Beyond Ramps

by Russell, Marta

• ISBN13: 9781567511079
• ISBN10: 1567511074
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-01-01
• Publisher: Common Courage Pr

Summary

The Social Contract -- Rousseau's famous term concerning the bond between a government and it's people -- has been sold to the highest bidder. Freedom is reserved only for markets in a society increasingly strangled by corporate of power".Empowerment" is the new definition of destitution.

By looking at the struggles of the disabled faced with the end of social services, Ending the Social Contract as We Know It provides a powerful warning: the disabled are as canaries in a coal mine, and their maltreatment is a harbinger of things to come for the rest of us.

In a tightly woven argument, Marta Russell shows how the onslaught of corporate power facing the disabled -- from issues like genetic screening, to restricted access to health care, to welfare reform -- will shortly be faced by a much broader segment of society.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 8
The Nature of Our Oppression
Why Be "Normal?": "Normalcy" as a Mechanism for Social Control	p. 13
Nazi and American Eugenics, Euthanasia and Economics	p. 18
Backhanded Social Darwinism: The "Right to Die" and Disability	p. 29
The Politics of Perfect Babies: With "Bad" Genes Everywhere, Who is "Safe"?	p. 46
The Mechanics of Poverty
A Missing Link: Body Politics and the Sole Economic Order	p. 57
The Economic Straitjacket	p. 69
From Tiny Tim to Jerry Lewis: Charity and Economic Rights on a Collision Course	p. 84
The Final (Profitable) Solution: Modern Institutionalization and the Commodification of Disability	p. 96
The ADA in the New World Order: Free-Market Civil Rights in a Public Relations Era	p. 109
Ending the Social Contract
Let Them Eat Unenforceable Civil Rights: Promoting the General Welfare in a Downsized Age	p. 126
Ending the Social Contract: Capitalism Begins to Eat Its Own	p. 144
Bursting Grand Illusions: Mother Teresa, "Revolutionaries," Devolution, and Personal Responsibility	p. 166
Democracy Under Siege	p. 200
Manifesto of an Uppity Crip: People, the Center of Civilized Society	p. 212
Beyond Ramps?: Identity Politics, FDR, and the Problem of Power	p. 225
Notes	p. 236
Index	p. 245
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