Forum Post: "The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself"
Posted 12 years ago on Feb. 20, 2012, 9:31 p.m. EST by GypsyKing
(8708)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
To all those who don't want to sign petitions because it reveals their names:
Holy shit people are really like that? Talk about fucking spineless!
I will never question my own perceived cowardice again.
I think we have been raised on a culture of fear. They don't call the TV the fear-box for nothing. That's why I refuse to watch it. Just turning off the TV is the first step towards sanity, as I'm sure you know.
I have had many people allude to the fact of revealing their names as a reason not to sign petitions, and there has been a petition out recently to help save a family from eviction that has this movements name on it; yet they are still far short of the needed 1000 signatures. I'm assuming people are reluctant to reveal their names. But after all, signing a petition is a fairly easy thing to do, unless you have a firm political stance against it.
Ever since the McCarthy era, I think there has really been a fear of getting involved in politics on the part of a lot of people, and why wouldn't there be? A lot of people were destroyed then because they had once been a member of the Communist Party, regardless of whether their participation preceeded the Stalin tragedy, (not to mention all the intimidation of minorities.)
Stalin, rather than Hiler, did more damage to democracy (and the whole notion of freedom of thought) than anyone in history. And yet, I I still believe in democracy - because it is based upon the insights of humanity for 2,500 years, and more importantly, on 2,500 years of trial and error.
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
This speech so clearly reveals a really grand vision of human potential, along with a moral clairity concerning the rights of man (that I think has been absent from the American political debate in recent decades) that I think the whole this worth reading several times. This is what we once were. This is what we can be again. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
FDR was about the politics of hope. Today we live with the poitics of fear. Pres. Obama tapped into the politics of hope in his '08 campaign. His opposition has spent the last three years hypothetically and with a smug sarcasm asking "How's that Hope and Change thing working out for you?" They're still selling the politics of fear. No wonder people don't vote. No wonder people are so disgusted by politics that they turn their backs from it.
They are relentlessly promoting our self-destruction. Let's disappoint them. It really seems to be a battle to see which is more tenacious, good or evil. Let's disappoint the evil by showing them they are wrong to believe that evil is more powerful than good.
Let's do our best.
Yes, that's all we can do.
That fear was the product of semiotics in media using fear in many, many ways to condition people to be afraid of their own society.
A classic example is the bumper sticker, "I Love My Country but Fear My Government", it is an oxymoron.
Agreed. In a democracy people simply can't be afraid, and turn away from participation. To do so leaves the process open to those who would userp their power.
Yes, in the republic its demand upon the representatives. An extension of that is the saying with many variants, "Bad things happen while good people do nothing."
Of course if they don't know, can't know, or won't know, they think they are off the hook. When it is the conditions around them, the environment they depend on, and its getting as bad as it is, people will wonder in the future what was the matter with people today. They won't be able to imagine that the people could not see the disaster forming around them, of them and with them. Simply with attitudes altering their perceptions.
"The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit."
"Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men."
FDR - He always there to remind us.
Thank You - our last real leader! God I wish we could raise him from the grave! Never have we so desperately needed real leadership!
only a wealthy person (FDR) would say that money doesn't matter.
Skylar, you really are a dualistic kind of guy. Quite interesting. I get it.
Sure. Can't get your economic policies passed? Try packing the Supreme Court!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_Procedures_Reform_Bill_of_1937
He knew how to deal with royalist obstructionists.
So says a very rich man. Real leader? Hmmm... Let's see: established the modern welfare state. Deliberately baiting Imperial Japan into attacking us, constantly violating international neutrality laws. Yeah. A great leader.
Only a staunch Repug would make such a statement Chugwunka.
Am I right?
Nope. Not a repug or even a filthy demo. Either of you left wing scum care to refute what I wrote?
Oh, so repugs aren't filthy, just dems. Sounds like you support repugs more than dems to me. And left wingers are scum, but not Repugs.
Oh yeah, I can see your a repug, and definitely lean that way. But nice cover to make yourself seem to be objective. Your choice of words clearly shows your not sitting on the fence. You actively hurl insults to the side you hate. Your words stand.
Try again!
You are one of the do best people on this site. Go away Marxist fuck.
Repugs are Marxists now! Wow what next.
Isn't Mommy calling little trash mouth boy!
It's time for that soap mouth.
What, that nonsense about him letting the Japanese attack Hawaii and destroy our entire pacific fleet? I'll refute it right now as ludicrous historical revisionism. At that time it looked very much like Hiler had already won the war, and intentionally losing the pacific fleet would not have been a help, I can assure you. That story is just another bit of garbage cooked up by the Right-wing talk radio lunatics.
WWll was started by hitler in 1939 with a false flag invasion of poland. the battle of britain was 1940. he never succeeed with britain. Pearl Harbor was 1941.
At the time of Peal Harbour, all of Europe was already in German hands. Britan apperared to be doomed. If Britan had fallen, which most saw as a given at the time, we would have lost our last hold on the continent of Europe. Our victory over Hitler would then have been gravely in doubt. Nice time to intentionally sacrifice a navy.
That story is a lot of bullshit cooked up to discredit Roosevelt, for the very reason that he stood up for the people, against the interests of the ruling class.
england was not. churchill knew about the concentration camps, he was more concerned than fdr. fdr would not bomb the rail lines that led to the camps. fdr was a socialist. that's why he's a liberal icon.
Listen very carefully: if you look at your saints official actions in the months before December 7 and add the Japanese perspective at the time ( and the correspondence between him and Churchhill) his actions are obvious. Never mind. You are beyond any education. Marxist asshole.
Sorry, there's no historical evidence to support that claim, and I defy you to present any that hasn't been manufactured by the right-wing lies industry.
Yeah okay. Now I know you are just another liberal robot. Fuck off. If you can't conceive of anything outside of the Marxist propaganda you've been taught then you aren't worth talking to. Live in your liberal bed wetter world view. It's safer that way.
I'm still waiting for that evidence.
Try reading some history. And you are starting to doubt. Just a little bit... What you were taught in high school was propaganda.
I have read a LOT of history. That's why I know.
Yeah, he created Social Security, so that average Americans could have SOME protection from absolute exploitation. Jeez, what a jerk! He thought of someone but himself! What a mamby-pamby, bed-wetting liberal!
Your contempt for other people's circumstances in life would make Hitler proud! That's the real reason guys like you hate Roosevelt, because in your heart of hearts you were, or are, secretly on the side of Hitler.
Welfare, by the way, came later.
Yup, all great things. Too bad you don't see that, but it's your loss, not mine, not the millions of Europeans he saved form Nazi hands, not the millions he raised from abject poverty and starvation at home, not the millions he saved throughout the Pacific from Japanese imperialism. Wish we had a few more of those.
Stalin saved Europe from the nazi's . We helped him Enslave 1/2 of Europe. Oh, that's right. You Marxist garbage think communism is wonderful.
Yeah, the Cold War was all about supporting Stalin. ROTFLMAO.
You really are a moron.
Are you serious? Who the ripe fuck is talking about the Cold War you fucking commie retard? You are out of your depth here. Go away filth.
Hey, shit-for-brains, if the liberal "commies" were supportive of Stalin, would Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, etc, have opposed the Soviet Union? That opposition was called the Cold War, in case that little fact slipped right by the half a brain cell you call a mind. That "commie" kennedy launched the Bay Of Pigs because he was SUCH a communist sympathizer.
Duh!
By the way, I'm here to support OWS. You, obviously, are not. So the going away should really be done by you. Maybe you could go away from the planet as well: there is too much pollution here already.
One more time. The issue is not post war. It is pre/during the war. Godmutherfuking damn you have to be the most uneducated asshole on this site.and you fucking liberals were the "useful idiots" of the 30's when Stalin was murdering millions. God DAMN get an education!
Roosevelt did not support Stalin, you idiot. There was a wee little common enemy called Hitler to deal with. Or did you forget that part? Or Is it that you wold have preferred Hitler? Yup, there were lots of good choices there, weren't there?
Stalin took eastern Europe over the objections of Roosevelt and Churchill (and then Truman). The alternative would have WWIII. I'm sure that would have been preferable to you, though.
Roosevelt created lend-lease, a way around the isolationists who wanted America to stay out of the war. He then went on to lead America's defeat of Hitler and the Empire of Japan. He did this after he got this country of of the Great Depression. He set up Social Security, which has kept tens of millions of seniors from starving to death. He set up unemployment Insurance to make sure people weren't reduced to destitution while looking for a new job if they lost one. He established a minimum wage so people could survive while working a job.
Yeah, what a big bad communist. He actually helped Americans. How evil.
You are what people scrape off the bottoms of their shoes if they step in it accidentally. Only you stink more.
Go away and try to get your sister pregnant again.
Your grasp of history is appalling. You are an idiot. Go away.
You go away. You are the one who hates OWS. Go back to your shit hole.
Must be a Reagan lover. They have a certain smell.
Put more than 100,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps. Nobodys perfect.
I'll grant you that - that was a mistake. As you say, nobody's perfect.
Don't mention that. Facts are interfere with the Lefts revisionist propaganda. Oops, I mean history...
he took the usa off the gold standard ,tried to enlarge the supreme court by adding 6 new justices that would agree with him on everything.
Nixon took us off the gold standard. Facts don't seem to influence either of your opinions at all.
fdr made a speech telling the people of the usa to turn in to the govt all their gold coins.
Man, you guys just slither and slide. I caught you in an outright lie, "he (FDR) took us off the gold standard," and then you're right back at it again, spewing more lies. What kind of people are you, really - do you ever look in the mirror?
June 5, 1933, the usa went off the gold standard( a monetary system in which the currency is backed with gold).
"Turn over." what clever wording to misconstrue the facts. You're not as dumb as you're pretending to be.
the usa went off of the gold standard june 5 , 1933.
On, and on and on . . . shamelessly.
june 5 1933, congress enacted a joint resolution nullifying creditors the right to demand payment in gold. in 1934 the price of gold was set at 35$ per ounce, where it stayed until aug 15 , 1971 when nixon announced that the govt would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed amount, completely abandoning the gold stand forever. i was right about fdr ,he started it, though nixon finished it.
I have a 95 year old buddy who talks about that like it was yesterday.
"Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men."
I see the message is getting through is spite of all attempts to sidetrack hinder, etc. Thank you.
Why is it we hear endlessly about Reagan, who, poor guy, I'm not sure could tie his own shoes, and nothing about FDR, who took us through the worst economic crisis, and the worst war of all time and left us sitting at the top of the world? Man, that's just crazy!
They were both human and each had warts. Reagan successfully made Americans feel energized after going thru Watergate and the Iranian hostage humiliation. He had charisma along with the media protecting him and many Americans prospered.
FDR was a great leader. Several quotes from his speech are applicable today and are the issues where most people agree. Many of his programs helped great numbers of people. The unity of the people during WW2 was the spirit this country needs now! Greed was not good during WW2, and the greedy were aware and acted accordingly. At the end of WW2, America alone was 50% of the worlds economy.
Getting the message through is happening but I continue to worry that's it not enough to make the radical changes needed. The 99% must become the 99% by focusing on Equality.
All right, I won't split hairs with you here. I believe, as you do we, that the nation is in a crisis, and I appeal to conservatives as well as liberals to unite to fend off the challenge to the ideals that we both hold dear. We must unite to save our democracy. How else can we go on bickering with each other, which let's face it, we have always loved to do?
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