folks heard the parts about poverty and peace and all. Dr King had a dream, and that dream is a product his family handles like you handle royalties on episodes of My Mother the Car.

[leftynyc]

28. I heard it in its entirety

for the first time last night. And I'm 52.

[msanthrope]

29. Why shouldn't they safeguard his intellectual property? He gave away his Nobel Prize

money, and his book royalties. When he died, he left too little to probate.

Bernice needs to grow in her acceptance, definitely, but even homophobes are allowed to hold copyrights.

http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2012/01/17/the-amazing-turnaround-of-bernice-king-on-lgbt-rights/

[Samantha]

15. I saw him interviewed by David Shuster on Al Jazeera America a couple of days ago

Totally excellent interview by Shuster. I was happy to see him working with Al Jazeera America.

Sam

[watoos]

16. Back in the 60's

I worked for a company, that had a president who visited my plant, who talked to the workers, who considered the workers assets.
Fast forward to today, I work for a corporation, who has a CEO, COO, CFO and C whatever else. Today the CEO lives and works far away from the plant, he considers the workers liabilities, costs to the bottom line. His allegiance is to stockholders and to meeting the bottom line, whatever it takes, which usually turns out to be cutting jobs.
If workers won't help to meet the bottom line by wage and benefit cuts he will gladly move the plant to China.
Multiply my 1 plant by 10,000.

[raouldukelives]

19. Not up for debate. Wall St is kiling us all.

We are owned & they know it. Oh how they must laugh at our plight.
When you give up, go Wall St. They are waiting with open arms for more foot soldiers and salivate at the prospect of more financial supporters greedily donating money & labor to their ends.
Or don't, be a liberal. They hate that.

[QC]

22. He's right. We have transitioned from market economy to market society.

The former has its benefits, but the latter is an unmitigated evil.

[OneGrassRoot]

23. Brilliant synopsis. Thank you. n/t

[QC]

24. Thanks! n/t

[rhett o rick]

27. Well put. nm

[QC]

25. KICK!

[Blue Owl]

26. True dat

Everything is about BUSINESS these days.

Especially BIG Business.