Government Subsidies Look Different from the Top

Bundy's remarks on African Americans made people instantly distance themselves from him, even the most conservative of politicians such as Rand Paul.

This situation illustrates the  power using hierarchy theory. When Bundy speaks with authority from the top of his own hierarchy - a white male rancher whose family has received government subsidies for generations - he can sound reasonable to a segment of the population. But when he switches into another hierarchy such as race and talks about a group that's not on top of that hierarchy, then he sounds so ridiculous and clueless that he loses his support.

People who want to conserve hierarchies can be set up to look ridiculous by forcing them to discuss more than one hierarchy at a time. This is done by taking an issue pertinent to the situation such as government subsidies and force the conversation onto other groups who are associated in their minds about government subsidies.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/24/politics/bundy-and-race/

Cilven Bundy - American Indians Had it Way Before the Mormons

Cliven Bundy states that his rights to graze his cattle on federal land derive from the fact his Mormon ancestors were using the land far before the federal government claimed authority. The BLM has ordered his cattle off the land. 

Using that rationalization, then his Mormon family has no rights to even be on the land. Since the American Indians occupied the land before him, and the federal government used its authority to take it away from the Indians, then what he claims as his grazing rights are really those of the American Indian. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/04/15/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-long-fight-between-cliven-bundy-and-the-federal-government/

Paul Ryan - Even More to the Top

Paul Ryan’s new budget spells out clearly yet another move to channel resources to the top of hierarchies. We’re glad that those who are so intent on conserving out-of-date hierarchies are being bold enough to spell it out with math, adding clarity to their rhetoric of “Premium Support” and "Path to Prosperity” Ryan used to describe the programs in his budget.

Even though the budget has no chance of becoming law, the budget passed the House with a 219-205 vote, with only Republicans voting yes. There’s tax cuts to the wealthiest and corporations while increasing taxes to the middle classes. Safety-net programs for the poor would fall to the whims of individual states. Medicare would morph into an option to purchase insurance from private corporations.

The Radical Right is slipping. As they keep playing their hand to prove their loyalty to the top, the rest of us understand their motives even more clearly.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/10/house-ryan-budget_n_5128586.html

Hierarchies Keep Us NOT Number One

According to an article today by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, we in the United States may fancy ourselves to be number one in men's professional basketball, people like Katy Perry, use of iPhones to post on Facebook, aircraft carriers, and blame for the C.I.A.

But when it comes to livability, we definitely are way down the list. And as the conservatives who want to conserve hierarchies become even more blatant in their efforts, the rest of us who are charged with generating the resources to send up to the top will continue to feel our lives become even more difficult.

We will fall even lower than the ranking of 16th we currently hold.

Kristof suggests change starts with education and health care. However, conservatives will consider those social reforms after we keep funding the military, so to continue their elusion that even if our middle class is falling apart, we will still be Number One on the world hierarchy if we have the biggest guns.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/opinion/were-not-no-1-were-not-no-1.html?rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article