Why Cloward-Piven Will Eat Itself

American Thinker ^ | July 03, 2010 | Hoss Varad

[neverdem]

Long considered a tool for fomenting socialist revolution in America, the "Cloward-Piven Strategy" was a sociopolitical theory developed by left-wing ivory tower-dwellers Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. I'm sure the foil hat-wearing adherents of this line of thinking will complain here about my oversimplification of the plan and general lack of nuance, but basically, it seeks to undermine the (American) government by overloading said government with dependents needing welfare.

Apparently, this will force the government into recognizing that there are a lot of dependents out there (artificially created, no doubt), which would inevitably lead to the United States' government establishing a guaranteed national income or some such poppycock. You see, folks? This is what happens when you let sociologists from the Ivy League be taken seriously.

Sadly, many in the Democratic Party have adopted this strategy as a way to build their base and solidify their political power, believing that Cloward and Piven knew what the hell they were talking about and that, by some miracle, crashing the national economy by using welfare and other government payout programs as a tool would bring about even larger government.

This seems a clear-cut case of throwing the logical conclusion to the four breezes so we can focus on our much-wanted outcome: a socialist fantasy-land for all the little boys and girls everywhere across the land.

Now, I may not be an Ivy League professor or even a lowly graduate, but it seems to me that bloating government and overloading already burdened bureaucracies would totally crash them. As in: they're over. Kaput. No existen más.

If the demands on the state are so great that they force a breakdown of the existing bureaucracies, basically bankrupting the government, how in blazes is it then possible to further increase the size of government to provide everyone the same pay every year? It isn't.

First, adding people to the welfare rolls depletes the numbers of gainfully employed citizens, reducing revenues and increasing government costs. Second, with these new people now dependent on government, they are less likely to seek gainful employment (since getting money for free is fun and all). This will establish a larger permanent welfare class. Third, there will soon arise a situation where those who remain gainfully employed cannot work hard enough or long enough to generate the revenues needed to provide for the ever-increasing number of takers.

This cycle continues until all meaningful revenues dry up and the system essentially chokes on its own largesse and dies. Then, Cloward and Piven would have us believe, a new, bigger government/bureaucracy/candy store of others' labors will arise to make sure everything is fair for everyone forever. This leaves unresolved the question: Now that the government is broke and the productive sector is broke and/or gone, who's going to finance this?

No one. We have just entered a state of sociopolitical and economic upheaval. It will not, however, render a large, omni-providential state that will be able to assure everyone's equitable financial well-being in perpetuity. In fact, it won't even get off the ground.

What will likely happen instead is a brief state of chaos wherein the dependent drones of the government trudge zombie-like to collect their "benefits" and "entitlements." Then, seeing that those goodies can no longer be had, they probably turn like a spider monkey on their masters, who promised them these things would keep on coming. Then, desperate, some of these folks might move out into the suburbs and rural areas to pillage and plunder for those things they "need." After a few nasty encounters with the well-armed populace, this activity will shortly be curtailed, and some semblance of order will be restored in some areas.

This is what some might call a WTSHTF scenario (I'm not good with acronyms, but I think it means something bad), or an anarchy state whereby small regions will band together for common defense. Whether it be a rudimentary (albeit modern) version of feudalism or ancient Greek-style polis or small geographic regions that unite for survival -- it matters not. Small government will be achieved. And that would be the antithesis of what Cloward and Piven want.

In short, overloading the state will destroy the state, not make it bigger and better. Of course, once I get my degree from Yale, I may think differently. I'll keep you posted.

Hoss Varad is an American political observer, philosopher, satirist, and all-around politically incorrect kind of guy. More of his drivel can be found at junkpanic.com.

[TigersEye]

We can’t get our minds around the logic of this. On one hand it seems totally insane to destroy the entire infrastructure and expect to gain control. Gain control of what?

If the author had read a little bit about Cloward-Piven he could have dispelled some of his confusion about the seemingly contradictory points. They want control of power and decision making. It ties in directly with the saying made famous now by Rahm Emannuel; "never let a crisis go to waste."

Cloward-Piven strategy doesn't seek to reduce everything to rubble and utter chaos. The aim is to create just enough of a crisis that the people will accept, even beg for, someone to give them an answer to all their problems. That's where the power-hungry socialist steps up and magnanimously offers his wondrous services. It has been played out over and over again in small incremental steps for years.

People may not like Glenn Beck but he nailed it. They gave up on crashing the system through welfare as the original C-P strategy called for. So they turned their attention to banking and Wall Street. And now we have a huge economic mess engineered through purposely irresponsible legislation and regulation.

It still ties into welfare through the idea of giving loans to those who don't qualify for loans. The entitlement mentality still plays a big role. Welfare and food stamps alone just weren't enough to bring about a crisis big enough to leverage a coup in the power structure.

The author also makes the mistake that it has to make sense and will work. It doesn't. It's the plan of madmen. Like Marxist theory itself it may sound good on paper to shallow thinkers but it is mad and won't stand up to rational informed scrutiny. That doesn't mean its adherents don't take it seriously though.

[mdmathis6]

Just in time for a Julius Caesar perhaps with the support of the armies.....a Julius Caesar with satanically amplified intelligence and charisma...

It will be very hard for even the saints not to be deceived by him...and as for the rest of the world, will they wonder after him?

[mdmathis6]

They are playing chess while we are playing checkers.

I suggest we start playing poker!(And yes, keep the aces up our sleaves for no doubt they would too!)

[TigersEye]

I should have put a link in to one of the first articles I read about Cloward-Piven. Cloward-Piven Government It actually leads to two articles about it which were both published by The American Thinker.

[highlander_UW]

Just in time for a Julius Caesar perhaps with the support of the armies.....a Julius Caesar with satanically amplified intelligence and charisma...

It will be very hard for even the saints not to be deceived by him...and as for the rest of the world, will they wonder after him?

That very well may be how it transpires...although I don't see Obama in that role. Short of some Reichstag event that shakes the entire nation, I think Obama's shot his biggest salvos.

In thinking about it just now, I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see a swing to the right at the next 2 elections, but the person that comes to power as president, quite possibly from the right, could be a wolf in sheep's clothing to take the nation unaware.

The bottom line is, the nation was established under the concept of limited government. since then those restraints have been systematically disable or made ineffectual. So now we are potentially at risk regardless of which side of the isle the president/congress/senate is...although the left seems very determined to establish a tyranny.

[Eva]

The obvious answer to the collapse of government is to privatize all services, putting all the contracts out for bid. It would get rid of the government unions and eliminate the union contracts.

[Kenny Bunk]

That is Cloward-Piven Theory.

Correctamundo, Tig. What Hoss is missing here is that total collapse is the desired end, so that The Elites may direct the Proletariat in The Revolution, which shall establish Heaven on Earth, with Cloward-Piven Klones in total control.

[riri]

bkmk

[Kenny Bunk]

Me? I ain't happy at all about 2010. WTF good is is it going to do to win The House if our team shows up with No Program, No Plan, No Leader, and No Frickin' Clue about what to do?

It only took one Labour Party win in 1946 to change the UK into a socialist state, which 65 years later leaves the UK a broken country that nobody can fix. Obama and the democrats of 2008 are our Labour Party, which if anyone recalls, was later found to be largely in the pay of the Kremlin.

I'll take the win in 2010, but with a grain of salt, until I see a coherent platform of reversing Obama's Legacy of Socialism.

[TigersEye]

I'm not overly optimistic about a big win in November either. Like you I don't see a history of Republican will power or consistency to rest a confident outlook on. I also have a gut feeling that so much damage has been done that even a strong concerted turn around will fall short of fixing things.

The American people would have to really wake up and stop flirting back and forth with un-American principles and solutions. That is asking a lot of human nature.

[DuncanWaring]

You have read and know history and the main thing you know is that human nature never really changes.

Rudyard Kipling nailed it a century ago:

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

[DuncanWaring]

...within the last month or two I read a harrowing account of the Communists in either Korea or Vietnam,

Hue, Tet '68?

[DuncanWaring]

“In case you missed it” Ping.

[Noumenon]

Mass murder through starvation - an old familiar tune. The favored instrument of destruction by history's worst mass-murders - Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao (the favorite 'political philosopher' of Anita Dunn).

These people are monsters - killers without conscience. That's who we're up against, plain and simple. Their goal remains the same: millions of us dead, the rest of us in chains. Worldwide. They've said as much. None of them are fit to live.

[Noumenon]

Then, seeing that those goodies can no longer be had, they probably turn like a spider monkey on their masters, who promised them these things would keep on coming.

Yes, it's going to be interesting to see what happens when the government monkey pellet machine stops dispensing pellets to all those monkeys. Not going to be pleasant or pretty, is it?

[DTogo]

What will likely happen instead is a brief state of chaos wherein the dependent drones of the government trudge zombie-like to collect their "benefits" and "entitlements." Then, seeing that those goodies can no longer be had, they probably turn like a spider monkey on their masters, who promised them these things would keep on coming. Then, desperate, some of these folks might move out into the suburbs and rural areas to pillage and plunder for those things they "need." After a few nasty encounters with the well-armed populace, this activity will shortly be curtailed, and some semblance of order will be restored in some areas.

Exactly! During this period of chaos Liberalism/Socialism in the United States will be thoroughly eliminated, and a far smaller Constitutionally based government restored.

[Noumenon]

Cloward and Piven are merely putting their own spin on what Machiavelli recommended and Antonio Gramsci envisioned. In Machiavelli's case, he knew that in order to conquer a Republic - where people retained a sense of liberty - you must first lay it waste. Gramsci broke with the Leninist appproach - violent revolution in order to usher in the new Soviet Man everywhere - in favor of the subversive and more patient 'long march through the institutions'. And so Gransci's ghost haunts us to this day. Demoralization. Destabilization. 'Normalization'. You can hear Yuri Bezmenov echo that same strategy: here.

Guess where we are now, boys and girls.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

ping

[houeto]

Guess where we are now, boys and girls.

Chaos is right around the corner.

[houeto]

You pinged yourself? My first LOL of the day. Thanks!