Are we the "unpeople"

We must recognize that based on the statistical composition of the foreclosure data that we are not looking at a homeowner induced epidemic.  Clearly the issues are systematic even if you base it solely on pure numbers of foreclosures and expectations of future foreclosures.  The system is flawed is the only reasonable and definable explanation for the sheer numbers we are looking at. 

For those who want to continue to attempt to blame individuals, whether a third party or yourself, all you have to do is consider the nature and mass of the epidemic in order to see the truth.

No unorganized mass of individuals without combined structure or intent could have begun such an enormous influence.  You, as a homeowner, are clearly not at fault for the systematic abuses that are the real base for the situation you each independently find yourself in.  Please stop blaming yourselves and start defending yourselves.  You must look after YOUR FINANCIAL INTERESTS because nobody else is taking up the cause.

Commentary from Noam Chomsky follows:

The many Americans whose lives have been damaged by financiers' single-minded focus on short-term profits at the expense of everyone else are only a harbinger of what is to come. Financial elites remain in charge, as evidenced by recent "financial reform" legislation that does not even reinstate the Glass-Steagall law separating investment and commercial banking. New York magazine has described how Obama officials blocked even inadequate reforms, let alone the stronger proposals from Nouriel Roubini, one of the few major economists to foresee the economic crash. Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Simon Johnson tells us "our banking structure remains -- and the incentive and belief system that lies behind reckless risk-taking has only become more dangerous," thus setting the stage for an even worse crash than that of 2008. And, as U.S. competitiveness continues to decline and it cannot afford its endless wars without drastically cutting social spending, countless more Americans will find themselves paying the price for U.S. elites' imperial mentality.

In today's system, Chomsky explains, to "stay in the game," CEOs must maximize their own short-term profits while treating the costs of doing so as "externalities" to be paid by the taxpayer.

Chomsky thus argues that human survival requires changing the system, not merely periodically replacing those running it. His "Hopes and Prospects" covers President Obama's first year in office and the many "hopes" that he has so profoundly disappointed because of a system that virtually requires "doublethink" of its leaders. Obama was undoubtedly as sincere when he spoke of "our fidelity to the rule of law and our Constitution" at West Point on May 22 as he was six months earlier when he secretly approved Gen. David Petraeus' proposal for a "broad expansion of clandestine military activity" worldwide that "does not require the president's approval or regular reports to Congress."

Obama also presumably holds two contradictory opinions when he continues Bush policies he so recently criticized and promised to change: extending executive power to indefinitely imprison people without trial, torture (though by allied rather than U.S. torturers), indiscriminate killing (particularly by escalating in northern Pakistan, as described in Truthdig, "Unintended Consequences in Nuclear Pakistan"), and supporting Israeli policies precluding a two-state solution. Chomsky also observes that Obama could not have been elected in the first place, given his greater need for campaign funds from above than fidelity to his voters below, had he not been prepared to continue these imperial policies.

Chomsky's explanation of the American system's imperial mentality also illuminates a seeming mystery: How could decent people like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama commit so much evil? Our concept of evil is shaped by such paranoid psychotics as Hitler, Stalin and Mao, who all hated their victims and openly lusted for power. We do not yet understand that in today's American system the problem we face is not so much inhumanity from the mad and evil as "ahumanity" from the sane and decent.

As the American economy and polity continues to unravel and suffering mounts at home and abroad, however, a mass movement may arise that is capable of saving America and the world. If so, such a movement is likely to attempt solutions of the sort Chomsky proposes. Here are two out of a far larger number:

State capitalism for the many: The American Enterprise Institute's chief declared in a May 23 Washington Post Op-Ed that "America faces a new culture war," between "free enterprise" offering "rewards determined by market forces" and "European-style statism." "Hopes and Prospects" explains at some length, however, why this formulation is absurd. America's "free enterprise" system has always been based on massive government aid, from the Army building 19th century railroads, to the Pentagon's post-World War II role in building the Internet and Silicon Valley, to today's "rewards" to Wall Street and oil companies determined not by market forces, but those companies' political clout. America has been practicing "state capitalism" since the founding of the Republic, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future no matter which party is in office.

The real choice, Chomsky makes clear, is not free enterprise versus statism, but state capitalism for (A) the few or (B) the many. The latter would include breaking up the banks, a focus on job creation and safety net expansion where needed, single-payer health insurance, higher taxes on the wealthy, far lower military spending, public members on corporate boards, greater employee workplace control and, above all, a new public-private partnership to see America become a leader in a clean energy economic revolution.

A Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone and Two-State Solution in the Middle East: Chomsky proposes that rather than continuing to engage in senseless fighting and confronting Iran over nuclear weapons, U.S., Israeli, Arab and Iranian interests would be far better served by the U.S. using its enormous military and economic clout to create a Mideast nuclear weapons-free zone that Iran says it is willing to accept, and a comprehensive and fair Israeli-Palestinian settlement including Hamas' promised recognition of Israel and cessation of rocket attacks. A major benefit to the U.S. would be to reduce the threat of domestic terrorism. For only a comprehensive new policy that addresses the source of anti-U.S. hatred -- U.S. war-making on civilians and support of corrupt and vicious local regimes -- can reduce it.

Fifty years ago, Americans were told that the North Vietnamese communists were so evil that 55,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese had to die, and much of Vietnam had to be destroyed, in order to keep it "free." But for 20 years now, despite the triumph of the communists, Vietnam has been a normal trading partner of the United States and poses no threat to its neighbors. Could the Middle East also be normalized were U.S. leaders to use their enormous power to promote peace rather than war? Maybe, maybe not. But it is obvious that the risks of trying to do so are far less than the present dangers of nuclear proliferation, chaos in nuclear-armed Pakistan, Israel-Iran military confrontation and increasing support for anti-American terrorism within the 1.2 billion-strong Muslim world.

That Chomsky's sensible proposals are not seriously discussed is a measure of the ubiquity of U.S. elites' imperial mentality in mid-2010. Chomsky suggests that John Quincy Adams' fear of divine retribution to America for its cruelty to Native Americans is unfounded, and that "earthly judgment is nowhere in sight." Much of his work, however, suggests otherwise. A U.S. elite imperial mentality that once threatened mainly unpeople is today threatening America itself.

The fundamental tension throughout Chomsky's work is between his belief that organizing and popular movements offer hope of change and the overwhelming evidence he presents of elite power precluding such change. On the one hand, he writes that "Latin America, today, is the scene of some of the most exciting developments in the endless struggle for freedom and justice" as its nations improve their citizens' lives by extricating themselves from the neoliberal regime and elect leaders responsible to mass movements from below rather than financing from wealthy minorities above.

But on the other hand, his description of the stranglehold elites hold over both domestic and foreign policy offers little near-term hope for the kind of systemic changes he believes are needed to save the species. It is true that postwar America has not before faced the kind of economic and imperial decline that now awaits it, and this may produce possibilities for systemic change. But they are nowhere yet in sight.

(Noam Chomsky is an American philosopher emeritus professor at MIT)