Supporting democracy... when it suits us

Here's a brilliant piece on Google video, from 1987: The Secret Government, by Bill Moyers. It's incredibly illuminating and still relevant today (if not MORE relevant). Moyer's conclusion:

"This remains for me the heart of the matter: the men who wrote our constitution, our basic book of rules, were concerned that power be held accountable. No part of government, and no person in government, not even the president, was to pick or choose among the laws to be obeyed. But how does one branch of government blow the whistle on another, or how do the people cry "foul" when their liberties are imperiled, if public officials can break the rules, lie to us about it, and then wave the wand of National Security to silence us? Can it happen again? You bet it can."

It's only 22 minutes long, and available for download.

Political musing

This, courtesy of Shelby LaPre at RadioPower.org:

From "Why Socialism?" by Albert Einstein.
Published in 1949 by the Monthly Review, New York.

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because technology development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production and distribution at the expense of the smaller ones. The results of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital, the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked, even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed and otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence of this is the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control directly or indirectly the main sources of information (press, radio, education). Thus it is extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and intelligent use of his rights."

Almost 60 years ago. Genius, indeed.


[See the Monthly Review for the original article in its entirety.]