How Money Has Drained Values Out Of The Public Conversation

I read this interview in Guernica magazine with the Harvard professor and author Michael Sandel. I urge you to read it. It got me thinking.

What's curious, and can't really be explained, is how the very rich and their Republican helpers use money to measure all things in our society, emptying the public conversation of ethical and human issues, and yet, at the same time, manage to claim the moral high ground, even the "Christian" high ground, assuming everybody agrees Jesus was a Republican and favored rich people over the poor. Assuming God is afraid of science or feels threatened by intelligent life on earth.

It only works this way because an immense money advantage enables Republicans to tilt the game, dominate the airwaves (which they already own) and browbeat Americans into doing what they're told. We worry about devaluing the dollar or losing America's stellar credit rating, meanwhile the big money boys have sucked the intelligence out of the public discourse, dumbed everything down to the level of non-science, a six thousand year-old earth and an economy guarded magically by fairies and elves, but not, heaven forbid, regulated.

Stupid is as stupid does, sadly.