"Where Have Our Finer Angels Gone?"

With each passing day and all that is served up to us as “news,” I become ever more incredulous at just how devoid of any basic human decency we possess as a nation. If what I believe to be the essence of our Supreme Creator is anywhere near what exists in reality, I can safely say that He would categorically reject, out of hand, every manifestation of self-interest that is now regarded as a virtue by those who are hell-bent on lacing their pockets at the expense of the very survival of this nation.

The rise of the Tea Party has proven to be the bane of our national interests. Moreover, they are deluded by some sinister force into honestly believing they are among His chosen ones! It cannot be empirically proven that God has ever talked to a living soul among us, but I would hazard a guess that the preponderance of that particular movement would not only insist that He talked to them on a regular basis, they would swear He paid them a personal visit!

Then we have all of those others who proudly claim to be “Republicans,” whatever that means. As far as I am concerned they have abandoned any semblance of human kindness in their self-ordained divine defense of all their material possessions and the pervasive fear that they just might have to share some of their coveted wealth with the least among us. All one has to do is engage in a cursory examination of the behavior of the oligarchs, the patriarchs, Corporate America, and the proliferation of lobbyists that scramble all over our Nation’s Capital like a pack of rats on a corpse, attempting to incur the favor of our “elected” officials at the expense of those who, ostensibly, elected them to office. Then we have those black-robed hypocrites who would have us believe that they genuinely believe in the rule of law, but who make no attempt to disguise their agendas as anything but that of servants to the most corrupt among us. Surely, there has to be a better method for selecting and confirming those who are elevated to that highest court in the land.

But, have you noticed that no amount of public scorn or derision even slows the bastards down. They just continue their vicious pursuits with abandon and absolutely no regard for the common good.

Some of the great minds that I respect and listen to are beginning to entertain the prospect that we are approaching the precipice of our national destruction. Because of the folly wrought by the elections of 2010 our future as a republic is being called into question. They have my attention. I am inclined to give greater credence to what lies before us, as we summarily ignore the wisdom of scientists, statesmen, economists, etc. What sane mind could simply ignore the cumulative wisdom of scholars who have devoted their lives to the pursuit of knowledge that can only serve the best interests of us all? How about a “think tank,” comprised of John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Virginia Foxx, Michele Bachman, Sarah Palin, Jan Brewer, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh? What could one call such an august collection of intellectuals? The Funny Farm? Don’t laugh. Those are some of the most influential minds now guiding our Ship of State. Scary, isn’t it?

I dare say there are a significant number of folks who believe that I have lost a great deal of respect for our President. To be sure, the bloom is off the rose. He has taken far too much license with the myriad promises he has made to the American people, only to diminutively dismiss them or sell out to the very interests he pledged to challenge. The sheer magnitude of his double-speak is too great to attribute to errors of judgment or honest mistakes. He has consistently caved into those very interests. He has consistently run interference against those well-intentioned servants in government who honestly want to take to task the massive collusion by all those on Wall Street and other centers of power and influence who have brought this nation to its knees, has crippled meaningful recovery of the economy and the society, and has catered to the most vile among us – vast wealth, greed, and international corporations. Although he assailed the effects of free trade on our economy shortly after he took office, he still continues to fly around the globe, entering into more free trade agreements, all followed by yet more speeches while vilifying the effects of all he has agreed to. But, our corporate-owned news media persist in giving him a free pass by simply choosing to ignore his penchant for having elevated the art form of double-speak to a new level.

Whether or not we care to acknowledge it, we have lost our moral compass; that which instilled in each of us some understanding and acceptance of the differences between right and wrong. Now, it is situational and largely defined by the masters of deception that program us to believe and accept anything that plays to our basest desires. Most of our churches have failed us and those who have managed to survive and prosper peddle ecclesiastical crap that only a fool could swallow. Those who manage to have overflowing congregations actually lead people to believe that God wants all of us to be wealthy, beautiful and enjoying the good life. If one wants to look into the eyes of pure evil, just stare into the blank faces of those who are today’s “true believers.” They, in turn, comprise a significant proportion of those dominating our national discourse. They are the ones who demonize all those who have suffered the agonies of the damned because of their insatiable greed. They are the ones who have bought our government and turned its institutions against those who elected them to office, thanks to the enlightened wisdom of the highest court in the land.

There is, in my humble opinion, a thread of violence within our national character that permeates many facets of our lives. It champions the survival of the fittest, regardless of how they came by that power. It isn’t what is in our national best interest that prevails. Rather, it is in who wins the contest. We thrive on wars and rumors of war. We delight in contact sports that are fraught with violence; the more the better. We still, rather pathetically, hear the mantra of the U.S. being the “wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world.” I would ask the question, “wealthy and powerful in what sense of the word?”

We revel in our right to own guns. We want to see more physical contact and brutality on our football fields, our hockey rinks and in our boxing arenas. We like to see the blood and sweat that goes with those “sports,” and to vicariously savor the taste of victory over the vanquished. The macho man still lives and thrives in our world. But, we also see a large cheering section by the legions of “macho” women who egg them on. You see that on the playing fields of Little League and soccer leagues. You can readily hear the shouts from doting mothers that encourage their progeny to assault the opposing players. The smell of blood is not unique to the male of our species.

We can continue to believe that all of the macho crap is virtuous. But, when our nation reached the point where our eastern and western boundaries were determined by a common land mass meeting the limiting factors of the two great oceans, the days of the buckskin frontiersmen ended. When all of the indigenous people of this country were subdued by the expropriation of their lands and hunting grounds, rounded up and confined to reservations in remote locations and settled on some of the poorest land in the country, that myth ended. When this great land was opened to the wanton destruction by free enterprise a different kind of predator was unleashed on the least among us. They have continued, unabated, and have only become worse and more difficult to contain for the welfare of the country and its people.

We seem to want to believe that our votes really count for something. We want to believe that those we elect to office really serve at our pleasure and are responsive to our needs. One only has to look at the massive disparity between the 1% and the remaining 99%. The violence within our nature no longer works. Our so-called democracy no longer serves us all. The corruption that is spawned by an economy that is to serve our common welfare only enslaves and impoverishes us. The fox is guarding the chicken coop and the chickens are quaking in fear of their lives.

When I was a member of senior management in a large, specialty hospital in Saudi Arabia, we relied on a group of medical specialists comprised of Board-Certified Americans and Saudis, augmented largely by European physicians who provided the supportive medical expertise for physical examinations and the care required for conditions not specific to the specialty that was at the core of the hospital. One particularly good specialist in Internal Medicine from Sweden, when he was approaching the end of his contract, indicated that he would not be re-contracting, which would be a big loss to the hospital. I contacted him and asked for a meeting regarding his decision. He asked that I meet with him at his home rather in my office. When I arrived at his home I was ushered into the living room and was met, not only by him, but his wife and two sons, as well. I was somewhat taken aback, which he seemed to sense. He told me that all major decisions affecting the family were made by consensus of the family. I dutifully walked through why we were so eager to retain him on staff and what we were prepared to do in terms of his compensation and benefits. They graciously listened. When I finished, he told me that he and his family had already discussed the merits of staying with us vs. returning to Sweden. He informed me that they all agreed that the family would prefer to forego the generous and tax-free salary. Rather, they were going to return to a practice that would require that sixty percent of their income would go to taxes, in order to live in a civilized and secure society, where no one lived on the streets and in poverty, and among people who shared a safe and secure environment. I left disappointed by their decision, but reassured that there are people in this world who have their priorities straight; that there can be a better perspective on life and the inherent worth of human beings.

The vituperations of the rabid flag-waving zealots not withstanding, I hold out little hope that we can rein in the excesses of what we have become, and return our government and our way of life to the people our government is supposed to serve. We need to hang up the mantra of “We are the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world,” and redirect all of that wasted energy into becoming a nation among equals in the world community seeking to restore peace among nations, saving the environment for the world, and that will work to restore some semblance of dignity to all of those who suffer in order to feed our indomitable greed. More is not necessarily better. I believe most decent people know that in the very fabric of their being, but they have to have the courage and determination to repudiate the culture of materialism and hedonism that dominates our national agenda.

Government needs to be cleansed of its flaws, its health restored and returned to the people who are, at the end of the day, its real masters. Every branch of government needs to be purged of the politics of corruption. Our intelligence apparatus needs to be re-oriented against threats from foreign powers. Our military establishment needs to be seriously pared back to what can be seen as a defensive force against those same foreign threats. The mindset of empire is not appropriate to our nation and for any of those institutions. It is contrary to all we profess to be. They must be transparent to all of us and they must operate on a scale that we can afford, and that does not come at the expense of our basic human needs at the bedrock of a civilized people.

There is an urgent need for us to establish our national priorities on what knowledge reveals to us, not what unbridled greed wants us to believe. We can only consume what we actually need, not all that we want. There is no virtue in the endless pursuit of materialistic and hedonistic pleasures. That is the stuff of barbarians who have no souls and, who can only live with the notion that they are somehow eternal. That just isn’t going to happen.

Regulation constrains the basest instincts within us and that will pull us down into the mire if they remain unchecked. Taxes are the price of admission for living in a civilized and healthy society, and a bargain at that.

Time to take off the blinders, muster some courage and get real.

Cowboy Bob
The Sagebrush Philosopher
May 20, 2012