Friday, April 8, 2011

“Beware Charlatans Espousing Wisdom”

I cannot recall a time, in my three score and ten plus years of treading the sod, when I have been witness to the utterly obscene and calloused posturing of Congress and the White House regarding the current budget crisis. Their blatant corruption and total disregard for the virtue of honesty and a modicum of compassion for those who are suffering at the hands of a system that has summarily dismissed their value in society is about as vulgar as it gets.

We keep having it pounded into our senses that we are facing a massive problem of “government spending” but, typical of the congenital inability of conservatives to be the least bit forthcoming about their real motives, they leave out any mention of the massive impact of the recent extension of the “Bush” tax cuts for those at the top of our national pyramid of massive wealth. Hey folks, you don’t have to be an Ivy League Economist to come to the conclusion that the problem is not spending! It is a problem of revenue! If the wealthy and corporations paid their fair share for the privilege of living in a civil society, we wouldn’t be having this shameful prostitution of truth and its attendant rape of the very foundations of common human decency. We are, once again, reminded of the historical fact that the gluttony and insatiable greed of wealth knows no limits, and they can be counted on to destroy everything and everyone that gets in the way of their pursuits. That has always been the case and I would make book on the fact that it will never change. That is ingrained in the very make-up of predatory animals of every kind.

The countenance and deceptive nature of those professing to be “conservatives” under various labels, be they Republicans or Tea Party loyalists, is eerily similar to those who rose from the economic ashes of Germany that produced one of history’s greatest despots; Adolph Hitler. As he began his meteoric rise to power, he had no trouble garnering the support of the wealthy elite and the industrialists of his time. They were some of his most devout followers, but the ones who were his most obvious and vocal followers were those who completely abdicated any responsibility for critical thought, hearing what they wanted to hear, and believing what they wanted to believe, rather than what was glaringly truthful. They had no trouble marginalizing everyone deemed to be “inferior” and “undesirable” by the Third Reich and the evil genius of the propaganda machine of Joseph Gobbles. They were the ones who stripped people of their individual and civil rights for the greater glory of “The Fatherland.” They are the ones who fully supported, but disavowed any knowledge of the death camps and the trains to hell that took their disenfranchised and defenseless victims to death camps spread across the face of Eastern Europe. Kind of reminds us of what is going on in the Midwest in assaulting the rights of workers. They continue their relentless ability to twist and distort truth thinking that we will be so naïve as to actually believe they give a damn about creating jobs and a healthy economy for the Middle Class and working people of this country. What they and their wealthy benefactors never seem to realize is that genuine respect and support are earned phenomena. The essential difference between those who have the power of great wealth and those who covet that power is that the latter is just another commodity to be purchased in order to get the job done. Those who serve wealth are nothing more than the hired help. As Adolph Eichman, who masterminded the elaborate train system that fed the ovens of the death camps, so matter-of-factly stated in his defense at his trial as a war criminal, “I was just following orders.”

At the end of the day, I see little to differentiate the zealots of those who wore the swastika with pride and those who have infected our institutions of government. They actually believe they are imbued with altruistic motives and the pursuit of ideals that boil down (in their most simplistic terms) to; lower taxes and smaller government. In today’s increasingly complex world, that just doesn’t wash. One has to be the accomplished liar that most of them demonstrate themselves to be in order to convince one’s self and an unsuspecting cadre of simple minds that their words and philosophies are divinely inspired.

Have you ever noticed that the ranks of the “fundamentalists,” are laced with a toxic dose of self-righteousness that dispels any notion of fallibility? A goodly number of them are skilled at quoting the Bible and making biblical reference to points of view that play to their devious and dark agendas. Do they ever remotely consider, for just a fleeting moment, that what they espouse just might border on heresy? Any attempt to engage in introspective analysis in order to explain what makes them tick would probably terrify the hell out of most of them. Bible thumpers can be dangerous.

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:24

“Whatever you do unto the least of my brethren, you do unto me.” (Jesus Christ)

Beware charlatans espousing wisdom. (Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Michele Bachmann take note.)


Cowboy Bob
April 8, 2011

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