Madame:
Yes, can we please heed Mr. Hedges and summon willfulness to
break the enchantment of those who have twisted American capitalism—and American
“democracy”—into a tranquilizing slow death spiral that serves only the
plutocratic elite?
We have a population largely made desperate enough by the
economic plight inflicted by the plutocrats “to work for low wages without
unions or benefits.” (Hedges 164). Even
to cooperate willingly, emotionally in the steady vaporizing of the last
vestiges of unionism in the country (indeed, to readily believe propaganda that
those unions are a major source of America’s weakness and problems, rather than
a middle class strength!).
While the elite-dominated media focus us on the shouting matches
of their “commentators” and the political “contests” of the various flavors of
the corporate-state (“b.s. light” and “b.s. dark,” is how a friend of mine
coined those “flavors”), life gets worse, even as we inhale the lotus-vapors to
not notice. No matter what “source” of
our problems is trotted out momentarily by the corporate-controlled media, no
matter the “issues” and “solutions” narrowly and exclusionarily defined by that
media, look to your senses Americans! Is
your life, that of your children, and your grandchildren, better than it was
20, 30, 40 years ago? If it is,
recognize that you are the exception, not the rule! And even if it is, how is your community
doing? Your state? Your region? NOT how you are told it is. How it is when you get out and look, talk to
people, reflect on the changes, reflect on things in general.
If, after at least 40 years of the general philosophy espoused
by the elites, things are not better, why believe that things will be by doing
the same? They told you that competition
was everything, that “sacrifices” and “hard decisions” needed to be made in
order for America to “compete.”
It was a deflection, wrapped in a deception, inside a manipulation. Coated with just enough truth to appeal
perfectly, emotionally, to American pragmatism, competitive spirit,
adaptability, and work ethic.
All of which were used against the middle-class and lower-class
worker. And so we bought the treasonous
pursuit of profit to the exclusion of all else, all in the name of “competition.” Multinational corporations and their elite
operators and effective owners benefitted, but the country and its people
suffered. More profit was made for these American-dominated corporations by
moving operations—often exploitative operations--overseas. Who did that benefit? Yes, occasionally the
American CONSUMER. But that consumer was
also an American WORKER, and that worker was overall seeing a steady fall in
wages (and many were losing their formerly high paying jobs that kept them
middle class or upper lower class). Eventually,
that American worker started borrowing more and more to try to keep up. Because even buying the sometimes cheaper
goods (from the overseas operation that put him out of his higher paying job),
he couldn’t keep up.
Repeat this over and over again across a 40 year period. All while the mantra of “free markets” enrich
only a few at the top, and government is made weak by both underfunding
(courtesy of a wealthy with their “trickle down” mind trick) and excessive—borrowed
at that—spending on militarization, “security,” and elite “welfare.”
It was the hollowing out of America. We will leave for another time how good we
did in making our former enemies and potential present enemies want to play in
the system we created. Suffice to say at
present that those potential adversaries marvel at how our corporate and
plutocratic elite are so willing to sell out America—indeed, undermine it into
weakness—in service to themselves and their corporate entities. Hedges has examples of this on page 165,
where he refers to how America has cannibalized itself in a massive transfer of
wealth both overseas and upward to the parasitic plutocrats. These parasitic plutocrats then buy
elections to keep any latent threats to their power muted, and to also further
their enrichment. An enrichment that any
psychologist worth his or her salt would say is a pathology, a mental illness,
or even a criminal insanity. Because
they already have so much, and all they want is more. Money and its associative power is their
entire scorecard of meaning and existence.
How infinitely, spiritually sad.
And ruinous for the rest of us. And
underneath it all is collective illusion:
“Our elites manipulate statistics and data to foster illusions
of growth and prosperity. They refuse to
admit they have lost control since to lose control is to concede failure. They contribute, instead, to the collective
denial of reality” and continue to “prop up the dying edifice. The well-paid television pundits and news
celebrities, the economists and banking and financial sector leaders [Professor’s
Note: Hedges should have set this word off in quotations!], see the world from
inside the comfort of the corporate box.
They are loyal to the corporate state.
They cling to the corporation and the corporate structure. It is known.
It is safe. It is paternal. It is the system.” (Hedges 165-166)
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