An elderly man passes a crowd of demonstrators while leaving a “one euro shop” in Greece, September 2012. (Photo: SpaceShoe / Flickr)In political and economic parlance, the term austerity has been de rigueur among bankers and political leaders after severe effects of the Great Recession. As the repercussions of an irresponsible and criminal money class continue to reverberate through the capitalist economies in the world, “the way out” of the crisis is through severe cuts to the welfare state – or so neoliberal economic principles would dictate. The effects of such cuts are not hard to see. One just needs to look at Greece, a member state of the European Union (EU), to see high unemployment, a shrinking of social services, the rise of diseases, drug use – and even suicide. This what happens when a social contract designed to cushion citizens against the economic harshness of a global corporate capitalist economy is shredded.
In this “Truthout Interviews, Panayota Gounari, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, illustrates the neoliberal response to the crisis of capitalism is to enact policies that have the markings of a kind of social necrophilia that Erich Fromm once described. The more Greek society decays under the economic ideology of neoliberalism, the more its Prime Minister says the policies are a success. That’s the very definition of social necrophilia. The leader of one of the oldest democracies comes alive with praise that “the system” is working the more his fellow citizens suffer.
Greece is a textbook example of why neoliberal policies must be curtailed. The more these ideas permeate a body politic and the economies of a society, the greater the likelihood “the night watchman state” that economic libertarians view as their utopia will be built on a proto-fascist movement – a movement that values the militarization of society to protect the property and profits of corporate capitalists, the surveillance of citizens (in the name of national security), and the eradication of the social safety net – unless it directly benefits the corporate class.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
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