{"id":223473,"date":"2016-02-10T18:01:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T18:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/inventing-the-rights-metanarrative\/"},"modified":"2016-02-10T18:01:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T18:01:53","slug":"inventing-the-rights-metanarrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/inventing-the-rights-metanarrative\/","title":{"rendered":"Inventing the Right\u2019s \u2018Metanarrative\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"185.89277637355\">\n<p>For decades, the Koch Brothers have funded a massive propaganda operation to disparage what democracy can do when a society pulls together and to glorify a \u201cgreed is good\u201d narrative promising great benefits if capitalism reigns free. But the results have been good only for a privileged few, as Michael Winship describes.<\/p>\n<p>By Michael Winship<\/p>\n<p>Gather round for the word of the day: metanarrative. Definitions vary but let\u2019s say it\u2019s one big narrative that connects the meaning of events to a belief thought to be an essential truth, the storytelling equivalent of the unified field theory in physics.<\/p>\n<p>Now use it to define what\u2019s being done to America today \u2014 our Big Story. Journalist and activist Naomi Klein did just that a couple of weeks ago <a href=\"http:\/\/billmoyers.com\/story\/naomi-klein-climate-change-not-just-about-things-getting-hotter-its-about-things-getting-meaner\/\">when she and I talked<\/a> at Finger Lakes Community College in upstate New York about the Koch brothers\u2019 resistance to the reality of climate change.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10301\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" readability=\"32\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/koch_brothers.jpg?82332e\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10301\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10301\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif?82332e\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/koch_brothers-300x235.jpg\" alt=\"Oil billionaires David and Charles Koch.\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/koch_brothers-300x235.jpg 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/koch_brothers.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10301\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/koch_brothers-300x235.jpg\" alt=\"Oil billionaires David and Charles Koch.\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/koch_brothers-300x235.jpg 300w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/koch_brothers.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oil billionaires David and Charles Koch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe Charles Koch metanarrative \u2014 and he\u2019s said it explicitly \u2014 is that he is challenging collectivism, he is challenging the idea that when people get together they can do good,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd he is putting forward the worldview that we\u2019re all very familiar with that if you free the individual to pursue their self-interest that will actually benefit the majority. So you need to attack everything that is collective, whether it\u2019s labor rights or whether it\u2019s public health care or whether it\u2019s regulatory action. All of this falls under the metanarrative of an attack on collectivism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Koch and his brother David and the extraordinary machine they have built in cahoots with fellow billionaires and others, have spent hundreds and hundreds of millions to get their way \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/ourfuture.org\/20160208\/inequality-against-democracy-10-facts-about-the-0-01-percent\">\u201cthe great wealth grab\u201d in the words of Richard Eskow<\/a> \u2014 all part of one long story told in pursuit of a specific end: to make the needs of the very, very few our nation\u2019s top priority and to thwart or destroy any group effort among the poor and middle class to do or say otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>The Kochs have spun their tale with a singular, laser-like focus, carefully taking their time to make sure they get it right. Jane Mayer, author of <em>Dark&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2016\/02\/10\/inventing-the-rights-metanarrative\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For decades, the Koch Brothers have funded a massive propaganda operation to disparage what democracy can do when a society pulls together and to glorify a \u201cgreed is good\u201d narrative promising great benefits if capitalism reigns free. But the results have been good only for a privileged few, as Michael Winship describes. By Michael Winship [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-223473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}