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October 14, 2007
Weenie Nation
By Michael Roberts
Where did "we the People" go wrong?
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Faced with a war of aggression in Iraq based on official lies and deception Americans remained uncaring and silent. Now in 2007 as this quagmire drags on eating up the country’s financial and other resources; after an estimated 1.5 million Iraqis have been killed by American bombs, military cowboyism, maurading home-grown terrorists and sundry criminals and hoodlum, with over 20,000 American servicemen and women wounded – about 10,000 very badly – there is no end in sight for this failed military adventure.
So the million dollar question is how come “we Americans” have become so desensitized, numbed and uncaring when “our government” wages an unprovoked war in “our name?” For how long will decent, good Americans sit idly by and allow this systematic propaganda machine brow beat them, peddle a daily dose of falsehoods, half-truths and outright lies while the Bush Administration and its imperial presidency continues on the counter-productive path of militarism before “we the people” shout – “Enough!?”
The American public has become so desensitized by the Republican thought police that it is presently incapable of stopping this illegal show and run the bunch of loonies out of town. Indeed, the moral imperative in today’s America demands that the citizenry begin to apprehend and arrest this pattern of deceit and arrogance of those in high office. I offer that the jaded republic will not survive when it continues to be inhabited by a populace so apathetic, insensitive and borderline brainless.
Since the time of the Watergate scandal the Republican Right Wing has quietly built up a system of information, communications and authoritarianism that was put into action the moment Bill Clinton left the White House. Today, the Right Wing has almost total control of the American Republic and has used its pervasive power to subdue and humiliate the very essence of the Republic.
And as the Republic continues to be corrupted and controlled those in power have consolidated and centralized money, power and influence that is now at complete odds with the concept of individual rights and liberties. But authoritarianism runs oblique and counter to the very nature and principles of individual freedoms and rights and the stifling and killing for free thinking, civil discourse and other attributes that make up the institutions of democracy now threaten the very foundation of the Republic.
The ruling oligarchs, now drunk with their own power and the ideal situation of having a Chief Executive suffering from the malady of arrested development cannot in its towering arrogance envision the fact that by its very actions it undermines the strength of the Republic and hastens its inevitable decline and demise.
Its feeding frenzy of greed and decadence distorts the reality of everyday life in the Republic and has so warped the very economy that it depends on for its enormous wealth that it remains blind to the fact that the vast majority of Americans are wallowing in debt slavery compounded by the antics of a political class that serves only to represent, legislate and promote the interests of the oligarchs.
So that even prying open the door to some modicum of opportunity the end result is rabid, obsessive careerism under the hegemony of corporate America that ultimately makes a mockery of the word and essence of freedom and development. Characterized by cut-throatism and cronyism the notion of “equal opportunity” exists in a self-induced, near drug-influenced state of mind that is fundamentally imaginary and obscure.
In fact, corporate America, the much-touted be all, end all and savior of the American people and the engine of the United States economy, is riddled with unfair practices, thievery on an unprecedented scale, smeared with financial impropriety and other piratical activities that have all been perpetrated by a small, cabal of business and political elite that only adds to the body of deceit, greed and hypocrisy. If the truth be told the result of all this on the American public psyche is that they have become a bunch of weenies and have allowed their inalienable rights as protectors and guardians of the Republic to be twisted and corrupted by this tiny “1% of 1%” who now see America as their own choice piece of real estate. The American public have become preoccupied with the ingesting of junk foods, reflex shopping and other trivialities having been so “dumbed and numbed down” by a steady daily diet of censored drivel that passes for public information. All this works for the powers that be. In order for these super-rich folks to continue to binge-feed at the government and corporate trough the populace must never be restive. The corporate/state machine requires that the populace remain in blissful oblivion and obedience. And the sheer need for survival of the majority poor and unwashed necessitates that there be a parallel mechanism to “keep the populace in its place.” Does anyone wonder at the rapid growth (and wealth) of the religious industry the takes up from where corporate America leaves off? Today, Christian consumerism is not in doubt with the rise of multi-million dollar mega-churches that offer “rewards in heaven” while it fleeces the poor hapless sods seeking solace and fulfillment and reassurances that somebody really cares. Of course, while all that crap is going on our vaunted leader, King George II, continues to make cooing noises while he basks in near blissful ignorance the natural end result of an infantile self-gratification of addictive power while his handlers and enablers rock him to sleep. As the poster boy for a created political Disneyland Dear George is perfect. The King is beloved by those of the financial oligarchy who hypocritically and sing his praises and jack up his over-inflated ego by telling him that he can win the war in Iraq. With his legacy clearly written and sealed as “America’s worst president” King George’s men titter behind their hands, rolling their eyes to high heaven at having installed a moron in the White House. Nobody tells him that he’s a severely limited man suffering from delusions of grandeur and plagued by a severe psychological trauma. Full of himself and propped up by this opportunistic and rapacious band, the King now believes with absolute certitude in his own infallibility and divine ordination, so much so that he fancies himself as the reincarnation of the Messiah who is called to wage “a civilizing” war against the Muslim Hordes in the Middle East. In the midst of these developments the American populace has become numbed, slouching, slack-jawed, passive and Beer swigging, replacing collective progressive public activism, one of the benchmarks of a functional democracy, with Internet bravado and weak-kneed, sporadic half-hearted responses. This trade-off has resulted in the American populace getting information about itself, the world and the state of the Republic from a thoroughly bought and paid for media where pervasive phoniness, lies and mass deceit are valued commodities to “get ahead” and the traits that made “news fit to be read.” It therefore is not surprising that this privileged media layer thrives in these woefully artificial settings creating an ethos that drips with hypocrisy, disloyalty, dishonesty, tribalism and selfishness. In these circumstances its is easy to give up to use as a cop out the overwhelming power and influence of the system and plead guilty as charged to an abnegation of civic responsibilities that is one of the tenets of democracy. But there arises yet another question: is this truly democracy and is so whom does it benefit? Certainly not the lower and poorer classes of American society. Not Blacks hobbled by a two-standard of justice – one white and privileged, the other Black and unfair, biased, racist and culpable. Maybe the Republic is facing its Armageddon and the yawning yaws of Hell are not far off and the oligarchs, their enablers, their sycophantic lackeys, their corporate henchmen et al are rushing rapidly into the waiting arms of Satan. But in the here and now that is little consolation for those who believe that King George and his cronies may yet escape Purgatory and not get their just desserts for abusing the Republic and its people and creating a climate that is conducive to the shenanigans of Balzeebub. American society is today riddled by a gang of kleptomaniacs and ruled by a classic kakistocracy that either wants to grab all that they can get from the public coffers or engaged in selling off of national assets to their friends around the world. Maybe things will change when the people have had their fill of this filth. I’m an eternal optimist and believe in the inherent good of the human spirit even one as battered and beaten and the American spirit. Maybe one day soon the people will rise up and decide that it is high time that they take back their Republic. MICHAEL DERK ROBERTS
Sadly, the ordinary American television, radio and newspaper consumer, is bombarded 24/7 by a desensitizing brew of targeted advertising, public relations gimmicks, corporate spin and the opinions of talking heads and sundry experts promoting a national confusion that reigns supreme. This blitzkrieg has inundated, overwhelmed and bloodied the American thought process and jettisoned the old methodologies that hitherto worked to make sure that that checks and balances remain in the system.
Today, runaway crony capitalism has turned the tables on the best intensions of the Republic by making ALL those former independent institutions part of its controlled domestic empire. Indeed, the corrupt present system generously rewards those individuals who have mastered the art of impersonating human traits and responses in utterly contrived environments. Arrogance and cynicism now rule supreme.
Authors Bio:
Small Business Consultant, Editor, and Social Media & Communications Expert, New York
Over the past 20 years I've been a top SMALL BUSINESS CONSULTANT and POLITICAL CAMPAIGN STRATEGIST in Brooklyn, New York, running successful campaigns at the City, State and Federal levels. I'm a published author and award-winning journalist. I've been honored and recognized for my deep, hard-hitting analytical work on socio-economic and political issues confronting the United States in general and New York City in particular. I'm he Senior Consultant, COMMONSENSE STRATEGIES (www.commonsensestrategies.biz ), a Marketing, Social Media & Communications company based in Brooklyn. I also host two weekly podcasts at www.blogtalkradio.com/shangoking .The first, aired on Saturday mornings is called BTS -- Business, Technology and Social Media and the second, The Roberts Report, is aired on Sundays. You can also follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mdvroberts. (347) 279-6668.