I would add we have a long way to go in confronting the depths that drive practices such as slavery. I fear, as do Sharon and Tom, that if we do not, we are destined to repeat that horrid past.
In line with Sharon and Tom's fear, I often feel much angst and worry that the primary drivers to slavery and the slave trade aren't truly gone. They lurk right under the surface of our civilization. Slavery has morphed into the slightly lesser evils of migrant work, outsourcing, union busting, pay decline and the end of "benefits" such as health care. Work more for less appears to be the corporate Mode of Operation in regards to those that slave in order to line their pockets!
If we don't face and disarm the power of a corporate-run government, we are in danger of regressing. Thus the military builds up arms to confront the civil unrest they foresee. Thus the Koch Brothers put the word out to evacuate congress and shut down the government in an attempt to take the country hostage regarding health care. And their bought and sold puppet congressmen and women follow their marching orders.
Are we akin to the proverbial frog in a pan of water? Just slowly turn up the heat and the frog will not even know when he's boiling to death. Bust the unions, look the other way as Mexicans cross the borders "illegally", keep quiet about the working conditions of the Chinese girls making this computer upon which I write and you read. "Slowly turn up the dial increasing the heat." Privatize the prisons for cheap labor. "Shhhh, let the majority think it's all controlled by the government." Hmm!? There is a pattern that is emerging. Is out-and-out slavery in our future? Ask those held in privatized jails. Are you feeling hot yet? Or is it like the Steppenwolf song titled "Monster" where it is asked of you and me: "Don't you care about your sons and daughters?"
My sense is that majority of people would answer "no! I just want to go shopping!" How have we become numbed to our deepest loyalties? What journey into hell do we have to take to break through that numbness?
Consider this statement by Dave Hodges: (click here):
There is a new game in town and it is called the Prison Industrial Complex. It is a system that is designed by the rich and for the rich. It is a growth business and they are seeking more and more customers. It is not hyperbole to say that slavery has indeed returned to the United States and that the 13th Amendment is now null and void.
There has never been a country in the history of the planet that has jailed as many of its people like the United States is doing. Increasing the prison population is like a sport to Wall Street, with the only goal of making more money. More prisoners mean more money.
See the pattern? It's a "win-win" situation for the corporate rich. The government places people into private corporate jails and pays them to keep the prisoners, while the prisoners work for peanuts in horrid working conditions. For the victims of this atrocity, it's a "lose-lose" proposition. What do we want to build for future generations? Please, let our answer not be "It's not my problem." Eventually, they will incarcerate you.
Our culture is hell bent on the "divide and conquer" ethos and denies, makes fun of, and murders those who speak to the ethos of make love not war (e.g., Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Christ). Meanwhile, divide and conquer is how "they" i.e., the media, corporations and government keep us in line. Thus we have left-right, democrat-republican, male-female, employer-employee, young-old divides. The evening News is divided into the warring factions of Fox vs MSNBC. The Corporate masterminds and manipulators make great use of these kinds of rifts to keep people mesmerized and hypnotized for the sake of the advertisers, i.e., the funding agents behind the curtain. "Do you wish your steak burnt to a crisp or still "mooing!'" appears to be the limitations of our choice. But, we really have more choices, if we open our eyes.
This curtain keeps us from seeing a centuries old pattern in which slavery occurs as the worst of the worst options. Other options are outsourcing and migrant work. Thus, the Western nightmare of planetary dominance continues. When do we wake up from this?
The time of black slavery in the United States contained the impetus for much creativity in expressing the broken heart inherent in those at the receiving end of a master's whip. Songs also provided a communication technique that the white masters were too stupid to realize were coded for escape. One such song was "O' Mary Don't You Weep!" Meditate on these lines:
"Pharoah's (read slave owners) army got drowned, O' Mary don't you weep".
Were they speaking to Biblical text or were they relating their story to the ancient dilemma of those living in Old Testament slavery? Did the blacks know in their heart a repeating pattern that I see in the world and try to express in my writings? I think so. Trying to communicate the pattern is the essence of what I write. Yes, the slaves knew long before the academics such as Joseph Campbell and Gregory Baetson realized how metaphorical language connects and ultimately makes patterns more visible. "It's just metaphor" I hear many say.
Tell the black author to "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" that.
On another level, many of these songs contained coded plots to escape. Was crossing over Jordan "just a metaphor?" Metaphor is a language that emerges from a multidimensional relational consciousness. It's what can save us from the "divide and conquer" strategy that is used so well by the corporation's educational panel otherwise known as the media.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
