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People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy
Humanity is on the verge of its darkest hour -- or its greatest moment
The consequences of the technological revolution are about to hit unemployment will spike as new technologies replace labor in the manufacturing, service, and professional sectors of an economy that is already struggling. The end of work as we know it will hit at the worst moment as capitalism fosters permanent stagnation, when the labor market is in decrepit shape, with declining wages, expanding poverty, and scorching inequality. Only the dramatic democratization of our economy can address the existential challenges we now face. Yet, the US political process is so dominated by billionaires and corporate special interests, by corruption and monopoly, that it stymies not just democracy but progress.
The great challenge of these times is to ensure that the tremendous benefits of technological progress are employed to serve the whole of humanity, rather than to enrich the wealthy few. Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols argue that the United States needs a new economy in which revolutionary technologies are applied to effectively address environmental and social problems and used to rejuvenate and extend democratic institutions. Based on intense reporting, rich historical analysis, and deep understanding of the technological and social changes that are unfolding, they propose a bold strategy for democratizing our digital destiny -- before it's too late -- and unleashing the real power of the Internet, and of humanity.
The consequences of the technological revolution are about to hit unemployment will spike as new technologies replace labor in the manufacturing, service, and professional sectors of an economy that is already struggling. The end of work as we know it will hit at the worst moment as capitalism fosters permanent stagnation, when the labor market is in decrepit shape, with declining wages, expanding poverty, and scorching inequality. Only the dramatic democratization of our economy can address the existential challenges we now face. Yet, the US political process is so dominated by billionaires and corporate special interests, by corruption and monopoly, that it stymies not just democracy but progress.
The great challenge of these times is to ensure that the tremendous benefits of technological progress are employed to serve the whole of humanity, rather than to enrich the wealthy few. Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols argue that the United States needs a new economy in which revolutionary technologies are applied to effectively address environmental and social problems and used to rejuvenate and extend democratic institutions. Based on intense reporting, rich historical analysis, and deep understanding of the technological and social changes that are unfolding, they propose a bold strategy for democratizing our digital destiny -- before it's too late -- and unleashing the real power of the Internet, and of humanity.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published March 8, 2016
39 people are currently reading
588 people want to read
About the author
Robert W. McChesney
52 books103 followersRobert Waterman McChesney was an American professor notable in the history and political economy of communications, and the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. He was the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He co-founded the Free Press, a national media reform organization. From 2002 to 2012, he hosted Media Matters, a weekly radio program every Sunday afternoon on WILL (AM), Illinois Public Media radio.
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May 16, 2016
“Each generation is as independent as the one preceding, as that was of all that had gone before. It has then, like them, a right to choose for itself the form of government it believes most promotive of its own happiness.” ---Thomas Jefferson
“It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people---whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth---is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.” ---Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” ---Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
“The poor man who takes property by force is called a thief, but the creditor who can by legislation make a debtor pay a dollar twice as large as he borrowed is lauded as the friend of a sound currency... The man who wants the people to destroy the Government is an anarchist, but the man who wants the Government to destroy the people is a patriot.” ---William Jennings Bryan
Today’s word is “weltanschauung”. It is a German word that literally means “perception of the world” that has taken on a slightly broader definition. Today it is used by political pundits hoping to sound really intelligent as a way to sum up the current political philosophies and world-views that predominate in society. It’s similar to another German word, “zeitgeist”, which literally means “time spirit” and refers to the general trend in thought and belief at a particular time in history.
Weltanschauung, as used by Robert McChesney and John Nichols in their book “People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy”, refers to the dangerous new political trend in this digital age to make a vast majority of average American citizens feel obsolete and unnecessary within the political sphere. According to McChesney/Nichols, this feeling of obsolescence is due to both accidental reasons as well as an intentional campaign by certain members of society.
Completely by accident, or at least resulting from consequences that were mostly unintentional by the actors, humans have gradually become obsolete members of the workforce. This is due in very large part to technological advances, such as robotics, that have reduced the need for workers in almost any field. Other major technological advances regarding computers and the scientific field known as artificial intelligence are predicted to completely revolutionize the workforce, primarily by making virtually all human beings---with the exception of a select few with extremely specialized knowledge---unnecessary.
In other words, according to M/N, the future may see unemployment rates double or even triple due to the fact that there will simply be no jobs to be had by human beings. Why hire a person when a faster, stronger robot that doesn’t sleep or eat or need to get paid can do the work of ten humans?
This may seem like the realm of science fiction, but when one looks at the technological advances that are happening right now at an exponential rate, it doesn’t seem that far-fetched.
In a 2013 study by Oxford University, it was predicted that 47% of existing jobs in the United States will be eliminated permanently, and the resulting unemployment rate would be somewhere north of 50%. (p.105) To be fair, according to M/N, many other factors would have to fall into place for this to be a reality, so this “gloom and doom” scenario is far from an accurate forecast.
Still, in 2014, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, in a commission on the state of the U.S. economy, stated that, due to automation, “there is no reason to believe there will be jobs for all people at socially acceptable wages... The rapid pace in computer innovation of routine tasks has rightfully worried policymakers, as this scale of automation has little precedent in industrialized economies. (p.105)”
Of course, the fact that no one is in dispute on the negative trend of job losses due to automation should send shivers up one’s spine. Everyone---from scientists to economists to politicians---agrees that it’s going to get worse and it’s probably never going to get better.
Strangely enough, M/N aren’t advocating a Luddite revolution against the machines, a la “The Terminator”. (Well, not just yet, at least...)
It’s not the machines’ fault, according to M/N. They were simply built to do a job, and the fact that they do it better than humans is actually a testament to human ingenuity. No, technology is not to blame here.
Actually, the real culprit is capitalism, according to M/N. More specifically, it is a group of capitalists who control the politicians who are taking advantage of this trend toward joblessness and creating a political sphere in which the basic foundations of democracy upon which this country was built are being stripped away and destroyed.
Topics of discussion and new ideas are constantly being taken off the table. Socialized medicine, efforts to ameliorate effects of global climate change, making the wealthy pay more in taxes, capital-gains taxes, reducing military spending, free public education: all of these, and more, are topics which many politicians won’t even listen to, or they pay lip service to the topics to make it look like they actually have an interest, when, in fact, they are in the back pockets of wealthy corporations and lobbyists who pay for votes on policies that serve the interests of corporations and the wealthy at the expense of average American citizens.
M/N make it pretty clear, too, that both political parties are guilty of the same crimes. Neither parties have, at heart, the interests of the general public. Democrats suckle the corporate teat just as much as Republicans. Changes must be made, but it is becoming more and more evident that those changes will NOT be made by those at the top. Why should they, when the status quo works so well in their favor?
Progress must be, and will be, made from the bottom up, not from the top down. Revolution is inevitable. The type of revolution that occurs will be determined by the level of peoples’ feelings of desperation and disenfranchisement. It will also depend on how willing the few powerful people at the top are willing to alter the weltanschauung and allow for radical social changes.
“Indeed, most writers assume capitalism as it has come to be known is the basis for democracy and freedom, and that whatever happens in the future, the necessity of preserving current capitalism (or some sped-up version of it) all but trumps other concerns. Nothing should be done to alter the power of the digital giants or the unquestioned dominance and legitimacy of the profit motive when it comes to defining the future. Even the truest believers in capitalism, if they are honest with themselves, have to recognize that this is a political gambit, a means for taking the biggest issues off the table. When we cannot have a wide-ranging debate about economics, then concentrated economic power translates into general cultural power. This is the nature of the present weltanschauung. We live in a time when it is illegitimate to say that the emperor is wearing no clothes. (p. 249)” ---Robert McChesney and John Nichols
“It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people---whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth---is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.” ---Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” ---Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
“The poor man who takes property by force is called a thief, but the creditor who can by legislation make a debtor pay a dollar twice as large as he borrowed is lauded as the friend of a sound currency... The man who wants the people to destroy the Government is an anarchist, but the man who wants the Government to destroy the people is a patriot.” ---William Jennings Bryan
Today’s word is “weltanschauung”. It is a German word that literally means “perception of the world” that has taken on a slightly broader definition. Today it is used by political pundits hoping to sound really intelligent as a way to sum up the current political philosophies and world-views that predominate in society. It’s similar to another German word, “zeitgeist”, which literally means “time spirit” and refers to the general trend in thought and belief at a particular time in history.
Weltanschauung, as used by Robert McChesney and John Nichols in their book “People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy”, refers to the dangerous new political trend in this digital age to make a vast majority of average American citizens feel obsolete and unnecessary within the political sphere. According to McChesney/Nichols, this feeling of obsolescence is due to both accidental reasons as well as an intentional campaign by certain members of society.
Completely by accident, or at least resulting from consequences that were mostly unintentional by the actors, humans have gradually become obsolete members of the workforce. This is due in very large part to technological advances, such as robotics, that have reduced the need for workers in almost any field. Other major technological advances regarding computers and the scientific field known as artificial intelligence are predicted to completely revolutionize the workforce, primarily by making virtually all human beings---with the exception of a select few with extremely specialized knowledge---unnecessary.
In other words, according to M/N, the future may see unemployment rates double or even triple due to the fact that there will simply be no jobs to be had by human beings. Why hire a person when a faster, stronger robot that doesn’t sleep or eat or need to get paid can do the work of ten humans?
This may seem like the realm of science fiction, but when one looks at the technological advances that are happening right now at an exponential rate, it doesn’t seem that far-fetched.
In a 2013 study by Oxford University, it was predicted that 47% of existing jobs in the United States will be eliminated permanently, and the resulting unemployment rate would be somewhere north of 50%. (p.105) To be fair, according to M/N, many other factors would have to fall into place for this to be a reality, so this “gloom and doom” scenario is far from an accurate forecast.
Still, in 2014, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, in a commission on the state of the U.S. economy, stated that, due to automation, “there is no reason to believe there will be jobs for all people at socially acceptable wages... The rapid pace in computer innovation of routine tasks has rightfully worried policymakers, as this scale of automation has little precedent in industrialized economies. (p.105)”
Of course, the fact that no one is in dispute on the negative trend of job losses due to automation should send shivers up one’s spine. Everyone---from scientists to economists to politicians---agrees that it’s going to get worse and it’s probably never going to get better.
Strangely enough, M/N aren’t advocating a Luddite revolution against the machines, a la “The Terminator”. (Well, not just yet, at least...)
It’s not the machines’ fault, according to M/N. They were simply built to do a job, and the fact that they do it better than humans is actually a testament to human ingenuity. No, technology is not to blame here.
Actually, the real culprit is capitalism, according to M/N. More specifically, it is a group of capitalists who control the politicians who are taking advantage of this trend toward joblessness and creating a political sphere in which the basic foundations of democracy upon which this country was built are being stripped away and destroyed.
Topics of discussion and new ideas are constantly being taken off the table. Socialized medicine, efforts to ameliorate effects of global climate change, making the wealthy pay more in taxes, capital-gains taxes, reducing military spending, free public education: all of these, and more, are topics which many politicians won’t even listen to, or they pay lip service to the topics to make it look like they actually have an interest, when, in fact, they are in the back pockets of wealthy corporations and lobbyists who pay for votes on policies that serve the interests of corporations and the wealthy at the expense of average American citizens.
M/N make it pretty clear, too, that both political parties are guilty of the same crimes. Neither parties have, at heart, the interests of the general public. Democrats suckle the corporate teat just as much as Republicans. Changes must be made, but it is becoming more and more evident that those changes will NOT be made by those at the top. Why should they, when the status quo works so well in their favor?
Progress must be, and will be, made from the bottom up, not from the top down. Revolution is inevitable. The type of revolution that occurs will be determined by the level of peoples’ feelings of desperation and disenfranchisement. It will also depend on how willing the few powerful people at the top are willing to alter the weltanschauung and allow for radical social changes.
“Indeed, most writers assume capitalism as it has come to be known is the basis for democracy and freedom, and that whatever happens in the future, the necessity of preserving current capitalism (or some sped-up version of it) all but trumps other concerns. Nothing should be done to alter the power of the digital giants or the unquestioned dominance and legitimacy of the profit motive when it comes to defining the future. Even the truest believers in capitalism, if they are honest with themselves, have to recognize that this is a political gambit, a means for taking the biggest issues off the table. When we cannot have a wide-ranging debate about economics, then concentrated economic power translates into general cultural power. This is the nature of the present weltanschauung. We live in a time when it is illegitimate to say that the emperor is wearing no clothes. (p. 249)” ---Robert McChesney and John Nichols
November 27, 2017
This book was good...well sort of. It made for a decent read on all things the Bernie Sanders campaign message has been espousing for more than a year and a half now. Kind of surprised the Democrat challenger for the 2016 White House nomination didn't write a foreword to this book. Perhaps, there wasn't enough time on the campaign trail. This third collaborative effort from the Robert McChesney and John Nichols duo team was ripe as usual with relevancy and, at times, accuracy. However, reading chapter by chapter and page by page felt rather underwhelming lacking in the sense of urgency that the book title prompted. The tone of the book shifted back and forth from optimism of what the U.S. could become out of this dire moment in history and one of stark leeriness of what is to come out of all this. Here, I am referring to today's current situation each of us finds ourselves in--a digital, technological landscape of a late capitalist, neoliberal global economy spawned by the forces of the financialization of Wall Street and the innovation of Silicon Valley rendered by giant corporations operating in oligopolistic markets. Here, opportunities are slim, the space to operate more unstable and gray, and the kind of inequities caused by this institutionalized system totes the line of survival. This book elaborated on this issue as automation and digital technology will continue to lead to widening economic inequality and joblessness if not severe underemployment. Rather than a profound message of scaling down my resources, curbing any growing appetite of me to be a mind-less consumer, re-thinking savings over investing, building on concepts of generational wealth, letting go of middle-class nostalgia, and so on I found long-winded factoids of late 19th century and early 20th century history. Rather than adding to Gar Alperovitz's approach to worker-owned co-opts as a new approach to running small and large businesses or piggy-backing off Richard Wolff's idea of economic enterprises run in the interests of communities where its members all participate with the movement and flow of commerce shielding hegemonic influences of corporations to dictate economic policy in certain locales I am forced to read through the Founding Father's vision of democratic governance and why/how the new system of government today got it all wrong.
The messengers (the authors of this book) came off as quaint storytellers, revisionist historians, naive moralists, cursory economists, and brash journalists. It may have served the book and its audiences well if they chose one of these occupations--perfected it and stuck it through for the overall message. So much of the content, the meat of this book felt redundant and highly theoretical. How can such practical matters like high student loan debt from rising college costs and de-industrialization of many companies who have moved oversees leaving many high and dry be challenged with armchair philosophies of utopian principles? I applaud McChesney and Nichols for taking on such a known yet still barely reported and discussed issue affecting a large and diverse body of residents of the United States. However, one walks away after reading this book without any real sense of direction and handle of what is going on much less the practical approach to shifting collectively from this downward spiral we are going down.
As a Millennial facing the reality of a jobless economy where underemployment has become the norm and retirement savings seem as idyllic a dream as the tooth fairy was when I was a kid I found the book way too theoretical on concepts of "democracy", "equality", "freedom", and "justice". I mean what does "democracy" really mean to us in the unemployment line or when we get that eviction notice or when management at work hands us a pink slip? Why is McChesney and Nichols, leading writers and voices on the Left, spending hundreds of pages in their latest book discussing to me Thomas Jefferson's vision and FDR's policies that can be a reminder to helping us curb the complex global reality we are facing today? I mean--I'm no pessimist in the large scheme of things but I doubt the historical ascendancy of battles fought in America's past whether on the frontlines of civil activism or the enacting of newer laws and policies is the thing that will lay the seed for an effective change of where economic inequality, and a jobless economy is leading us into.
The Left, Democrats, and liberalism in the 21st century often face this battle in discussing such dire problems on many different platforms for dissemination. At one hand, they see themselves as the outcriers, the zealots in documenting, distributing, and telling the laypublic (and their constituencies) what is going on and why its important for us all to come together to rally. On the other hand, they are compelled to find and lay out solutions to address such problems whether that be in protest or voting. The problem is that their solutions--perhaps due to ill-timing or incoherence--are half-backed, impractical, naive, or simply dripping with utopian idealism reminiscent of American Transcendentalist philosophers like Emerson and Thoreau. Seriously, who among us everyday Joes is really talking about "democracy" with one another? And, unless, we walk away from working and identifying with urban civil society and move into wild nature leaving everything behind we need a new approach--one that requires a more careful use of language.
The messengers (the authors of this book) came off as quaint storytellers, revisionist historians, naive moralists, cursory economists, and brash journalists. It may have served the book and its audiences well if they chose one of these occupations--perfected it and stuck it through for the overall message. So much of the content, the meat of this book felt redundant and highly theoretical. How can such practical matters like high student loan debt from rising college costs and de-industrialization of many companies who have moved oversees leaving many high and dry be challenged with armchair philosophies of utopian principles? I applaud McChesney and Nichols for taking on such a known yet still barely reported and discussed issue affecting a large and diverse body of residents of the United States. However, one walks away after reading this book without any real sense of direction and handle of what is going on much less the practical approach to shifting collectively from this downward spiral we are going down.
As a Millennial facing the reality of a jobless economy where underemployment has become the norm and retirement savings seem as idyllic a dream as the tooth fairy was when I was a kid I found the book way too theoretical on concepts of "democracy", "equality", "freedom", and "justice". I mean what does "democracy" really mean to us in the unemployment line or when we get that eviction notice or when management at work hands us a pink slip? Why is McChesney and Nichols, leading writers and voices on the Left, spending hundreds of pages in their latest book discussing to me Thomas Jefferson's vision and FDR's policies that can be a reminder to helping us curb the complex global reality we are facing today? I mean--I'm no pessimist in the large scheme of things but I doubt the historical ascendancy of battles fought in America's past whether on the frontlines of civil activism or the enacting of newer laws and policies is the thing that will lay the seed for an effective change of where economic inequality, and a jobless economy is leading us into.
The Left, Democrats, and liberalism in the 21st century often face this battle in discussing such dire problems on many different platforms for dissemination. At one hand, they see themselves as the outcriers, the zealots in documenting, distributing, and telling the laypublic (and their constituencies) what is going on and why its important for us all to come together to rally. On the other hand, they are compelled to find and lay out solutions to address such problems whether that be in protest or voting. The problem is that their solutions--perhaps due to ill-timing or incoherence--are half-backed, impractical, naive, or simply dripping with utopian idealism reminiscent of American Transcendentalist philosophers like Emerson and Thoreau. Seriously, who among us everyday Joes is really talking about "democracy" with one another? And, unless, we walk away from working and identifying with urban civil society and move into wild nature leaving everything behind we need a new approach--one that requires a more careful use of language.
March 11, 2020
The end is near! Repent you sinners! And obey this new prophet who has fasted for 40 years in the academic desert.
September 11, 2017
Deeply unsettling in its description of how democratic infrastructure has declined over the past few decades, and more so in its depiction of how narratives to mask that decline are deployed by politicians in support of an enshrined but woefully insufficient capitalism. The authors take a data-driven approach to their outlining of the problems caused by a shrinking job market and lack of true representation for large portions of the population, but are also inspiringly optimistic in that they believe that those problems aren't insurmountable.
The course of action McChesney and Nichols advocate (it's refreshing when books like this actually lay out a road forward as well as a critique, however needed, of the status quo) is one that's necessary but unlikely to get any political traction anytime soon, short of a sea change of epic proportions in both our politics and our dominant economic models. Luckily for us, they argue fairly persuasively that we can create that sea change, and back up that assertion with numerous examples of times when, against all odds, people actually *have* led movements in times of similar crisis to great effect.
In a country that's gripped by enervating political apathy, this is a call to arms to take back our political destiny and stop ceding control of our jobs and votes to corporate interests. It's tempting to view our situation as hopeless and our ability to change events as negligible, but to do so is to concede a contest we quite literally cannot afford to lose. My only complaint about this text is that the vast majority of the people reading it probably already agree with its core message, because these issues deserve widespread and urgent attention.
The course of action McChesney and Nichols advocate (it's refreshing when books like this actually lay out a road forward as well as a critique, however needed, of the status quo) is one that's necessary but unlikely to get any political traction anytime soon, short of a sea change of epic proportions in both our politics and our dominant economic models. Luckily for us, they argue fairly persuasively that we can create that sea change, and back up that assertion with numerous examples of times when, against all odds, people actually *have* led movements in times of similar crisis to great effect.
In a country that's gripped by enervating political apathy, this is a call to arms to take back our political destiny and stop ceding control of our jobs and votes to corporate interests. It's tempting to view our situation as hopeless and our ability to change events as negligible, but to do so is to concede a contest we quite literally cannot afford to lose. My only complaint about this text is that the vast majority of the people reading it probably already agree with its core message, because these issues deserve widespread and urgent attention.
April 28, 2016
terrible, pessimistic & constant redundancy with little point or solution
December 3, 2020
I enjoyed reading this book. Both of the authors clearly know what they are talking about, and I think they did a great job of fully explaining each of their points and ideas and also providing lots of historical context and examples.
The books is mainly about how our country is moving towards automation leading to high unemployment, and a lack of strength in many of our democratic institutions to allow us to effectively fight inequality. I think they lay out this potential future very convincingly, and it is pretty depressing, but they also provide many ideas and solutions of things we can do to avoid it, making things not feel so hopeless.
Also, the book was published in 2016, but it really could have been written this year. A lot of what they talk about seems to have only become accelerated by the current administration, and made more visible by the pandemic. I definitely don’t agree with all the solutions put forward by the authors, but I really appreciated their analysis of the state of our economy and democracy as a whole.
The books is mainly about how our country is moving towards automation leading to high unemployment, and a lack of strength in many of our democratic institutions to allow us to effectively fight inequality. I think they lay out this potential future very convincingly, and it is pretty depressing, but they also provide many ideas and solutions of things we can do to avoid it, making things not feel so hopeless.
Also, the book was published in 2016, but it really could have been written this year. A lot of what they talk about seems to have only become accelerated by the current administration, and made more visible by the pandemic. I definitely don’t agree with all the solutions put forward by the authors, but I really appreciated their analysis of the state of our economy and democracy as a whole.
March 7, 2021
I like the diagnosis of the jobless economy and democracy crisis authors are baking with stats and data, but historical chapters don't inspire actions. On the contrary, the suggestion is to wait. Still, not easy, but interesting book.
June 16, 2019
A very well written and thought out book. People get ready discusses the future of automation/robotics and how the society isn’t ready for the change/surge. It will hit the world like a tsunami and unemployment will sore. Private business and companies use robots/automation to increase profits unwillingly knowing that they’re putting the future of unemployment into turmoil. Jobs that will be gone to automation/robots include but are not limited to are chefs, delivery drivers, taxi drivers, accountants, doctors/nurses at GPs, factory workers, service desk assistants, and sales assistants. However, the book isn’t what I thought it would be and is more about the last 100 years of American politics than automation/robotics. But still a very interesting read nonetheless. Highly recommended 🖖.
August 4, 2016
I hope I see People Get Ready carried at every political rally, on negotiating tables, on reading lists for best book of 2016, and on the night stand of anyone willing to read about how to bring about (realistically) the Citizen's Revolution. In the spirit of Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader...Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Bill Moyers, and Thom Hartmann, McChesney and Nichols have written a political textbook on the U. S. Constitution, democracy, economics, activism, labor, social progress, journalism, politics, voting rights, ethics, finance, and the media. Its documentation and academic support secure its place as a resource and anthem for citizens who care about current events in America enough to get involved. Its academic foundation merely gives it a starting point; the book provides the blueprint for social activism: People Get Ready.
Personal Note: My tribe is with Bernie Sanders and I write this a week after the Democratic National Convention secured Hillary Clinton's nomination. But I do not lose heart. Reading McChesney and Nichols has serendipity for me because it has deepened my understanding of how important it is not to surrender to the market forces of economics or the prevailing winds of political champions but to continue to advocate for citizens' rights in my community in this digital age. There is so much at stake.
People Get Ready is the anthem for the movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L82_N...
Personal Note: My tribe is with Bernie Sanders and I write this a week after the Democratic National Convention secured Hillary Clinton's nomination. But I do not lose heart. Reading McChesney and Nichols has serendipity for me because it has deepened my understanding of how important it is not to surrender to the market forces of economics or the prevailing winds of political champions but to continue to advocate for citizens' rights in my community in this digital age. There is so much at stake.
People Get Ready is the anthem for the movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L82_N...
October 12, 2016
This book does a good job of making a powerful argument for why it is essential to work now on building a stronger democratic infrastructure. It is a heavy, but very thought provoking read. The authors go into the economics, philosophy, politics, and history of how we have formed as a nation and how we are changing rapidly. One of the ways that they very skillfully demonstrate change is in how technology is rapidly removing jobs from our economy. The economic and social ramifications of this job removal seems to me to be a large reason there is such anxiety in or populace, and yet it seems like the elephant in the room which most people are unaware of. The statistics and references are very convincing and unsettling. They also carefully layout how our government has changed, by more and more wealth being concentrated in a smaller and smaller part of our population. That wealth is being used to get government to do what it suits it interests best. They argue that this is effectively causing citizens to feel that they have no say and that the governance is not up to them, hence the citizenless democracy. I appreciate the part of the book that looks carefully at our history and reminds of us times in our past we have, as a people made dramatic corrections and change, almost paradime shifts in our beliefs and thinking. The book is well footnoted and researched.
November 1, 2016
0: The number of questions asked during the 2016 Presidential debates about the automation revolution that's about to hit our economy like a sack of bricks.
People Get Ready is a must-read book of our times, a book that discusses real issues while offering real solutions. On its face, the book may sound like some "woe is us" anti-technology screed against the technological advances to come. However, it is the exact opposite, in fact People Get Ready argues that we are the ultimate masters of our fate.
We cannot change the technology that will soon change our lives, however we can change our political landscape that will either make it livable for all us or livable for a select few. People Get Ready examines our past and present to help explain where our future should go, if we wish to have one at all.
Definitely read this book.
People Get Ready is a must-read book of our times, a book that discusses real issues while offering real solutions. On its face, the book may sound like some "woe is us" anti-technology screed against the technological advances to come. However, it is the exact opposite, in fact People Get Ready argues that we are the ultimate masters of our fate.
We cannot change the technology that will soon change our lives, however we can change our political landscape that will either make it livable for all us or livable for a select few. People Get Ready examines our past and present to help explain where our future should go, if we wish to have one at all.
Definitely read this book.
July 22, 2016
This book describes the problems of America currently: capitalism running amok. Workers will soon be all replaced by robots, profits will be the only thing that matters, the rich will control the government completely. All these trends have been described well by others so not much controversy there.
The controversy is in the radical solutions. Heavy taxes on the rich, to provide a basic income for everyone. Free schools, roads, education, healthcare; nationalize the 'too-big-to-fail' banks; public-paid-for regional and national media, even central planning a-la-China.
This is a book trying to encourage the masses to mobilize to ask for a better democracy. Unfortunately, it may turn America into a socialist/communist country. Tough.
The controversy is in the radical solutions. Heavy taxes on the rich, to provide a basic income for everyone. Free schools, roads, education, healthcare; nationalize the 'too-big-to-fail' banks; public-paid-for regional and national media, even central planning a-la-China.
This is a book trying to encourage the masses to mobilize to ask for a better democracy. Unfortunately, it may turn America into a socialist/communist country. Tough.
July 23, 2016
So very hard to read lots of history not much hope. Saw the authors on Book TV and they promised hope but I did not find any. The examples of jobs lost at Kodak and other industries where thousands of jobs have been lost never to be replaced was very disheartening. The State of the Union address by FDR in 1941 with the economic bill of rights that he hoped would be America’s future has yet to be realized. The Citizenless Democracy was not understandable.
July 6, 2016
Great Book which was deeply considered and researched (and footnoted). Will let you know that you need to stay ready all the time and always be improving yourself because your job could disappear or creep away before you know it. Your kids need to be ready too.
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March 23, 2016Saw John Nichols while he was on book tour in seattle, inspired to buy book...
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