The root of all evil

The world around us has changed. I've watched the change since that sunny Tuesday morning in September some 13 years ago as we collectively struggled to make sense of the images played over and over on the television screen, like some bizarre horror movie unfolding before our eyes in real time. A surreal new world was born from the rubble in those Manhattan streets. One with it's own vocabulary and iconography. A world so different from the one that existed before that day that from this point it's almost hard to remember the way we used to live before we entered this paradigm of fear, endless war, economic atrophy, and political weirdness, complete with a cast of characters that since then have explained what happened and why it happened using a language that sounds similar to the one we are used to, but employs a logic that a critically thinking individual cannot possibly digest as the truth. We are taught what to fear and who to fear and why to fear in a strange and endless stream comprised of many kinds of media. Those same kinds of media also tell us what to covet, what to believe, what we should wear, drive, and eat or drink, what's amusing, what kind of thinking is safe and what kind is not. We are bombarded daily with information that's presented as "news". If you are old enough to remember when journalism was still alive in this country, you probably have as hard a time as I do accepting that various types of celebrity gossip, along with fashion trends and funny home videos could be concieved of as "news". Especially in a world where so much is going on that should interest, shock, and even anger anyone with even a shred of moral awareness. In my travels I am continually astonshed by the difference between what we are concerened about as Americans and what concerns other peoples of the world. For example while in Dublin two years ago I talked with many ordinary Irish people about things that were going on in the world today. Almost everyone I spoke with had an opinion about the Palestinian situation in regards to Israel, The corruption of international bankers, The condition of poor Africans, and the war in Iraq. These people offered up their opinions in a lively and informed manner that seemed so refreshing to someone used to discussing such things here at home with my fellow countrymen, who seem to react to such discussions with either a blank and confused look, or a declaration of "Fuck, nuke em! The superbowl is this Sunday! I'm headed to Wal Mart, What kind of beer do y'all like?" Don't get me wrong here. I think most Americans are very decent and sincere people. I was born here and built a long and happy life for myself in the U.S.A. I'm just more than a little concerned that we are currently observing the effects of 30 years of relentless unilateral propaganda, force fed by a mental I.V. via the corporate media, along with what is increasingly starting to look like a two party system of political theater designed to give people the idea that they are voting for one thing or the other ( kind of like Coke vs Pepsi), while the same bad guys continue to run things without a thread of concern for the fate of the average Joe or Jenny. In fact lately it seems like the veneer of that smoke and mirror system is starting to fade, and as it does there seems to be a more openly agressive kind of contempt for ordinary Americans. This is the kind of world we live in today. It's a world of fear. Fear of terrorism, crime, unemployment, fear of losing one's home, of bankruptcy, illness, and a host of other things that hang over the heads of so many good people in this country where a person's credit score is used as an indicator of personal worth, while the means by which to achieve it slip through millions of fingers every day like so much sand. So how did we get here? Is this some natural, organic happening, or is there blame to be placed? I believe the answer to that can be found by simply following the money. It's no accident that wealth in this country has been systematically shifted to a place where the top 1 percent have more than the bottom 99 percent combined. Jobs that were the lifeblood of the middle class are disappearing at an alarming pace, while corporate profits climb higher and higher as those jobs are outsourced to overseas labor at slave-like rates. Add to that the interests of Wall Street are being served by the government almost to the point where the political class are mere courtiers of the rich and powerful banking and corporate class, guaranteed even more profoundly by the recent Citizens United legislation, which states that large corporations are people, and affords them 1st amendment rights to buy as much legislation as they wish, while the first amendment rights of ordinary people who have the audacity to publicly protest this arrangement as they did in the Occupy movement are brutally crushed by an alarmingly militaristic police force. In the meantime, social safety nets like Medicaid and Social Security are derided as "entitlements" which must be slashed in order to create a better balance of debt. More and more of the super-rich are expressing a more offensive line against the huge unwashed proletariat. In a public speech recently, Australian Mining magnate Gina Rinehart, reportedly the world's richest woman, exclaimed ""There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you're jealous of those with more money don't just sit there and complain, do something to make more money yourself. Spend less time drinking, smoking and socializing and more time working". There is a saying from a popular Youtube video.."The root of all evil is exactly that, and those in whom it is blooming are the enemies of humanity". Strong stuff, but in today's world, as in the last great depression, it is becoming more and more palatable to regular folks who feel increasingly helpless in the face of the loss of control over their lives and the futures of their families. In these pages I hope to provide a personal insight into the issues that surround us in this new reality that was created for us. The question is "What to do?" Despite the dark and scary clouds gathering on the horizon, I remain hopeful that the question can be answered in a way that gives peace and hope to a new generation of Americans.