When Neither Knowledge of History nor Knowledge and Concern About Government and Politics Are Valued

How a relatively small group of wealthy people have managed to 1) transfer incredible wealth to themselves, 2) gradually and dramatically underfund government while increasing its burdens, 3) seed the lexicon with terms of “bloated” programs (although the ones they desire are never included) and “excessive” social benefit—nay, “entitlement”—transfers, and 4) control and divert the economics and politics of a supposed democracy,  can perhaps be summed up in the following:

To expound on John Fugelsang, the extremely rich got the rich to convince much of the middle class that the poor, including the working poor, were responsible for all the middle class’s problems, and the rich and extremely rich are “small businessmen” and “good job creators” being so unfairly “persecuted” via “huge and oppressive” taxation and regulation, that the middle class needs to rally behind the goal of gutting government and further lowering taxes for the wealthy—even though as that happens, the situation of the middle class gets worse and worse.

Only a citizenry obsessively concerned with only the “private” sphere could, over decades, let willful ignorance dramatically undermine the public sphere, and as a result, disempower and impoverish themselves.

Now, Now, Padawan

Often, people under 35 don’t want to wait—for anything—and want to be entertained and satisfied at all times, an unreasonable expectation.  I’ve seen people playing a group GAME, who declare they’re not having fun and just want to quit, merely because of a momentary lull where the spotlight is off THEM, the individual.

If we become a society where the only things we choose to and are able to focus on for extended periods are individual distractions, who and what will that serve?

A Single Life

Every time I read or hear about helicopters and teams sent out, often dangerously, to search for and rescue someone, I am on the one hand amazed and humanely pleased that we care so much, and on the other hand, appalled at the economic (and probably unsustainable) imbalance. Historians of the future will marvel at how much resource expenditure went into trying to preserve, save, or rescue ONE human life, and how this philosophy diffused from the US and the West to the rest of the world.  The search and rescue, the humanitarian aid, the life support.  We take it for granted, but shouldn’t.  Previous civilizations would have said, “tough $%#@!”

What Parable Would Jesus Use Today?

I have a friend who is connected, albeit indirectly, to the plutocrat grid.  It is an economy made for them.  They go many places and yet pay less than regular people for travel, entertainment, etc.  

Those who have much are given more.  And those who have hardly anything?  What little they have is being taken away and given to those who already have so much.

There’s a biblical parable stood all on its head.

A Matter of a Word

Those who have seen “The Butler,” a slightly fictionalized account based on a real person, are treated to an encapsulated history of the modern American civil rights movement.  It does not mean we have shared the experience.  White people, especially the young, who use the word “nigger” in any context, let alone casually, are guilty of the most appalling historical and sociological ignorance.  While the less unaware may believe they are doing a Lenny Bruce on the word by taking away its significance, they are mistaken.  And the clueless who view it as a “term of endearment and friendship” are pathetically delusional.  While it MAY sometimes be those things BETWEEN African-Americans, the time is FAR off when it can be so used generally by whites, whose skin color being associated with historical and occasional contemporary oppressions of the worst kind, means that time might NEVER come.

Fattening the Cow To Be Slain and Feasted Upon

It looks more and more like the Postal Service is having its pension and health funds artificially bloated (at great cost to short term finances of PO) so that when privatization comes, the privateers can loot the funds and leave the taxpayer on the hook. 

You Thought Voting Was A Right? Silly You.

Need a crash course in voter disenfranchisement?  Watch The Daily Show, August 5, 2013.

And remember, voter fraud, supposedly the reason for all the disenfranchising measures (it couldn’t be race, economics, or partisanship) is statistically non-existent.  And state legislatures around the country, with all the pressing problems, made this their top priorities?