I cannot recall a time in my life when I have been witness
to such an intellectual wasteland or the numbing of the human mind as has been
set before us by the need for the American people to be passively entertained
and the conscious choice to live in a state of self-imposed ignorance. That is not only pathetic, it is an
indictment of what we could and should be as a people. Has not the time come for us to revisit the
joys of original thought and dismiss the trite and meaningless nonsense that we
accept as “fun,” and pursue with such vigor?
Permit me to list just a few of what we have incorporated
into our daily lives.
·
We willingly allow the oligarchs and those who
serve as their minions in government and industry to pillage and plunder the
wealth of the nation for their own benefit by fostering subservience from the
very systems that should be there to serve the needs and interests of the
people of the United States . They own and control every branch and agency
of our government, minimize and denigrate any actions that may be taken for the
benefit and welfare of the citizens of this country in favor of reducing their
obligations to society and reducing the needs of the broader social order. The rich just get richer and the poor get
even poorer. That is the new mantra of
what we have become. If that is not
really what we want for this country, then why in the world don’t we change the
system, and reign in the excesses they claim and which are fostered by those
elected to serve us, the people? They
pollute our environment at will while dismissing the warnings of science and
the perils to come by their blatant greed at the expense of the planet.
·
We have completely abandoned any notion that we,
the people, have a solemn duty and responsibility to hold our government
accountable to us for what they do for us and to us because they have set
themselves above the law and the will of the people.
·
We have allowed Bill “Fellatio” Clinton, Phil
Gramm, Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Alan Greenspan to deregulate major
financial interests in order to favor bankers, financiers and hedge fund
managers at the expense of the American people and the viability of the
financial institutions put there to better serve the body politic.
·
The Obama Administration bailed out renegade
banks and other financial institutions at the expense of the taxpayers and at
reduced rates of interest, for problems they, not we, created! Moreover, he tacitly gave his approval for
the massive and sustained “interest free loans” to failed banks by the Chairman
of the Federal Reserve.
·
The Obama Administration has favored reduced
rates on income tax and other forms of taxation for wealthy benefactors, the
movement of offshore funds in order to reduce their tax liabilities and has
favored big business, corporate capitalists and other entrepreneurs to further
reduce their tax rates while the average American has labored to meet their tax
obligations.
·
The Obama Administration has favored big energy
companies, free trade agreements and other forms of subsidies to various
industrial enterprises, again at the expense of the average American.
·
We revere and defer to the military and
intelligence services as if they were royalty and touched by the hand of
God. To question them and their motives
is almost an affront to the sanctity of all they profess to be and do for our
collective benefit. Sez who?
·
We have bought into the “privatization” of every
conceivable kind of public service as inherently good, less expensive and far
superior to anything that might accrue to our benefit by the efforts and work
of public servants. If so, why are the
hucksters of the business and financial worlds in such a hurry to tap into that
lucrative cornucopia of profit and greater wealth? That just doesn’t compute.
·
Why do we tolerate the massive cost of benefits
and the loss of valuable time by our legislators so they can spend their time
courting the favor of lobbyists, and taking vacations and excursions of various
kinds at taxpayer expense? While the
“working” Americans and lower paid workers envy the perks they so freely
flaunt, they turn a blind eye and go for even more.
·
Why do our elected government officials
acquiesce to one-sided actions such as Citizens United by the Supreme Court,
all for the benefit of those who claim their divine right of superiority to rig
elections and the financing of those elections for the rich and famous so they
can buy votes and the attendant benefits for the benefit of their insatiable
greed and material gains?
·
Why is there such disparity in the funding of
unemployment benefits, the minimum wage, student loan relief, etc. by the
renegades sitting in the halls of the House and the Senate vs. what should be
given to help all of those seeking honest jobs and bearing the responsibility
for supporting their families with a living wage?
From my perspective, our society has degenerated to a level
where anything goes and we are not embarrassed or shamed by anything. We are mesmerized by electronic gadgets that
enable us to stare blankly into a hand-held device in order to “communicate”
with others without ever having to talk, and to be passively entertained by
every conceivable kind of titillating pleasure known to mankind. How are we any better by ogling at girls with
skirts up to the cheeks of their bottoms, the bare-chested and tight crotches
of men’s clothing, and the use of gutter language as they emulate those who
have managed to peddle that nonsense? Do
we really care to listen to a prolonged discussion about the private parts of
human anatomy and the role those we are watching play in the entire
scenario? What does all that do for our
sense of common decency and what sets us above the sewers from which it
comes?
We are a people who seem to find it attractive to use
acronyms and other forms of abbreviated speech rather than proper language in
order to carry on conversations. We
attach meanings to abbreviated forms of speech and react as if they were somehow
subversive or vulgar, and convey some sort of disdain or prejudice by their
very use.
What comes to your mind when you hear the terms “Working
American,” “Middle Class,” “Service Employee,” “Domestic Worker,” “Manual Laborer,”
etc.? Is there not more dignity to being
a “Working American” than that of a “Senator,” “a Congressman,” a Consultant? Where the former earns an honest day’s pay
for an honest day’s work, the other earns his/hers by peddling knowledge of
dubious value or by letting us know that he/she steals and deceives (with
aplomb) for a living rather than stooping to that of a mere laborer. Who are the more respectable and more noble
in all this?
What comes to your mind when you hear terms such as “Ivy League,”
“San Jose State College,” “Junior College,” “Stanford University,” etc. Does one strike you as superior or inferior
to one of the others? What does that say
about you?
What makes a scion of Silicon Valley
more valuable and respectable than someone who can fix your car, or build your
house, or manage a cattle or sheep ranch, or serve you a well prepared
hamburger in a fast food restaurant? One
works for a living and the other peddles technical expertise of a dubious value
to society in general. Both serve us in
special ways and both are essential to a balanced life for all of us. Why do we revere one more because he/she has
money and the other is just a “working person?”
The nomenclatures we use by the names we attach to political
parties convey a great deal about us and how we view those we put in public
office. What is the essential difference
between a Republican and a Democrat?
Both are accomplished thieves and peddlers of all sorts of deception and
manipulation that most decent people would find offensive.
Did you know that the Presidential Debates to which we are
subjected every four plus years are limited only to those who are candidates
for the Office of President from the Democratic and Republican Parties? Did it ever occur to you that is tantamount
to a two-party political system to which we, the voters, are expected to
subscribe? Who deemed it a two-party
political system to the exclusion of every other qualified candidate who may be
seeking that office? Why should the
candidates from the Green Party, the Justice Party and the Freedom Party all be
barred from participating in those discourses.
Might we, the voters, not learn a great deal more about who could and
would serve us most effectively if we could hear their answers to the important
and salient questions having to do with their occupancy of the Office of the
President? I would think so.
Who deemed it appropriate that we should only have a limited
number of political parties for any and all of our elections for public
office? I have never read where it was
codified as the only option we were to have and, frankly, I think we (and the
country) are the poorer for it.
We Americans seem to have an ingrained disdain for any
political party with the term “social” or “socialist” associated with it. Somehow those terms connote some sort of
subversive element that would surely undermine the purity and sanctity of what
we currently have.
For most of my life I labored by declaring my party of
choice as the Republican Party. With
time and enlightenment, I came to my senses and shifted to the Democratic
Party. My greatest joy in that move was
to have had the privilege of meeting John F. Kennedy. I have had my moments with that political
party, as well. That discomfort has been
largely created by the notion that, somehow, both of those political parties
were more “American,” than others. I no
longer harbor that illusion.
I now pride myself in being a “Social Democrat.” A “Social Democracy” is defined as “a political movement advocating a gradual
and peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism by democratic means.” That suggests to me that we have not done
a very good job of using the proper nomenclature in the use of such terms and
how they might apply to the greater society at large. If the largest segment of our society is that
of the “working” or “middle” classes, does that not suggest also, the greatest
segment of our population is a social class?
If that is the pre-eminent class, then it seems logical for that class
to be occupied by those who claim membership in the largest group of people
dedicated to the health and welfare of society.
That being the case, then why should we be limited to just Democratic,
Republican, Green, Freedom, and Justice Parties, all of which are minority
parties. Why should we not have a
“Social Democratic” party that embraces the largest majority of voters having
the greatest vested interest in a political establishment that would serve the
greatest number of citizens? It would
seem to me that the Scandinavian countries have proven the case rather
well. What is to be gained by
re-inventing the wheel?
Moreover, why should any minority party control the
institutions of government more than any other political party? Would it not be more reasonable and logical
for a socialist democratic party to represent the greatest potential number of
voters in a system that is, ostensibly, there to serve all of the people?
It seems to me that we could make a good start by revisiting
the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, going back to the Constitution and the Bill
of Rights by putting back into place the safeguards that were so wisely
incorporated into our way of life. We
could start with a “free and unfettered press,” followed by well-regulated
corporations, an impartial judicial system that served us all, equally.
We should, and could, clean up the mess we have so we are a
real democracy that we can all take pride in and have confidence in to ensure
we are all, indeed, “equal under the
law.”
Frankly, I am tired of the games our political, commercial,
intelligence and military establishment play with us and the persistent
wondering if we, the people, really are in control and are being heard, or if
we are little more than sheep waiting to be led to the slaughter.
Aren’t you?
Cowboy Bob
The Sagebrush Philosopher
September 2, 2014
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