history channel: The men that built America.

[anunitu]

I just recently watched this series on the history channel and was really struck by just how nasty the uber capitalists screwed the ordinary people. people like John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan. In the series it shows how John D. Rockefeller caused a depression in the 1870's by closing a refinery just to get back at Vanderbilt because he controlled the railroads. From this I understand why we have laws banning monopoly's. And I now understand why we keep hitting recessions and depressions over and over again. We the people are nothing more than pawns in the private uber rich games of control.
I know there is little most of us can do to change the games of state and the games of economy that shape our world sometimes to our distress. It is sad that perhaps most negative economic trends may be simply by the whim of the super rich.

Had to get this out of my brain where it was burning a hole in my sanity.
Good program,but it seems to more contend that these men helped our country grow,but with very negative results for the common working people of these times. I think it was kinda biased toward the movers and shakers,and the negative effects on the common people glossed over.

Watch it if you have the chance.

Almost forgot the link.

http://www.history.com/shows/men-who-built-america

[Ula]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

It was very interesting and some of it I knew grouping up near where this all happened. Pittsburgh has Carnegie's name on everything.

[MaskedOne]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

There is no such thing as 'just a pawn' and anyone who says otherwise likes getting their ass kicked at chess. Pawns shape the battlefield. Those who cannot or will not use pawns properly get *****ized repeatedly and without lube by those who do.

As for real life, shrug, a significant degree of mortal power is the ability to move other people on your behalf. Pawns aren't simply assets for the rich, they're the source of their power. Money doesn't do a lot of good unless people actually want it for something. Excessive pawn abuse has been known to backfire.

[Maria de Luna]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

There is no such thing as 'just a pawn' and anyone who says otherwise likes getting their ass kicked at chess. Pawns shape the battlefield. Those who cannot or will not use pawns properly get *****ized repeatedly and without lube by those who do.

As for real life, shrug, a significant degree of mortal power is the ability to move other people on your behalf. Pawns aren't simply assets for the rich, they're the source of their power. Money doesn't do a lot of good unless people actually want it for something. Excessive pawn abuse has been known to backfire.

Real life does'nt work like chess, wish it did and I could move out of the way of the approaching train and have it tear down the jackass rook, but I can't. Doing it would have me removed from the field, where I would be even less than a pawn. Which is why pawn abuse works.

[Raphaeline]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

Real life does'nt work like chess, wish it did and I could move out of the way of the approaching train and have it tear down the jackass rook, but I can't. Doing it would have me removed from the field, where I would be even less than a pawn. Which is why pawn abuse works.

Quoted for truth.

[nbdy]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

Welcome to the depressing reality of Elite Theory: "The power elite theory, in short, claims that a single elite, not a multiplicity of competing groups, decides the life-and-death issues for the nation as a whole, leaving relatively minor matters for the middle level and almost nothing for the common person. It thus paints a dark picture. Whereas pluralists are somewhat content with what they believe is a fair, if admittedly imperfect, system, the power elite school decries the grossly unequal and unjust distribution of power it finds everywhere."

[Juniper]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

There is no such thing as 'just a pawn' and anyone who says otherwise likes getting their ass kicked at chess. Pawns shape the battlefield. Those who cannot or will not use pawns properly get *****ized repeatedly and without lube by those who do.

As for real life, shrug, a significant degree of mortal power is the ability to move other people on your behalf. Pawns aren't simply assets for the rich, they're the source of their power. Money doesn't do a lot of good unless people actually want it for something. Excessive pawn abuse has been known to backfire.

Real life does'nt work like chess, wish it did and I could move out of the way of the approaching train and have it tear down the jackass rook, but I can't. Doing it would have me removed from the field, where I would be even less than a pawn. Which is why pawn abuse works.

I *could* be wrong (it's been known to happen on an occasion or three) but I think MaskedOne was only using Chess as an analogy and that the gist of his post was to say that pawns aren't as helpless as they may seem to some people.

[MaskedOne]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

close enough. Pawns win games. Yes, they're the least potent piece but

1) No one wants to lose a higher piece to take a pawn
2) A pawn kills you just as dead if you step inside its reach
3) they get bigger
4) there are 8 of the damn things

so what you've got facing you is a small army that you cannot ignore any part of on one hand but really, really don't want to sacrifice anything larger than one of your own pawns to counter on the other. Pawns stop looking small after you lose a couple games because you've reached end game and your opponent butchers you because he kept one pawn alive and protected.

Real-life, yes there's a lot of pawns but
1) any given one of those pawns may promote out of luck, help, brilliance etc
2) the structures that non-pawns rely on only work because massive supplies of pawns tolerate them.

[Ula]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

Obviously, pawns have some power. Unions changed those industries and continue to do so.

[Maria de Luna]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

I *could* be wrong (it's been known to happen on an occasion or three) but I think MaskedOne was only using Chess as an analogy and that the gist of his post was to say that pawns aren't as helpless as they may seem to some people.

My fault, I felt the need to take the metaphor for a quick jaunt :P

[DanieMarie]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

Pretty much, and it was more or less the same everywhere else. That's why laws were created to break up monopolies, and require some workers rights and stuff like minimum wage. It's also why unions were formed in the first place.

Of course, throughout the 80s and 90s, governments somehow decided we didn't need any of this stuff and we were led to believe we didn't need unions. Deregulation is why we are where we are at the moment. We all need to start fighting to get it back.

[Nordic Druid]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

Capitalism makes life good for a select few, socialism makes life from ok to bad for everyone. I think it would be better if there was no politics and we all lived in the woods. But in order for that to happen we would need a drastically smaller world population, but population controll upsets alotta people, even though we do it to other animals all the time and nobody thinks its bad. In conclusion, were in a huge hole we cant get out of unless we step on alotta peoples heads

[nbdy]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

I suppose our numbers will be thinned -- war, famine, disease, something. Really wish we would tackle it with some sense, but probably not. I sometimes wonder how similar to cockroaches we will prove to be. You know cockroaches can survive for years in a jar with nothing to eat but each other. So -- there's my happy thought for the day.

[Denarius]

Re: history channel: The men that built America.

...Wait, there was actually a show on the history channel about something other than aliens making the pyramids or finding atlantis?

A thing to consider regarding population control: Right now we have all our eggs in one basket, if there's no pressure then there is no short term incentive for extraterran colonization.