Lawrence Tribe:  There have been times here when a less punishing, more “egalitarian” form of governance worked to the advantage of many more people than our government does now. That is because it was more “loaded” in favor of laws that limited rampant exploitation of labor and money.  Recently controls have been released in favor of exploitation of the vast majority of the population to the point where they are increasingly jobless, moneyless, discouraged and in poor health.
  This former, better government was ruled by Constitutionally guaranteed citizen rights, plus reasonable legal controls on exploitation (which have been rescinded bit by bit in recent decades).
The government was called “democracy” or “a democratic republic”—not “socialist” which is a word that has intentionally been falsely propagandized as “evil” and “impossible.” 
  Fact is, we don’t need to change the name of anything; we just need to reinstate our Constitution,
stop promoting wars, and begin to work together for the common good.  It’s not impossible. In fact, it could even happen—provided we decide we want it enough.

gerard,
i understand what HG meant by the terms “gated” [communities] and “fortress”.
however, i decided to limn separateness, seclusion from; and disdain, uncaring for, say, 80% of americans by gated communities as
too deep a divide.
alas, sorry to conclude, the divide cannot be rendered less deep to any useful degree by any other means but by political work.

there is nothing the ‘elite’ does not know; thus, there is no use whatever addressing it, pleading with it, debating with, or protesting
their uncaring for, anger against the 80% of the americans.

according to ALL US Laws, what is yours is yours and no one has the right to it—provided, of course, one made hisher money or
acquired wealth legally. in US, that law is sacred. you cannot go against it!
listen to what ron paul says about this matter. he goes as far to say that you do not have a right to healthcare. according to him, you
gotta pay for it; you can’t demand or expect anyone to pay for your healthcare, house, etc.

you can change the laws of the country. it depends on the 80 or 90%. it does matter if one is protesting or spending much more
time on educating people.
perhaps, one can do both. and one needs very little money to teach the 80% that they can enact laws that would not allow one
person to become 10, 100, thousand times richer than another person.

regarding the financial meltdown and bailouts, all that was legal; all 3 branches of the govt affirmed that that was legal, morally
correct, and necessary thing to do.
and i expect [hope i am wrong] protest will not prevent wars, other melt downs or prevent govts to give your money to banksters.
and i am very doubtful that protesters will be able to persuade 51% of congress to not once again steal from you and give your
money to s’mone else.

balkas: The way I understand Giroux and his use of the memtaphors “gated” and “fortress” means the isolation, atomization, confinement, loneliness, alienation, and the resulting lack of ability to act as a nation in the nation’s benefit.
  This metaphor is fairly obvious to many millions of Americans in one way or another, and they are also beginning to see how the mechanisms of “surveillance” play into that isolation and dis-empowerment.
  The Occupy movement is the first large outcry forming to address this widespread alienation and trying to correct some of the interlocking problems that have caused it.  I plead for all of us who write here to consider in what way we can help to heal this alienation, by coming to realize that in a thousand different ways we ourselves are apt to “gate” our own selves behind walls of self-defense
and counter-aggression instead of addressing the
problems that are limiting and directing our own lives.

it seems to me that the occupy wall street and americans are as much occupied by
foreign troops as is palestina, afgh’n, iraq. there are army bases in US. they are
controlled 1%
to my knowledge, no one to date has noted this fact. if, on the other hand, US
army would occupy and threaten the ONE PERCENT, we would see some changes
for better.
so, is all this protesting in vain while america is occupied? probably!

We here at Truthdig should be brought to a serious consideration of what we are doing.  Giroux points out specifically: 
  “One particular challenge now facing the Occupy movement and the growing public intellectuals that reject the zombie politics of casino capitalism is to provide a multitude of public and free access forums—such as Truthout, Truthdig, AlterNet, Counterpunch, Salon, and other alternative media spaces as well as free learning centers where knowledge is produced—in which critically engaged intellectuals are able not only to do the work of connecting knowledge, skills and techniques to broader public considerations and social problems, but also to make clear that education takes place in a variety of spheres that should be open to everyone.”
  We probably owe more to this site than we usually give it in the way of respect and thoughtful exchange of serious opinion. I know I myself regret every time I get involved in personal exchanges that are off-point and destructive.

yes, there are deep divides in US. perhaps by far more than in any other land.
divides, deep or too deep, exist on personal, ethnic, cultic, educational, racial, and cultural levels.
these are foundations of a state we call USA, but in fact is just a region ruled with iron fist by richer families.
how to diminish such differences? let’s keep in mind that such differences are sacrosanct to the 1 percent.
it owns the army, police, cia, fbi, sales/production/money, and most police. in short, have all the powers
needed not only to maintain the divide, but also to deepen them.
altho americans are divided, most of them, say, 90%, are deeply united in one area and that is constitution/and
supremacist ideology.
and in spite of the fact that nobody knows what constitution says or means! and i also expect that the holy of
holies, the constitution, will continue to thwart progress, justice, peace, equality, etc.

Thank you for a fine article Mr. Giroux ! I wish more people would have the
opportunity to read it.  I also wish those who will read it will be able to
understand it.. By the looks of some of the comments, that is sadly not the case.  I
have emailed it to friends and hope they pass it on as well.  Thank you again !
Don Schneider , Havana Florida

US system of rule [and not only US, of course] had been founded on the
ancient notion of irresponsibility of one person for another.
the question arises, did the fathers [what happened to mothers? not
good enough, huh?] of the confederation know that? and the hell it
would create for so many americans and especially for ‘aliens’?
and i suggest that billionaires and multimillionaires know that and know
it is a constitutional/legal/moral demand one not give a rat’s ass for
another person or even a mass of people. thanks, bozhidar b.

In part, this means educating a new generation of intellectuals,

In total it means brainwashing people and then calling them intellectuals simply for being mind-numbed Leftists.

So many words, all standing for anger…Does the right wing care about your words?

No because they have the government and the police by the balls.

The left is like a child shouting unfair, when they find out life is unfair. In a child mind
proof of unfairness should be enough to bring about some sort of change.

But here we are, living among mountains of unfairness, mountains higher than the
Himilaya’s.

Words, and more words, wiill not change this. Confucius said something like a superior
man acts first, then speaks according to their actions.

A bit a broad brush here; I fail to see how Thomas Friedman fits into the category of gated intellectuals, since he espouses education, critical thinking, social responsibility, and democratic values.  Otherwise, an excellent article.

litlpeep

I hate to break the news to you, but the work of fiction (the bible) that you quote a fictional charactor (Jesus) from, also calls for women to be treated as property, thinks slavery is OK, and tells everyone to OBEY their kings and leaders without question. Religious fundamentalism has played a pivitol roll in the continued enslavement of the majority by a very small, very wealthy, and very ruthless ruling class.

It goes back in our history to the faulty belief in american exceptionalism. There are an awful lot of americans that still believe that old “land of opportunity” and “all I have to do is work hard and I can’t help but succeed” bullshit. By any measure, america is now a facist state. And with the current system in place, our oligarchs have nothing to fear.

We are living in a new era of robber barons, and there is not a Teddy Roosevelt in site.

There is also, the fanatics of denial notwithstanding, the possibility of some enterprising young christian woman or man discovering the teaching from Jesus, in Luke 17:21, “behold, the kingdom of god is within you.”  When this discovery is made, two things are likely: the rabid god talkers will prove themselves to be little more than rabid; it is also likely some others will recall, or encounter, the eastern traditions, from which today’s human potential explorers have discovered that every one of us is our own authority.

In the christian tradition, this authority emerges from the voice of god within us, from his kingdom within us - all we need do is remain in quiet prayerfulness awaiting god’s will to indicate our direction; from the eastern traditions, the voice of the universe speaks through every one of our bodies, if only we sit quietly and still in meditation and await that voice or presence to indicate our next step.

As Blake mentioned two centuries ago: all religions are one.  Until we appreciate this oneness, there will continue to be silly little boys strutting over the global stage pretending to be men with their war cries, every such war cry reducible to something like ‘my god is better than your god.’

Be well.  Be at peace with our god.

It is ancient knowledge that at some point in human activities, “the principles of self-preservation and self-interest undermine, if not completely sabotage, political agency and democratic public life.”  It is also ancient truth that the opposite is true: at some point collective activities completely sabotage individuality.  Finding the healthy balance between the two has been a political ideal for thousands of years.  However, we have drifted into an era where the political right has become so convinced of its collective convictions it not only stifles the whole collective political deliberative process; it has destroyed the mental capacities of its own members.

Since the Civil War the right wing of US Politics, sometimes dominated by one of the two hack parties, sometimes by the other, has pursued increasingly reactionary governmental policies to the point of now dramatically reducing the nation to a stark choice: nazi/fascist ungoverned capitalist government or starvation.

Why so many followers of those two obnoxious parties, the democrats and the republicans, cannot see this is a serious mystery that cannot be exhaustively explored too quickly.