[Not-so] Love Lockdown, Prologue (1/4): Do Convicted Criminals dream the American dream?

Do convicted criminals dream the American dream?

Sure they do - Just look at freshly sentenced criminals Rajat Gupta (former Goldman board member), R. Allen Stanford (sentenced to 110 years in prison without parole), and of course Grandaddy Ponzi himself, Bernie Madoff. Hell, these guys even lived the American dream, with its fast cars, deep pockets, luxury yachts and diamonds for the ladies in life.

Now, these riches-to-rags storybook characters are scheduled to rot in a Federal penitentiary for the rest of their lives, leaving exponentially more finances and possibly life plans ruined in their wake. All this justice, of course, conducted in order to dissuade other current or would-be criminals from acting...in exactly the only way they know of how to get to the American dream - Get Rich or Die/Go to Jail Trying.

50 Cent was on to something

A rather paradoxical message, given the global rash of government-bank bailouts and the continued reliance on the instruments (i.e. financial markets) of who-dares-wins capitalism. But enough of this suddenly-fashionable bashing of fallen financial idols. It seems like just yesterday when activist judges, juries, and members of the media started defending the rights of convicted rapists, murderers, gang-bangers and the assorted denizens of American death row - new and vindicating/damning DNA evidence notwithstanding - so I'm sure public opinion will grow weary of its latest social witch-hunt sooner or later, and that District Attorneys/Federal Prosecutors will likewise find some other scapegoats upon which to build their reputations on the docket. Sooner or later, our generation's To Kill a Mockingbird of the early 21st century will be published, this time admonishing the veritable inquisition of financial criminals during a time of long-term recession and entrenched unemployment.

Yet even in a time of economic downturn, when Wall Street becomes an easy target of Main Street's wrath, no one seems to be pissing on how the wildly-popular (and mostly plastic) Kardashians, the train-wreck-of-an-excuse-for-a-man Charlie Sheens, or the well-paid, drug-snorting Lindsay Blohan-type celebrities don't pay "their fair share" of American taxes. Plus Justin Bieber- he's CANADIAN!! Where is that money going??

oh...nevermind.

What compelled me to finally write original content for the blog again - and a three-part series, at that - was a combination of many factors, the premier of which was my roommate's comment that, "no offense, but I think the American Dream is more of a Dream than a Reality."

Week in Review: Occupy US, Baby

From Guy Fawkes to bin Laden, from Obama to the Titanic, Tommy, Iraq, and the burning
Übermensch, we've covered a lot of ground this week on Conflict Revolution. Don't miss a beat in our weekly countdown:

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1) Matt raises the roof on D.C.'s building height ordinances. Is building skyscrapers (or even just above the 20th floor) just about real estate developer greed? Or is the character of the city itself at stake?

2) Speaking of capitalist hubris - and no, I'm not at even at the May Day socialist posts yet - would you like to take a voyage on the new Titanic?

3) We enter the complex and conflicted world of the Middle East with Kennan K. as our guide, as he breaks down Iraq's tenuous present and future dilemmas vis-a-vis Iran and the rest of the region like a boss;

4) Phil rambles about the unlikely but politically feasible alliance between socialism and anarchy as the Occupy Wall Street movement prepares itself for an "American Spring (& Summer)"

5) The man, it burns! The Burning man and his furry friends;

6) Matt likewise burns some straw men over why we should continue to support American space exploration;

7) And he also burns some Caps fans for leaving the Verizon Center too soon.

8) Tommy's inaugural Take (TiT?) blasts off into cyberspace - believe us when we say, now there will be blood

9) Das Übermensch Brett Aho cometh: "Not everyone needs to go to college...Fraulein."

10) And last but definitely not least, the crown jewel of Conflict Revolution itself, the master-debaters Stephen and Matt:

OSAMA BIN OCCUPIED PART 1: WILL OWS SURVIVE??

OSAMA BIN OCCUPIED PART 2: OBAMA CAN HAZ CREDIT??

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!

Email Discussion: Osama bin Occupied, Part I

Yesterday was a very interesting news day, as the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death competed for attention with International Worker's Day 2012, sought after by the Occupy Movement as a jumping off point for its grand re-entry into the American political discussion.  In honor of both Socialist Christmas (in the indomitable Stephen Siena's words) and the SEAL team that killed bin Laden, Mr. Siena and I exchanged some brief barbs on both topics.  Stay tuned tomorrow for some back and forth on the killing of Osama... in the meantime, our thoughts on Occupy, below:

Stephen: Matt, do you think Occupy Wall Street will become relevant again and more importantly for the election?

Matt: I hope the message carries forward into the general election, but I also fear that the messengers have discredited themselves.  At a certain point with Occupy, the message got overshadowed by the shenanigans, and I think that's really unfortunate, because the initial protests, while lacking specificity, tapped into something among the broader American public that has been lingering under the surface for quite some time. It's not just income inequality, either.  It's the broader sense that the game is rigged, and those with disproportionate amounts of wealth and power are finding it easier than ever to write the rules to their advantage. As I said, however, rather than successfully channeling this frustration, as the movement did at its outset, 'Occupy' has become more synonymous with outlandish behavior than it has with any tangible message.  It's become a caricature of itself and I think that's a real shame.

Stephen: So your answer was that it would not play a role? (Though you seem to leave open the possibility that the sentiment could). I agree with this. However do you think that they could have created the same spirit and been true it while professing an organized structure?

OWS: Socialist Anarchy, or Anarchistic Socialism?

RE: Socialism and the state of the Occupy Wall Street movement as of May Day [WaPo], it strikes me (no pun intended) as extremely ironic that the "anti-institutional" core beliefs of a movement, which invokes "V for Vendetta" and Guy Fawkes-inspired images of anarchy at every turn, would suddenly throw its weight behind a socialist message - the most naturally institutional cause of all, as an artificially-induced redistribution of capital. Indeed, besides the effects of winter and getting kicked out of protest spaces by law enforcement, OWS failed to capitalize on any meaningful policy gains despite international media attention because it lacked centralized leadership or central figures around which the movement could coordinate and focus its impact.

http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-political-meaning-for-guy-fawkess.html

The idea of no centralized leadership and the destruction of institutions is so fundamental to anarchy that it stands in complete conflict with any idea of an institutionalized social compact between the state and its people, and history shows that the possibility of an alliance between anarchism and socialism is logically impossible. Yet as Stephen has already alluded in his morning update, political socialism is once again on the march around the world and in the United States, even if many social welfare policies are precisely what have bankrupted Europe and sent America spiraling into debt. It's also what is most politically feasible [WaPo] given the harshness of existing economic conditions and future austerity measures: In a world with zero or negative growth and stagnating employment, capitalism quickly loses its luster. 

Hit the jump to read more on how OWS can revive itself in 2012...

Morning Links: May Day (International Workers’ Day): the Socialist’s Christmas

For those of you were were not history majors or somehow got here and know nothing about socialism (if you got here knowing Matt, this seems highly unlikely) here's some info on May Day (International Workers’ Day). 

Since today is May Day, let’s do a socialist themed morning update.
 

"BUFFET RULE" TAX PLAN FAILS IN SENATE TEST VOTE

So, what's next?

Also, check out this assessment of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement: It's dead. Is it?

(Photo credit to Craig Hudson)