SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGIST JANINE WEDEL DISCUSSES THE SHADOW ELITE

Award winning public policy scholar and anthropologist Janine Wedel has written a most brilliant book which gives us a framework to begin discussing the reasons for the decline of the United States. This is one of the most fascinating and enlightening books I have ever read. Most of us know our country is in trouble yet we can’t really put our finger on what the core issue is. The solution will be very complicated. I believe the key is for people in this country to understand what is happening and have the ability to identify those who are engaging in this shadowy shape-shifting she describes. Once we can identify them we must stop electing them to office and figure out how to regulate their activity. If we want to save our democracy (after being wrongfully imprisoned I guess I really should say get it back) we have to as citizens educate ourselves and put a stop to those who violate our trust and use us for their own profit and agenda. This is perfect timing for this information, we have all seen that our healthcare reform was used as a means for grand opportunity as we were all being told it was for our benefit and many have had their eyes opened. It will take me a while to finish reading it because I am constantly taking notes and I read more than one book at a time.


Professor Wedel was clearly nervous at times while speaking, especially in the last video. She does some stuttering and repeating, but these videos are very much worth listening to.

SHADOW ELITE, CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, TAALAM ACEY

Yesterday I discussed in my post the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowing voting for inmates and one of the purposes of incarcerating large numbers of blacks, decreasing the number of Democratic Party votes. Today I started reading Shadow Elite by Janine R. Wedel. I have just started and the book is brilliant so far. She explains the details of the strange relationships between the government and private concerns ("flex webs"). Gives names to the different types of players such as "flexians". Explains why they get away with their criminal/unethical behavior, playing more than one role at a time displaying only the most palatable one to the public, and that we have no way of controlling them because they create the systems of regulation as a comfort zone for themselves. She describes how this strange overlapping of relationships between bureaucracies and private corporations is driven by interests of particular tight knit cliques of people who are running our country. She has studied this phenomenon for years in other countries and determined this happens when a society is undergoing fundamental changes.

The injustice of people being put in prison to benefit the agenda/ finances of others as well as the injustice of our country being manipulated by corporate, `christian`, and many other interests causing our legislative process to be neutered has gotten me thinking of politicians like Cynthia McKinney(A truth teller demonized by the right and corporate media) and the poetry of Taalam Acey.