From MarketWatch:
Commentary: They’ll be the heroes of the Second American Revolution
American capitalism is broken,” warns economist Peter Morici. Worse, American government is broken with “two bankrupt political parties bankrupting the country,” warns Stanford political scientist Larry Diamond. Why? Because Wall Street is broken: Our engine of capitalism is broken.
Morici warns that Wall Street’s insatiable gluttony is strangling America’s 8,000 regional banks: “About 3,000 regional banks face extinction, and ordinary Americans can only borrow money at government run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or at extortionist rates on big-bank-controlled credit cards.” Time to counterattack, or the clock runs out.
The plan? Hackers are America’s “Hail Mary pass” against Wall Street’s power play to rule America. In fact, hackers may be the only solution left, our last line of defense in this economic class war to save America. Hackers can operate like secret CIA special ops commandos to help take America back from the Wall Street Conspiracy of super-rich.
Yes, only solution. Why? Two bankrupt political parties. Forget gridlock, it’s worse. The GOP will restore Reaganomics for the rich. The Dems are proven gutless fighters. And an activist Supreme Court unleashed the floodgates for billionaires, foreign corporations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobby to gain absolute control of Washington.
So it’s now or never. America is no longer a democracy. Voting is a cruel joke. America is now an anarchy being divided up by and for the rich. Today’s world reminds me of British oppression that triggered the 1776 Declaration of Independence.
Yes, America’s problem is very simple: Wall Street. Capitalism is broken. Wall Street broke it. Beyond repair. And it has no intention of ever changing its gluttonous ways.
That’s been obvious since 2008 when a Goldman insider in the Treasury conned a clueless Congress into bailing out a broken Wall Street. So now Wall Street runs America and our bankrupt political parties will fix nothing without a catastrophic meltdown, class war, revolution.
Two hacker strategies to save America from Wall Street
Listen closely: Once it became obvious 300 million average Americans are handicapped in their asymmetrical economic class warfare against Wall Street and its co-conspirators … obvious that American capitalism is broken … obvious America is an anarchy run by “two bankrupt political parties bankrupting the country” … then it also became obvious that average Americans need extraordinary solutions to level the playing field.
America needs hackers. And fortunately, two hackers strategies already exist. They will eventually revolutionize and transform Wall Street and American politics. The first is the more radical strategy, captured in Steven Levy’s 1984 classic “Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution,” recently published in a 25th anniversary edition.
The second is about an “evolutionary hackers” solution to America’s Wall Street problem. In fact, this hacking trend is already in action, captured in Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams new classic “MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business & the World,” an extraordinary work that focuses on, among other things, how transparency is essential for a capitalist system that works for all economic classes, not just the super-rich.
Why hackers? Throughout history hasn’t America always recovered from the hell of civil war, world wars and many depressions? Doesn’t the resilient American spirit always win in the end? Isn’t hacking subversive? No, not even close to the bold decisions of Washington, Jefferson and the 57 signers of the American Declaration of Independence who went to war against a powerful authority.*The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure.
Hackers: heroes of the Second American Revolution
Imagine Levy’s classic retitled “Hackers: Heroes of the Wall Street Revolution.” Better yet, “Hackers: Heroes of the Second American Revolution.”
You sense that future as a real possibility when reading what Steward Brand (founder of the Whole Earth Catalogue and sponsor of the first Hackers Conference), said in Levy’s “10-year Afterword.” You sense there are computer geniuses out there who can beat a gluttonous Wall Street and do it with the public good in mind. Listen to Brand’s profile of hackers, their passion, values and love of country:...MORE
-The "Tree of Liberty" letter.
From Thomas Jefferson to William Smith.
Paris, November 13, 1787.
He didn't understand that ol' Tom was writing in the context of Shays' Rebellion and the coming unpleasantness in France. The letter continues:
...The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them.Jefferson was a bit deeper and more conciliatory than McVeigh gave him credit for.
