Opinion Editorials, July 2012

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, July 9, 2012

 
I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.
 Jay Gould
 
Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
A working class hero is something to be…
John Lennon
 
The robber baron and the rock and roll poet expressed sentiments about the same social reality from radically different perspectives. Profit and Loss capitalism has enabled many recipients of crumbs from the banquet tables of the rich to enjoy the applied label of middle class given them by consciousness controllers in politics and media. But present realities find the religion, sex, tv and other consumer products less available to cloud minds and fill bodies under the delusion of equality and the cruel reality spoken of by the robber baron. That reality needs to be confronted by a united class and no longer tolerated by a divided humanity, now more so than ever.
 
As the global crisis causes national book juggling on a daily basis to maintain order, and that of international banking on a near hourly schedule,  it becomes more apparent that the algorithmic accountants for the rich are operating to the detriment of most members of the race. Problems supposedly at the root of a crumbling financial structure are seen by minority profiteers as government’s profligate spending on people ,  terrifying foreign threats that call for expanded wars , and other lies perpetuated by mind managers to cover the gross injustice that is reducing more of humanity to debt servitude and abject poverty while the planet itself is threatened in all its life support systems . This happens as shrinking segments of the population increase their enormous wealth at phenomenal speed, destroying more of the social and natural environment as they do so and patting themselves on the back for being such masterful and benign dominators of life.
 
Creatures of no observable skills or special talents amass billions of dollars and perform no useful work at all but actually bring about cultural and ecological devastation for which they are rewarded with more tax payer dollars. Economists too dumb to see the crisis predicted by many critics still wisely advise with ancient notions of a free market religion, supply and demand curves, and the “creative destruction” which  does away with what they find useless - jobs for working people – and produces more profits for what they find divine – capitalists. These servants of a religious philosophy masked as secular finance call for total assault on the public sector  in a form of national masturbation; by focused obsession on the economy’s private parts. The loss of jobs bring lower employment costs for the ruling minority and higher social costs to the working majority who still have some form of incomes and pay taxes to keep rulers rich and not allow poor people to drop dead in the streets. As they expend more for weapons, consumer goods and security products to protect themselves from the alienated who are alleged to threaten them from below , they are distracted from noticing the tiny group laughing at them from above while it dumps garbage on their heads.
 
This does not describe 19th century reality but the present condition of a 21st century rushing backward for most while the minority at the top lavishes wealth on itself by robbing humanity’s future. A  fast growing universal demand for democracy is slowly changing things despite interference and misguidance from rulers and their hired help, though it must speed up if we are  to have a long range future. Some among the many reasons why:
 
The incredible arrogance of western powers, especially the U.S. and Israel, insisting that Iran suspend activities – none of which exist - to create nuclear weapons – none of which it has – while the USA, the only nation to slaughter thousands with nuclear weapons, and Israel , armed with hundreds of nukes which they demand remain unmentioned in a global holocaust of silence, and Iran, not Israel, calls for a nuclear free middle east. Whether dubbed  colossal chutzpah, testiculo grandioso or massive balls, this combination of breathtaking gall with microscopic brains endangers most of the world, beginning with Iran and the middle east.
 
The same imperial master race/chosen people syndicate calls a conference on the future of Syria, but neither Syria nor neighbor Iran are allowed to participate in the discussion. Does that imply elephant testicles? Dinosaur balls? Gigantic gonads? Is there any fitting trash talk to cover this kind of pinhead, pea brained dementia?
 
Possibly so, but what can we call the urge for what is named austerity, meaning cuts in programs for the most helpless in society so that the most wealthy can make more money and possibly, hopefully, prayerfully , or when the drugs kick in, then invest in creating jobs for them? That’s if the economic witch doctors, mullahs, priests and rabbis don’t decide that creative destruction would be better, thank you. How do you make fun of this in a way that can drown out the cries of those who suffer while this madness continues? Whether they are in pain from hunger, loneliness, despair at the bombs falling on their heads, or the countless other  horrors that billions suffer while millions are confused into incurring more debt and paying for war while thousands smile as their servants deposit more millions in the bank for them. And that’s not all, for the moment.
 
Weather irregularities ranging from heat waves to cold snaps to drenching rains and foul air are written off as typical acts of nature having nothing to do with what most of science has called climate change. While this pop title may be a trivialization of the issue, most responsible investigators from what is called the scientific community – a branch of material religious faith generally more reliable than snake dancing and prayer - are treating this as a serious threat to the future of the human race, while profiteers seek ways to make money by transforming old garbage into new sewage and calling it a green revolution. Not to worry folks, private profits will take care of everything. They will entail, of course and as always , much greater losses in order to create those profits, but as long as our rulers can languish in luxury they may leisurely invest in something that will eventually bring us jobs. Like maybe another war.
 
Prevailing wisdom seems an oxymoron as it applies to ruling power, its politicians and its media. But expanding electronic methods of selling more consumer waste have also created a contradictory method of communication that the imperial regime is trying desperately to control, but at only limited success. Past populations could be kept murdering one another and drugged by religion, sex and tv when they weren’t directly doing so, but present distractions are too numerous and fast to be totally controlled by any authority. It is trying, desperately and with bloody efficiency, as it murders with robots , entraps with technology and relies on its smaller but more faithful captive class of professional indentured servants. But the tendency of more humans to say “enough” seems apparent.
 
The  escapist ploys still available by which to keep workers killing themselves when not being captivated by media or entrapped by newer versions of religion, sex and tv are more prevalent than ever. They can go anywhere and dull minds 24 hours a day, but they are not only suitable to listen to or watch; they can also enable people to broadcast their own messages, and while most of those can seem all too personal, the tribe of humanity is using them socially and coming closer together as the problems get worse. That growing togetherness offers hope for ultimate democratic action to take control of a social environment that demands real transformation of the race and its possibilities. Working class members of the human majority don’t all need to be individual heroes but they could take social inspiration from these closing quotes. Stay  tuned.
 
 “The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another.”
-Thomas Merton
 
An individual has not started living until he or she can rise above the narrow confines of his or her individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
 

 
Frank Scott writes  political commentary and satire which is available online  at Legalienate.

email: fpscott@gmail.com
 
http://legalienate.blogspot.com

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