" The Sparks of Rebellion"

Few writers and activists capture the temper of our times as well as Chris Hedges.  His ability to articulate the essence of the reality of contemporary life in the United States is a rare gift and he has been an inspiration to me in a great many ways. 

As you can readily see, this article was originally published by Truthdig on September 20, 2013 and re-published on www.commondreams.org on October 2, 2013.  I claim no credit for anything contained in this article.  However, I do believe that the message is of such import that I am taking the liberty of sharing it with those of you who have taken an interest in my blog. 

All caring and concerned Americans should read and contemplate the profound insights provided by Chris Hedges in this article.  I think the time has come for us, as a good and decent people, to stop deluding ourselves into believing that those infected with greed in its most virulent form have a modicum of concern for the plunder in which they have engaged and the misery they have inflicted on this country.  The time for niceties and tolerance for their evil must end.  For as long as we remain complacent in the name of civility, the more blatant they will become and the greater peril they will pose for all of us.

I genuinely thank Chris Hedges, Truthdig and Common Dreams for bringing this wise and timely message to all of us.

Cowboy Bob
October 3, 2013  



Published on Monday, September 30, 2013 by Truthdig

The Sparks of Rebellion

by Chris Hedges

I am reading and rereading the debates among some of the great radical thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries about the mechanisms of social change. These debates were not academic. They were frantic searches for the triggers of revolt.

Photo by Poster Boy NYC (CC-BY)

Vladimir Lenin placed his faith in a violent uprising, a professional, disciplined revolutionary vanguard freed from moral constraints and, like Karl Marx, in the inevitable emergence of the worker’s state. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon insisted that gradual change would be accomplished as enlightened workers took over production and educated and converted the rest of the proletariat. Mikhail Bakunin predicted the catastrophic breakdown of the capitalist order, something we are likely to witness in our lifetimes, and new autonomous worker federations rising up out of the chaos. Pyotr Kropotkin, like Proudhon, believed in an evolutionary process that would hammer out the new society. Emma Goldman, along with Kropotkin, came to be very wary of both the efficacy of violence and the revolutionary potential of the masses. “The mass,” Goldman wrote bitterly toward the end of her life in echoing Marx, “clings to its masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify!”

The revolutionists of history counted on a mobilized base of enlightened industrial workers. The building blocks of revolt, they believed, relied on the tool of the general strike, the ability of workers to cripple the mechanisms of production. Strikes could be sustained with the support of political parties, strike funds and union halls. Workers without these support mechanisms had to replicate the infrastructure of parties and unions if they wanted to put prolonged pressure on the bosses and the state. But now, with the decimation of the U.S. manufacturing base, along with the dismantling of our unions and opposition parties, we will have to search for different instruments of rebellion.

We must develop a revolutionary theory that is not reliant on the industrial or agrarian muscle of workers. Most manufacturing jobs have disappeared, and, of those that remain, few are unionized. Our family farms have been destroyed by agro-businesses. Monsanto and its Faustian counterparts on Wall Street rule. They are steadily poisoning our lives and rendering us powerless. The corporate leviathan, which is global, is freed from the constraints of a single nation-state or government. Corporations are beyond regulation or control. Politicians are too anemic, or more often too corrupt, to stand in the way of the accelerating corporate destruction. This makes our struggle different from revolutionary struggles in industrial societies in the past. Our revolt will look more like what erupted in the less industrialized Slavic republics, Russia, Spain and China and uprisings led by a disenfranchised rural and urban working class and peasantry in the liberation movements that swept through Africa and Latin America. The dispossessed working poor, along with unemployed college graduates and students, unemployed journalists, artists, lawyers and teachers, will form our movement. This is why the fight for a higher minimum wage is crucial to uniting service workers with the alienated college-educated sons and daughters of the old middle class. Bakunin, unlike Marx, considered déclassé intellectuals essential for successful revolt.

It is not the poor who make revolutions. It is those who conclude that they will not be able, as they once expected, to rise economically and socially. This consciousness is part of the self-knowledge of service workers and fast food workers. It is grasped by the swelling population of college graduates caught in a vise of low-paying jobs and obscene amounts of debt. These two groups, once united, will be our primary engines of revolt. Much of the urban poor has been crippled and in many cases broken by a rewriting of laws, especially drug laws, that has permitted courts, probation officers, parole boards and police to randomly seize poor people of color, especially African-American men, without just cause and lock them in cages for years. In many of our most impoverished urban centers—our internal colonies, as Malcolm X called them—mobilization, at least at first, will be difficult. The urban poor are already in chains. These chains are being readied for the rest of us. “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal bread,” Anatole France commented acidly.

Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan examined 100 years of violent and nonviolent resistance movements in their book “Why Civil Resistance Works.” They concluded that nonviolent movements succeed twice as often as violent uprisings. Violent movements work primarily in civil wars or in ending foreign occupations, they found. Nonviolent movements that succeed appeal to those within the power structure, especially the police and civil servants, who are cognizant of the corruption and decadence of the power elite and are willing to abandon them.

“History teaches that we have the power to transform the nation,” Kevin Zeese said when I interviewed him. Zeese, who with Dr. Margaret Flowers founded PopularResistance.org and helped plan the occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., continued: “We put forward a strategic framework that would allow people to work together in a common direction to end the rule of money. We need to be a nationally networked movement of many local, regional and issue-focused groups so we can unite into one mass movement. Research shows that nonviolent mass movements win. Fringe movements fail. By ‘mass’ we mean with an objective that is supported by a large majority and 1 percent to 5 percent of the population actively working for transformation.”

Zeese said this mass resistance must work on two tracks. It must attempt to stop the machine while at the same time building alternative structures of economic democracy and participatory democratic institutions. It is vital, he said, to sever ourselves from the corporate economy. Money, he said, has to be raised for grass-roots movements since most foundations that give grants are linked to the Democratic Party. Radical student and environmental groups especially need funds to build national networks, as does the public banking initiative. This initiative is essential to the movement. It will never find support among legislative bodies, for public banks would free people from the tyranny of commercial banks and Wall Street.

The most important dilemma facing us is not ideological. It is logistical. The security and surveillance state has made its highest priority the breaking of any infrastructure that might spark widespread revolt. The state knows the tinder is there. It knows that the continued unraveling of the economy and the effects of climate change make popular unrest inevitable. It knows that as underemployment and unemployment doom at least a quarter of the U.S. population, perhaps more, to perpetual poverty, and as unemployment benefits are scaled back, as schools close, as the middle class withers away, as pension funds are looted by hedge fund thieves, and as the government continues to let the fossil fuel industry ravage the planet, the future will increasingly be one of open conflict. This battle against the corporate state, right now, is primarily about infrastructure. We need an infrastructure to build revolt. The corporate state is determined to deny us one.

The corporate state, unnerved by the Occupy movement, has moved to close any public space to movements that might reignite encampments. For example, New York City police arrested members of Veterans for Peace on Oct. 7, 2012, when they stayed beyond the 10 p.m. official closing time at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The police, who in some cases apologized to the veterans as they handcuffed them, were open about the motive of authorities: Officers told those being taken to jail they should blame the Occupy movement for the arrests.

The state has, at the same time, heavily infiltrated movements in order to discredit, isolate and push out their most competent leaders. It has used its vast surveillance capacities to monitor all forms of electronic communications, as well as personal relationships between activists, giving the state the ability to paralyze planned actions before they can begin. It has mounted a public relations campaign to demonize anyone who resists, branding environmental activists as “ecoterrorists,” charging activists under draconian terrorism laws, hunting down whistle-blowers such as Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden who shine a light on the inner secrets of power and condemning them as traitors and threats to national security. The state has attempted—and in this effort some in the Black Bloc proved unwittingly useful—to paint the movement as violent and directionless.

Occupy articulated the concerns of the majority of citizens. Most of the citizenry detests Wall Street and big banks. It does not want more wars. It needs jobs. It is disgusted with the subservience of elected officials to corporate power. It wants universal health care. It worries that if the fossil fuel industry is not stopped, there will be no future for our children. And the state is using all its power to stymie any movement that expresses these concerns. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show Homeland Security, the FBI, the Federal Protective Service, the Park Service and most likely the NSA and the CIA (the latter two have refused to respond to FOIA requests) worked with police across the country to infiltrate and destroy the encampments. There were 7,765 arrests of people in the movement. Occupy, at its peak, had about 350,000 people—or about 0.1 percent of the U.S. population.

“Look how afraid the power structure was of a mere 1/10th of 1 percent of the population,” Zeese said. “What happens when the movement grows to 1 percent—not a far reach—or the 5 percent that some research shows is the tipping point where no government, dictatorship or democracy can withstand the pressure from below?”

The state cannot allow workers at Wal-Mart, or any other nonunionized service center, to have access to an infrastructure or resources that might permit prolonged strikes and boycotts. And the movement now is about nuts and bolts. It is about food trucks, medical tents, communications vans and musicians and artists willing to articulate and sustain the struggle. We will have to build what unions and radical parties supplied in the past.

The state, in its internal projections, has a vision of the future that is as dystopian as mine. But the state, to protect itself, lies. Politicians, corporations, the public relations industry, the entertainment industry and our ridiculous television pundits speak as if we can continue to build a society based on limitless growth, profligate consumption and fossil fuel. They feed the collective mania for hope at the expense of truth. Their public vision is self-delusional, a form of collective psychosis. The corporate state, meanwhile, is preparing privately for the world it knows is actually coming. It is cementing into place a police state, one that includes the complete evisceration of our most basic civil liberties and the militarization of the internal security apparatus, as well as wholesale surveillance of the citizenry.

The most pressing issue facing us right now is the most prosaic. Protesters attempting to block the Keystone XL pipeline can endure only for so long if they have nothing to eat but stale bagels. They need adequate food. They need a system of communication to get their message out to alternative media that will amplify it. They need rudimentary medical care. All of these elements were vital to the Occupy movement. And these elements, when they came together, allowed the building of a movement that threatened the elite. The encampments also carried within them internal sources of disintegration. Many did not adequately control some groups. Many were hijacked or burdened by those who drained the political work of the movement. Many found that consensus, which worked well in small groups, created paralysis in groups of several hundred or a few thousand. And many failed to anticipate the numbing exhaustion that crushed activists. But these encampments did provide what was most crucial to the movement, something unions or the old Communist Party once provided to militants in the past. They provided the logistics to sustain resistance. And the destruction of the encampments, more than anything else, was a move by the state to deny to us the infrastructure needed to resist.

Infrastructure alone, however, will not be enough.  The resistance needs a vibrant cultural component. It was the spirituals that nourished the souls of African-Americans during the nightmare of slavery. It was the blues that spoke to the reality of black people during the era of Jim Crow. It was the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca that sustained the republicans fighting the fascists in Spain. Music, dance, drama, art, song, painting were the fire and drive of resistance movements. The rebel units in El Salvador when I covered the war there always traveled with musicians and theater troupes. Art, as Emma Goldman pointed out, has the power to make ideas felt. Goldman noted that when Andrew Undershaft, a character in George Bernard Shaw’s play “Major Barbara,” said poverty is “[t]he worst of crimes” and “All the other crimes are virtues beside it,” his impassioned declaration elucidated the cruelty of class warfare more effectively than Shaw’s socialist tracts. The degradation of education into vocational training for the corporate state, the ending of state subsidies for the arts and journalism, the hijacking of these disciplines by corporate sponsors, severs the population from understanding, self-actualization and transcendence. In aesthetic terms the corporate state seeks to crush beauty, truth and imagination. This is a war waged by all totalitarian systems.

Culture, real culture, is radical and transformative. It is capable of expressing what lies deep within us. It gives words to our reality. It makes us feel as well as see. It allows us to empathize with those who are different or oppressed. It reveals what is happening around us. It honors mystery. “The role of the artist, then, precisely, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through the vast forest,” James Baldwin wrote, “so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.”

Artists, like rebels, are dangerous. They speak a truth that totalitarian systems do not want spoken. “Red Rosa now has vanished too. …” Bertolt Brecht wrote after Luxemburg was murdered. “She told the poor what life is about, And so the rich have rubbed her out.” Without artists such as musician Ry Cooder and playwrights Howard Brenton and Tarell Alvin McCraney we will not succeed. If we are to face what lies ahead, we will not only have to organize and feed ourselves, we will have to begin to feel deeply, to face unpleasant truths, to recover empathy and to live passionately. Then we can fight.

 

© 2013 Truthdig

Chris Hedges writes a regular column for Truthdig.com. Hedges graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He is the author of many books, including: War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, What Every Person Should Know About War, and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.  His most recent book is Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.

“A Few of Life’s Regrets”

As I begin writing yet another epistle, I am not entirely certain as to where this is taking me.  However, as I always do, I will give it a shot and hope for the best.  As I enter a new year, however, it seems like a good time to embark on a few personal reflections.

When I started writing this blog just over two years ago, I did so because I had a lot of free time on my hands and a great many unsettled feelings about a variety of issues.  I sought neither fame nor fortune but, rather, to see what if any gems might be buried within the vast labyrinths of that gradually calcifying cranial tissue residing within the limited space allocated to it within my skull.  I was writing for myself but thought there was no harm to be done by sending it out to the far reaches of cyberspace, leaving the merits of my efforts to be determined by the wisdom of others.  I found I touched the lives of some, pissed off some and inspired a surprising number of others along the way.  So, it was not altogether in vain.  I filed the beginning of this and a few random thoughts away and, frankly, forgot about them.  For some strange reason, I just happened upon these words on, of all days, Thanksgiving.  Perhaps there is something prophetic about that.  

The prose and ideas may not flow with the fluidity of professional writing, but that is one of the attendant hazards of this type of writing, particularly when one treads on those aspects of his being that may not be terribly easy to face nor to articulate.  Is it just a personal catharsis or does it serve a greater purpose?  I really don’t know. 

I have developed a passionate interest in politics and government in the United States over the past several years.  Young though I might have been, I was inspired by the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt when he declared war on Japan, reassured by the steadfast determination and uncompromising honesty of Harry S. Truman, the inherent dignity and wisdom of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the sheer inspiration engendered by John F. Kennedy.  Each had his own unique brand of greatness in my view.  Real leadership seemed to have died with those few, only to be followed by the golden age of the slick politician as each pursued his own avaricious agenda at the expense of the common good. 

Then along came Barack Obama in whom I saw a new ray of hope for us all.  Perhaps, I thought, the flagrant wrongs of the past could be righted and we could enter a new age of statesmanship that would appeal to the finer aspects of our nature.  I soon realized that all we got was just another politician.  To be sure, although very charismatic and mesmerizing, in reality simply another opportunistic patsy for the special interests that have a stranglehold on this fragile republic aka democracy.  I have concluded there is, essentially, no difference between the two major political parties.  They just serve the same interests in different ways.  Our vote every four years, at best, is tantamount to little more than changing the draperies at the White House.  The life blood and decency of the American people are sapped from their very being by Wall Street, Corporate America, special interests and a military/industrial complex that is completely out of control. 

None of them share a common bond with those they exploit at will.

         

I have come to the conclusion, because of the excesses of avarice and greed by the exploiters, compounded by the enabling complacency and self-imposed ignorance of the exploited, there simply is no hope.  We are on a downhill trajectory, moving at meteoric speed, towards our own demise and, indeed, that of the world.  When we have passed the point of no return, we will predictably rise up in desperation, demanding instant solutions to very complex problems in order to turn the ship of human existence away from the iceberg looming on the horizon, only to realize we procrastinated much too long.  There is no turning back.  Our common date with destiny is no longer a possibility, but a certainty.  Our human proclivity to pursue pleasure and “things” has finally caught up with us.  We slept while Rome burned and greed played the fiddle.  No one paid any attention to the alarm bells that have been sounding for decades.

Given that rather ominous and bleak outlook for the future, I reflect on my own life and often ask, “What are my biggest regrets?”  That is a fitting question for a man in the twilight years of his life, but not one that is easy to answer. 

I regret the crippling effects of an ingrained fear of being poor again.  It caused me to constantly doubt my abilities and myself.  It led me to compromise my principles for the sake of survival.  It caused me to be overly cautious about human relationships, holding back trust and rarely, if ever, revealing the person I really am.  I lost a lot of life because of the stranglehold of fear that gripped my every waking moment.  The price that I exacted from myself and imposed on others is incalculable; a treasure, the value of which I realized much too late in life.  It caused me to be overly concerned about safety and certainty when risk would have yielded ever so much more of real value.   

I regret that I was too rigid during the early years of my adult life, which cost me dearly in terms of friendships offered and never accepted, in kindness and understanding that were never seized upon.  I consigned myself to being a loner when that was, in reality, the last thing in the world I really wanted. 

I regret that my own imperfections caused me to insist on standards of perfection from others that were out of reach from our common human nature.  I hurt people who only asked to be respected and trusted.  That is a terribly egregious thing to have done to any  human being.  Sadly, the key players in this tragedy are now gone from this world.  When I am alone I often wish I could have one more brief bit of time with each of them.  I would tell them how sorry I am for what I did, how much I lost because I never had the courage to be open, vulnerable and authentic, and how I robbed us both by not telling each one how much they had enriched my life.   

Two of the greatest regrets of my life are not pursuing a career because of its compatibility with my natural talents, interests and ability, as opposed to gaining success as quickly as possible for the sake of staving off another epoch of poverty in life.  In the end, all I really accomplished was squandering the few valuable human attributes that might have brought me years of pleasure, satisfaction and, probably, the security that comes from pursuing that which is a burning passion of the heart and an ambition in the belly.  The greatest cost of all was my early transformation into a consummate professional huckster who was oh so willing to sell what I had to offer to the highest bidder.  In virtually all of those instances, I set myself up for failure, but it can be said that is the one thing I seem to have done rather well.          

There are a whole host of other regrets, minor and major, that are too numerous to belabor here.  However, each of them robbed me of so much of the finer side of whom

and what I am and never was.  In the end, they add up to quite a chunk of life wasted that mattered little.   

Why does so much of the world revere characteristics of the human condition that only detract from the finer facets of our human nature?  What does competitive obsession do for the world?  Why do we manifest disdain for the more noble attributes of our human nature?  What is wrong with being gentle, kind, caring and generous with our fellow human beings?  Would we not be infinitely better off if we didn’t have to win every contest and just naturally accepted defeat as, at times, the best outcome with the most valuable lesson?  After all, more often than not, it isn’t the contest that really matters but, rather, as Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers so poignantly said, “It isn’t whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game.“       

I think fathers should seize every opportunity to hug their sons and really let them know how much they are loved and cherished.  Shaking hands may be the “manly” thing to do, but it sure is a poor substitute for the warmth and reassurance that only comes with the real deal.  Personally, I believe men are the more fragile and lonely because of that mistaken notion of what it stereotypically means to be a real man.  A goodly number carry the emptiness and pain of a lost relationship with their Dads that so many secretly yearned for but never had.  Not every boy is destined to be a football player so his Father can vicariously re-live the days of his youth and glory at the expense of what might have been a rare and gifted talent that the world may never know.  That may well be one of the root causes of the aggression and competitiveness manifest in the masculine mystique as one reaches and lives out maturity.  When the head and hormones overrule the heart, I think we need to pause and ask ourselves if we are giving enough time to the finer aspects of our human nature.     

When I was just a boy, I vividly recall my Dad saying to me, “Never forget what I am about to say.  The saddest thing any man can ever say is, “If I only had it to do over again.”  How true.

Looking back over more years than I care to acknowledge, there are four aspects of our  nature that, I believe, should be manifest in our person and remain inviolate pillars of our character throughout our lives; (1) unconditional acceptance, (2) unconditional love, (3) unconditional understanding, and (4) the most important of all, unconditional forgiveness.  With those as the cornerstones of our earthly journey, I just don’t see how we could possibly go wrong.

In the final analysis, the most sobering realization is, when a person reaches that later stage of life, the reality sets in that you can never really go home again.  What is done is done, and we can only hope there really is yet one more phase in the life process, and it is there that redemption awaits us for every regret we ever carried in our hearts. 

Have a good year. 

Cowboy Bob

January 16, 2010      

“They Don’t Own Us; We Own Them”

All of us who spend anytime on the Internet to speak of receive circulated materials that ask us to support a cause or an idea, from time to time.  Some are impressive and warrant our attention.  Unfortunately, most of them don’t fall in that category. 

I received the following the other day that is, ostensibly, authored by Warren Buffet.  In my opinion he is one of a very few men who has managed to define his money, rather than allow his money to define him.  He seems to have his feet firmly on the ground and is focused on how to best handle the vast wealth he has accumulated.  I cannot verify that this is the work of Warren Buffet, but its simplicity and wisdom would not be out of character for the man, insofar as I am concerned. 

Were this to become a viable option for the people to regain some control of a government that is totally out of control, it would require some very principled and courageous individuals with the means, determination and will to make it happen.  That seems like a tall order in today’s world but, as the old adage says, “You never know until you try.”  I hope there are some or a few who might just have what it takes to breathe life into these ideas.

Congressional Reform Act of 2013

1.                  No Tenure/No Pension:  A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2.                  Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security:  All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security System immediately.  All future funds flow into the Social Security system and Congress participates with the American people.  It may not be used for any other purpose.

3.                  Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4.                  Congress will no longer vote them selves a pay raise.  Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5.                  Congress loses their current health system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 

6.                  Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 

7.                  All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 2/31/13.  The American people did not make this contract with Congressman/women.  Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves.  Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If Herbert Norquist can intimidate members of Congress into signing on to his “no new taxes pledge,” it seems a few influential citizens could require no less from their legislators by signing on to this one.  The names of all those who did sign on should be published far and wide, along with all of those who refused.

It was, after all, Abraham Lincoln who admonished us that this “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”  I would say it is time to give new meaning and life to this bit of wisdom.  After all, compared to Abraham Lincoln, in the grand scheme of things, I would say Herbert Norquist is clearly a light weight.  If he can intimidate the powerful and influential in Washington, surely we can do no less.

Cowboy Bob

The Sagebrush Philosopher

August 12, 2013    

“Is It Not Time To Just Get Back To Basics?”

As the aging process claims ever so much more of the life force remaining within all of us, I am, in particular, extremely grateful for every human contact I have had in the course of my journey.  I think of the knowledge, wisdom and insights I have gained from workmates, the casual conversations in the departure lounges of airports, the interactions with seatmates on long, international flights, and the numerous brief encounters with people of all sorts in the course of my everyday life.  There isn’t one who hasn’t made me a better person in some perhaps small, but significant, way.  For all of that, I am most grateful.

My treasure trove of lifetime memories with real people is far more important and valuable than what I see with a current generation totally fixated on electronic devices that enables them to tune out everyone around them and engage in some sort of perverted communication with another humanoid who shares their aversion to the life blood, soul and storehouse of life’s experiences with someone who has lived.  Little do they know they are much the poorer for it?  One of my rules for daily living is that I forbid the use of those devices in my company and I will leave the room if anyone fails to respect me and who violates that precondition.  Does it bother me?  Not one bit. 

I have written a lot about my concerns regarding all that is happening to our country, those in public office sworn to serve us, the people, and the ever-increasing exploitation of the human condition and the most vulnerable among us.  Given what I see, I take no reassurance that much of what I have written has probably fallen on blind eyes.  We have finally reached the pinnacle of corruption on a grand scale, from every institution of government, the entire financial empire and the corporate capitalists whose only goal in life is to pillage and plunder as much as possible of what they no longer need, but simply covet from a pathological and out-of-control need for money and power. 

People seem to have reached the point where they are willing to gamble on what the future holds for all of us, so long as they get all they can as quickly as possible, the rest of humanity be damned.  They rationalize their own greed with abandon.  They demonize those who are having a tough time just making ends meet.   But, so long as I have more than I need, who really cares?  What difference does it make?  Globalization, global warming, environmental pollution, disparity in wealth and the basic necessities of life, human dignity and worth, governments that steal with much more skill than they govern, etc.  Who cares?  They seem to simply ignore the mountains of scientific knowledge that is shouting to the rooftops – “What is coming down on us is a one-way street.  It cannot be reversed.  It will, eventually, bite us all in the backside.  Get real!”  The answer is dead silence.  Live for the moment.  Have fun and be happy – in all its self-indulgent and perverted forms.  We are quickly becoming economically, politically and socially bankrupt. 

The fact that virtually every facet of our government and the hoards of parasites that bleed it for all they can get are self-evident.  Secrecy and discretion long ago gave way to blatant disregard for any form of public morality or standards of honest conduct.  Go for broke, the bottom-feeders living on the edge be damned! 

Every sullied and tarnished form of private and public commerce is regarded as fair game.  Nothing is off limits.  Just look at our paralyzed government comfortably ensconced in our nation’s capitol and the surrounding environs of all those hoping the established hierarchy will throw them a crumb once in a while.  But, the average person seems to be hell-bent on giving them all a free pass.  Is it because they cannot fathom the seriousness of what they are doing to us, or is it because they are simply too passive and complacent to expend the time and energy to even try?   

The nomenclature for the standards governing ethical, moral and honest behavior is really quite simple and easily understood.  The following definitions are courtesy of Merriam-Webster.  Permit me:

·        Common:  of or relating to a community at large.

·        Common sense:  sound and prudent judgment based on a single perception of the situation or facts.

·        Conflict of interest:  a conflict between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust.

·        Credible: offering reasonable grounds for being believed.

·        Integrity:  firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values

·        Simplicity:  the state of being simple, uncomplicated or uncompounded; freedom from pretense or guile; directness of expression; restraint in ornamentation.

·        Transparency:  the quality or state of being transparent.

·        Trust:  assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something; one in which confidence is placed.

The above list is, by no means, exhaustive but it does show that the indicators for being genuine, honest and forthright are not complicated but, rather, quite simple.  Why do those in public service seem to have such an aversion to adopting them?

I recall an English professor I had in college.  She was a middle aged woman, rather buxom, with flaming red hair and very animated.  She had done her doctoral thesis by living among the “Alaskan Sourdoughs.”  On the first day of class she made it abundantly clear that she most treasured the art and grace of simplicity.  As she said, “I am not the least bit interested in your attempts to impress me with your ability to manipulate the English language.  So, when you are inclined to convey to me your ability to perambulate down the boulevard, will you kindly just walk down the gawd damned street?”  I have tried to remain true to the spirit of that bit of wisdom.   

At some point, it seems to me that the average person has to become so saturated with being exploited and patronized by a ruling elite that they will say, “enough is enough,” and start to move this country in the right direction. 

Honesty and all its manifestations are not difficult to understand nor apply with a certain facility.  Those who would continue to deceive us, the populace, need to reflect on that fundamental tenet and assess who they are and where they are in the grand scheme of things before it all comes back to bite them in the ass, as it surely will.

Have you noticed that the so-called political parties operating on the fringe and that are vociferous during the campaigns for national political office, fall silent the minute the polls are closed and the votes are counted?  Where are they now and what are is their game plan?  Don’t they have a thought in their heads that just might help to raise questions about and put in place the means to change the complexion of this country, and become active change agents for all they profess and want us to be?

Where are the Green Party, Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party, and Buddy Roemer and the Freedom Party, with all of their prominent spokespeople?  Can’t they see what is happening to this country?  Why do they, and we, have to wait for the next election cycle?  Time has not stood still, as far as I can see.  Surely they still have a definitive role to play on myriad issues constantly before the people of this country.  If nothing else they can help to keep us informed, educated and sufficiently agitated to want to do something meaningful about what is going on.  

Did their ideas for a few new and, hopefully better political parties simply vanish when the polls closed?  Did they become devoid of any original thought when the votes were counted, only to wait another four years before they raised their heads in protest once again?  Are they more interested in public office than public service?  If so, we should rethink what they are all about and look for better alternatives.  It is an inescapable fact of life that this country must have some courageous, committed and determined political parties to seriously challenge the alliance of Republicanism and Democrats that have

a strangle-hold on the nation, its people and all we cherish.   

This country has the finest collection of universities, colleges and think tanks imaginable.  Therein lays one of our greatest resources that never seem to be called upon to commit to the service of this country and its people.  Their knowledge, alone, would vaporize the massive corruption and obscene wealth that keeps most of us in a constant state of living on the edge, with each passing day more of us falling into the abyss of abject poverty and despair.  Surely some force, or collection of forces, can mobilize them into getting us to move toward a better future.

What is preventing us from calling on the rank and file citizens of this country to serve on purpose-built commissions to study issues, and refine and revitalize the means for making it all happen?  When the purpose(s) have been resolved, they pack up their bags and go back to the lives they lived before.  Squatters rights on any government service, with the speed and skill they use to corrupt the system and lace their pockets with the money, perquisites and all of the under-the-table favors they incur never stop engaging in patently illegal and self-serving practices.  Most of that could and should be stopped forthwith and without further adieu! 

Just imagine how refreshing it would be to silence all of those orators who bore us with their deceptive practices that they have mastered so well, and serve up to us every day of our lives?  Just having a respite from Diane Feinstein’s political drawl would be a welcome relief.  Taking God from the Tea Party and putting their genie back in the bottle would be like a breath of fresh air blowing over the parched lands of the Western United States.

The political establishment has made “compromise” a dirty word.  It is a euphemism for lacing their pockets at the expense of the taxpayers.  They have been accorded far too much deference, secrecy, money and power for that not to have happened. 

All of those of you who have risen to the pinnacle of your professions and vocations, and who have this country at heart, have a moral obligation to get off your duffs, enlist agents of change and turn this sad state of affairs around.  To do less is an indictment of you and all that you represent.  A first step, and a crucial step, would be to publicly call out the crooks on Wall Street and in Washington, D.C., and reintroduce them to all the virtues subsumed under accountability, public service and public trust; how to recognize them, how to acquire them and how to practice them.  You certainly have the law on your side.   

At the end of the day, “Absolute freedom, if not nurtured, will become the barbaric state.”  That is a dimple fact of life and, sadly, I fear we are perilously close to having arrived at that point, or we already have given up and are prepared to let the chips fall where they may. 

This country and its entire people are made of good stuff.  The spirit of ’76 still courses through our veins.  It is time to revisit that fact, breath new life into it and put it back into service for everyone.

Virtue will always be found in simplicity and basic human decency, the spin doctors not withstanding. 

Cowboy Bob

The Sagebrush Philosopher

August 7, 2013  

 

         

     

“How Much Longer Can We Ignore the Storm Clouds?” 

This was originally intended to be a tribute to Michael Hastings, the young investigative reporter who was recently taken from his family by one or more unnamed assailants who did not like his skill as a reporter and a truth teller.  Am I suggesting some sinister force?  I don’t rule that out.  When our Commander-in-Chief can order the assassination of nameless and faceless individuals through the use of unmanned drones, then I most assuredly don’t regard it as a stretch that Michael could have been a marked man by the same dark forces who stood to be called out by him, as well.  He was one of a kind, which is further underscored by coverage in the main stream media that completely ignored his passing.  But, what can you expect from paragons of independence and integrity such as the bill of fare we get from the “schmooze” merchants, all of which are subsumed under the label of news organizations that exist more to advocate for adversaries of the people than to serve the need to be the informed and active citizens our democracy demands.  They all hold themselves out as legitimate news organizations.  The substitute we, the public, got from most of them was repeated coverage of the recent loss of James Gandolfini who wowed us with his acting prowess in “The Sopranos.”  Hardly a valid comparison to Michael Hastings, if you ask me. 

Michael was in a league shared by few like him.  But he could boast of being part of an elite club of some of the finest minds, clearest consciences and most professionally honest to rightfully claim a special place in the ranks of journalistic excellence in today’s world.  There are others who deserve no less recognition, but I will leave that to others to make that determination for themselves.   

Then we have the ceremonial washing of hands by the military court that prepared for the crucifixion of Bradley Manning, to be followed by Edward Snowden and Glen Greenwald if they can round up enough kangaroos to fill a couple of court rooms.  Don’t laugh.  This may be more prophetic than poetic.  Only time will tell.

I have reached the point where any pretense of deference to those we have elected or appointed to public office would be a sham.  They are simply no longer credible, and their blatant disregard for the will of the people only grows by the day.  The admirers of President Obama continue to give him a free pass on everything.  In just the last few days he has “surprised” us with an announcement about proposing a reduction in the corporate tax rate in order to “stimulate job growth.”  That was preceded by his announcement that he was going to appoint Larry Summers to head the Federal Reserve; one of the most notorious and shady operators to ever reside in Barack Obama’s and Bill Clinton’s previous administrations, not to mention a stint within the hallowed halls of Harvard University.  As the old adage goes, it isn’t what you know; it is who you know and how much you are willing to cough up.  I further predict, when the evil deed becomes reality, the American people will simply shrug their shoulders and give him another pass.  That is pretty much the standard for the attention span that reels around our heads on a routine basis.  The malaise endemic in the population staggers the human mind.  I am persuaded that the populace simply no longer cares about the plight of others so long as they get what they want, the common and collective good be damned.

History usually reflects a trend of civilizations progressing from a lower state of being to a higher state through the process of evolution.  Sadly, I don’t see much evidence of that these days.  There is no shame in what we do and what we tolerate from some of the most skilled and tarnished hucksters this country has ever seen.  There isn’t one branch of government, elected or appointed, that is not firmly in the hip pockets of vast wealth and corporate capitalists.  They are blatant about their loyalties, simply ignoring the will of the people in exchange for the going rate for their services to those who have captured, and now hold hostage, virtually every aspect of what is left of our democracy.  Lying has been elevated to a new art form. 

Despite their persistent efforts to convince us otherwise, the corporate and establishment spin doctors will never relent in their efforts to convince us that the “free enterprise” economic model is actually what it is.  It is the device that those who feed on the flesh of the population use to rationalize the continued pillage and plunder of the resources of this country.  They will persist in their efforts to wrench from the hands of the “true believers” any other claims to ownership by the average citizens of this country.  The “free enterprise” model is the best tool the oligarchs, plutocrats and corporate capitalists have at their disposal in order to discredit any other superior model for equitably distributing the wealth of this nation.  It is not and never will be accepted as the sole tool they will continue to use in order to feed the gluttonous appetites and the insatiable greed of those who want us to believe the nations’ wealth rightfully belongs to them based on no other rationale than their station in life.  Pure, unmitigated hogwash if you ask me.      

·        The Executive Branch of our government is owned completely by those to whom they are beholden because of all they have commandeered and for all they have taken for their loyalty and services.  Their actions are simply no longer consistent with their words.  No one is more skilled at that slight of hand than the President.  What is he?  Is he the water boy for the rich and powerful?  Is he a Democrat or a Republican?  One need only catch a glimpse of those whose company he keeps and the answer becomes self-evident.

·        The Legislative Branch doesn’t even try to be subtle about the extent to which they have been bought by vested interests whose actions are diametrically opposed to the will of the people who elected them to office.  Where can you go to find a motlier bunch that is as skilled at peddling a bunch of religious nonsense in an attempt to convince the electorate that they have “God” on their side?  What rational mind would even remotely consider that any of them have the slightest connection to the Deity?  What do they do vs. what they say they are going to do?  And for whom?  Nobody has elevated the art and science of deception and self-serving practices to the pinnacle of personal gain more than those who lay claim to the honor of “serving the people.”   

·        The Judicial Branch has found it much more interesting and rewarding to legislate than to adjudicate.  Ah, the intoxicating influence of power in all its sullied forms!  They are a disgrace to all they pretend to be.  Subtlety and finesse, obviously, isn’t a part of their armamentaria.       

·        Then there is the massive urban sprawl over the vast countryside of Virginia, Maryland and suburban Washington.  They are the ones who dutifully and loyally serve those elected to office in their efforts to seize just a modicum of the power they covet, as well.  It is from this vast reservoir of righteousness that they ply their trade in entrapping and crucifying those who dare to tell us, the people who pretend to own this country, the truth of what they, and their mentors, are really doing in the name of our “national interest.”  And, if that isn’t a healthy shovel-full of pure bull puckey, I don’t know what is.  In the meantime, our real heroes suffer the agonies of the damned for simply being honest and transparent, virtues their persecutors profess but can’t even begin to comprehend.     

    

The underpinnings of what we are today were spawned by a “cowboy” mentality from the earliest stages of the evolution of what this country has become.  The caricature of the frontiersmen, with gun in hand, subduing the natives is the personification of what we seem to revere to this very day.  Where, I ask you, are the merits of allowing those who covet great wealth and power to completely exploit the human condition and reduce the people of this country to the subsistence level, all for the sake of ever more and more of what this country has to offer and what they have deemed belongs to them?  Has human life and dignity become just another expendable resource for the engines of greed and avarice that we simply accept without protest? 

The “frontier” vanished a long time ago.  What we have today belongs to all the citizens of this country.  No one, mind you, has the right to lay claim to one scintilla of what this nation has to offer, by virtue of inherited wealth, personal investment or family pedigree.  Those who labor under this notion need to pause, for just a moment, and realize that what this country is all about is not “yours” but “ours.”  It is under common ownership by us all.  This country is community property and it is high time those who delude themselves into believing otherwise need to come to terms with this inescapable fact of life. 

It is time to stop expecting other rational human beings to simply accept that you are the rightful custodians.  You are what you are, and I rather suspect that “God” in all his manifestations would be hard-pressed to claim any of those who think they are privileged and rightfully entitled to the lion’s share of all this country has to offer.  Stop using virtue for your own greedy pursuits.  Start revering your Creator and His message of “What you do for the least of my brethren, you also do for Me.”  That message is there for all of us, not locked away somewhere on Wall Street, Constitution Avenue and the other environs of those who still believe they are the “chosen ones.” 

The frontier mentality died with the Frontier.  Get used to it.  Today belongs to all of us.  The time is upon us to accept the principles of social democracy; that whatever the public depends on must, by definition, be owned by the public it serves, not private investors.  The Bank of North Dakota has given us an excellent example to follow.  It works for the people of that state and, frankly, I see no reason why it shouldn’t work for all of us.  Given where we are today, I don’t see how that could be anything but a quantum leap forward.   

Let’s shut down the bull puckey machine and return to the virtues of truth, honesty and a belief in the inherent decency and wisdom in the collective will of the people.  Then, let us set ourselves to the task of building a society that will respect and deliver on the goods --- for all of us. 

It is time to take hold of the rudder on this Ship of State, turn it around and make it work for all of us.  We have the power and the will to make it happen.  If we succeed we may realize that there are better ways for all of us.  If we fail because of our complacency, we have only ourselves to thank for the disastrous consequences that are coming at us, at meteoric speed.  The Founders of this country gave us the means to be a great nation and a great people.  Let’s use those means, not only for our sake, but for the sake of generations yet to come.  Money is not the means for getting there.  Rather, it is the decency inherent in the very fiber of what we are as a people.  I think the time has come to revisit some of those principles, don’t you?

Cowboy Bob

aka The Sagebrush Philosopher

August 2, 2013     

"It Is Only We, And Not Me, Who Can Make It Better"

Looking over the current landscape of the United States I am struck by the many different versions of how “things are beginning to look up” for the country, as a whole. The number of new jobs is increasing, the stock market is active and on a positive upswing and the housing market is rebounding. Yet, when I drive around, taking the time and effort to look at what I see, I am struck at how wide the disparity seems to be in these different takes on the situation. I see the poor more disenfranchised. I see the housing market rebounding for those who can afford to buy, but less reasonable rentals available for those who cannot. I see small businesses on the rise with darkened windows and no sign of life. There is a wide disparity between what I hear and what I see.

Another indicator of the dichotomy between what we may want to see vs. what exists in reality is the growing complacency and malaise that seems to be on the increase throughout our society. There seems to be an growing sense of hopelessness. People appear to care less and less about issues that used to incur their ire. There is little or no outrage over a nation that seems to have forgotten the growing numbers of those who find themselves in the backwaters, without jobs that pay a decent wage and without the social safety nets of unemployment insurance, food stamps and other forms of relief that have been the margin of safety for those who look to a caring society in order to help them over the rough spots. There is almost a pervasive notion that, “as long as I have what mine; frankly I don’t care what circumstances you find yourself in.”

I am reminded of the fable of the general who said, “As long as the troops are bitching, I don’t worry. It is when they stop that I do.” As long as people blithely accept their lot in life, without protest, there seems to be no cause for concern. That, also, bothers me.

People on the bottom rungs of the economic and social ladder have been there for a protracted period of time. All indicators are that their place in the pecking order has been on a downward trend for far too long, and it is only getting worse. The system is not working for them. It is working for those who have the most and it is broken for those who have the least. How much longer are we, as a people and as a society going to tolerate this imbalance?

How much longer are we going to continue on the trajectory where we find ourselves before we accept the reality that we have a social, economic and political system that exists for the sole purpose of enhancing the wealth and power of the very few at the expense of the majority? When is the complacency going to become outrage?

The stuff of fairy tales that peddles the myth that “wishing will make it so,” defies the most elementary logic. Like it or not, we have an economic, social and political system that is owned and orchestrated by those who stand to gain the most from the continued exploitation and outright plunder of the least among us.

The criminal behavior of our financial systems, corporate power that exists by authority of the state and the political process that exists by authority of the privileged few have all turned their backs on those they are sworn to serve. They have abandoned the very ones who put them where they are, either directly or by outright collusion among them. The minute the last vote is counted in elections, they begin to focus on the next round and begin to formulate the next agenda for taking care of those who paid them to work on their behalf, all the while summarily ignoring all of those who gave them the position and power to act for the common good. And, they do it without one scintilla of shame or even the meek appearance of doing what they should be doing. They take care of themselves and their cronies at public expense, all the while simply ignoring the seat of power from which their authority came --- the people. Where can you go to look for a better deal than that?

The system is broken. It is not working and there is no serious effort to fix it. The longer it remains broken, the more we pay to have it fixed so it can, in the final analysis, simply work more effectively to disenfranchise the people. How, I ask you, can anyone possibly believe that is a democracy? A better fit is to pitch any faint belief that what we have is a democracy and call it what it is --- an oligarchy. I have to ask myself if that is what the Founding Fathers intended? I am inclined to wonder with the passage of time.

Then, to further complicate things, we have the massive influence of the religious lunatics that profess to have an inside track with “God,” none of which can be empirically proven. They are quoted with a hollow fervor in order to further intimidate those who still place hope and confidence in a system that has totally abandoned them? As my departed Grandfather once opined, “If a man waves a bible in your face, keep your back to the wall.” Not bad advice in these uncertain and perilous times.

I have a growing mistrust of all the new billionaires who now profess to be resident experts in every facet of our existence. Do those whose entire body of knowledge rests in computer science, plus all of the associated gadgets and programs they produce, really acquire, by some form of osmosis, all that it takes to be a true intellectual and a fount of all wisdom for the human race? When do they cease to be technicians and become thinking, rational and compassionate human beings? Aren’t they some of our most adamant supporters of free enterprise and privatization among us? Aren’t they the ones who are advocating the wholesale disembowelment of public services so private contractors can get their hooks on those assets and make, you got it, another mass killing at taxpayers and citizens expense? Look at our system of “privatized” prisons and “privatized” parking meter systems and assess how they work. Look at how the contracts are written to favor them and penalize the taxpayers. Look at how they operate almost free of any meaningful constraints and ask yourself, “How does this benefit the community and how does it benefit me, the taxpayer?” Those, folks, do not require the mental faculties of a rocket scientist. All it takes is a modicum of common sense. At the end of the day, these people are focused on one thing and that is how to make as much money as possible, with the least amount of personal investment and a minimal investment in the human equation.  A major fall out from all of this is a massive number of humanoids that is soul dead. Nobody is home.

As long as we remain complacent and paralyzed about doing something meaningful to turn this tragic situation around, it simply isn’t going to get better; it is only going to get worse. Until there is a genuine effort made to conduct a complete audit of our system of government and how effectively it is working for the people now, it will only continue to be paralyzed by chaos. You can’t get from point “A” to point “B” without a road map to guide you. Flying by the seat of our pants isn’t going to get us there. The rule of law must be our bedrock; the will of the people must be the principle that guides us and complete transparency must be the perspective from which we view and evaluate it.

From my perspective on a government that is supposed to be serving us at this point in time:

• The Executive Branch is broken.
• The Legislative Branch is broken.
• The Judicial Branch is broken.
• The Press serves power; not the people.

It is time to put the Ship of State in dry dock, make it seaworthy once again, set our national compass on a course that will serve the people, and become a beacon to the rest of the world that it is not rooted in war, but peace, that makes us great. Foremost, however, it is basic human decency among equals that gives us purpose.

At the end of the day, respect can only be earned; it can never be commanded. Collegial relationships are what make it flourish, not fear.

It is time to think in terms of “we” and not “me.”

Cowboy Bob
aka The Sagebrush Philosopher
July 14, 2013

“Nobody Reveres Power More Than Americans” and "Money is Power"

If one chooses to look at the phenomenon of power in the fabric and history of the United States, it is readily apparent that we, as a people, revere and defer to power. We seem to vicariously share in the exercise of power, in all its manifestations, whenever and wherever it is visible and apparent. Individually, we may have little or no power, but we waste no time or the expenditure of effort in deferring to power which, in most instances, becomes manifest by great wealth.

We presume that if one has great wealth they, ipso facto, are due the same deference as raw power. Historically, the great fortunes in American history have wasted no time in coming to that conclusion, and have used their wealth to exercise undue influence and power over the affairs of the nation. It has continued, unabated, from the moment each and every one of them has been duly registered in Dunn & Bradstreet.

However, as patently apparent the excesses of wealth (power) become, we seem to have an ingrained need, as a people, to accord it the deference the holders of same believe is their rightful due just because they have amassed fortunes that, contrary to public opinion, does not buy them the respectability they would have us believe they have acquired, no matter how ill-gotten their gains may be. From that flows a level of arrogance that would boggle the minds of the most astute among us. Just look at the sad state of affairs that exist in our society, our economy and our government. Need I say more?

We are owned lock, stock and barrel by oligarchs, plutocrats, bankers, financiers, corporate capitalists, entertainment personalities, and a government that seems to believe they have risen to a level of omnipotence beyond question simply by exercising their ability to steal with aplomb and manifest a degree of arrogance that precludes question and accountability from those who have entrusted them with the mantle of public duty and responsibility.

Before we take this further, let us reflect on some significant historical facts that we, Americans, have consigned to history because of our love for power:

Look what we, settlers from other continents, did to Native Americans who rightfully claimed this  country as their lands. Look at how we murdered them, herded them onto reservations and, with  the aid of a gun, consigned them to being perceived as savages who were incapable of being   integrate into the broader social fabric, and become respected citizens of a society that had beencarved out for the rest of us. To this day they are consigned to some of the poorest real estate  on the continent, only to become very much second-class citizens living their lives in abject poverty.This may only have come about through the superiority of firearms against bows and arrows.Where, today, are the oligarchs who could (and should) invest in their futures and lift them out of poverty in order to become rightful citizens and equal among the rest of us? Show me one.

Look at the barbaric behavior and power of the NRA and its role in the slaughter that occurs every day and in every venue in the Unites States.

Look at how we defer and pony up with our tax dollars for massive amounts and types of arms to ensure our military establishment is the largest and most up-to-date in the world. How many of those great innovations that soar through the skies above us and sail on the seas of the world have ever actually seen combat where the value of our investment was actually put to the test? I rather imagine the real winners in this vignette are, you got it, the super-rich. With all those in our government and military establishment it was, for them like taking candy from the proverbial baby.  And we, the people, willingly complied as we always seem to do.

Look at how Wall Street and the entire financial establishment fleeced the American people to underwrite their plunder of massive amounts of money from the coffers of the nation. None have been indicted, prosecuted or incarcerated because of their criminal behavior. And, you can bet your“bippy” that   none of them will pay for their crimes now or into the far distant future. The book is ckosed on that one.

The super-rich of every ilk own every aspect of our government, our economy and the resources (material, financial and human) that go into it. We have an entire system of government that, save for a few outstanding individuals; thumb their noses at all of us who have elected them to office. Every one of the branches of those who serve in the various institutions that are, ostensibly, there to do the “people’s business” have achieved a level of arrogance that boggles the human mind. They not only dismiss us, they simply ignore us as they dutifully serve as the faithful minions of those who ply them with massive amounts of money to keep them in office and line the pockets of those who make their continued viability possible.

There is a dedicated effort in this country to “get money out of politics,” and they are doing a laudable job, but it is an uphill climb. We not only need to get money out of politics, but we need to revamp the system to make it virtually impossible for that wealth to influence the lives and viability of all those who serve on our behalf in government. Authority must be returned to the people of this country and that can only come about by making it virtually impossible for those who see themselves as the top “x” percent of the population; however they may choose to define their favored status in the pecking order of wealth and affluence.

No matter how much they would have us believe otherwise, they are simply another, albeit poor example, of H. Sapiens.  They, too, will lie on their death beds just like the rest of us, but will be remembered for what and by whom?  A legacy of greed, avarice and self-indulgence at the expense of the society in which they lived?  Somehow, that all rings rather hollow and is a pathetic legacy, at best.  Compare that to all that is left by the legions of selfless people who, throughout the ages, have worked tirelessly to make this world a better place for all of us.   

I would encourage people to take the off-ramps to a few of America’s small towns and take in the vacant homes, the boarded-up store fronts, the empty schools and hospitals and all the indications of decay. Then, remind yourselves of the fact that each of these towns was, at one time, a viable place for people to live secure lives and to be an integral part of a real community. They worked together, socialized together, played together and took care of each other. It was a valued and cherished way of life. It was supported by what might have been a small, but viable, industrial base that provided jobs to underwrite that way of life for a great many good and decent people. However, with the so-called progressive evolution of society and the insatiable greed of big business and the vast wealth behind each, they ultimately wither and die. But, let us remember, also, that each of those people had a legitimate stake in the success of that industrial base and all that made that particular town possible. Those factories have been dismantled or closed, moved overseas to cheaper labor markets, and the owners of those enterprises pocketed the spoils, shaved all they could off their tax obligations and squirreled the proceeds away in foreign banks so they could further deprive those towns and, indeed, the nation of the portion that rightfully belonged to them. The stake is more than just a paycheck to those who worked there. They, too, have a legitimate stake in those business ventures that rightfully belongs to them as much to those who financed them. It is a symbiotic relationship that is the only decent and right thing to support. Money conveniently forgets that obligation, but their self-interests do not negate that simple fact of civilized life in these United States.

As you drive out of those towns, reflect on what you have seen and the tragic end to what was once the backbone of this country. Then, take the next off-ramp and reflect yet once again on the next one. It may bring sadness to your heart, but it will bring reality to your soul.

Have you noticed, in today’s vernacular, there are those who “work” for a living and whose numbers are causing the unemployment statistics to swell, and those who own the enterprises that once were the workplaces for those who committed to the life and success of those enterprises. I would submit to the reader that there is something much more noble to “working for a living,” than laying claim to the plunder and exploitation of all those who honestly gave of themselves for a fair share of what this nation has to offer.

Those who call themselves “owners” in reality only develop and exploit the resources of this country. It is the “workers” who give life and meaning to those resources, making the world a bit better for all of us. I have to confess to an inherent contempt for those who have mastered the art of exploitation, thievery and the absence of any remorse, whatsoever, for all they have brought down on the heads of every American to whom they should not only be beholden, but to whom they should be eternal grateful. You owe it to those people to pay your taxes, share your bounty and assume your fair share of the responsibility for making this system honest and one that works for all of us. To do otherwise is a national shame of gigantic proportions for which you will be called to task, eventually. Moreover, every corrupt public official who has served as your enabler will, also, atone for his/her transgressions in ways I rather suspect they cannot even imagine. I happen to believe in Divine Justice but I, also, believe in fate that may have nothing to do with a deity. However, as the old adage goes, “the chickens will always come home to roost.”

Now, those who are the most burdened by the corruption and greed of business, banking, government and wealth have to assume their share of the responsibility, as well. As has been said, “Talk is cheap.” The people must unite in an effort to right the wrongs of the past and restore integrity, honesty and credibility to those who we put in office to serve us and, yes, the nation in which we live.

We must insist on standards of basic conduct that clearly underscores our values in a system that is free of conflicts of interests. Those standards must embody the means and the methods for taking to task all of those who have the audacity to presume that what rightfully belongs to all of us is, instead, their private booty to be used and consumed as they see fit. They have lost sight of the fact that their very souls are dark and tarnished, shrouded in shame and, yes, finite. What one sows, one also reaps.

As the wealthy and privileged presume the power of their fortunes confers on them the right to exercise inordinate power over all those they exploit, they are not on the side of the average citizen. They do not perceive you as human beings who have an inherent sense of worth that is of tremendous value to the societies in which we live. Rather, you are the fodder for their canons. You are the expendable resources whose lives aren’t worth a plug nickel. Your misery and suffering are just part of the homage of deference you are expected to pay them for all of the misfortunes they command from you and all they plunder in the name of their ill-conceived notions of “success.”

If they dare to presume their material wealth is a legitimate form of power to be exercised in their total focus on more, more and more, has not the time come for you, by your very humanity to take stock of the power that is yours and to assess whatever means you have at your disposal and confront their power with yours? Know full well that a preponderance of the established “peace” officers are their minions, not your advocates. Know that your power is much more arduous and an uphill battle, but it takes organization and determination for it to take root and to be noticed. Passive resistance and peaceful demonstration is what gives you and your cause legitimacy within the broader context of society. That is a respected and honored use of power, not violence.

The time is upon all of us to draw a line in the sand. No more cut backs in social programs and the safety nets the downtrodden have every right to expect. It is time to re-empower organized labor. It is time to think of publicly owned businesses that are not only the property of all of us, but are fully committed to serving all of us, as well. We need to re-direct our resources to eliminating hunger among our underprivileged. It is time to remove the stigma from hunger and poverty that has been brought down upon us by a class of privileged and powerful people that simply no longer care about us, the body politic. They need to be reminded, over and over again that, at the end of the day this country belongs to us and, if they are to remain viable within the context of our society, they must respond to all our needs first, not just theirs.

There is no shame in being a good and decent person. Albeit, you may lack the creature comforts of the upper and privileged class but, from my own experience, I have met far more vulgar, decadent, dishonest, greedy and power-hungry people in urban executive suites than I ever did on the ranges, ranches and in the small towns of the Rocky Mountain West. None can ever convince me that the heart and soul of this country and throughout the world does not rest with the common people. Those who delude themselves into thinking otherwise do so at their own folly. At the end of the day they are nothing more than tramps with money. The human backbone of America needs to exercise the power and determination to remind them of that fact, and hold them to their part of the bargain in the social contract.

The United States of America is a concept. It is the embodiment of what the country should strive to be and what all of those who claim citizenship should honor. We all should hold near and dear to our hearts the sincere belief that it is not up for sale to the highest bidder. Rather, it is a system of beliefs that transcends any measure of monetary value and, therefore, has no price tag.

May it always be a concept that is “ours” that is embodied in the very souls of the common people of the United States? We need to be aware of the fact that is why we have no royalty, no aristocracy and no titled gentry. It is a sacred trust we inherited from those who have sacrificed and gone before us, and one that we are sworn to defend and uphold – a spirit that is eternal.

You can make a difference. You can change the course of this country. It is up to all of us to bear this burden and to share in the obligations that go with it. We all share in the responsibility for making this a better place for us to live. However, it is a formidable task and something that none of us should take lightly.

I think it is time to demonstrate a common resolve that will turn this “ship of state,” around into a brighter sun, and with the winds at our back.

More to follow.

Cowboy Bob
aka The Sagebrush Philosopher
June 30, 2013

"How prophetic are the words of Lord Acton, famous British Historian?"

June 14, 2013

Given the maelstrom created by the recent revelations of the outrageous conduct by our national intelligence apparatus and its army of politicos and minions, the famous words of Lord Action seem rather appropriate:

'POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT; ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY."

I would like to append the above with a quote from my blog posted on February 6, 2011 ---

"Trust, like the soul, never returns once it is gone."

Is it any wonder that the approval ratings for our political establishment in Washington, D.C. are so fractured and tenuous?  I tend to agree with the growing number of astute minds who have suggested that, perhaps, it is time to rethink the merits of a third political party.  The growing cost to the country of the current monopoly on political power by the two mainstream parties that dominate the national scene seems rather prophetic, doesn't it?  .  

Cowboy Bob

aka The Sagebrush Philosopher

“Let’s Transform Our Complacency and Fear into Resolve and Determination”

As my kids would say, “In the olden days,” when I was in the United States Navy, there were certain organizations with which we were told not to have any contact. I respected that admonition and never gave it another thought. One of those organizations was The John Birch Society.

Many years later, married and starting a family, it was brought to my attention that this particular organization was having a convention in a nearby city that was open to the public. I discussed it with my wife, reminding her of the caution I had received some years earlier. We decided that there was always something to be learned if we remained detached and critically evaluated whatever message might be forthcoming. It was in that spirit we ventured into their world. No, it had absolutely nothing to do with law enforcement officers dedicated to the conservation of the nation’s birch trees. It was clearly political.

We dutifully took our place in the back of the room on the outside chance that we might have to make a hasty retreat for the sake of protecting a sound mind and a reasonably intact body. When our eyes adjusted to the lighting, rather than seeing a hoard of neo-Nazis in brown shirts or card-carrying communists, they resembled us and many of our family and friends. They were dressed in casual clothes, many of whom were obviously from rural parts of the country. They were well groomed and quite friendly. None shouted slogans or raised closed fists. My antennae reminded me to be very careful lest my principles be corrupted or compromised, consigning me and my wife to eternal purgatory.

To be sure, their message was politically conservative which had little or no appeal to either of us, given our steadfast allegiance to causes all “liberal” and “progressive.” However, there was one subject that fascinated me. It was a discussion of an international secret organization of those who had the means, the desire and the will to, essentially, control the world. Their label was “Bilderbergs;” a world order that was in the business of furthering and protecting the massive wealth and power of the elites of, primarily, Europe. That bit of information was, in and of itself, rather daunting.

We left that gathering quite secure in the knowledge that we were firmly in the camp of some of America’s most enlightened and progressive citizens, with absolutely no interest in getting involved with this particular group. But we, also, knew that we should keep a watchful eye and ear out for anything having to do with the Bilderberg’s. I never gave it another thought until June 5, 2013 when I read an article about them, including a roster of their members. Much to my surprise, there was a plethora of familiar names from the ranks of the rich and powerful in Europe, plus a notable number of Americans from similar backgrounds.

I learned a long time ago that, when dealing with information that is emotionally charged and tinged with conspiracy theories, there are three fundamental questions that must be asked if one is to maintain a respectable posture of objectivity and a critical eye.

1. The first question: “Is this the truth?”
2. The second question: “Is this false?”
3. The third question: “Is it plausible?”

If the answer to either of the first two is “No” then be deeply concerned, or don’t let it clutter your mind or cloud your judgment. If, however, the answer to the third is “Yes” then it warrants keeping an open mind and critically evaluating anything tangential to the issue pending further information that might either corroborate or refute the fundamental premise.

Can you imagine my astonishment when I saw that the Bilderbergs were, indeed, still very much a part of our world order and seemed to have managed to keep much the same roster of members from the wealthy, powerful and influential that had been a part of that group many eons ago? Although the press attempted to reassure the reader that it was not a secret society and operated very much in the open, given the current and fragile state of world affairs, I could not help but contemplate as to whether or not this group of people might just have some serious concerns about current world economic affairs and social trends, in particular.

Of a more specific interest to me is why the following individuals were in attendance at all: (a) Former Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, (b) former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, who figured prominently in and profited handsomely from deregulation of the financial industries by the Clinton Administation, (c) Former advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, (d) Bush-era neoconservative titan Richard Perle and, (e) the recently disgraced and retired U.S. Army General David Petraeus. Augmenting this roster of notables of concern were those listed as being from Ivy League schools, the Kennedy School of Government and Stanford University. Why was the focus only on these few private and wealthy institutions of higher learning? Why are those invited to attend only from western nations where the world’s wealth resides and is managed by either European or American interests, or both?

The smell test tells me there may well be a broader concern that just might involve the rumored and growing deterioration in the health of western economies and the possible upheaval that might erupt from the proletariat if they don’t get their ducks in order and, more importantly, don’t do everything they can to contain any uprisings from the masses in order to protect their ill-gotten wealth and its attendant power? Is this just coincidental or within the realm of probability? I leave that to you.

Permit me to pose a few pertinent questions to those who may be reading this.

1. Who among you honestly believe that we have a political, social and economic structure that operates from a base of integrity and a common concern for the well being of all the citizens of the United States of America?

2. Who among you believe that Wall Street Bankers and Financial Pundits, Oligarchs, Plutocrats and Corporate America have been treated in like manner by our political establishment as those who have fallen victim to “free trade agreements,” the housing bubble, the illusion of a growing and robust economy, a trail of broken promises when it comes to health care, social programs, treatment of the underprivileged and working class Americans that are on a par with the bottom of the population or, as I like to call them, affectionately, “the bottom feeders?”

3. Who among you can seriously dispel any notion that the working men and women, and their cousins living in abject poverty, have not been relegated to the status of “consumable resources” on the balance sheets of those who have amassed absolutely obscene and vulgar amounts of material resources, and who could only be the envy of those who have been ‘brain washed” into actually believing they give one hoot in hell about the welfare of the world, this nation and all who labor in its service?

If any of you seriously answered positively to any of those questions, then I have a wonderful computerized machine that converts manure into pure gold, and I am willing to sell it for a very good price. No reasonable offer will be rejected.

Moreover, can you even entertain the notion that all of the resources brought to bear on the population by the various forms of the “entertainment media,” and corporate broadcasting could possibly conceive of and implement the skills necessary in order to shape your every taste in every aspect of your lives, the end result being clearly ingrained biases in their favor? I can.

Pause for a moment and reflect on the massive growth of government and all the attendant technology they require that has gone exclusively to what is referred to as “homeland security,” and “keeping us safe from terrorists?” Can you imagine the massive amounts of money that have been made by some of our earliest Secretaries of Homeland Security and the created demand for their “skills” with companies engaged in the manufacture and distribution of every imaginable electronic device for monitoring just the passenger volume flowing through our airports? Compound that by the panacea of consulting jobs that have been part and parcel of that windfall, as well. Who said the “insiders” don’t take care of their own?

Frankly, I don’t buy into the notion that such a broad blanket of fear enveloped this nation as vastly and quickly as we are led to believe. I am rather more inclined to believe the fear factor was contrived and amplified by people in the Bush, Cheney and Obama Administrations. I dare say, if we could be privy to the body of knowledge in the repositories of information about government programs, we would find that some of the best experts in the business of “mind control,” and those who profit from them have been commandeered to assist in this effort just to keep the fear factor alive and well.

I don’t want to minimize the uncertainty of all that goes on in today’s world, but I, also, don’t want to over-react to the “bogey men” that might be nothing but the creative efforts of those who are sworn to scare the crap out of us at every opportunity. Let me ask you, in our saner and quieter moments, who in the world would honestly countenance the complete lockdown of a major city, such as Boston, looking for two fanatics about whom we had a pretty good fix in terms of numbers and the ability to do what they did? Does that really makes sense?

The massive amounts of our national resources that are siphoned off for “faux” security measures, and the malignant growth of security and defense industries in order to respond to those imagined threats would go a long way toward leveling the playing field and alleviating the suffering of millions of Americans. Think of the jobs that could be created, the numbers of unemployed who could be employed and the resultant benefits that would accrue to the people of this country by improved infrastructure, ecological friendly industries and education alone. If that isn’t sobering, I don’t know what it would take to get our attention.

If all this weren’t enough, we are now treated by the revelation of years of massive spying on the American people in pursuit of (you guessed it) stopping terrorism. Funny how little our elected officials claim to have known about all this. A mere oversight of seven or so years is nothing to get upset about, now is it?

Far too much of what we have not just a right, but moreover an obligation, to know about has been kept from us by self-appointed “keepers of the faith,” in the name of a national interest at our collective peril. Unless my mind deceives me, it seems to me that a chap by the name of Barack Obama, early in his ascendency to the Presidency, placed a passel of stock in the need for transparency in government. The question is rather straight forward, but I rather suspect the answers, for which we will wait for a protracted period, will be a long time coming.

We must stop sitting around quivering like a bunch of dogs passing peach seeds. We must eliminate the fear factor in our lives and demand ownership and transparency from our government. Enough of the monopoly of a two-party system. Enough of money in politics. Enough of lobbyists, and the entire spectrum of “business interests” of one sort or another that literally own and control our government and every agency thereof. Most importantly, enough of any control, whatsoever, of our news media. We simply must go back to independent ownership that lives up to the spirit of the Constitution – a free and unfettered press. Without that independence, the wolves will steal in under the tent, yet once again, only to create and perpetuate the same problems of bias and control we live with every day. Unless my memory fails me, it seems to me that the Preamble to the Constitution begins with “We the people …..” Not “We the banks; or “We the corporations or “We the oligarchs or “We the plutocrats or “We the lobbyists or “We the Defense Contractors.” Nor do I recall any wording or precedents which were adopted that would give those who have the most dominion over all of us, the greatest share of our shared wealth, however one may choose to define it.

If ever there was a time for the average American to cast off the numbing shackles on their minds, experience the wonders of being able to think for themselves and savor the magic of human interaction, the time is now. Cap it all off by claiming your ownership and control of the government that was created and nurtured by the blood of martyrs to serve the welfare and interests of all of us; and not just a select and self-appointed few.

This nation and all its resources, in the final analysis, belong to all of us, not the rapacious exploitation and destruction by those who perceive themselves the anointed ones by some mystical higher power, euphemistically labeled Wealth, Privilege and Power. It is time to put them in the dust bin of history where they all belong.

It is time to throw open the windows and breathe the fresh air given to us all by our Creator. It is time to rejoin the family of humanity that is still, to this very day, the most magnificent of all the creations in the entire universe.

Cowboy Bob
aka The Sagebrush Philosopher
June 8, 2013