Dr. Gary Null Explains Why There Is No Revolution In The USA

[Rakhmetov]

He talks about the "extra reserve layer of fat" that Lenin alluded to when the latter sized up the advanced capitalist countries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O_SVDd9bjA

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

Gary Null is out of his skull.

[Rakhmetov]

Gary Null is out of his skull.

Why do you say that?? :confused:

[jake williams]

Yeah, Ron Paul is looking our for our interests.

Anyway, the US working class isn't overprivileged (although it might be too fat) - the US working class works harder and harder every year, is more and more productive every year, and is losing its material living standards every year, as it has been for a long time. And it's more and more enraged every year, but virtually the only people appealing to their legitimate rage are the fascists. That's the problem.

The problem is NOT that the poor aren't dying in the streets, and not just because a lot of them are - the problem is a lack of serious political organization, and the reactionary fatalism of the pseudo-left who blame the working class for their condition of supposed "privilege".

[MattShizzle]

Ron Paul is about as reactionary when it comes to economics as a person can possibly be.

[Rakhmetov]

Gary Null is no fan of Ron Paul, dude. I don't know if you knew that. The american working class does not rebel because they generally believe that if you work hard you will succeed and become a millionaire. :cursing:

[jake williams]

Gary Null is no fan of Ron Paul, dude. I don't know if you knew that.
Then why did he say he's one of the few people looking out for Americans' interests?


The american working class does not rebel because they generally believe that if you work hard you will succeed and become a millionaire. :cursing:
I'm skeptical that this is actually the case, but if it is, then most Americans must believe that they and their families are unsuccessful because they're lazy, which doesn't suggest overprivilege, it suggests that they've internalized their own oppression and exploitation.

[#FF0000]

Yeah, this guy's a moron actually.

[Terminator X]

The american working class does not rebel because they generally believe that if you work hard you will succeed and become a millionaire. :cursing:

Exactly.

Or, as John Steinbeck (supposedly) put it, "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

[mllanders]

I would have a serious issue with taking the advice of an AIDS denialist on, well, anything.

[Rakhmetov]

Then why did he say he's one of the few people looking out for Americans' interests?


I see ... He says Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, & Ron Paul are "looking out for our interests." I believe he likes Paul for his foreign policy (i.e. anti-interventionist) views than for his stance on domestic issues.

Check this out. Another "libertarian."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qidrb9wYW6U

[RedSonRising]

I'd say it has to do with a lack of class consciousness. Much of the working class doesn't understand that their position and interests are directly antithetical to those of their employers, and that the class divisions involve not just wealth and quality of life, but also power and the ability to manipulate the decision-making process. Many often vote against their own interests because they identify with the cultural or ideological politics of a ruling class electorate who is almost openly campaigning to make the rich better off. The overbearing media emphasis on immigration, ethnic differences, race relations, etc. has framed economic conflicts in a context that, not surprisingly, isn't conducive to working class unity.

The "layer of fat" argument may hold true to some extent, but it falls short when comparing the working classes of the US to those of Europe. They have many more benefits in terms of health, education, social services, etc., but a good portion still understand they are oppressed. Perhaps not in the traditional Marxist sense, but rebellious workers can loosely identify the dichotomy of empowerment embedded in society. Because of the development of class relations in Europe historically, they are much more likely to organize for the sake of their class even though their 'layer of fat' could be considered thicker than the one in the US.


Lenin's theory seems to compare third world and first world capitalist countries, but the US in relation to the rest of the industrialized world seems particularly lacking in proletarian militancy. In relation to the former, I feel its a ratio between "how desperate is your situation" vs "how well can you access and promote ideas of alternatives".

[Ocean Seal]

The problem with the American workers is that they have not come to terms with the fact that they're working class. The problem is that for the last 30 years they have been kept docile and with poor organization. Poor organization over time has far more serious consequences than what one would initially think. What a long period of disorganization does is it makes the workers forget how to fight and yes as sad as it is the workers no longer are fighting because this generation of workers doesn't know how to properly retaliate against the ruling class. They look to the Yellow Unions for an answer and when they respond lets follow the Democrats the workers become disappointed and they look for a new target to blame for their misery. Much like Hitler used racism as a manner to appeal to them the American right uses this obscure notion of big government, loss of liberty, the Constitution, illegal immigration, welfare queens to appeal to them. And when you have a side which doesn't act and a side which does act and you're being screwed assuming you don't know which side to follow the logical course of action is looking to the side which offers a change. The left has become too marginalized to offer a change therefore the workers side with the right. The reason for this is that in fact the have forgotten how to fight, they've forgotten the power of the union, but they are prepared for change. They just need a vehicle for it. The left can be that vehicle but the left needs to change and more thoroughly address the lives of workers rather than stick to the ideology. Leftists need to acknowledge that reality should govern ideology rather than ideology dictating how to react to reality.