Dr. Gerry Lower
America has diverged so far from its chosen values, conservatives have difficulty making a distinction between the values of Democracy and the values of crony capitalism.
Everyone has heard it dozens of times from dozens of people. Bring up
any one of the myriad social and political problems that have emerged in
America since World War II and someone will always make effort to conclude
the discussion with America's favorite one-line cop out: "Yah, but
America is still the greatest country in the world."
For decades now, Americans have passed off on both old and newly emergent
problems, largely because no one could do anything about them anyway. The
solutions to these problems were uniformly a threat to capitalism's
notions of "progress." Indeed, many of the new problems (from
the destruction of family farming and ranching communities to the
commercialization and denigration of Christmas) were directed by
greed-driven capitalism.
The unhappy result is that America no longer resembles the America that,
for all its problems, was once "the greatest country in the
world" and many Americans have not yet noticed. Post World War II
concepts of family and community have been destroyed to make way for the
brave new world of crony capitalism and Old Testament religion in the
White House.
To discuss America's proper role in the global world is like discussing
Israel's proper role in the Middle East. Applause is "patriotic"
and criticism is not. After all, how can "the greatest country in the
world," having returned to Old Testament religion ( pre-Christian by
definition), be wrong about anything?
For decades now, we have ignored the steady progress made by the European
democracies in working to better educate and care for their citizens.
Given that most European citizens are quite able to see through the
thinly-disguised imperial machinations of the Bush administration, this
effort has proven a meritorious investment for the European community.
For decades now, we have ignored the emergence of corruption in American
politics and the emergence of an Enronized,
"influence-for-a-fee" government. For decades now, we have
ignored the gradual right wing shift toward neo-fundamentalism and
neo-fascism (crony corporatism) in the interest of a "controlled
society" in America.
America's claim to be "the greatest country in the world" is no
longer self-evident to those whose labor keeps America's wheels turning,
not when it requires two people and three jobs to accomplish today what
one person could accomplish with one job in 1950. As Jefferson feared, we
have, under corporate despotism, "gone to eating one another,"
the top dining on the bottom without a hint of remorse.
Recognizing that simple truth is a genuine obstacle for conservative
Americans who have relied on faith alone in believing what they have been
told, i.e., that Bush administration Republicans are still Republican,
that Bush's America is still American. Getting over that obstacle will be
required in order to see current American reality with adequate light to
consider meaningful problem-solving.
If America remains "the greatest country in the world," it is
increasingly difficult to establish why that is so. Most Americans have
heard the old aphorism, "If you're so smart, why aren't you
rich?" In America's current intellectual position, 180 degrees
removed from the position which gave it birth, the corollary certainly
applies, i.e., "If your're so rich, why aren't you smart?"
It is a difficult gestalt for conservative Americans, i.e., coming to
terms with the fact that knowing how to make money does not necessarily
constitute being "smart" or, for that matter, being Christian.
To see America's actual situation through all the political confusion
requires a bit more honest introspection than most conservatives are able
to muster up at the current stage in the Bush administration's agenda.
In truth, conservative Americans have been coerced, with distortions and
fabrications, into supporting an immoral war (by any Christian standards).
With this awkward undertaking being undertaken in the name of America's
"war on terrorism" and Old Testament Republican notions of the
"American Way," there is a good deal of "American" and
"Christian" self-identity hanging in the balance.
Conservatives are virtually required to become or remain adequately
self-righteousness to justify ignoring the reality they create, the fact
that they have denigrated nascent Christian values and commited
"sins" against Christ and the People, all in Christ's name. That
fairly well sums up the JudeoRoman tradition since Constantine corrupted
the Christian message in the name of Roman Empire.
America has diverged so far from its chosen values, conservatives have
difficulty making a distinction between the values of Democracy and the
values of crony capitalism. To see any truth at all is a potentially
self-defeating exercise, a frightening task for those disposed to Bush's
self-righteous rightness. Do we really believe the entire human population
ought to subscribe to a way of life that leaves a third of its people in
poverty and insecurity, a way of life that has thrived on war since World
War II, a way of life that has created the largest gap between rich and
poor in human history, a way of life that has produced shallowness in its
own citizenry, all in the name of capitalism's notions of fairness and
equality in the pursuit of wealth? The game is over.
Come on, good People. Someone (and you know who) has been pulling your leg
about the values of Democracy and Christianity for a long time, pulling
your leg about the values of family and community for a long time; largely
in order to make way for the values of crony corporate capitalism. There
is no way for Americans to gradually work their way back to nascent
American values. It will happen over night, when the Bush administration
discredits itself and its agenda in the eyes of the world. Stay tuned, it
is inevitable, given the religious self-righteousness and belligerence at
the neo-conservative core of the Bush political machine.
"The greatest country in the world," of course, is that country
or coalition of countries that leads the world to peace. This can only be
accomplished by honoring the nascent Christian human rights of Jefferson's
Democracy, the very same human rights which the Bush administration has
failed to honor and has even taken away from the American people, the very
same human rights for which millions of Americans have sacrificed their
lives in wars that America did not start. America's role as a world role
model for Democracy was implicit from the start; to nourish the "ball
of liberty" so it will "roll round the world." In that
role, America has succeeded only in rolling greed-driven capitalism 'round
the world.'
For half a century, America has blindly followed the dictates of corporate
capitalism and has rather well succeeded in bringing the entire world
together under capitalism's fiscal embrace. The cost to American families
and communities has been devastating. Bringing the entire world together
under the human rights embrace of Democracy will require the human greed
that has driven this human unification come to terms with itself and stand
down, or suffer the consequences of global repudiation. Either way, the
way will then be open for rebuilding the Democracy that our Revolutionary
Fathers had in mind, this time on a global basis. A world thusly united in
peace would become not "the greatest country in the world" but
"the greatest community in the world," and that community
would remain, with regard to values and priorities, fully Jeffersonian,
fully Christian, fully American and fully in service to Jefferson's God,
"the will of the People." Go for it, America.
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Dr. Gerry Lower tisland@blackhills.com lives "out in the Black Hills
of South Dakota" in the shadow of Mount Rushmore. He thinks striving
for Democracy makes more sense than striving for dominion. This article is
originally published at opednews.com. Copyright Dr. Gerry Lower, but
permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so
long as this credit is attached.
