I saw Robin Hood this weekend, and it spurred some subconscious pondering. What has bubbled to the surface is that, in modern politics, we are all being duped. Deceived. Taken advantage of. And we're lapping it up like dogs.
Let me elaborate. At the turn of the 12th century, it was very obvious that the tyranny being perpetrated was by the rich over the poor, the powerful over the lowly. The enemies of the people were easy to see. In modern times, our tyrants have mastered the art of distraction; they have learned like magicians and circus performers and carnies how to make us focus on only that which they wish us to see.
America was founded to try to avoid the tyranny of lifetime power brokers. Congress was not intended to be a career, but a duty, like serving on a committee at work, from which you would return after a short while to your real job. But power corrupts, and it was not long before those who sought power moved to change the structure to keep power. Once the power was kept, the Congress began to do things like vote themselves raises and lifetime insurance, to levy an income tax to keep the coffers full, and to make bribery of public officials legal by calling it "lobbying".
The "lords" and "kings" and "robber barons" of 21st century America are the giant corporations: the banks, the insurance companies, the energy producers, the mega maufacturers and the politicians that are in their pockets. Make no mistake, no matter what a politician trumpets in public that his beliefs are, no matter what "issues" he waves about, it is all the smoke and mirrors of a grand con artist. He is the front, the distraction...the Great and Powerful Oz who scares you and thrills you and entertains you and stirs your blood and your imagination while the rich and greedy and powerful behind the curtain rob you blind.
The corporations own the media and pay the politicians, and our voice, our votes, our POWER as American citizens is being eroded. We have given up our free thought to buy into the magic show. And the evil genius of what has been done to us is that the power brokers have us seeing EACH OTHER as the tyrants, as the enemies. Our Achilles' Heel is that we actually care about the issues that they use as a game, and we care enough to fight about those. And while we, ordinary middle class Americans, fight with other ordinary middle class Americans about things like abortion, gay rights, racial injustice, the corporate lords and robber barons are controlling the system to make more money and power for them. And every time the focus of the American people turns to the wrongness of what the corporations and politicians are doing, someone invokes the Words of Power...you know, the bugaboos of Socialism or Communism or Facism or Liberal or Conservative...and gets us all whipped into a frenzy of fighting with each other again.
What current power brokers fear the most is exactly what ancient kings used to fear: that people would look at each other and say "Hey! There are a lot more of us than there are of them. And if we all agree to work together despite our differences, we are stronger." Once a people realize that, the few in power are in serious trouble. So they make us fight with each other. They tell us that skin color or language or sexual orientation differences are insurmountable evils that divide us. They want us to fear. They want us to be ignorant. They want us to be sheep.
Please don't do it. Please think. Please stop hating someone over a label (those Power Words). I realized this weekend that in reality I have far more in common with many tea partiers than I do with my Congressmen, simply because we share socio-economic status. I don't have to agree with them politically in order to work together to build a stronger country, BUT we both have to realize that the enemy is not us and stop fighting each other first.
Let me elaborate. At the turn of the 12th century, it was very obvious that the tyranny being perpetrated was by the rich over the poor, the powerful over the lowly. The enemies of the people were easy to see. In modern times, our tyrants have mastered the art of distraction; they have learned like magicians and circus performers and carnies how to make us focus on only that which they wish us to see.
America was founded to try to avoid the tyranny of lifetime power brokers. Congress was not intended to be a career, but a duty, like serving on a committee at work, from which you would return after a short while to your real job. But power corrupts, and it was not long before those who sought power moved to change the structure to keep power. Once the power was kept, the Congress began to do things like vote themselves raises and lifetime insurance, to levy an income tax to keep the coffers full, and to make bribery of public officials legal by calling it "lobbying".
The "lords" and "kings" and "robber barons" of 21st century America are the giant corporations: the banks, the insurance companies, the energy producers, the mega maufacturers and the politicians that are in their pockets. Make no mistake, no matter what a politician trumpets in public that his beliefs are, no matter what "issues" he waves about, it is all the smoke and mirrors of a grand con artist. He is the front, the distraction...the Great and Powerful Oz who scares you and thrills you and entertains you and stirs your blood and your imagination while the rich and greedy and powerful behind the curtain rob you blind.
The corporations own the media and pay the politicians, and our voice, our votes, our POWER as American citizens is being eroded. We have given up our free thought to buy into the magic show. And the evil genius of what has been done to us is that the power brokers have us seeing EACH OTHER as the tyrants, as the enemies. Our Achilles' Heel is that we actually care about the issues that they use as a game, and we care enough to fight about those. And while we, ordinary middle class Americans, fight with other ordinary middle class Americans about things like abortion, gay rights, racial injustice, the corporate lords and robber barons are controlling the system to make more money and power for them. And every time the focus of the American people turns to the wrongness of what the corporations and politicians are doing, someone invokes the Words of Power...you know, the bugaboos of Socialism or Communism or Facism or Liberal or Conservative...and gets us all whipped into a frenzy of fighting with each other again.
What current power brokers fear the most is exactly what ancient kings used to fear: that people would look at each other and say "Hey! There are a lot more of us than there are of them. And if we all agree to work together despite our differences, we are stronger." Once a people realize that, the few in power are in serious trouble. So they make us fight with each other. They tell us that skin color or language or sexual orientation differences are insurmountable evils that divide us. They want us to fear. They want us to be ignorant. They want us to be sheep.
Please don't do it. Please think. Please stop hating someone over a label (those Power Words). I realized this weekend that in reality I have far more in common with many tea partiers than I do with my Congressmen, simply because we share socio-economic status. I don't have to agree with them politically in order to work together to build a stronger country, BUT we both have to realize that the enemy is not us and stop fighting each other first.
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