"Americans need an enemy. If none is available, one is created." - my ex-Boss::::::::
Your average American pride had already left me by then, yet those words put my brain in motion. Without thinking about it in depth, my immediate conclusion was that he was right. His statement was a bold one, but he was spot on as the British say. We Americans need enemies. Even as Colonists, we had our enemies. King George III e.g.
George was born in London, June 4, 1738. An Englishman ? Hardly. George III was the first of the House of Hanover to be born and educated as an Englishman. Hanover ? Germany. Everyone loves to hate Germans, right ? Even the English and Irish populus had reason enough to dislike, or even to hate George III. Then came the American Colonies. Hey ! That's us !
The Irish, the real Irish i.e., and of course the "Old English" in Ireland...basically speaking, the Irish "Resistanz" were more than pleased with George's failure to stifle the breaking away of the American Colonies. Love, hate, dislike or despise the Colonies, the Irish saw a chance in the "American Success". A chance to be free, once again.
I'm way off track of what I really wanna say, so enough History. You know it already any old how.
"Know Thy Enemie"
You tell me, is this from the Bible or who said it first ? I know it as a Sports tactic. If a Coach knows in advance how an opposing team functions, he can help prepare his team for the match.
Down to Business and I realize none of us are interested in reading lines and lines of bullshit before an author gets to the point...unless we're reading a damned good novel from a favorite author. Here we go.
"As corporations gain in autonomous institutional power and become more detached from people and place, the human interest and the corporate interest increasingly diverge. It is almost as though we were being invaded by alien beings intent on colonizing our planet, reducing us to serfs, and then excluding as many of us as possible." -David Korten
No, Corporations are not the enemy. Not quite.
In 1864 Abraham Lincoln wrote the following in a letter to his friend William Elkins:
"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
Similarly, in 1870, Henry Adams, the grandson and great-grandson of Presidents, predicted that corporations "will ultimately succeed in directing government itself. Under the American form of society, there is no authority capable of effective resistance."
You get my point, surely.
First off and to prime an end with, I'm very happy to see so many new players join the OpEdNews discussions. One-sided debates and/or argumentations will get nowhere, real quick. We need each other's opinions just like we need air to breathe. It matters not if you make your very first comments on this very day or even if you make no comments at all. It also does not matter if you are a so-called regular and have made thousand of comments and submitted hundreds of articles etc. bla bla bla. Nope ! All are equal. Basta.
Having said that, and being an American myself, I present to you here and today, our most common enemy ;
* Corporate Personhood *
Okay, one of a longer list of (possible) common enemies. But it's a big one and by God, if we could ever get a grip on it, we just might be able to stop the War Machine.
Friends, welcome. I haven't said all I wanted to say but I'm no friend of beating around Bush, so I'll leave it at this.
Digg in and have fun !
