Doug Dowd’s
Commentaries on
the
State of
Things
(with some additional
pieces by special guests)
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Articles are ordered by original
date
of creation or publication.
| Reverse Chronological Listing | ||
| Article | Description | Year Written or Published |
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If we don't get together, Obama will make disastrous decisions. |
2009 |
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| Tighten Your Seat Belts — Worse Is on the Way |
The world economy is sustained by insane and unsustainable debt. China is beyond bullying; as is, probably, Iran. Iraq is beyond control. Even if our leadership were the best in our history, we would be in deep doo-doo — but it is the worst. |
2005 |
| Support Our Troops: Bring Them Home, by Howard Zinn |
We must withdraw our military from Iraq, the sooner the better. The reason is simple: Our presence there is a disaster for the American people and an even bigger disaster for the Iraqi people. |
2005 |
| Between Involvement and Utopia: Past and Present |
A talk given in Italian on 2004.11.25 at the Aula Magna, on Via Castiglione, University of Bologna, for the students of the School of Pedagogy. It was the closing speech of the day. Doug notes, "It is inconceivable that such a meeting would be held in a university in the U.S.A., let alone by its education faculty." |
2004 |
| What Must We Do? What Can We Do? |
First, we must do much more than we have done politically, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We must continue to vote and demonstrate, of course, but much much more than that. We must not only increase the time and energy we devote to politics greatly, but also seek out and work together in additional groups. Considering only the decades since 1945, it is woefully obvious that because we fell short in both respects, we are now in very deep trouble. |
2004 |
| Deficits and Surpluses |
The conventional wisdom today is very much what it was before the mid-1930s — namely, it is a sin to run a governmental deficit (which increases its debt) and a virtue to accumulate a surplus (which reduces its debt). And because everything is just hunky-dory today, we have no need for social expenditures — no reason to repeat the errors of the bad old days of the New Deal. At least, so they say. |
2003 |
| Globalization: The USA Shoots Itself in the Foot, or Worse |
History never does nor can it ever repeat itself in particulars: The always changing multidimensional social context makes even close repetitions impossible. But certain patterns do recur; among them is that where socioeconomic domination produces conditions leading to its own downfall. In the capitalist era, there have been two such instances of the decline of once unchallengeable strength: the Dutch in the 18th century, and the British in the 19th. Now it is increasingly likely that the USA will be the third. |
2003 |
| Deflation and the D Word — Here We Go Again |
A Z commentary comparing the awful world economic situation of today with the Depression of 1929; "a global economic crisis of the dimensions of the 1930s might conceivably be averted; and might not be....W. W. III could come to seem, a few years from now, the way we are able to view W. W. I: terrible, but not so bad, in comparison with the permanent wars abroad, processes lurching toward 'compassionate fascism' at home. We have a lot to do..." |
2003 |
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An interview of Doug Dowd, both the Italian version and an English translation, by Una Cittá [A City], a magazine in Bologna, Italy. |
2002 |
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This is the most dangerous time in USA history since Doug was born in 1919. Things get scarier every day. Yet there is reason for hope. But we have to (1) learn from the past and (2) we have to work exceptionally hard. The likely alternative is a kind of fascism USA-style (or "friendly fascism"). We're heading that way, and we'd better try to stop the momentum. |
2002 |
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The Israelis must be made to halt and to reverse their history in Palestine, while in exchange, the Palestinians must face the fact that a pre-1967 Israel is there to stay. The USA must take the first steps, and do so with vigor and conviction. Yet, at the moment we are the very nation least likely to do so, especially with Bush and his ilk in power. |
2001 |
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Karl
Marx and the Reopening of His System
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The beauty of the Marxian system, and the reason for its continued and perhaps increased vitality, is its focus on the core elements and dynamic and evolving character of capitalism. Here are the basic ideas and their applicability in the New World Order. |
2001 |
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Giving
People Back Their Own Money
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One of today’s most favored right-wing justifications of a massive tax reduction is the idea that taxes are a form of government theft, which take from individuals the fruits of their labor or rightful ownership, and without reasonable cause. For this gang, the short-term perspective of business, grab-and-run, becomes the order of the day.The important people want their own money back, along with anybody else’s they can get their hands on, and this business party is trying to help them get it. |
2001 |
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New
Targets
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An excellent short primer on strategy and tactics for anti-globalization activists and people of the Left in general |
2001 |
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Tidbits
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“International Financial Crisis: After watching closely during the past four years there are finally a few things I think I can predict about international financial crises with a great deal of confidence...” |
2001 |
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Down
with the Bah Humbug of Taxes, Surpluses, Spending, and Deficits, Up with
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“That, in this the richest nation in all of history at its richest point, any individual or family should be unable to meet fundamental needs is an obscenity verging on social criminality. That the U.S. public should accept the ideological ravings of the installed and ascendant Right is shameful.” |
2001 |
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An
Interview with Howard Zinn
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A talk with the noted historian on what to expect from the current administration in the next four years...why Dubya is Clinton with the gloves off...and what is to be done |
2001 |
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This is written for those who plan some day to visit Italy, and meant to induce others to do so. |
2001 |
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Just when we’re about to blow our tops at the airlines for the delays and crowding and lousy service—and rising prices—we get blindsided by blackouts and for our electricity and rising prices (as also for gas, and water, and gasoline). How come? |
2001 |
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Will Pudd’nhead Be the Dumbest, the Most Dangerous U.S. President Ever? |
Will President Happy Face be the worst ever? Stuck as we are with this spoiled brat, we can take some perverse satisfaction in recognizing that many of his predecessors have also been dumb and/or dangerous—even rotten to the core, some of them. So, given some of the competition, it’ll be a horse race. |
2000 |
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The two cities are Bologna and Venice. The environmental problems threatening both, despite well-publicized “remedies,” have not improved but worsened in recent decades. These two cities, their problems, and their failure to deal with them exemplify all too well what is happening all over the world. |
2000 |
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Cars, TV, nukes! In a society very different from ours, any one of the three might be safely absorbed; but not in this one. A sane society would produce goods and services to meet human and social and environmental needs, not for profit. These imbecile institutions may do us in. |
2000 |
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An examination of the prejudices men hold against/toward women, that “come with the territory” of being a male—generated by a lifelong socialization process that cultivates, combines, and nourishes ignorance, misinformation, fears and aggressiveness, and that rewards the worst side of masculinity and distorts the virtues of femininity. |
2000 |
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Keeping in mind what happened—economically, socially, politically, militarily—in the decade after 1929 (and remembering the euphoria preceding it) suggests that we, and many more than we, must step up and greatly alter our political effort. Demonstrations must be seen as part of an uninterrupted movement. |
2000 |
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The TNCs are not so much immoral as amoral; or so their CEOs and their shareholders and their kept politicians would like to see themselves (at worst). But with power goes responsibility and accountability, like it or not. They don’t like it. |
2000 |
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Rotting Away—the Political Economy of Corruption and Decadence |
History is replete with corrupt and decadent societies. Capitalism has engendered an unbridled stint of corruption and decadence. If we are to have a society that is better, safer, saner than this emerging inferno, it will not be handed down to us by those now sitting in the catbird seat. |
2000 |
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The USA leads the world in its consumer and business borrowing and in producing all kinds and amounts of waste—damaging society and dangerous to human beings and other creatures and the planet itself. Even our savings rate is negative. What to do? |
2000 |
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The combination of capitalism and technology has foisted an ongoing catastrophe whose proportions have already been lethal on a large scale and that threaten to expand always further. So long as capital's wants dictate, there will be no end to this calamity. Until life itself ends. |
2000 |
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Free markets mean freedom for business to get what they want, anywhere, in any way they want, and if you don't like it, you can lump it. Or organize. |
2000 |
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Politicians may scream “Education!” What they mean is let's maintain the status quo. We need a panoply of changes in the educative process...but as part of a larger political movement. |
2000 |
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The New Era of the 1920s and the New Economy of Today: Birds of a Feather? |
There are some commonalities between the Twenties and now. But there are also differences. (History does not repeat itself.) But look out—a recession or depression will turn the USA even farther Right. Unless. |
2000 |
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Social Security was flawed from the get-go in 1935. The worse off you were while working, the worse off you will be when you stop working (even worse, of course, for there is no longer your wage); symmetrically, the better off you were, the better off you will be. The program should at last be made progressive—in taxes and in benefits. And the rich will still be rich! |
2000 |
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