Disneyfication ... "We define our worth not by our independence or our character but by the material standards set by capitalism—personal wealth, brands, status and career advancement."

Thursday, May 4 will be remembered as one of those auspicious "more power to the powerful" type of days, but of course local newspaper coverage centered on Star Wars Day and National Day of Prayer.

I'm betting that House members voting yesterday in their messianic hope of dismantling health care weren't even aware of the existence of children's holidays. Rather, they were engaged in adult pursuits -- nasty and vile pursuits, to be sure, but ones undertaken in the reasonable expectation that the Disneyfication of America would provide them sufficient cover.

This is a depressing article, though worth it for the "Disneyfication" coinage, selected for emphasis below.

Reign of Idiots, by Chris Hedges (Common Dreams)

Donald Trump. King of the horrifingly dumb and dangerously greedy.

... Magical thinking is not limited to the beliefs and practices of pre-modern cultures. It defines the ideology of capitalism. Quotas and projected sales can always be met. Profits can always be raised. Growth is inevitable. The impossible is always possible. Human societies, if they bow before the dictates of the marketplace, will be ushered into capitalist paradise. It is only a question of having the right attitude and the right technique. When capitalism thrives, we are assured, we thrive. The merging of the self with the capitalist collective has robbed us of our agency, creativity, capacity for self-reflection and moral autonomy. We define our worth not by our independence or our character but by the material standards set by capitalism—personal wealth, brands, status and career advancement. We are molded into a compliant and repressed collective. This mass conformity is characteristic of totalitarian and authoritarian states. It is the Disneyfication of America, the land of eternally happy thoughts and positive attitudes. And when magical thinking does not work, we are told, and often accept, that we are the problem. We must have more faith. We must envision what we want. We must try harder. The system is never to blame. We failed it. It did not fail us.