Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.
- George Carlin
Over the course of my lifetime, America has never come close to approaching the ideal of being a place of perfect- or even imperfect- harmony. Conflict- between classes, races, genders and a seemingly ever-growing number of artificial dividing lines- has been the rule of the road. My formative years were the denouement of the Civil Rights struggle, and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were two defining experience for me. Those murders were when I first realized that some folks are willing to kill for the things they believe or, even worse, in order to destroy the things they hate. I was eight years old when I learned that a desire and willingness to change the world, to work for peaceful co-existence and create a system in which all were valued and treated equally could get one killed.
I grew up with the war in Vietnam as the soundtrack to my childhood. My daily reality was the (completely fictional) body counts on the evening news, and I was 15 when Saigon finally fell to the North Vietnamese Army. I was in college during the early ’80s, a time when “Greed is good” became a rallying cry to those for whom too much was never enough. Ronald Reagan taught us that the rich were better, more valuable people whose success deserved to be encouraged and enabled by government- “a rising tide floats all boats.” Except that only a few boats- yachts belonging to those occupying higher rungs on the economic food chain- ever seem to be lifted by those tides. It was the first time I realize that government was for sale, that even here in America a person could grow up and through great good fortune or an accident of person have a bank account sufficient to purchase a Congressman or six. I began to understand, just as I was making my way into the adult world, that not all men were created equal, that some really were far “more equal” and blessed with opportunities that a kid from a lower middle class family like myself could never hope to be granted. I don’t want to say that I became cynical in my early- to mid-20s, but I came to understand that there existed a club that I would never be allowed to join. I saw that the opportunities some of my generation took for granted would remain forever out of my grasp. It seemed clear that the creation of “a more perfect union” by no means could be taken to mean an egalitarian one.
Over the intervening years I’ve lived through recessions, wars, moral and religious conflict, and attempts by the Far Right to create what they defined as a more perfect union by forcing their narrow moral, social, and economic agendas on Americans. I’ve seen people- astonishingly imperfect and conflicted in their own right- work to forcibly create an America that caters to their fears and prejudices and that leaves the less fortunate and less well-connected to play a game in which the rules are skewed against them.
I came to understand that the American ideal- and along with it the American Dream- had been subverted and turned into a system whose ultimate goal was to create a two-tiered system. The goal of the wealthy, powerful, and well-connected was to install a social and economic order in which the masses served the interests of wealthy captains of industry. What would come to be known as the 99% would exist primarily to serve the whims of the 1%, and they would fight for the meager crumbs tossed their way by those fortunate enough to be to the manor born. They would be valued only for their productive capacity, and once that capacity was exhausted and/or deemed no longer necessary, they would be cast aside to fend for themselves in a world in which compassion and selflessness were considered evils just this side of sloth and socialism.
I once listened to former Congressman Barney Franks being interviewed by Rachel Maddow on the role of government. He defined government as “the things we decide to do together.” The cynic in me considered that definition and concluded that we’ve decided to allow billionaires to buy elections, entangle America in seemingly never-ending protracted military misadventures, and install a social/religious/economic system that serves their self-interest with alacrity. We sit idly by as our infrastructure crumbles, our health care and education systems deteriorate, and income inequality steadily increases. We’ve allowed our attention to be diverted by an emphasis on bread and circuses by those with a vested interest in advancing panem et circenses and mass deception in order that we not ask uncomfortable questions and do as we’re told. We’ve accepted the notion that propaganda is merely news by another name. Journalism has evolved into a effective platform useful for deceiving the masses into believing and fearing what they’re told to.
Fox News Channel and the rest of the Right-wing echo chamber is successful not because they create and foster an atmosphere that allows for the free and open exchange of ideas and makes us better, more informed citizens. They succeed because they’ve discovered and perfected the means to manipulate the American Sheeple by speaking to their fears and prejudices.
Keep ‘em scared and stupid and they’ll vote for who we tell them….
Americans consistently vote against their own best interests because they’ve been conditioned and proagandized into believing that compassion is but one short step from socialism. Whether because of busy lives, lack of interest, the inability to think critically, or combinations of those things, Americans have throughout my lifetime elected politicians as unqualified as they are corrupt, intolerant, and beholden to wealthy special interests.
I’ve walked this Earth long enough to understand that Churchill was right- democracy is the worst of all political system, except for every other one out there. Unfortunately, America has become a social laboratory in which the worst aspects of human nature- greed, self-interest, lack of compassion- are celebrated and allowed to flourish. We have met the enemy and it is us.
I’d like to think that we have it within ourselves to flip the script, to change our political system into something that serves all people. I haven’t given up on America, though I’m rapidly losing faith in our collective ability to face the truth for what it is. That said, we certainly have it within our power to change the way we do business…and that starts by recognizing and owning up to what’s being done in our name by corrupt and venal politicians. If we begin paying attention and voting accordingly, there’s still hope for us.
As I step slowly off my soapbox, please accept my sincere, heartfelt wishes for a safe and happy Independence Day. We still live in a country millions around the world dream of one day coming to…so we must be doing something right, eh?
