MMT Cures Cult Addiction

The last place I ever expected to find myself was inside a cult. Yet, here I am, a member of Real Progressives; followers of the MMT cult. Except it’s not a cult. But that accusation has been made and it has floated around over the years and most notoriously, the past year. The cult designation became popular with the “woke” crowd when the Sane Progressive went on a spontaneous rant about MMT and how foolish the Real Progressives are thinking they can get Congress to recognize MMT principles when, she claimed, the entire government is run by a mob of oligarchs. She may be right, but our outreach is wider than Congress. Our goal is to obtain the critical mass of people (aka – voters) learning enough about MMT that they will no longer accept the economic stranglehold placed on the 99% by the 1% (aka – mob of oligarchs).

Oddly enough, I do understand why some may look at MMT advocates as cultists. Cults all tend to have one thing in common: if you follow the secretly revealed truths of the cult, then all will be of the same knowledge well. And, one of the biggest points we make is that MMT is the essential component of the foundation that is necessary for a complete progressive agenda. It can and does somewhat sound like it’s a claim made by the mini-cultists’ traveling medicine shows, and their magic tonics that can cure everything. MMT is not magic, nor is it a secret. Everything about MMT is public knowledge. There are no secret ingredients. Advocates have been posting blogs, producing books and other reference material for free or very low cost for years. You can easily find literally hundreds of videos from leading MMT scholars and amateurs all over the web. The disease that MMT medicine will cure has been diagnosed by the only former living president who does not lie for a living. President Carter declared we are living in an oligarchy. The disease has many symptoms, but the cure is unwavering: MMT. Why? Because only with MMT knowledge and MMT Progressive Policies do the people walk around the oligarchs. The Sane Progressives of the world want to defeat them head on, which is an impossible task. Our strength is in our numbers, unlike the oligarchs whose strength is their ability to buy the truth. So that we succeed, we must repeat ourselves, we must teach, we must learn and we must recruit as many of the 99% as is needed to override via political pressure the power of the oligarchs.

In any revolution, political or bloody, the population divides into three somewhat equal camps: one group is for the revolution, one group is for the status quo, the third group only wants to know what’s for supper. We need to bring about informed awareness of 1/3 of the population of nations with sovereign fiat currencies to reach critical mass. That will not happen tomorrow, but perhaps before the 2020 election. The goal is clear; but the question remains, how is it that an economic policy can do so much? Especially, how can it be the keystone holding together all the various progressive agenda items? Sure, it’s easy to see that it makes it easier to have: free post-secondary school education, free healthcare, rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, move over to renewable energy sources as quickly as humanly possible, provide productive jobs for all that want one, and many other “pay for” items.

But a very big point is not so easily apparent. There are things that happen when everyone has access to jobs and education; when housing is a guaranteed right along with health care. The weapon utilized by the oligarchs is Neoliberalism. It divides up the 99% to worry more about Trump’s latest tweet, than how many POC were arrested today and think that POC love their kids, go to work, or relax in the park. MMT will not make racism and xenophobia go away and there will still be a need to understand that Black Lives Matter. But still, it will be as big of a step in the right direction that the gains made in the 1960’s were. Elections can be publicly financed thereby weakening corporate political manipulation because we all recognize that our taxes are not being spent. We have a goal. We have the intention of fixing the world. A cult depends on people believing they know a secret. #LearnMMT: there are no secrets. A cult depends on a singular infallible leader; our leaders are many and none of them claim infallibility. We are not a cult. We are world changers, each one teaching one. We are also progressives beholden to no political party, but supporting individuals that represent progressive values, and recognize the power of MMT.

As we begin tearing down the walls, together, we have less need to pretend that we are great. Tear down the walls of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, general fear of the other, and war and find greatness is what is behind the wall.