It is evident to me that the United States government believes that any individual or group of people that works to prevent it from implementing its agenda are terrorists. Furthermore, I contend that the government's plan is not the people's agenda; but some of us will be required to sacrifice our lives in order to help them execute their will, and all of us will be required to sacrifice our freedoms.
I also contend that the government overwhelmingly represents the interests of wealth and power; that its strength is derived from corporate bribes, rather than from grass roots populist support; that it exists to execute a Plutocratic agenda of world domination, while neglecting the needs of the overwhelming majority of the people.
I charge that the government is engaged in immoral and criminal conduct on a global scale. That it does not conform to the norms of civil society; that it is sociopathic, and flagrantly violates domestic and international law. The form of government that we have does not serve the citizenry-it preys upon them. It is not a government of the people, for the people. It is government of the corporations, for the corporations, by the corporations-a corporate Plutocracy.
The sole purpose of Plutocratic government is to spread the gospel of free market economics and privatized wealth, and to extend the hegemony of capitalism to every corner of the earth. Its god is the almighty dollar. Championed by right wing extremists, it is equally endorsed by cowering neoliberals in Congress. Its funding is derived from corporate sources and extorted tax contributions from the citizenry.
I contend that the government routinely breaches the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that it was sworn to uphold; and that it circumvents domestic law through the frequent use of presidential signing statements that effectively render civil law null and void. The recent passage of the Military Commissions Acts that resulted in the suspension of habeas corpus, passed into law with the aide of fourteen Democrats, is beyond onerous-it is morally vacuous and criminal.
The executive branch of the government, in particular, has run amok; it disdains the daily struggles of ordinary citizens, and is engaged in class warfare against its own, and the world's working people. It conducts terrorist attacks on its own citizens, and against civilians abroad.
It is widely known abroad that the U.S. government is practicing extraordinary rendition in order to torture, maim, and kill its suspected enemies; it imprisons innocent people all over the world indefinitely, without due process and without charging them with any crime.
We bear witness to the crimes of a rogue government that invades sovereign nations, bombs their cities into piles of rubble, murders with impunity, imposes harsh economic sanctions, denies women and children life saving medical treatment, and steals their oil and mineral wealth. Hypocritically, it calls those who resist occupation, terrorists.
I further contend that the government is engaged in a campaign of unlawfully monitoring the communications of its citizens, including the infiltration of Quaker religious orders that preach doctrines of peace over those of war, and is increasingly stifling free speech and the right of peaceful assembly. Our hard won civil liberties are giving way to an emerging police state. The prying eyes of paranoid government are everywhere.
Thus we are left with an illicit government that routinely commits crimes against humanity under the pretense of executing a war on terror. To its eternal shame, it has unleashed the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Pentagon upon its own citizens without just cause. These agencies are monitoring our computers, tapping our phones, and tracking our movements not to protect America from terrorists, but to protect the Plutocracy from those who would expose it.
What does it say about a government when those who uphold the Constitution and the rule of law are targeted as enemies of the state or as terrorists? Is this what Thomas Jefferson and the framers of the constitution intended?
The assassins of truth have the audacity to feign faith in god while daily committing unholy acts of terror against peace loving people at home and abroad. With the deftness of a public relations firm, they are using religion as a weapon against a guileless flock that blithely follows its every command, even as it leads them to the slaughter of an Armageddon of its own creation.
By these acts and worse, the U.S. government defines Democracy. It has been empowered to do so by Republicans and Democrats alike.
I hereby assert that the hidden purpose of the U.S. government is not to serve the needs of the people or to make the world free and democratic, as it so boldly claims; it is to accrue ever more wealth to the obscenely rich, the global elite. Its intent is to do to the U.S. what it has done to Iraq; to revoke the Constitution and the rule of law; to bankrupt the federal treasury and to privatize everything that is publicly owned. Ultimately its objective is to pursue the religion of unregulated free market capitalism, and to establish global corporate rule.
It seems to me that any government that does not serve the people and treats those who uphold the Constitution as terrorists is not a Democracy; and we should refrain from calling it by that name. Governmental power that is not derived from, and subservient to the people, is illegitimate-a form of authoritarian dictatorship as vile as Communism.
When an institution that was purportedly created to serve the needs of the people is no longer accountable to the people, and operates in secrecy, we can be sure that sinister powers are in motion. Those responsible are not only obscuring truth and revising history; they are knowingly and willfully assassinating truth, and mocking the very idea of Democracy.
Let me say first, I think this author, Charles Sullivan, is one of the best writers around, if not the best. Thanks for your great articles, Charles!
On this matter of capitalism, I admit to having unresolved issues. Virtually everyone in the industrialized world responds positively to money, often above all else. Just look at your inbox to see how many social, humanitarian, political, and environmental groups want to get a little of yours. The world runs on money. Even Rob Kall needs some more of it.
The roots of this go deep, back into the midsts of antiquity, when homo sapiens started trading. Here in America, of course, we worship the Almighty Dollar above all else. We have become like King Midas, who imagines he values gold more than anything. At least until his beloved daughter turns to gold.
I don't think I know anyone who is not motivated to a large extent by money, save perhaps the late Mother Theresa. I'm a bit of a capitalist pig myself, and have worked fairly hard to translate my actions into money (generally unsuccesfully). The dream of "making money" gets a lot of worthy things done, and there is no way around that which I can see for the immediate future.
Given this, shall we continue to rail against capitalism, or ponder how to temper it--so it is but one of many guiding lights for society? That is, shall we consider the difference between rampant, insane capitalism, as we have now, and placing capitalism in the context of a humane society, that actually values people and the planet first?
How do we pull back and get perspective? A progressive tax sounds like a good place to start, as does the idea of taxing resources more than labor. I don't know how to get from here to there, given the overwhelming acceptance of naked capitalism that Americans seem to have. Even such a simple thing as cutting the military budget and putting some of that into education hits a brick wall.
Maybe it's as simple as decoupling lobbying from politics, as Kucinich and Pelosi and Nader would have us do. Somehow I think we need to not wholly condemn capitalism, but rather create a visible, sturdy boot to go along with Adam Smith's "invisible fist," which at the moment is pounding way too many people into the dirt.
by
Daniel Geery (26 articles, 75 quicklinks, 123 diaries, 750 comments)
on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 2:42:58 PM
What is it with you people? Don't you ever investigate and learn anything? This corporate monster that the author and you understandably resent is anything but capitalistic. As long as you--and even more so, him--continue to confuse capitalism with fascism nothing will be accomplished.
You speak of moderating or controlling capitalism. You have no idea what you are talking about. Any intrusion on free exchange of goods and services is wrong. This is not the same as Anarchy. Why is capitalism so hard for you to understand?
by
Moss David Posner, M.D. (7 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 43 comments)
on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 6:12:33 AM
"This corporate monster that the author and you understandably resent is anything but capitalistic. As long as you--and even more so, him--continue to confuse capitalism with fascism nothing will be accomplished."
Well, I did think the "corporate monster" was a cancerous outgrowth of capitalism--an entity with all the rights of an individual, but none of the responsibilities. But if you wish to say that is not capitalism, by definition, ok, no problem. But we still need to slay the corporate beast.
Facism I see as a whole nother monster, although both in Nazi Germany and in America now, it is directly tied to the superwealthy who control everything from the media to almost every facet of our daily lives (gas prices, price of goods, money alloted to social services, who can say what and who will be heard).
"You speak of moderating or controlling capitalism. You have no idea what you are talking about. Any intrusion on free exchange of goods and services is wrong. This is not the same as Anarchy. Why is capitalism so hard for you to understand?"
No intrusion on the free exchange of goods and services is what is what causes forests to disappear, species to go extinct, marshes to be filled in, oceans to be polluted and overfished, smog and toxins to fill our lungs and bodies, rivers to be dammed, grasslands to be wiped out, fossil fuels to be depleted, billions of people to live in poverty, and global warming to end life on earth as we know it, while a few porkos get infinitely richer than necessary for a decent life.
I encourage you to take some time reading and contemplating, "The Tragedy of the Commons," by Garret Hardin: http://dieoff.org/page95.htm
by
Daniel Geery (26 articles, 75 quicklinks, 123 diaries, 750 comments)
on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 7:52:38 AM
Capitalism really has little competition in the minds of most Americans. They reject communism out of hand and they reject fascism out of hand, but these are just words. Probably the majority of Americans cannot give a good definition of any of these three economic models, but most know that capitalism is good while communism and fascism are bad.
Being an American by birth and by choice (I am still here), I'll admit to favoring capitalism myself, but I am a bit worried that America is now following an economic/political model that is drifting much too close to the fascist model in which corporations assume all political and economic power.
I think that the problem is that too many people confuse capitalism with unrestrained capitalism. If Adam Smith were alive today he would surely regret ever coining the term invisible hand in reference to market power. Surely he did not anticipate that the phrase would be abused by so many in order to argue for corporate anarchy.
Capitalism needs the oversight of government to guide it. Without that oversight, corporations will destroy each-other and the public good suffers.
Proponents of corporate anarchy will argue that making money is the only proper goal of corporations. This, they argue, will lead to the greatest good for all and there is no need to require corporations to act in the public interest. Of course this is a basic axiom to them, they can offer no proof. And the experience of history suggests otherwise, that laissez-faire capitalism inevitably leads to impoverishment of the masses, great concentration of wealth and the absence of any middle class.
by
PrMaine (11 articles, 9 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 395 comments)
on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 6:39:00 AM
Every human idea, ideal, system, law, institution, building, event, or construct is flawed by its very nature. We are imperfect beings. We make imperfect things. We think imperfect thoughts, speak imperfect words, and feel imperfect emotions.
Capitolism is imperfect because it is a human construct. That is why there needs to be some form of oversight on it. Books such as The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, and Unsafe At Any Speed by Ralph Nader have proved beyond a shadow of doubt that any business left to its own devices will care about nothing but profit. They have also put into place some laws regulating certain businesses.
However, capitolism has good points as well. I consider myself a capitolist as well as an entrepreneur. I see nothing wrong with money, as long as perspective is retained. Money is nothing more or less than a medium of trade. It is a means of getting what is needed or wanted. It is no the be-all and end-all of my existence. Also, much like manure, it's worthless unless you spread it around, in the words of Dolly.
The problem in this country is lack of perspective. Money is seen as a god. People worship it, fall to their knees before it, and prostitute themselves because of it. It is seen as not a means of trade, but a means of making a social statement. There are many vacuous humans walking around; empty, soulless shells of humanity who are seen as pillars of society because they have it.
Look at Paris Hilton. Talk about a know-nothing, do-nothing, is-nothing, spoiled brat, mindless bimbo. She's as ugly as home-made sin, as empty and barren as Death Valley, and completely morally bankrupt. If it wasn't for her daddy's fortune, she'd probably be some skanked out, smelly, crab infested crack whore slithering around on some street corner in Los Angeles. Instead, the media has turned her into an icon. I don't get that, and I doubt I ever will.
It's not money or capitolism that's the problem. It's us. What is the alternative? Communism?
That doesn't work either. It's been tried. It's failures are just as many as capitolism.
Once again, it's a human construct. It's imperfect, and frought with opportunity for abuse. As long as we continue to be imperfect, so will our world.
With all that said, I agree that what's happening in this country is bad. However, much like the way the Republican Party is now unravelling, predatory capitolism cannot last. There will come a tipping point when the middle class completely disolves. When the common man can no longer afford to buy anything, money becomes worthless.
At that point, barter will take the place of currency. Then the tables will be turned on the rich because they will have no real world skills to trade for food. Those of us who know how to work will survive. Those who do not will not. Then Paris Hilton will really be up Shit Creek without a paddle. Then she will have to become a skanked out, smelly, crab infested crack whore slithering around on some street corner in Los Angeles.
Blessed be!
Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 860 comments)
on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 4:18:26 AM
5 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
