Thom Hartmann presents The Hidden History of American Oligarchy in conversation with David Korten

Thom Hartmann, the most popular progressive radio host in America, looks at the history of the battle against oligarchy in America — and how we can win the latest round. The United States was born in a struggle against the oligarchs of the British aristocracy, and ever since then the history of America has been one of dynamic tension between democracy and oligarchy. And much like the shock of the 1929 crash that woke America up to glaring inequality and the ongoing theft of democracy by that generation’s oligarchs, the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has laid bare how extensively oligarchs have looted our nation’s economic system, gutted governmental institutions, and stolen the wealth of the former middle class. In The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy From the Ruling Class (Berrett-Koehler), Hartmann traces the history of this struggle against oligarchy from America’s founding to the United States’ war with the feudal Confederacy to President Franklin Roosevelt’s struggle against “economic royalists,” who wanted to block the New Deal. In each of those cases, the oligarchs lost the battle. But with increasing right-wing control of the media, unlimited campaign contributions, and a conservative takeover of the judicial system, we’re at a crisis point. Hartmann lays out practical measures we can take to break up media monopolies, limit the influence of money in politics, reclaim the wealth stolen over decades by the oligarchy, and build a movement that will return control of America to We the People. Hartmann was joined in conversation by David Korten, cofounder of YES! Magazine and author of Change the Story, Change the Future.

[MrPrimoPR]

This is a goldmine of information. Thank you.

[harrykersey]

This was easily one of the most profound documents (TESTIMONY) to the current state of our union and should be seen by everyone .It could not have been presented any better in my opinion .A big shout out to you Thomas as our friend and mentor to those on the side of democracy and fair play in America and around the world.

[kmakiable]

I'm African living in Johannesburg but I appreciate the work of Thom Hatman, great 👍🏻 guy.

[MaisyDaisy]

Great discussion! Thank you so much for sharing!

[twhite]

This is the most informative, helpful conversation I've found. More like this please. Thank you 🎆

[jackmcgaugheymusic]

This was a great discussion! Excited to tune into the next one :)

[Other.]

This is really informative. Learned a lot. It also highlights how impactful excluding viewpoints can be.

When I see pictures depicting the ice age, they always have hunters. When I think of the ice age, I think of someone who is eight months pregnant carrying a two-year old. If you asked most women, the first thought about the deer going to the watering hole would not be a stag, but mother deers agreeing because they would be looking after their young (individually and collectively). Neither seems to be the case, but it's interesting that it is assumed that "we all" would think of the stag leading. No, we don't.
So concepts of collectivity in humans is not so much our assumptions are inaccurate, but that they 1) represent only a few viewpoints and 2) they are an assumption (of "our" view) of an assumption.

[michaelbeasley]

Though I rarely fully agree with your proposed solutions--always informative. After I listen to you I come away knowing more than I did before. Thanks, and Happy holidays to you and yours.

[beenforet]

My take on humans is, whenever it is possible for anyone to concentrate too much power in it's hand become drunk with power; in other words: evil.

[JohnDoe-jqwy]

History requires the pivotal event....1871
when the Republic was traded for a corporation due to the debt from the Civil War. For freedom of sovereign citizen are allowed to expand and accumulate assets under a republic; no income taxes.

[drphosferrous]

Friedman was taken seriously in economics because he had some new and useful insights into economics like "velocity", treating money like any other good or service, and demand added by timing. It doesn't get mentioned enough though, how he also helped develop weaponized economics. Many of these austrian- like ideas like trickledown that are obviously wrong, don't need to be real. The idea is to sell other people on thinking it's real economics so that you can take advantage of them. Naomi Klein fleshed out the case around chicago boys pretty well in that disaster capitalism book. We shouldn't assume that economic concepts are always believed, nor believed to be in everyone's best interest by the econonomists proposing them.

[jhonfamo]

Of course there's only 41 views. The poor too busy being pitted against each other

[TheWebCam]

Awesome information & implications THANKS :)

[CCDR]

Thanks for the very compelling story that you've put together here. However, I think it's a complete mischaracterization to say that the socially corrosive and oppressive effects of oligarchy have ever been quelled at various times throughout American or English/European history. Tell that to the various Indigenous Peoples across the America's and elsewhere who have had their lands taken from them, and their cultures and worldviews targeted for destruction. Processes that have continued throughout the last 300-400 years.

Sure, you could say that if you were working or middle class, then you were relatively better off at certain periods relative to others in terms of how much the squeeze was put on you. But the underlying imperial (now corporate-imperial) nature of the vast majority of "democracies" around the world practically ensures that entrenched wealth/power hierarchies will always be oppressing and exploiting people and/or the environment somewhere. These hierarchies of wealth/power couldn't exist except through these processes.

So tweaking American democracy to be less influenced by wealth/power will better society overall, but in the long run of forging a sustainable, equitable society (now looking like a shorter run as environmental and social pressures are feeding back off each other and de-stabilizing larger chunks of mainstream society), we need to seriously challenge the mechanisms that enable wealth/power to be entrenched in the first place. So I disagree with Thom Hartmann entirely when he says he doesn't mind if someone gets filthy rich. What difference does it make whether a billionaire is buying politicians or buying an army? (I personally prefer them to buy the politicians for the moment at least). And of course, it is completely immoral, unjust, and against our nature (a crime against life, I'd argue) for one human being to be "worth" and have access to and consume literally billions more resources and/or have that much more influence than another.

Any system ceases to function well and looses the ability to self-regulate when it can no longer respond to internal or external feedbacks. And when wealth/power becomes entrenched for long enough (e.g. spanning generations), and/or hierarchies of wealth/power become wide/tall enough, human groups inevitably form social groups (tribes) and identities along these axes of wealth/power (social diversification is fundamental to human nature I'd argue - not power seeking or hierarchy forming). That's what puts imperial societies in the position where what's happening at the bottom of the social hierarchy remains completely external to the knowledge/values of the people at the top of the hierarchy and vice versa, whereupon the socio-ecological system itself will stumble about till it falls off of a social or environmental cliff).

Power needs to be fluid and easily concentrated and dispersed again for human groups to function harmoniously with each other and the environment. I would argue that many Indigenous societies past and present (e.g., societies that were able to persist culturally intact for thousands of years) likely have some pretty key insights into governance institutions and ways of being in the world that could sign point some promising directions for mainstream society to follow.

[eddybee]

It is clear this discussion is ripe for renewal. The world had made a very clear turn, and this conversation is especially relevant.

[vladdumitrica]

Countries with parliaments are in fact oligarchies (few lead). In order to be a true democracy, the decisions of the Parliament should be submitted to the approval of the citizens. The democratic aspect is a side effect in societies where economies have a strong competitive aspect, where the interests of those who hold economic power in society are divergent. Thus, those with money, and implicitly with political power in society, are supervising each other so that none of them have undeserved advantages due to politics. Because of this, countries with large mineral resources, like Russia and Venezuela (their share in GDP is large), do not have democratic aspects, because a small group of people can exploit these resources in their own interest. In poor countries, the main resource exploited may even be the state budget, as they have converging interests in benefiting, in their own interest, from this resource. This is what is observed in Romania, Bulgaria, when, no matter which party comes to power, the result is the same. The solution is modern direct democracy in which every citizen can vote, whenever he wants, over the head of the parliamentarian who represents him. He can even dismiss him if most of his constituents consider that their interests are not right represented

[rgaleny]

IF THE WORLD IS LORDED OVER BY THE DEVIL, HOW CAN YOU SAY THE RICH ARE FIT TO RULE MEN?

[leealexander]

I'm unfortunately having trouble hearing this.

[sabbers]

To keep it at an even 50 states, you could recombine the Dakotas and also undo some other extreme rightwing choice.

[dthomas]

TX has outlawed anagrams to show their anti-metric bonafides. The Anagram Act was passed before Magna Carta. King John had to deal with the Catholics who were the only litrerate besides the royals and they used latin so Anagram Act was forced to adopt a latin anagram of itself and Magna Carta was born. [I was raised on Rocky and Bullwinkle's Fractured Fairy Tales narrated by Edward Everrett Horton.]