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Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite Paperback – April 11, 2011
Polls show that the majority of Americans oppose recent US wars and Wall Street bailouts, yet most remain passive and appear resigned to powerlessness. In Get Up, Stand Up, Bruce Levine offers an original and convincing explanation for this passivity. Many Americans are deeply demoralized by decades of oppressive elitism, and they have lost confidence that genuine democracy is possible. Drawing on phenomena such as learned helplessness, the abuse syndrome, and other psychological principles and techniques for pacifying a population, Levine explains how major US institutions have created fatalism. When such fatalism and defeatism set in, truths about social and economic injustices are not enough to set people free.
However, the situation is not truly hopeless. History tells us that for democratic movements to get off the ground, individuals must recover self-respect, and a people must regain collective confidence that they can succeed at eliminating top-down controls. Get Up, Stand Up describes how we can recover dignity, confidence, and the energy to do battle. That achievement fills in the missing piece that, until now, has undermined so many efforts to energize genuine democracy.
Get Up, Stand Up details those strategies and tactics that oppressed peoples have successfully employed to gain power. We the People can unite, gain strength, wisely do battle, and wrest power away from the ruling corporate-government partnership (the "corporatocracy"). Get Up, Stand Up explains how.
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherChelsea Green Publishing
- Publication dateApril 11, 2011
- Dimensions6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- ISBN-109781603582988
- ISBN-13978-1603582988
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"Get Up, Stand Up is a powerful call to action that inspires us to take our country back. . . . This comprehensive analysis of how modern corporatocracy robber barons stole the US (and most of the world) is a must read for all who resonate with Levine's belief that We the People have the power and the responsibility to overthrow the ruling elite."--John Perkins, New York Times best-selling author of Hoodwinked, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and The Secret History of the American Empire
As you read Bruce Levine's rousing Get Up, Stand Up, inevitably you will be reminded of Thomas Paine's Common Sense, which served as a rallying cry for the colonialists to take action against their British rulers. Today, Levine argues, Americans are ruled by a tyrannical "corporatocracy"-i.e. government by big business and for big business-and his analysis of why the American people remain so passive in the face of such tyranny is smart, lucid, and passionate. Readers will also find, in his proposals for how the "people" today can stand up and "do battle" with the corporatocracy, a stirring call for action that surely needs to be heard.--Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic and Mad in America
"In an era when most political commentary has degenerated into self-satisfied carping and smug Monday morning quarterbacking, Bruce E. Levine breaks out of this intellectual paralysis with a clarion call for a new kind of politics. Levine offers a progressive user's manual for reclaiming our government from the stranglehold of corporate greed and rightwing paranoia. As an antidote to apathy, Get Up, Stand Up is worthy of Bob Marley, which is very high praise indeed. Read it, absorb it, act on it."--Jeffrey St. Clair, co-editor, CounterPunch, and author of Born Under a Bad Sky
"With this book, Bruce Levine reinvents the old saw 'the personal is political.' Healthy people make up a healthy movement, and Get Up Stand Up is full of both hope and practical solutions."--Anya Kamenetz, author of DIY U and Generation Debt
"Over the years, I have been astounded at the way mainstream, hardworking, formerly self-sufficient Americans have meekly accepted being screwed by big business, Wall Street and their elected officials. I have wondered, why hasn't there been an uprising over the looting of mainstream America by big business and Wall Street, facilitated by Congress? Through his brilliant analysis, psychologist Bruce Levine explains the process by which mainstream America has become demoralized and docile, how those in power maintain that power, and what it will take to turn things around. Anyone who cares about the decline of mainstream America should read this book. Anyone who wants to do something about the decline of mainstream America must read this book."--Jim Gottstein, President/CEO Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
"We are living in a land in which corporate power buys as many politicians as it needs, unjust laws shovel money to the rich, and media substitute entertainment for information. Yet Bruce Levine dares to show how we can reclaim our deadened souls, regain integrity and passion, and begin to change a political system we have let numb us into resigned helplessness."--Rev. Davidson Loehr, author of America, Fascism, and God
"Bruce Levine's intriguing new book examines how emotional suffering is interwoven with political disempowerment. He has taken our discussion of mental health out of the doctor's office and put it back where it belongs: in the community."--Will Hall, host of Madness Radio and co-founder of Freedom Center
"Feeling politically demoralized? You're not alone. In his latest book, Get Up, Stand Up, Bruce Levine provides not only the diagnosis for our country's seeming paralysis, but also a very strong antidote."--Steve Clark, Walking and Bicycling Program Manager, Transit for Livable Communities, Minneapolis
About the Author
Bruce E. Levine, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and has been in private practice since 1985 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His most recent book is Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite (2011). He is also the author of Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy (2007), and Commonsense Rebellion: Taking Back Your Life from Drugs, Shrinks, Corporations, and a World Gone Crazy, and has authored a chapter for Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry. Dr. Levine has been a regular contributor to AlterNet, Z Magazine, and The Huffington Post and his articles and interviews have been published in Adbusters, The Ecologist, High Times and numerous other magazines. He is an editorial advisor for the Icarus Project/Freedom Center Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs and on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. Dr. Levine has presented talks and workshops to diverse organizations throughout North America. www.brucelevine.net. Visit Bruce's blog on The Huffington Post at www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-e-levine/.
Product details
- ASIN : 1603582983
- Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing (April 11, 2011)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781603582988
- ISBN-13 : 978-1603582988
- Item Weight : 12.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,937,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,382 in Civics & Citizenship (Books)
- #4,649 in Medical Social Psychology & Interactions
- #6,243 in Popular Social Psychology & Interactions
- Customer Reviews:
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Bruce E. Levine, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and has been in private practice since 1985 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His most recent book is Resisting Illegitimate Authority: A Thinking Person’s Guide to Being an Anti-Authoritarian―Strategies, Tools, and Models. Past books include Get Up, Stand Up; Surviving America's Depression Epidemic; and Commonsense Rebellion. Dr. Levine has been a regular contributor to CounterPunch, AlterNet, Salon, Z Magazine, and The Huffington Post and his articles and interviews have been published in Adbusters, The Ecologist, High Times and numerous other magazines. He is on the advisory council of the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry and on the editorial advisory board of the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. Dr. Levine has presented talks and workshops to diverse organizations throughout North America. www.brucelevine.net
Photo courtesy of Russ Bozian.
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Some key elements of this book are:
Corporatocracy-Through the partnership of government and large corporations, the Corporatocracy is able to control us. Though, the author makes clear that, unlike the rank of file Libertarian, who claims the government is the more evil of the two, it is the large corporations that drive this despicable buggy. Also referred to as The Elite.
Large Corporations-Especially, pharmaceutical corporations whose sole purpose is to get as many people taking their product as possible. Referred to as Big Pharma.
Self-respect and self-reliance-Americans are sorely lacking in these and as a result the Corporatocracy is able to continue and grow.
Mental Health Field-Specifically, psychiatrists. They are the ones with the power to prescribe the products produced by Big Pharma. This creates dependency not only on Big Pharma but also on psychiatrists.
Compliance and non-compliance-The goal of the Corporatocracy is to create compliance. This is demonstrated in numerous ways; when people are compliant, and their true essence is one of non-compliance, this creates a storm of inner turmoil and pain. In the case of children, schools and parents are the enforcers of compliance. The Corporatocracy needs compliance to function, so these non-compliant individuals either seek, or are forced, to doctors, psychologists, or mental health facilities, to bring them into compliance with the status quo.
Critical thinking -An important skill, and unfortunately, leaves those that possess it at a higher risk of having the label of depression placed upon them. This is due to critical thinkers being aware of the ever-squeezing corporate tentacles constricting their lives. In order to relieve the stress and pain, they are medicated into non-compliance.
Many points are made in this book. So many, in fact, that it has a tendency to be vague and over simplify issues that are not so simple. Many historical references have made to situations in the past that have been successful in breaking the stranglehold that big corporations have enjoyed through out the decades. What we learn is that the struggle has never truly ended and most likely never will.
The author takes on ADHD and ODD diagnoses that some children have been given these days by the psychological establishment. I, personally, have a lot of experience in this area as a parent and an educator. I found this statement interesting and misleading: "Studies show that ADHD-diagnosed children will pay attention to activities that they enjoy or that they have chosen. In other words, when ADHD-labeled kids are having a good time and in control, the `disease' routinely goes away." This is true; it is also true for EVERY human being on the planet, ADHD or no. Indeed, people pay attention to activities they enjoy and are not easily distracted from them. But, it is required and necessary for children and adults to DO activities that perhaps are not enjoyable to them, but DO make the community a better place for everyone. A child may not "enjoy" taking out the trash, or learning how to do math, but parents and adults know that having a clean community and being able to understand the computation of numbers is in the best interest of the child and the community at large.
(Just a little exercise in critical thinking, ya'll)
Just to clarify (and I believe the author knows this due to the word "disease" being in quotation marks), ADHD is not a disease or even a mental disorder.
Another point the author makes in this book, that I take issue with, is touting the heavily subsidized university system in Mexico and advocating that the U.S. system become more like it. This is because of large debt that many students coming from lower and middle class are saddled with upon graduation. This latter statement is true. The American elite can easily pay for college tuition and the very poor that do go on to college are able to qualify for free tuition and grants. This leaves everyone else with only one option: borrow. The problem with the university system in Mexico is that only the elite class has access to it! The fact is that only 60 percent of Mexicans complete primary school and it's extremely rare for the poor or lower classes to go to college. So, this wonderful Mexican university system noted by the author is almost exclusively free for the Mexican ELITE!
My favorite term that the author coins in this book is Fundamentalist Consumerism, which is "the concept that one must buy everything they need or want in order to have pleasure, eliminate pain, and survive." Excellent and so very true!
Overall, I like this book. Much of it rings true. Especially, the government/large corporation connection. I don't always agree with its stance against psychiatry; I have witnessed many people who have struggled for years with behavioral and emotional issues, that were greatly improved through medication perscribed by psychiatrists. However, not all psychiatrists are created equal in knowledge, ethics, and expertise, as my own experience has demonstrated.
Despite its flaws, I'm glad I read it.
Aside: Unfortunately, if corporations really were people, under scrutiny, they would be diagnosed as sociopaths. By their very charters, they are legally bound to consider profits above all else. As a matter of fact, they can have NO motive other than profit. Every action taken (no matter how altruistic that action is made to look) has to ultimately be a search for profits. Otherwise that corporation is subject to litigation by its shareholders. This sociopathic mindset rubs off on the corporations' directors, its lobbyists, and the politicians it buys. (See "Corporations: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power," originally a book, then adapted to DVD format; both available on Amazon).
Back to the book:
Chapter 1: "The People Divided Versus the Corporatocracy in Control" - There are revolving doors of employment between the government and the "industrial complexes" - subdivided into the "military-industrial complex," the "energy-industrial complex," the agriculture-industrial complex," the "financial-industrial complex," and the "pharmaceutical-industrial complex." I'm sure there are many others of lesser importance. They may fight each other in various turf battles or over which one's going to get the biggest government subsidies, but they are alike in how undemocratic they are. It's the general populous who suffer.
Chapter 2: "Are the People Broken?" - "In other periods of American history when corporate-government policies have led to economic disaster, there was civil unrest, and the corporatocracy truly felt threatened.....the corporate elite on Wall Street - especially those responsible for bundling subprime mortgages into mortgage-backed securities and creating other `financial weapons of mass destruction' that resulted in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930's - must have breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing how timid America's reaction has been."
Chapter 3: "Prelude to Battle" - Levine almost loses me in this chapter. He dwells on a variety of depressing situations: That there used to be an era where the corporatocracy owned only one of the two major parties; that college students today graduate with debt that takes decades to pay off; that businesses simply violate labor laws and are not prosecuted; that the corporatocracy's anti-union public relations campaign has been so effective; that it is "reasonable public discourse in the United States to question whether people who lack money actually deserve health care"; etc, etc, etc. It's depressing because it's all true and all demoralizing: "For many Americans, the Democratic-Republican contest is analogous to World Wrestling Federation matches, with fake public posturing of animosity between opponents who really care only about money continuing to flow into their industry."
Chapter 4: "Energy to Do Battle" - Levine draws on his PhD in psychology. He advocates what he calls "liberation psychology," "individual self-respect," and "collective self-confidence" as necessary ingredients if power is ever to be wrested from the elites. Not that he's wrong on anything, but again, Levine almost loses me again.
Comment: I have very mixed feelings about this review and this book. First, I agree with almost everything Levine says. I am relatively new as a progressive. I consider myself a conservative guy and until 10 years ago I favored the so-called conservative party. One day, though, I lined up the platform items of one party versus the other and found out I was a progressive. I further decided the word "conservative" was a misnomer when applied to the Republicans. To further my liberal education, I read a book on the history of Wilsonian democracy, listened to Krugman's "Conscience of a Liberal," and became a big fan of Olbermann, so this book is now right up my alley. But the book thus far has not provided much in the way of hope for fairer governance. Finally there's Chapter 5.
Chapter 5: "Winning the Battle" - A great chapter - not entirely optimistic, but does offer solutions - for the country, for various groups, and/or for families or individuals. In my opinion, this chapter should have been half the book and the rest of the book edited to stress the positive. Levine mentions significant victories for various progressive movements and scatters them throughout the book - these stories could have been given more space. He contrasts FDR's "bring it on" speech - openly challenging the corporatocracy - to a speech by Obama about similar subject matter - wimpy by comparison. In my mind, I see Obama speaking like the progressive I would like him to be (and that he really may be but doesn't think it'll fly) - then I think, well, maybe this is all that can be done right now - FDR didn't have a FOX news channel to fight.
Despite what I might have wanted this book to be, it is still a "5 star." Most middle class families are so busy just trying to get by, they don't study the issues enough to realize they are being duped by the elites and their corporatocracy media machine - and they end up voting against their own interests. There don't seem to be enough authors like Levine around.
His example is
"You are a worthless bitch"
About Cognitive Dissonance:
A few examples are:
"he beats me for being bad, which shows me how much he really loves me"
"he only pushed me down once, and it was and accident"
To me, this ignores the fact that HUNDREDS of studies demonstrate that women physically abuse men as often as vice versa. Check out the Wikipedia article on Domestic Violence, but don't blink. And, ask yourself why those hundreds of studies get such a short mention in that article. But, if you follow the reference links, you will quickly find out that we're hearing about half of the story - the half that women want us to hear. Other studies tell us that it's more often women who strike first, because nobody has told them it's wrong to hit a man. They have a protected status. In fact, if a woman attacks a man, and he calls in the police, he's three times as likely to be arrested as she is. But, that's not the common story we hear about domestic violence, now, is it? Guys, please start asking yourself why that is.
So, maybe we could avoid the sexist stereotypes, hey? The same points can be made without further demonizing men.
Top reviews from other countries
Highly recommended and a great read.


