I am not very optimistic about America's future, being of the opinion that a country this far gone in illusion, propaganda, war profiteering, violence, lies, religious fundamentalism, and corruption, is not likely to find its way into a bright and promising future. Most of the focus of my disillusion is the SCOTUS, followed closely by the Senate. Both are controlled by conservative / religious fundamentalists and beholding only to their corporate masters. The remainder of my disillusion rests with the people of the US, enough of whom vote conservative / religious to keep that abusive minority in power. Democracy is hard, and the people of the US are simply not up to the task.
Or so it seems.
There is, however, a small ray of hope. At the moment the media is full of stories of how the Republican / conservative / religious fortunes are on the rise. Media talking heads fully expect the Senate to go to the conservatives in the fall, along with an increased majority in the House. The Republicans are portrayed as confident while the Democrats are supposedly paralyzed with dread at their coming irrelevance.
All of this portrayed by the same media that said Obama was in trouble in the last election and that fully supported the Bush administration claims of WMDs. It is a media that I routinely describe as completely lost to propaganda wars. So why would I think that they are getting this rise of conservatism right? If every “close race” goes to the Democrats this fall, it is the Republican party that is done. Isn't it likely that, deep in some conservative dungeon somewhere, they worry about their future and know their time is nearly up? After all, even King Rush admitted (after the election of course) that he knew Romney was going to get skunked. (It should be amazing that none of his followers reacted to such blatant lying by their No. 1 Talking Whore. But it isn't.)
According to this same media religion is certainly having its way. Religious fanatics keep the headlines filled with cognitive disconnect as the country slides into theocracy. Yet in spite of all that religion can do gay marriage is a done deal, the drug war is on the wane, and prison abuse and reform is at least on the horizon. While it is true that fundamentalists have, in several conservative controlled states, gutted science education and replaced it with religious mythology. But really, who cares? For the most part all that happens is that the rest of the country makes fun of them. Are the kids from these states going to make much of an impact in the world, do much good, raise any one's standard of living? Probably not. But some kid from a state whose school system reflects what humankind has learned in the last 500 years, will be there to fill the gap. So far as society as a whole is concerned, no problem. And while religion is reported to be on the rise, most Catholics use birth control, most Christians know the world is old and revolves around the sun, and the churches are empty on Sunday morning with less then 25% of Americans in attendance.
Every state government, blue or red, has bowed to the mighty NRA and passed concealed carry laws. But are most Americans now walking around secretly packing heat? Some are, now that its legal. But most, even many? Slightly more than a third (37%) of Americans say they or a family member owns a gun. If even half of the owners carry, (and I think that unlikely) it would mean less than one in 20 of those around are potential gun threats. Pick a crowd at random and it is likely there are more gay people in it than people toting guns. (Some of the gay people may well be packing, which should give the homophobes among us pause.)
Some loon of a welfare rancher gets the media foaming at the mouth. Armed revolution! The Police State! Tyranny and anarchy! Yeah well, the Feds go home figuring this asshole is not with the price of a bullet. Yet one can be pretty sure his list of legal woes is just beginning. Bank accounts? Frozen. Access to loans? None. He may find it very hard to market his beef when the Health Inspectors finish. And really, should he become a real threat, how long would it take a handful of trained military snipers or one drone to eliminate that threat? This guy is nothing but a conservative fuck in full stupid mode. (Surprise, he turns out to be a racist stupid fuck as well.)
Yet no one that I know doubts this guy is a true Republican, one of the party's base. Big time conservative names jumped right into bed with the guy as soon as he hit the media, then got caught with their pants around their knees. Rather then conservatism on the rise these dicks were going limp in a hurry.
Propaganda is a powerful tool and the people of the US are at least as susceptible to it as any other nation. Maybe more so since mine was the first generation raised on TV and taught to believe whatever came out of it as news. Remember Uncle Walter's, “And that's the way it is...?” A 30 minute reading of carefully crafted headlines, we were told, is how the world really was. Pure bullshit, but that's what we were raised with.
On the other hand, maybe the propagandists are starting to believe their own shtick and missing the fact that the rest of us are on to them?
One can only hope.
Friday, May 9, 2014
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Real responsibility
This is a violent, hate filled nation with a morality so twisted as to be indistinguishable from evil. Our politics are utterly corrupt. Our courts are stuffed with religious fanatics. We have politicians who sanction rape and laws written specifically to excuse murder, racism and oppression. The culture's dominant religion (various forms of Christian fundamentalism) preaches a god that rewards the rich, despises the poor, supports the powerful, punishes the weak, loves guns, endorses war in any form, and considers women to be second class citizens. Theirs is also a god that rewards blind faith and is an avowed enemy of knowledge and education. And while the ultimate failure of a society as ill as this one is assured, it sometimes seems as though the rest of the world is following close behind.
At the moment war is eminent in parts of the old Soviet Union as Russia seeks to provoke a confrontation with the Ukraine. China is showing every intention of instigating war with Japan, while N. Korea is ever posed to invade the South. (China would be well served to have N. Korea start a war with S. Korea when they take on Japan.) Russia and China are working together on war games. None of this is ideologically driven, there is no effort to spread communism around the world. This is pure greed for resources, power, and land. And the people of the world, as usual, rally to the propaganda of their leaders. Human kind is infested with war and hate, and it is likely a disease fatal to the whole of the race.
The next series of wars brings the full Monty, nukes, chemicals, biological weapons, terror attacks across the globe. Drones will reach into every neighborhood and the police state will battle its own citizens with the same zeal as the military battles enemies of the state. All of human society seems intent on an orgy of self-destruction.
And I don't have a clue what a moral, self-aware person it supposed to do in such a world. Rejecting the entire ethos of war, greed, and self-gratification seems the only choice, but it is a choice that matters little. A single drop of fresh water in a raging ocean. People everywhere accept the nation / state and follow the leaders of their tribes. In the US liberals follow the liberal playbook without comment, doing battle with the conservatives who do the exact same thing. Each side vies for power and control, just in different guises. Vote for the liberals and one votes to cede power to the nation / state. Vote for the conservatives and vote to surrender power to the corporations and the religious fanatics. Pick a side. Each intends to battle to the death in order to rule the world.
The only hope for the future is for an entirely new ethos to sweep across the planet; an ethos that rejects the concentration of power in governments, religions, corporations, and the military. It must be an ethos that rejects greed as the foundation for running an economy; one that grants basic civil rights to every human, everywhere. It will have to be a tough ethos, one that accepts casualties as a part of sweeping out the old. And it will have to be one where people simply refuse to support the old, not going to church, not voting, not paying taxes, not accepting being indentured to a corporation in exchange for a meager living with little hope for joy.
Such an ethos would be evident when the Pope speaks to an empty St. Peter's square, where elections are held and no one supports any of the corporate approved candidates, where governments fall for simply suggesting war is a viable option. It will have to be an ethos where workers walk away from the production lines building weapons of war; where, in the land of the Second Amendment, gun stores shutter their doors for a lack of customers. No one sharing this ethos would volunteer to wear a military uniform. Those conscripted by force would march and train and take up weapons. But when it came time to fire they would be aiming at their own officers, not those conscripted by the “other side”. (This on both sides of the front line.)
The foundation of such an ethos is simple, individuals are responsible for the actions of the collective. Not a matter of judgement but one of personal responsibility. A responsibility felt at the deepest core of being, at a place where each steps up to, or abandons, the claim of being human.
In this place generals are murderers, but so are the privates, cooks, mechanics, and office workers who kept the military machine working. The propagandist is the enemy of truth, but so is each person who responded to the lies without thought, the people who write the speeches, the media CEOs who air them, and the sponsors who supported them.
The CEO of the weapons manufacturer is guilty of genocide, but so is each worker who makes a living helping create the weapons used to kill thousands of innocents, right down to the cleaning staff who empties the trash cans each night. The CEO who sacrifices the quality of life of his employees in order to add a few pennies to the company stock price is a thief, but so it the board of directors and the bankers who reward the “increased productivity”.
Where the people vote each would be held responsible for the politics of the elected. If “your guy” supported the NRA each child killed is your responsibility. The rich prosper while the poor starve? The politicians bought by the corporations are guilty of corruption, but so is each poor person who voted them into power. Education subverted to fanaticism as the teaching of lies? Every single parent, school board member, and teacher is guilty of failing the next generation.
Human kind is responsible for its own survival, but until a large majority of us realize this truth, our survival is highly unlikely.
At the moment war is eminent in parts of the old Soviet Union as Russia seeks to provoke a confrontation with the Ukraine. China is showing every intention of instigating war with Japan, while N. Korea is ever posed to invade the South. (China would be well served to have N. Korea start a war with S. Korea when they take on Japan.) Russia and China are working together on war games. None of this is ideologically driven, there is no effort to spread communism around the world. This is pure greed for resources, power, and land. And the people of the world, as usual, rally to the propaganda of their leaders. Human kind is infested with war and hate, and it is likely a disease fatal to the whole of the race.
The next series of wars brings the full Monty, nukes, chemicals, biological weapons, terror attacks across the globe. Drones will reach into every neighborhood and the police state will battle its own citizens with the same zeal as the military battles enemies of the state. All of human society seems intent on an orgy of self-destruction.
And I don't have a clue what a moral, self-aware person it supposed to do in such a world. Rejecting the entire ethos of war, greed, and self-gratification seems the only choice, but it is a choice that matters little. A single drop of fresh water in a raging ocean. People everywhere accept the nation / state and follow the leaders of their tribes. In the US liberals follow the liberal playbook without comment, doing battle with the conservatives who do the exact same thing. Each side vies for power and control, just in different guises. Vote for the liberals and one votes to cede power to the nation / state. Vote for the conservatives and vote to surrender power to the corporations and the religious fanatics. Pick a side. Each intends to battle to the death in order to rule the world.
The only hope for the future is for an entirely new ethos to sweep across the planet; an ethos that rejects the concentration of power in governments, religions, corporations, and the military. It must be an ethos that rejects greed as the foundation for running an economy; one that grants basic civil rights to every human, everywhere. It will have to be a tough ethos, one that accepts casualties as a part of sweeping out the old. And it will have to be one where people simply refuse to support the old, not going to church, not voting, not paying taxes, not accepting being indentured to a corporation in exchange for a meager living with little hope for joy.
Such an ethos would be evident when the Pope speaks to an empty St. Peter's square, where elections are held and no one supports any of the corporate approved candidates, where governments fall for simply suggesting war is a viable option. It will have to be an ethos where workers walk away from the production lines building weapons of war; where, in the land of the Second Amendment, gun stores shutter their doors for a lack of customers. No one sharing this ethos would volunteer to wear a military uniform. Those conscripted by force would march and train and take up weapons. But when it came time to fire they would be aiming at their own officers, not those conscripted by the “other side”. (This on both sides of the front line.)
The foundation of such an ethos is simple, individuals are responsible for the actions of the collective. Not a matter of judgement but one of personal responsibility. A responsibility felt at the deepest core of being, at a place where each steps up to, or abandons, the claim of being human.
In this place generals are murderers, but so are the privates, cooks, mechanics, and office workers who kept the military machine working. The propagandist is the enemy of truth, but so is each person who responded to the lies without thought, the people who write the speeches, the media CEOs who air them, and the sponsors who supported them.
The CEO of the weapons manufacturer is guilty of genocide, but so is each worker who makes a living helping create the weapons used to kill thousands of innocents, right down to the cleaning staff who empties the trash cans each night. The CEO who sacrifices the quality of life of his employees in order to add a few pennies to the company stock price is a thief, but so it the board of directors and the bankers who reward the “increased productivity”.
Where the people vote each would be held responsible for the politics of the elected. If “your guy” supported the NRA each child killed is your responsibility. The rich prosper while the poor starve? The politicians bought by the corporations are guilty of corruption, but so is each poor person who voted them into power. Education subverted to fanaticism as the teaching of lies? Every single parent, school board member, and teacher is guilty of failing the next generation.
Human kind is responsible for its own survival, but until a large majority of us realize this truth, our survival is highly unlikely.
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