| Back at the
birth of The US, a number of foreign nations and individuals came to our
aid, helping us both financially and militarily.
Today, the US the world
has come to know and love is in need of such support again. Corporate,
super wealthy and fanatical interests have hijacked America and are taking
down her constitutional freedoms and liberties, trashing her values and
severely damaging the organic international relationships we’ve built
over the past centuries.
For the past 10 plus
years, extreme right wing ideologues, now commonly called neocons, have
been heavily funding a war against democracy and freedom as we know it.
They claim it is about getting rid of government and corporate regulations
for the sake of the free market. But it is really an attack on the
government and the rules that protect people and the "commons"
we share, be they air, water, energy, arts, health, scientific, or even
creative resources.
These attacks are
considered "devolutionary" because they reverse the changes that
have been wrought by the founders of the constitution and the lawmakers
who followed them.
Now, the US is at a point
where it could cease to function as a democracy. Computerized voting, as
it currently operates, is totally unacceptable because of its
vulnerability to hacking and corruption. We can’t even tell whether our
last elections were truths or fictions. This must change. (see The
Dangers of Computerized Voting)
The juggernaut of
neoconservative influence, produced by an investment exceeding a billion
dollars-- the neocon think tank cabal -- Project for a New American
Century, Cato Institute, American Enterprise Institute-- to name the most
prominent-- has been incredibly successful, first in sabotaging the
Clinton presidency, in wreaking havoc in the energy industry, and more
recently in taking over the US government and directing its policies.
These policies are raving aberrations from the American self image most
Americans hold. Yet, by the machinations of the neocon think tanks,
supported mostly by old, oil billionaire money, funneled through
foundations, the US is being propagandized and brainwashed into rushing
down a primrose path to American hegemony, imperialism and colonialism
that is de-stabilizing the world and creating some fear but mostly hate
and enmity in the hearts of not millions, but billions of people
throughout the world.
Part of the problem is the
US has trustingly depended upon political balance. There are progressives
and conservatives and people in the middle in the US. They tend to balance
each others' extremes. For the last ten years, as the neocons invested
hundreds of millions on getting their beyond the pale, ultra-extreme
policies "sold" through prominent talking heads, the left, the
democrats did nothing. Or worse, some of the democrats started listening
to the neocons or selling out to the huge corporations that have taken
over the influencing of the outcomes of today's elections.
Even four or five years
ago, reports started to appear which described the extent, power and
influence of the Neocon Think Tank "Engine."
(NTTE)(How
Conservative Philanthropies and Think Tanks Transform US Policy),
and ($1
Billion Dollars for Ideas: Conservative Think Tanks in the 1990s)
Consider the situation,
when the Left discovered the neocon think tank engine (NTTE,) as
comparable to the the situation when the USA observed the Russian launch
of Sputnik. Immediately, the US realized it was behind and developed a
plan to become the leader in the space race. The US realized the
importance of the technology, of the potential risk of the loss of the
lead in out space. The democrats, the left, the progressive think tanks
and liberal foundations failed to recognize the immediate danger and
threat of the invention of the neocon think tank engine (NTTE). Back then,
Clinton was still in the White House. The flower buds were evident, but
the neocon think tank engine's flowers had yet to fully bloom. That
blooming to fruition happened in the presidential election and the NTTE
flowers have been spewing allergens and toxic fruits ever since then.
This NTTE is a many
headed hydra monster-- an incredibly powerful weapon that the right has
developed without any competition on the left. But this is no longer about
the "Left." The NTTE is so far to the right that it is
threatening the most basic American Democratic principles. Still,
this right wing weapon is so powerful and has created a situation in which
real democrats, (not sellouts to corporatism and southern faux democrats
from Louisiana and Georgia) and the progressive left, are so far
"technologically behind. It is like the Republicans who have
embraced the NTTE are using political cruise missiles, while the Democrats
naively fight on with bows and arrows and swords.
This cannot last. Every
day the Right hands over more of the commons to big corporations and the
wealthy. Each of these swipes and nibbles at the remnants of the USA's
democratic resources and assets takes its toll, weakening the
constitution, weakening democracy and weakening the ability of the Left to
fight back.
Unfortunately, the Left
has not been able to, or has failed to build a financial support system
for a Think Tank Engine that would be a comparable counterpart to the
NTTE. One problem is that existing think tanks tend to see the trees-- the
individual issues- rather than the whole forest. They support programs for
minority groups, protect the environment, the oppressed-- all good works--
but they fail to address the need that now exists, partly because of the
right's creation of the NTTE, for a new group of progressive think tanks
that work to advance policy support at the public opinion and
legislative levels, among religious groups, the media, and more.
Unfortunately, the history
of mankind is in some ways driven by the history of the weapons invented
and employed. The left has an opportunity now to adopt a weapon comparable
to the NTTE, call it a Progressive Think Tank Engine or PTTE. Failure to
develop comparable "weapons" will cause the progressives on the
Left to experience the same fate as the American Indians and the
indigenous peoples of so many lands. They were wiped out by invaders with
more powerful weapons and often, too, virulent pathogens they did not have
the ability to immunologically cope with. The Right's virulent talk radio
fits that bill and it has infected millions already, instead of killing
them, turning them into freedom and free-speech-hating, unthinking
advocates of imperialism, murder, and war.
Part of the reason the
left has failed to raise funds to create PTTEs is that the people who sit
on the boards of even Liberal, progressive funding foundations are usually
heads of corporations. Any conscience-driven progressive PTTE must include
strong reining in of corporate powers-- elimination of corporate
personhood, severe reduction of patent time limits and abuses,
establishment of corporate "death penalties," and elimination of
all rights of corporations to influence elections.
That leaves us with the
question "Where will the funding come from to establish and support,
over the long haul, a group of think tanks, of PTTEs that will build the
policies that democratic candidates can embrace and ride astride to
campaign victories? That legislators can use to build model legislation
that will be embraced and supported by the public, by religious and
special interest groups.
The money can come from
grass roots fundraising, from wealthy Individuals, from a few corporations
that see the future and want to be a part of it, and from foreign
individuals, corporations and even nations who want to help enable the
America they know to survive, to overcome the NTTE infestation that is
attacking the US and causing it to act psychotically.
Michael Moore
got his funding for his film, Bowling for Columbine, from Canadian
contributors/investors. Even if the foreign funding just helps set things
up, so an effective grass roots fund raising campaign can be implemented,
somehow, the funds for a PTTE must be raised.
It
is possible that some on the right will see foreign parties contributing
funding as a threat to them. They will be correct. Some on the right will
try to characterize such contributions as enemy, or the recipients as
seditious. These are issues that need to be worked out. But is clear that
if there are friends of the "old America" that existed before
the neocon NTTE cabal took over, now is the time to resolve those
questions and move forward, building a PTTE funded for at least a decade
with at least as much funding as the right has already expended. This is a
"moon landing" project as important as any alternate energy or
other "Big picture and vision" project. The progressive left and
democrats must "make it so" if they are to have any hope of
succeeded in putting the Bush regime out of office and rescuing American
Democracy.
Just think, if the estimated million
US anti-war marchers gave a fraction of what it cost them to make the trip
to the protest: travel, gas, tolls, bus fares, meals, park their
cars, stay at a hotel, pay for baby-sitters, buy bottled water, etc. If
they each gave $50, then half the first year's budget would be reached.
The other piece in this formula is
developing a model description of what a "good citizen
corporation" looks like, with a set of ethical guidelines those
corporations will agree to follow. We need business. We don't need
megacorporations that act like human inventions that have turned around
and attacked humankind-- corrupting government, destroying democracy,
terraforming the earth to meet their inhuman profit needs while creating
toxic environments for humans, creating enslavement-like working
conditions, all these leading to the illness and deaths of millions
world-wide.
I believe there are some large
privately and publicly held companies that want to do the right
thing that will actually support the establishment and growth of a PTTE
which aims to rescue democracy, even if some sign on because they see the
writing on the wall, that the days of the old, corrupt corporations are
numbered.
This is no small project. Like
Rupert Sheldrake has described in his writings on morphogenic field
theory, we need to put these ideas out into the universe. The more we
start doing this, stirring the pot, understanding the NTTE threat to
democracy, threat to the planet and humanity, the more likely the actual
process of building a PTTE is to emerge and crystallize as a reality. One
last thought. The creation of the PTTE will not just be the creation
of a counter weapon. It will be something that will have the power to do a
lot of good. Think of it as a confluence of tiny progressive streams of
passion and commitment to a better future, flowing together to form an
incredibly powerful river. We must clear it of corporate pollution,
organize the flow so it is made most powerful as a single force, then
divert it to clean the mythical king's stables, clean the
environment, and create fresh, clear channels of clean flowing visionary
policy that will nurture democracy and freedom throughout the planet.
Rob
Kall rob@opednews.com
is publisher of progressive news and opinion website www.opednews.com
and organizer of cutting edge meetings that bring together world leaders,
such as the Winter Brain Meeting and the StoryCon
Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story This
article is copyright by Rob Kall, but permission is granted for reprint in
print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached.
Other
writings of Rob Kall
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