|
Life in Kansas can be as surreal
as the landscape of a Salvador Dali painting. Critical thinking is
a scarce commodity. "Scopes II" provided me with ample
evidence that Kansans are proudly waving the banner of
anti-intellectualism. Last week, the 6-4 conservative Christian majority
on the Kansas State School Board contrived a 21st Century reenactment of
the Monkey Trial of 1925 to "prove" that Evolution is a flawed
theory. How did my home state time warp past the Age of Reason?
Farcical would be a generous
description of "Scopes II". Three moderate school board members
and the entire mainstream scientific community boycotted the charade. John
Calvert, a conservative Christian who leads the Intelligent Design
Network of Kansas, stood in for William Jennings Bryan. Calvert
questioned "expert witnesses" in a quest to disprove
Evolution. Many of the witnesses, whose purpose was to validate the
board's desire to introduce Intelligent Design into the school
curriculum, were from the Discovery Institute (http://www.discovery.org/). Founded
and funded by Christian fundamentalists, the Discovery Institute is a think-tank
created to advance the concept of Intelligent Design. Intelligent
Design essentially says that in merely observing the complexity of the
world, one cannot help but conclude that there was an intelligent
designer. Evidence, research, and peer review are irrelevant to the
purveyors of the ID "theory", a thinly veiled form of
Creationism. For more on the hypocrisy of Discovery and their ID
"theory", see (http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/wedge.html).
Pedro Irigonegaray, Clarence
Darrow's counterpart in "Scopes II", is a Topeka defense
attorney who generously donated his time to the support of the Theory of
Evolution. He questioned the "experts" with a tenacity
that revealed their true agenda. He also exposed the fact that most of
them had not even read the science standards proposed to the board. He
so effectively embarrassed the opposition that his antagonist, John
Calvert, refused to shake hands at the end of the proceedings.
Later this summer, the board will vote on
potential changes to the science standards in Kansas Public Schools. Holding
the majority, it is a foregone conclusion that the conservative
Christians will decide to accept the recommendations of John Calvert and
his group. Employing their infinite Biblical wisdom, the board will
introduce Intelligent Design into the classroom, de-emphasize Evolution
(which has withstood rigorous scientific scrutiny since 1859), and
introduce its own definition of science. As a parent with a child
in a Kansas public school, I simultaneously experienced perplexity,
bewilderment, and frustration as this insane scenario came to a close.
Only a Symptom
As I pondered, it dawned on me that
"Scopes II" is merely a symptom of a much deeper
disease gripping our nation. As Thomas Frank concluded in What's the
Matter with Kansas?, American voters have been brain-washed
into voting against their own economic interests in an obsessive drive
to legislate "Christian values" into our nation. "Scopes
II" validates his point. Contemplating the conclusions of
Mr. Frank, integrating the observations of others, and infusing my
own analysis, I surmised that the root of America's decay is the
insatiable lust for power and money by the ruling class. Our republic is
crumbling while our standing in the world community has disintegrated to
the point that America is the object of global fear and hatred. During
the Gilded Age, America experienced a similar period of
laissez-faire capitalism, inequitable distribution of wealth, and
imperialistic endeavors. However, the government of that era lacked the
propaganda machine to sustain the over-indulgence of the elite. Today's
government media empire has the capacity to lull our
citizenry into surrendering their individual freedoms in exchange for
the comfort of the protective bosom of Big Brother.
Will the real George Bush please stand
up?
Who is George Bush? Does the "aw
shucks, just listen to how I say the word nucular",
folksy persona he projects square with the real man? Is our beloved
"W" truly a man of the people, as he would like Americans to
believe? Old Hickory is probably turning in his grave. Strolling
through life with at least $9 million in inherited wealth, our president
could not begin to fathom the plight of the working or middle
class, let alone the poor. He has failed or underperformed at virtually
every endeavor of his life, but that is not a problem. Wealthy friends
and family have been there to bail him out nearly every step of the
way. His alleged empathy for the plight of the common man is a fraud.
With his MBA from Harvard, I am betting that
"W" is not nearly as ignorant as he portrays himself to be. He
is strong and resolute in his beliefs, but given his power, money, and
support network, how difficult is it to be "strong and
resolute"? While it was his strength and resolution that
captured the hearts and minds of many American voters after 9/11
rattled their psyches, what they failed to realize was that Bush would
use those very qualities to advance a cause that under-mined many
aspects of their well-being. Middle and working class Americans who
support George Bush need to awaken from their intellectual slumber.
Jozef Hand-Boniakowski has much more to say about this at (http://www.metaphoria.org/ac4t0505.html).
George Bush exists to advance the
interests of the rich and the elite. Early in his reign, the events of
9/11 shattered the security of many Americans. Seizing upon this
opportunity, which they may have actually master-minded and perpetrated (http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/articles/47), Bush
and his henchmen employed this powerful tool to manipulate many
Americans. Preying upon America's deep sense of fear, Karl Rove, the
Minister of Truth and a man who could take Joseph Goebbels to school, forged
the image of George Bush as God's chosen savior to America and to
the "free world". He nurtured the notion that America
was under constant threat of attack by a murky enemy called
Terrorism. Such an abstract enemy enabled Bush and Rove to keep the
American people in a perpetual state of war and insecurity. The new
paradigm of the "good" US against the "evil"
Terrorists, laid the foundation for Bush's long coveted
invasion of Iraq. As the administration rushed the Patriot Act
through Congress, few Congressmen had time to even read the legislation
before rubber-stamping it for fear of being branded
"unpatriotic" by John Ashcroft, America's newly anointed
Minister of Love.
Bush's reign
Over three years have passed since 9/11,
yet many Americans still dangle from the marionette strings of The
Ministry of Truth. Rove's propagandists and the mainstream media have
enabled "W" to propel the United States into an illegal,
imperialistic invasion of Iraq to perpetuate corporate and big oil
interests. Tax cuts for the wealthy have shifted the tax burden to the
middle and working class, whose numbers are dwindling thanks to
corporate overseas job outsourcing. Under a crushing national debt
of $7.5 trillion, America is now the reigning king of Debtor Nations, a
title once arrogantly bestowed upon developing nations. How can we
saddle our children and grandchildren with that burden? At the rate America
is going, future generations will become the indentured servants of
China and Japan. Social welfare benefits for the poor are substantially
diminishing. Government-endorsed discrimination against gays is
increasing. The line between church and state delineated by our
Constitution is disappearing. Chasm is the new word to describe the gap
between the rich and the poor. Inconceivably, many Americans still
adore "W", somehow managing to disregard a
mountain of evidence of his incompetence, disregard for the working
class, and deceit. If one whispers a sweet little lie to oneself long
enough, one starts to believe it.
Repeat after me: George
Bush is a good president and represents my best interest....George Bush
is a good president and represents my best interest....George Bush is a
good president and represents my best interest...
Is it working? Have you slapped a
"W" sticker on the back of your forty foot SUV yet? You are in
BUSH country now, partner. Tell the terrorists to "bring it
on"
Social Security, the Judicial Branch of
the government, and the filibuster in the Senate are now targets of the
Bush machine. America is on the precipice of unbridled tyranny. As many Americans
passively watch, while others actively participate, what is
left of our republic is completing its ugly metamorphosis into
oligarchy, possibly under the guise of a theocracy since Bush has
leveraged so much support from the Religious Right.
Rich Man, Poor Man
While the poor, middle and working
class, continue swallowing the fiction of the "American
Dream", the rich and elite, whom I will call the Oligarchs, own and manipulate
the media machine, which continues to propagate the Horatio Alger
myth. What the Ministry of Truth does not tell us is that for
every Bill Gates "rags to riches" story, there are millions of
Americans who put their hearts and souls into success and stay mired in
the quicksand of perpetual poverty. True social mobility is rare in gAmerica,
and the Oligarchs under Bush aim to make it rarer still. They understand
the truth of the maxim that "he who has the gold makes the
rules". Oligarchs have most of the gold, and they are strengthening
their capacities to make the rules. Media perpetuation of hubris,
xenophobia, and homophobia enable the Oligarchs to convince Americans
that despite genocidal acts against Native Americans, enslavement
of the black race, the internment of American citizens of Japanese
descent during World War II, imperialistic policies in the Middle
East since the end of World War II, and ongoing discrimination against
women and minorities, that we are morally superior to the rest of the
world. Despite creating 25% of the carbon dioxide responsible
for the Greenhouse Effect, denying its existence, and
withdrawing from the Kyoto Treaty; defying the UN and preparing to send
an antagonistic war-monger as our new ambassador; and hoarding 35% of
the world's wealth when we represent 4% of the world's population, the
Oligarchs somehow convince Americans that we were innocent victims in
9/11. America has infuriated much of the world population for years, and
someone finally struck back. Rather than taking the rational steps
of changing our narcissistic and imperialistic behavior, and taking
reasonable steps to defend ourselves, the Oligarchs continue with
imperialistic actions that fan the flames of hostility. Perpetuating
this cycle of violence creates America's dependence on the Oligarchs'
cash cows: the military industrial complex and big oil.
They want the whole world in their
hands.....
Bush and the Oligarchs will not be
satisfied with absolute power in America. Their ambitions extend
far beyond our borders. One need look no further than the Project for
the New American Century (http://www.newamericancentury.org/),
and its statement of principles (http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm)
to see that world domination by the American military industrial complex
is their ultimate goal. Several of the signers of the statement of
principles are now serving in high level positions in the Bush
administration, including Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Paul
Wolfowitz.
Americans who support Bush have
passively handed the keys of the kingdom to a pack of ravenous Oligarchs
bent on world domination. Much to the delight of Bush and company, fear
and the media/propaganda machine are not the only factors keeping
the working classes from breaking free of their economic and
psychological shackles. Ongoing "cultural wars" over
issues like abortion distract ordinary Americans from important economic
and foreign policy decisions, leaving the Oligarchs to their own
devices. Convinced that their choices lie within dichotomous, false constructs,
many Americans choose one of the false dichotomies and expend
their energy fighting one another rather than aspiring to
individual freedom, working to develop their potential as human beings,
and allowing others to do the same.
Trap of the false dichotomy
In Bush's America, if you are not for the
"war on terrorism", you are not a patriot. In this 1984-like
atmosphere, it is no coincidence that a law that gives the federal
government unchecked power to violate our civil liberties is called the
Patriot Act. In Bush's vision of the "New American Century",
whether you are American or not, you are either for or against the
United States. There is no room for constructive dissent or challenge to
the almighty "W". Bush's loyal subjects see the world in black
and white, and support the illegal war in Iraq because they are
terrified of being unpatriotic. Unwittingly, they pledge their
allegiance to an ideology that enables the rich to maintain
dominion over the poor and middle classes. Perverse use of the concept
of "patriotism" ensures a steady supply of tax
dollars and warm bodies to feed the war machine.
With numerous states having passed
constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, and Bush pushing for an
amendment to the US Constitution, gay rights in America are under
siege. Under the Oligarchs, you are either "straight" or
"gay", and if you are "gay" you are not entitled to Constitutionally-guaranteed
civil liberties. Hitler had the Jewish people and Pol Pot had
intellectuals. In homosexuals, the Oligarchs have found the scapegoat on
which a successful tyranny depends. Offering their minions a group to
blame for the moral decay of society provides a powerful cause around
which the Oligarchs can mobilize their faithful to rally.
For a serious laugh, consider the
notion that Americans have a real choice when they go to the polls to
elect a president. Dominated by two monolithic parties, both of which
are beholden to corporations and wealthy campaign contributors, the
political arena allows scant room for meaningful participation
by the poor or working class. Despite the superficial differences
between the Republican and Democratic parties on some issues, the two
parties share the common goal of perpetuating the Oligarchy. While the
poor and working class have historically fared better under Democratic
rule, there is little evidence that there is an appreciable difference
between the two parties. In the end, the Oligarchy still rules, whether
they don the guise of an elephant or of a jackass.
Are you a liberal or a conservative?
Political pundits, pollsters, and the Oligarchs thrive on people
defining themselves as one or the other. Their objective is to
pigeonhole people into narrowly defined groups. Having accomplished
this, their powerful media machine sows seeds of discord that draw
that people into a perpetual ideological battle between
fictitious groups. The reality is that no human being fits neatly
into either category. People fall on a spectrum somewhere between
liberal and conservative. Their views on some issues may tend toward
liberal, and move towards conservative on others. Yet the Oligarchs
successfully manipulate many Americans to a choose side, and battle it
out with the other side, regardless of what their individual views might
be if they stepped out of their liberal or conservative "box."
Perpetual bickering amongst the working class gives the Oligarch plenty
of cover for their malfeasance.
Secularism versus the Religious Right is
King George's favorite aspect of the cultural war. Representing "W"
as an Evangelical Christian, the Oligarchs mobilized a coalition of
conservative Christians known as the Religious Right, whose leaders
are as power hungry as the Oligarchs, and whose followers, fueled by
feelings of victimization for their beliefs, vindictively pursue
their agenda. Riding the Right to re-election, in spite of the
obvious incompetence and criminal nature of his first term, Bush was
rewarded with another four years to commit crimes against humanity, and
to boost the fortunes of the Oligarchs still further. Employing a
classic "divide and conquer" strategy, the Oligarchs promote
ideological clashes like "Scopes II". While their subjects squabble
over the validity of Evolution and argue about the phrase
"under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, the Oligarchy counts
the stacks of cash in its counting room.
Freedom and a
modicum of justice are within our grasp
I am not despairing. In fact, I am very
hopeful for the future. History reveals that the working class is not
helpless before the might of the elite. We are not destined to
victimization at the hands of the Oligarchy. Mother Jones, Eugene
Debs, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the millions who rallied behind them
forced the Oligarchy of their time to give the people a degree of human
rights, freedoms, and economic justice. Awareness is the first step in
the journey toward reform. The human spirit is not easily crushed or
caged for prolonged periods, and we have the means at our disposal to
challenge those in power.
To begin this
renaissance of humanity and reverse the ugly dehumanization of the
ruling elite, more Americans need to abandon the Oligarchy-controlled
mainstream media and fortify their minds with information from Internet
sources, many of which remain uncorrupted by the money of the elite.
Activist writing, letters to the editor, and correspondence to elected
officials are powerful means to inform and persuade others, and to
hold public officials accountable.
To counter their "divide and
conquer" strategy, we need to join groups and organizations like
the ACLU, the People for the American Way, the Human Rights Campaign, and
the NAACP. These groups champion human rights and challenge the tyranny
perpetrated by the Oligarchy. The working class needs to wage a powerful
campaign to re-unionize America, where union membership has dwindled to
a pitiful 9% of the workforce. Impossible as it may sound, groups as
deeply divided as secularists and members of the Religious Right need to
find enough common ground to unite in opposition to the Oligarchs.
Protests,
boycotts, marches, and civil disobedience have been effective means of
diminishing the power of the Oligarchy in the past, and can be again.
Corruption, greed, and malfeasance are rampant in the American
government, and we need to use virtually all peaceable means
at our disposal to curtail the power of the Oligarchy.
Richard Nixon, one of the most corrupt
Oligarchs in the history of the United States, lost his tenacious grip
on power through impeachment. American citizens deserve better than they
are getting, and the members of Congress who have not sold out to the
Oligarchy need to seriously consider impeachment proceedings against
George Bush. How long do we abide an incompetent, avaricious war
criminal? The buck stopped on Harry Truman's desk, but not on
Bush's. The money spigot for his military industrial complex is
wide open as the flow of tax dollars to the poor is reduced to a
trickle. It is unconscionable that a man with his arrogance,
disregard for human rights, inability to tell the truth, and lack
of capacity to negotiate or tolerate dissent remains in office. How long
will it be before enough Americans wake up and we impeach George W.
Bush?
Just for the
record
According to
Finley Peter Dunne, the purpose of journalism is "to comfort the
afflicted, and afflict the comfortable." As usual, I hope
this piece leaves the afflicted comforted and the comfortable
afflicted.
Author's biography:
I am a 38 year old free-lance activist
writer with a degree in liberal arts. I am a husband and a father to
three boys, and I earn my living as an account representative at a
finance company. My affiliations include the ACLU and the Americans
United for Separation of Church and State. I welcome responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com.
|
