Does it ever happen to you that your reading all of a sudden seems to be about similar topics? For instance you read H is for Hawk and for a little while all the books you pick up are about or have hawks in them but you didn’t intentionally make that happen. Something like that has kind of happened to me.
After the novel The Portable Veblen, I thought Thorstein Veblen sounded like an interesting fellow so I borrowed The Portable Veblen that is actually a selected Veblen, from the library. And he is indeed looking like an interesting fellow and I haven’t even begun reading his actual words yet, just the long and fascinating introduction. His economic and social criticism tended towards the socialist but he never seems to have advocated a socialist system, only made it a point to expose the dirty underbelly of capitalism and wealth accumulation and how those captains of industry used both to manipulate most things to working in their favor.
While I am deep into the Veblen introduction and looking forward to reading his work for myself because it sounds like it just might be more relevant than ever, along comes Dark Money by Jane Mayer from the library. Dark Money is about the billionaires behind the radical right, the Koch brothers mainly but also Richard Mellon Scaife, John M. Olin, and other names that are likely not recognizable though the names of their companies might be. This small group of radical right billionaires believe that the purpose of government is to protect private property and individual rights.
These men — so far it seems they are all men — work quietly behind the scenes pouring their money into think tanks and schools and super pacs in order to influence the public and politicians alike. They would like to see all government regulation removed, no environmental protection agency, no Occupational Safety and Health Administration to protect workers. They would like all social programs eliminated from Social Security to unemployment benefits. Anything that interferes with their wealth and power they aim to undermine.
They are like Ayn Rand on steroids. It is terrifying.
Currently I am learning about private foundations and how the wealthy use these as tax shelters — they get tax write-offs for their “donation” to their foundation while at the same time they continue to have full control over that money and can market themselves as philanthropists. But since they are in charge of their own foundations, they can take trips and do all sorts of things in the name of the foundation which then pays the bills because the ski trip to Switzerland was for charitable purposes.
It is infuriating the things these billionaires get away with. But what I see as them getting away with something, they see it as their right, what is owed them. Their disdain for the general public is astonishing and yet they have managed to convince a good swath of that general public that it is for the best to make laws and policies that benefit the super rich at the expense of their own self-interest. My blood pressure goes up every time I read the book.
Veblen and Dark Money make quite the pair. I hope I survive it.
It was recently reported that one of the Kochs is planning to vote for Clinton. I guess we will find out soon enough, if that is true.
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Richard, I heard that and I am not sure if I am amused because there are no Republicans he thinks are worth supporting or terrified because he thinks Clinton isn’t against his interests.
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He knows that Clinton is an insider and that she’s a master of the big money game herself. She’s one of the very type philanthropists, in fact, that you described in your post here. He is more worried at this point about a wild card like Trump who is unpredictable than he is someone like Hillary because he knows her and he can safely predict that nothing will change in his world.
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Sam, you are very likely right about that.
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It is also terrifying to me that many do not know who the Koch brothers are. I think this is all very serious, no wonder inequality is growing. We need bloggers like you who write about these things
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Valorie, yes, it is not generally known and the Kochs intended it that way. Most of their doings are through third parties to make it more difficult for the money to be traced back to them. We need more books and journalists who are willing to expose these radical right wing billionaires for what they are 🙂
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I find themes converging all the time, but I wonder if that’s just because my mind has been opened up to view things in a different way from now onwards…
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MarinaSofia, hmm, now I hadn’t thought of it in quite that way. You might be on to something.
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I’m just starting ‘The Portable Veblen’ (fiction version) … looking forward to seeing what future reading this will imspire!
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Who would have thought that Ayn Rand would be the most influential novelist of the 2oth century? It seems even more bizarre over here where she isn’t quite so famous but the same economic/political trends are very much in evidence. In a sort of mirror of communism, libertarianism soon proves to have a rather totalitarian tang to it. I suppose things seemed just as dark when Veblen was writing, his plutocrats seemed just as untouchable as ours….going to be a hard fight though.
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Ian, I know, it’s crazy! Especially since her actual prose writing is horrible. Yes, it is frightening how extreme libertarianism smacks of totalitarianism. These men tend to think that Hitler and Mussolini are great role models and the Kochs have taken a cue from the Hitler Youth organizations and created some of their own in order to change public opinion — get them while they are young. That Veblen wrote during the Gilded Age under economic inequality similar to current day, it is a wonder people aren’t talking about him more.
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Shoshi, heh, you might be compelled to read Thorstein Veblen too! She also talks frequently about William James who I have been interested in reading for ages. You just never know what else a book might inspire you to read. I hope you like The Portable Veblen!
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The Koch brothers are foul gits. Seeing entitlement in action (especially in a capitalist system) is always astonishing, though.
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Elle, yes on the Koch brothers and entitlement. It’s eyeopening and I fear I might turn into a terrible cynic after this book if I am not careful.
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Becoming a cynic has been one of the most liberating experiences of my life. I recommend it!
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What an give up my optimism? 😉
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I tend to read two nooks at a time. I often see parallels. Sometimes these commonalities exist between very different books.
I think that Dark Money would drive me crazy.
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Brian Joseph, it is rather fun when the commonalities show up, though in this instance I wish the subject matter was a touch more pleasant because, yes, Dark Money makes me not just crazy but very angry.
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Sometimes when I read fiction, I think, “That is simply too fantastic to believe, too over-the-top.” Then I think of history both past and in progress, and only wish it were fiction.
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jenclair, sad but true. There is a reason for the phrase, “stranger than fiction” 🙂
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That is some reading!! It is very disturbing that the rich keeps getting richer and the poor are struggling even more every day! Something needs to happen vis-a-vis equitable distribution of wealth and resources; but unfortunately, the more you have the more you covet!! Very disturbing!
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cirtnecce, the weather is getting warmer and sunnier and my reading is getting heavier and darker. It is indeed disturbing and you and I can pretty much do nothing to change stop it.
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I think Dark Money would just make me mad too. Still it sounds like a very worthwhile read.
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Rachel, definitely worthwhile if you want to be informed.
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I get the whole Koch brothers thing, believe me, and I hate their influence as much as the next guy…but I don’t understand why people give George Soros a free pass for doing much the same thing with his billions.
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Sam, I’m sure Soros takes advantage of tax shelters, etc just like all the other rich people do and on that he should not get a free pass. However, Soros does not fund the Heritage Foundation and other organizations that seek to undermine government nor does Soros fund “scientific studies” to prove climate change is false. The Koch brothers do.
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I have Dark Money on my audiobook wish list, and now I’m even more curious / terrified. I’m so interested in this, and I hope to get to it soon. But I know my blood is going to be boiling the entire time I read it.
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Emily, be sure to listen on sunny days or have lots of chocolate on hand to help you fee better.
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This is quite a pair of books! Good luck with them. It isn’t hard for people like the Koch brothers to do a lot of damage without the public knowing about it. The Bush presidency did an enormous amount of damage to certain agencies (like OSHA and the Office for Civil Rights) that I didn’t know anything about until I started looking into it for my job.
As for Koch and Hillary Clinton, I can’t decide whether he’s genuine or whether it’s a ploy to make it harder for the Democrats to unite behind a single candidate in November.
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A.M.B., it is quite a pair. You are right about the Koch brothers being able to do a lot of damage without people knowing about it. It’s apparently pretty easy to hide the money trail. I suspect with Koch and Hillary it might be something like Sam suggested above, Hillary is a known quantity and she isn’t going to do anything to seriously upset the status quo when it comes to wealth inequality and government regulation.
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Yes, Hillary is a known quantity, which is both good and bad. I find it hard believe Koch would prefer to her any Republican candidate, though, even Trump. I doubt he agrees with her stance on Dodd-Frank, for example. Besides, for Koch to really get what he deserves, it would take a massive power shift in Congress. The Presidency won’t affect it as much as I would like.
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All the time! I call it reading synchronicity. I often wonder how real the synchronicities are or whether we can actually make links between almost anything we read? It seems to happen too often!
As for what you are reading, good luck – I agree re those rich people. Scurrilous.
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whisperinggums, hmm good question. I suppose we all have pretty good imaginations and could probably find a like between anything we read. It might be a “six degrees of separation” kind of link sometimes but no doubt we could suss it out 🙂
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I reckon we could if we tried – but I do agree that there are times when they are very obvious.
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I’m completely with you on this. I thought that Trump was bad enough when he started throwing his weight about in Scotland – and no planning laws were able to stop him.
It seems quite spooky how often I inadvertently have a run of books which end up having similarities. I once read three books on the trot, completely different types of authors and they all had characters who ran the water, just pretending to wash their hands when in the loo!!
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