American "Politics"
I haven't yet read Robert Sapolsky's, Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will, though I’m a great admirer of his thinking and have read most of what he's written. His book, A Primate's Memoir, about the years he spent studying baboons in Kenya is excellent. However, I don’t like the title of this most recent book. Having followed Sapolsky's evolving thinking over the years, I understand how he got there. That I’m writing this piece about our political circus makes me think Sapolsky's on to more than I'd care to admit.
Two nights ago, I was browsing the WSJ. They had a live video feed of the RNC at the top of the page. There was this big bald-headed guy speaking. I glanced at the captions, making me turn on the sound. It was the head of the Teamsters and he was bashing the mega-corporations. “Wow!” thought I, that's some speech at a Republican National Convention, not to mention as radical a speech as I've heard by the head of an American union in decades, not that I’ve heard many or any for that matter.
Best, he was hitting Amazon, the corporation that represents the greatest changes in the American economy of the past two decades. Made possible by compute technology, Amazon helped lead an historical reorganization of sales, warehousing, distribution, and delivery. All played a big role in furthering the concentration of wealth in America. Yet, while the Teamster's speech had a certain radicalism, it was overwhelmingly archaic and reactionary. It was a speech more appropriate for a century ago as it concentrated on how Amazon treated its workers, all well and good, but the more essential issues of how Amazon was reorganizing the economy went unmentioned.
It reminded me of Norbert Wiener's astute comment on American Labor seventy-five years ago, “Labor unions and the labor movement are in the hands of a highly limited personnel, thoroughly well trained in the specialized problems of shop stewardship and disputes concerning wages and conditions of work, and totally unprepared to enter into the larger political, technical, sociological, and economic questions which concern the very existence of labor.”
Nothing's changed, except Labor is a lot less influential today than it was when Wiener wrote.
The speech did lead to an amusing reaction piece in billionaire Bezos' Post, allowing and an even better Teamster retort. “Kara Deniz, a Teamsters spokeswoman, responded to the criticism with a statement: 'The corporatists that the Teamsters exposed on the floor of the RNC own the Washington Post and were likely upset by how many times Sean O’Brien directly called out Amazon’s atrocious employment practices.'”
Hah, “corporatists.” Thirty years ago, I first stated anyone wanting to talk about political reform in America needed to also talk about corporate reform. We're still not there, either in talking about political or corporate reform. In regards to the issues of the 21st century, American politics remains a nursery school with the students trying to color within established lines, fearful they'll be reprimanded if they stray.
Which brings us to our crayola Democrats. It looks like the Donor putsch against Biden will succeed, though really you can't call it a putsch, more like a “You’re fired.” After all, this is the same lot that not seven months ago shut down all talk of replacing Biden, reshaped the primary schedule, and cut-off funding for any alternative voices that would have revealed Old Joe's deterioration at the beginning of the year – such political acumen!
Anyway, we might now have a brief show concerning Joe's replacement, which the best and pretty much only thing you'll be able to say about whoever it is, “Well, it's not Joe,” just as the best and pretty much only thing the Democrats have to say is, “We’re not Trump.”
I suppose Sapolsky's more right than I'd care to admit.