Posted on 10/04/2011 5:06:20 PM PDT by mnehring
Today, the Occupy Wall Street protestors decided to finally list their demands. Mixed in with some generic references to items like restoring Glass-Steagall which has been called for by many on the left, are a series of unachievable and cryptic utopian demands. From forgiving all debt and eliminating the debt and credit system in general, to making wars ‘pay as you go’ and granting every person a minimum living monetary allocation so they can choose not to work, the demands seem to be a mishmash of societal changing goals.
If one steps back and looks at the big picture of these demands, one can see a completely different society and culture being created than we live in. One that, in the minds of naïve college students, would almost be a heavenly ideal. But where do these ideas come from?
Interestingly enough, this vision of society and the goals to achieve it can be found almost word for word in Robert Heinlein’s recently discovered 1938 work, For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs.
In this novel, Heinlein sends his hero into the future after a car accident. Although the science fiction aspect of this future is interesting, what is shocking is the very detailed commentary on how this ‘utopia’ was achieved. Libertarians have celebrated this novel for the personal liberty that it describes, however, the economic system can only be described as a new-socialist ideal often promoted by socialists of the era like Upton Sinclair. The utopia described in Heinlein’s novel is a conflicted mix of socialistic and libertarian fantasies . There is centrally-managed banking and money, which allows the government to issue a dividend , amounting to a living wage, to every citizen. Physical violence against another person condemns one to psychological rehabilitation, or voluntary internal exile to Coventry. Love, sex, marriage, and child-raising all are quite loose and free, and the nudity taboo is gone.
Stepping back, one can see an almost word for word mirror of the written demands of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In addition to the aforementioned ‘living wage dividend’, mirrors can be found in the ‘pay as you go’ military action rule, the elimination of banks and credit structures, the elimination of health insurance putting it under a blanket centralized government agency, and so on. If one reads the novel, it is clear this isn’t just a theme that they are mirroring, but an almost plagiarized list of goals.
Of course, Heinlein later countered For Us, the Living with another view of this utopia in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress where one can see the result of this utopia is actually slavery- something the Occupy Wall Street movement either doesn’t have the willingness or desire to explore. It may also be that For Us, the Living wasn’t released to production until 2003 after being re-discovered, thus placing it as a more contemporary novel among the generation who are conducting these protests.
There is one more, very disturbing aspect to the goals that this movement is trying to achieve. Very often, we discuss the
Cloward-Piven strategy in terms of how they want to tear down the system to rebuild it, but we don’t explore the specifics of what they want it rebuilt into. Cloward and Piven wrote that “the ultimate objective of this strategy [would be] to wipe out poverty by establishing a guaranteed annual income...” Again, almost exactly the major demand of the Occupy Wall Street group.
This is very different from how we normally view the Socialist goals in which we think of a ‘welfare’ state. In the utopia that both Heinlein describes as well as the goal of Cloward and Piven, welfare is eliminated and replaced by this universal dividend in which all members of society are granted an equal share of society. One chooses to produce if one wants to and they could potentially reap the reward- or, they could just as soon choose to ‘tune in, turn on, and drop out’ as Leary once said.
Where this is more dangerous than what we normally see as Socialism or Communism is this is masked as liberty. The youth are being led to believe that this utopia will grant them the freedom to do what they wish, when they wish, and not be shackled by ‘corporations’ (see Corporate Zombies) or responsibilities. This is why you often see, mixed in with socialist and union banners at these events, posters praising libertarian views and thinkers.
What we see is the culmination leftist movements coming together after decades of nurturing through pop-culture and fertilized in the libertine virtues that has become a more vocal political movement.
At any other time, this could be the first chapter in a science-fiction novel- and it was.
“I should have known you could take my 20 paragraphs or rambling and condense them into two clear sentences.”
yes he did...LOL
Thanks for that link. I hadn’t seen that before.
their list of demands reminds me of something i read in the 1970s or 80s where someone wrote that if you ever stage a mutiny on a ship, ask for some good things like a pinball machine.
We are headed for an AMERICATHON to be followed by centuries of IDIOCRACY.
You ought to send this to Glenn Beck on GBTV.
Heinlein flick on the SyFy channel now.If you're referring to "Starship Troopers", the movie is an absolute abortion.
If you want to know anything about Heinlein, his writing and philosophy, read the book and avoid the movie.
Interestingly enough, this vision of society and the goals to achieve it can be found almost word for word in Robert Heinlein's recently discovered 1938 work, 'For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs'.
For later.
As a kid, I read many of Heinlein’s ‘coming of age’ sci-fi novels, “Between Planets,” “Tunnel in the Sky,” “Have Spacefuit, Will Travel.” It was only recently that I read, “For Us the Living,” which I found interesting, but weird. Of course, Heinlein also advocated free love, plural marriage, and other off-center positions, including incest, in his many and viaried novels.
BTW, I agree with the posters who said the movie “Starship Troopers” was awful when compared to the novel.
These punks have nothing right. I don't agree with any of their demands. And I don't agree with this flawed notion that bankers are "greedy" and we need more government regulation. We have too much regulation as it is.
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