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We will hear much about "leadership" in the next eighteen months, as various men...and one woman...try to advance their own political careers on the backs of innumerable special interests and mountains of greenbacks. From Howard Dean on the left (???) to George Bush on the right (???), we will be told that our future depends upon:
A) Staying the course in the War on Terrorism.
B) Taking a new direction in the War on Terrorism.
A) Fixing the economy by raising taxes.
B) Fixing the economy by lowering taxes.
A) Advancing freedom by passing restrictive laws.
B) Advancing freedom by repealing restrictive laws.
Confused? Don't be. It's all bullshit that has nothing to do with whether you will have a job or not, whether your son or daughter will be killed protecting Big Oil in Iraq or other far flung countries, whether our prison populations will continue to swell to grotesque heights with people who have done little more than provide substances...on the only free market that still exists...to other people who wish to ingest them (illicit drugs).
We are told that our economy has been in "recovery" for a couple of years, yet unemployment and underemployment continue to increase at record rates. We are told that nevermind that we...and our noble troops who have all bravely volunteered to defend us...were led into war by a pack of lies, deceptions and misdirections. Nevermind the daily news of more deaths and grave wounds. We are winning the battle for "freedom" doncha know? So, we must "stay the course"...or perhaps, Iraquifize our occupation...or get the U.N. involved, or SOMETHING, goddammit! And all those dusky skinned people being held in prison camps far from public view, who are being tortured "just a little bit"...in the infamous words of the long deposed Shah of Iran...are threats to our freedom, not evidence that our freedoms are gradually being eroded.
Yes it's all bullshit. Every last word. The truth is that the world is changing and we are being left behind in a cesspool of terminal corruption, where special interests rule EVERYTHING. Our health care system, arguably the most expensive in the world, still fails completely to service a large minority of our population...or does it?...while the vast majority wallows in ignorance and fear of...something or other, running to the doctor with each runny nose or skin blemish that might, just might be cancer. Our school system fails to educate...or does it? And our legal system? Record numbers of lawsuits to employ record numbers of trial lawyers, seeking restitution from Al Franken for daring to suggest...in a BOOK no less...that Bill O'Reilly et al, might NOT be "fair and balanced"...as if HE IS! Suing McDonalds for daring to tempt obscenely obese people with foods that, when consumed in mammoth proportions, have "caused" them to become even fatter.
There was a time when such things would have been little more than fodder for lockeroom joke sessions. Now, citizens are routinely hauled into court for jury duty to take such matters seriously, seriously for the simple reason that they have been hauled into court to consider them in the first place!
Clear signs of such circularity are everywhere, indicating that our system has been corrupted beyond "fixing" in any simple way. Get rid of George Bush (or Governor Grey of California) in order to straighten things out? If you think that will fix any of these things, I have an old bridge to sell you.
As we are overwhelmed...at least in the media representations of what is happening in the world...by special interests shouting loudly to get THEIR little pieces of the action, keep your eye on the man behind the curtain. The U.S. is an empire...a dying empire...making up only 5% of the world's population, but dominating the political life of the other 95%. Meanwhile, countries like India and China are slowly and inexorably gaining wealth and power. While we speak loudly of freedom and democracy, health and prosperity, ours are shrinking and theirs are rising!
What can be done? Probably nothing about India and China. That's THEIR business. Their workers will continue to work for less than ours and they are just as smart and skilled as ours and will continue to get "our" jobs until they are as rich and free and healthy as we are.
But we, the people, CAN do something about our political life. We can stop pandering to the myriad special interests and return to favoring the GENERAL interest. We NEED a revolution. And that revolution must not and can not be violent, despite our current proclivity to regard all problems as solvable by the gun. It must be democratic. What is currently happening in California, despite it's origins and resemblance to a three ring circus is truly revolutionary. Why? Because the people, the GENERAL population is speaking. The politicians...the professionals...are being drowned out by the only voice that really matters...yours and ours.
We need MORE freedom not less. We do have lessons to teach the world, but they are not the lessons of high-tech weapons and efficient killers, but rather the joy of being able to stick out one's tongue at the powers that be, to fuck 'em if they can't take a joke. If we lose that we will not only have lost our empire, but everything else as well.
Finally, we have to remember that we are all in this together. We are not Americans or Chinese or Koreans or Japanese or Germans or Frenchpersons, but human beings, doomed to inhabit the ever shrinking Earth together until we either work it out, or die in the attempt. WE HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE.
The future of the world depends not on pseudo-leaders like George Bush or Howard Dean (or Kim Jong IL or whoever is in charge of China, Japan, Germany and France these days), but on REAL leaders, like Rudy Giulianni. While those other guys were hunkered down in their respective bunkers wondering how to make political hay out of 9/11, Rudy was walking the streets of Manhattan, breathing the same polluted air as his fellow citizens, taking the same risks as those who elected him. With more like him...and you and we...we think we can work it out.
Talk to you later...
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