I have been waiting to write another in this American Perspective series until the smoke cleared a bit on the Occupy Movement. I am sure as you have read about our gyrations and machinations here, the 99% movement has been at the top of the page. That and the now even more engrossing elections are our most interesting preoccupation at present. It’s good to see the wars end, the Bush wars, that have done so much to ham string our great nation, but it is too late to alleviate the damage that they did, not the least of which was transferring Billions of citizen money into the coffers of huge corporations. But that was always the purpose of those wars, just like Vietnam Nam: wars are for money.
But I digress.
Actually the occupy movement springs greatly out of the dishevelment of those wars. We can afford three trillion to bring destruction to nations that never attacked us, but we cannot guarantee the health of our people, the education of our kids to what ever level they can accomplish, or even the well being and dignity of our senior citizens. That is the depth of greed our nation now is embroiled in. Corporations buy government by political contribution, purloin the electoral process by subterfuge and walk away as our courts condone the malfeasance of the whole mess. Thus the 99% as they are called go to the streets. No, not in great crowds but in numbers of thousands to demand the government back. Polls show that 70% of Americans support the movement that morphs every day into a new form, but with the heart of it still in the malcontent of people seeing the end of the American dream as it is called. Until now every son or daughter could expect to be more successful than his or her parents; that is no longer true. The 1% of the richest of us has stolen the dream… We want it back.
The crux of my thesis is that government here in the US stands in the way of the well being of the citizens. Over the last several decades we have seen the under bellied predilections of a democracy, in this case the world’s greatest, take center stage as the very freedoms that allow self-determination allow corruption to flourish at the same time. In short a vote is no longer a vote and money buys the process through a “disinformational” media. The root of this comes from our Supreme Court who decided that a corporation could spend any amount of money on the electoral process, even as if it were a person. Yes in America corporations are people. Case closed, process destroyed. Less than rich people with no real vote suffer the consequences.
Beware of that in your nation. The government must be held accountable. It must always put the good of the most as a priority; it must root out greed and corruption and destroy them in the town square of public opinion. There is such a small amount of relative assets to support the masses of society in our modern world. Nothing, no amount no matter how small can be spared for something other than public good.
Processes must be prioritized and put in the perspective of what garners the most prosperity for the most people. And to do that the harsh light of day must shine into ever nook and cranny of the bureaucratic machine. Yes, I speak in pure generalities. But generalities can be powerful tools and concepts that we must use to evaluate our government. Yes they must be based on fact, specifics, but if the corruptive process is easily discerned, it need not be proven again and again. Perception is reality for the most part. Citizenry also most of the time are husbands of the universal good. If it waddles and quacks it is a duck. If it is selfish corruption it is evil.
