God and Country
by PHIL JONES
As one year turns into another, this seems a good time to reflect on the general state and direction of the United States of Corporate America. Truth is, I try to think about this country as little as possible, because it is so depressing, to observe what is going on.
You see, I grew up in the 1950s. America had just saved the world from Fascism, and would soon save it from Communism as well – or at least, so we were all taught to believe. The blessings of liberty and democracy secured for us in the American Revolution had made the U.S. an island of opportunity, prosperity and justice in a dark world of tyranny, poverty and stagnation. I bought that American civic religion hook, line and sinker. I, along with most of my fellow countrymen, believed that we could liberate the entire world with freedom and democracy, if they would only let us, and usher in a kind of heaven on earth.
But that is not the path the U.S. took. Instead, the United States, in country after country all across the globe, thwarted democracy. Usually, it was done in the name of anti-Communism, but always in the name of Freedom and Democracy. In reality, it was just a cruel game of installing and supporting brutal dictators whose chief virtue was that they allowed the U.S. to exploit the natural resources of their country – oil, diamonds, or what have you. These hideous excuses for human beings became rich and powerful, while our own government deceived the American people with talk of Freedom and Democracy.
Perhaps I am being a little too harsh here. Russian Communism did need to be stopped, and perhaps to some extent, this suppression of freedom and democracy in places outside our own shores was just a sad necessity. There was certainly a fine line between stopping Communism and simply providing a smokescreen for greed and powerlust. In any case, it is indisputably true that the U.S. brutally stamped out democracy in a number of countries – such as the Congo, Iran, Viet Nam and Nicaragua, because the will of the people in those countries was just too inconvenient to the aims of our government. It soon became apparent to anyone paying attention that this country may have said it believed in democracy, but when push came to shove, what it really believed in was capitalism.
Jimmy Carter came to office in 1976, promising to make human rights the cornerstone of American foreign policy, but he was soon giving a 19-gun salute to the Shah of Iran, while tear gas drifted across the White House lawn from police suppression of anti-Shah demonstrators just across the way.
Then Ronald Reagan became president, and suddenly, greed was not only OK, it was cool. Greed was removed from the list of deadly vices, and transferred to the list of virtues. All of American society, from top to bottom, soon became saturated with greed. Winning public office became more and more simply a fundraising exercise, as the candidate with the most money won the vast majority of races. Increasingly, public office was up for sale. Money now controls the political process to such an extent that it is impossible to distinguish between a campaign contribution and a good old-fashioned bribe.
Nobody even seems to care anymore, so fully have we accepted this as the way things are. We even have among us people so foolish as to say, “America is a democracy that votes with its pocket book.” That’s how hopelessly confused many of the American people are. They can’t distinguish between a dollar and a vote. They cannot distinguish politically between a human being and his bank account. Indeed, our current system of campaign finance could more fairly be characterized as one-dollar-one-vote than one-person-one-vote. Political power and influence is now in direct proportion to the amount of money a person has. This is not democracy at all, but plutocracy.
The sad truth is, democracy has been destroyed, right here at home. Never mind the many countries around the world where the U.S. has thwarted or destroyed it. Right here in the land of the still-free-for-a-little-while-longer, we no longer have the democracy that gave birth to our freedom, and for which millions of American soldiers have actually sacrificed life and limb over the past 235 years. We have only the semblance of democracy, the right to go and vote for the two highly restricted choices the corporations allow us.
And that’s only the beginning of our problems as a nation, if we can even call it our nation any more. The list of deadly ills goes on for quite a while. Perhaps I will regale you with more in my next article. Won’t that be something to look forward to?
Meantime, what am I complaining about? Compared to the average person on this exploited paradise of a planet, I live in the lap of luxury. I’m so well-fed, I’m overweight. I’ve got ball games and movies on TV, money in the bank, lots of interesting friends, and three – count them – three jobs to keep the bills paid. I’m an extraordinarily lucky man, in a country that just happens to be hurtling toward the edge of a very steep cliff.
