Against America - The Fucking Book.
It would take me way too long to break this thing down into proper spacing
and paragraphs, so I encourage anyone and everyone to make their own
version of the book and e-mail it to me and I'll e-mail back my edited
version. XOXO.
Against America: Diatribes from an American Dissident
By Tristam Lass
copyright 2005.
Overture
I began work on this book back in 1999. The basic framework, content and tone was established during the latter half of 2000 and the beginning months of 2001. As everyone knows, on September 11th 2001 America was attacked by terrorists. It was the greatest blow this nation has suffered on its own soil since the Civil War. As I write this, seven weeks have passed since the attack and we are now at war in Afghanistan. I had much hope after the tragedy, for America appeared to unite and open its arms to the world in an unprecedented manner. Time has not been kind, for we are merely returning to our avaristic ways. Squabbling in the congress and presidential over zealousness reveal that we are still a nation divided, both internally and externally.
I had to ask myself whether or not this work is 'appropriate' in this time of trouble. Should I write something that could inflame patriotic resentment towards myself or should I hide my head and let it go? Well, I cannot hide with a clear conscience. If anything we need to be reexamining ourselves, our nation and our ideological foundations. That is what this book seeks to do. I have a grand hope that America will become the greatest nation on earth, as of now we are not and never have been. The recent attacks have illustrated just how weak and vulnerable we are and it has also begun to unravel our economy. This reality forces me to examine the false expectations we have been operating under since WW2.
Those are a few of the reasons why I am going to complete this work without shame, but with pride. We cannot return to our apathetic slumbers and expect things to return to normal. Our old ways helped cause this tragedy and if we are going to avert further tragedies we must begin anew and with a renewed sense of purpose and individual responsibility. I will discuss and illustrate the flaws in our way of life in order to help overcome them. Lessons must be taught and re-taught everyday in order to evolve. This work is as much an exercise for me as for you and I hope that it does some good.
The Nexus
The enemy in this work has to be given a name. Since the enemy is faceless and omnipresent, it will be named according to its vague and authoritarian nature. The enemy is any system designed for profit and accumulation without regard for humanity. This can include government, business, education, science and any other mechanism regulating society. I shall refer to one or all of the above with a single term for both simplicity's sake and polemic value in the following text. It shall primarily echo an older term; the industrial/military complex. Our government and our corporations are inextricably linked and have untold command over our daily lives and our intrinsic nature. It follows that hey should be taken to task for their actions since we live in a supposed democracy. It is time to tackle the Nexus and get the freedoms we have been promised. Else our lives shall continue to crawl forward obscured by ideals and routines that are not of our making.
Introduction
The following pages were written for many reasons. A personal need for expression and a certain sense of justice are driving me. On the universal plane, I contend that you will find that the following discussions are vital to our future as a nation and as individuals. There comes a point when things must be said despite any consequence. Obviously, if you are reading this book it should come as no surprise that Against America is going to be a critical exploration of our lives and times. The most vital question to address from the outset is why we need to reexamine the American paradigm. Why does America deserve a written critique, or as many will call this, a full frontal attack? The answer is simple. We as a people, a nation, an economic power, a military power and as a society need to be rebuked. We take liberty with most every other nation on the globe. It is only fair and reasonable that America should be subjected to its own knives.
As a people and nation we criticize the rest of the world by continually intervening militarily, politically and economically. Yet, who is out there to effectively do the same to us? If America and Americans remain free to critique other nations, then it is necessary that dissident voices be raised against America itself. How can we claim the right to determine other nations' fates when our own destiny is withheld from us by faceless, unknown power-brokers?
All too often it appears that we Americans consider ourselves lucky to live in the most progressive, wealthy and "modern" state in existence. But, beneath the surface there is discontent, a discontent that becomes manifest in tragic "media events." Events that are sensationalized presentations of a more profound and subtle set of tragedies that befall many Americans every day. Are we lucky to be in debt? When you work 40-plus hours a week just to maintain the material conditions expected in this day and age, you find that usually you are too tired to really appreciate or think about anything beyond the daily grind's mindless routine. When every aspect of your existence becomes a routine, then everything beyond the routine ceases to exist. Once the majority become immersed in these routines, then everyone merely performs an expected task, supposedly for the benefit of the greater good.
Once that state is attained, interest in those who dictate our routines evaporates. The very material and physical distractions that provide daily escape from the routine simultaneously enslave us to it. Escapes and distractions cost money. The only legal way to provide for them is to submit to the mindless routine in order to escape from it. It is the most brilliant vicious cycle ever concocted! It is a self-contained ideological and practical structure that employs people to its own ends while creating an illusion of ultimate freedom. The illusion of individual liberty in America is the primary target of this critique.
We are free to be indebted and we are free to make a certain number of choices. But, do we truly have the freedom to determine how we are governed and choose which political agenda would be best for ourselves as a nation and our role in the world? The answer is no. By all rights, it should and can be a resounding yes.
This book is a series of essays discussing many signs and symptoms of our illusory freedom here in America. I will also strive to address both questions intrinsic to America and the global ramifications of the issues discussed. My approach is dissident, which means that I am not going to offer a grand ideological alternative to the current American paradigm. Instead I will be poking holes into the false consciousness that surrounds us. Change cannot be effected through organizations and agendas. That approach merely dresses the Emperor in new clothes. The only way to effect true change, without falling into institutionalized ideological traps, is to promote change in a purely individual manner without adherence to a particular group or organization. In essence, a dissident is an agitator or intellectual malcontent and we are sadly lacking in that department today in America.
The expression of discontent generated by Eastern European intellectuals during the Cold War was based upon the idea of individual solidarity. Solidarity designed to promote collective change within a harshly repressive environment. That manner of dissent should and can be directly applied to the American paradigm. Why should America be attacked by dissident voices? Because our brand of dehumanization is perceived by the world as freedom. The American ethos is considered as a template for economic and political organization, due mostly to our material success, despite our moral bankruptcy. To try and break this illusion that we believe in so dearly, dissident activity is vital. When we as a nation are passive and unreflective about ourselves and our individual situations, then we have no control over our own destinies.
To regain control and have a hand in our destiny we must become dissident. Individual voices must be raise and asserted against the institutions and ideologies that have taken away our freedom. To become and remain dissident, participation in mass organizations is impossible. To utilize traditional forms of political organization or mass ideology will merely add another voice to the choirs of false consciousness. The only acceptable way to promote change is to utilize the notion of solidarity. Solidarity allows us to stand apart as individuals while standing together against the institutions that deny humanity its voice in directing its collective destiny.
The following essays address a variety of sins that we all commit merely through participation in the daily grind of American life. I do not propose any absolute answers to the questions I will raise and the criticisms I will make. And being a dissident, I will also remain unapologetic for my contentions. Answers will arrive only after enough people decide to dissent and refuse participation in the American way.
I conclude with the following thought. When individuals can actually stand upon the bedrock of their convictions and remain unswayed by others' opinions, then they have truly become self-actualized. When people are self-actualized they can freely discuss any topic and hold meaningful discourse without resorting to anger. If a great number of these people got together, discourse, not polemic, would probably lead to some very unique and constructive ideas. The free spirited do not want to be marginalized. But our society makes it that way. At every turn the possibility of self-actualization is crushed by unrelenting forces. It is to those forces that we now turn.
Essay 1 - The American Ethic
A vital contradiction is found when the "American way" is pitted against ethics. Ethics, loosely defined, is right action and thought within the world and towards our fellow beings. The term also embodies the ideas of justice, duty, obligation, freedom and rational thought. These ideas all appear to run counter to the way we as a nation and people act and think. To illustrate this contention I will discuss four aspects of what I consider to be the American ideology. We shall begin with capitalism, the most powerful cement in our ideological foundation.
Capitalism
The Contradiction
Capitalism has an inherent contradiction. Its participants are finite, while its ultimate aim is infinite. This is a very basic premise, but it nonetheless demands critical reflection and deserves careful consideration. This contradiction prevents any personal sense of balance or ultimate contentment. It instead provides an infinite striving for the accumulation of objects, which in turn demands the earning of money to purchase these objects. A constant occupation with no foreseeable end is what capitalism provides as an economic system. And all occupations and accumulations are understood as purely self-interested endeavors without real consideration of the society as a whole. The great beauty of capitalism is that it does not limit itself to the economic, but generally permeates every aspect of life.
What good is something if it is not marketable? What good is benevolence or altruism if it does not make a profit? Well, it has no real sense of value. Precisely, because it is not devoted to making money. Adam Smith originally believed that capitalism had the potential to make everyone's lives better under the auspices of "enlightened self-interest."
In the eighteenth century it was believed that enlightened self-interest would inevitably lead to a utopia where everyone's needs and wants would be sated. Yet another example of faulty reasoning coming from the great Western Age of Reason. Predicting the future is dicey business, but it is safe to say that self-interest has hardly been enlightened and has failed to create a utopia.
Instead we Americans today have the largest gap between the haves and have-nots ever witnessed in our short history. The quest for rampant accumulation has not slowed and in its gallop it has left most Americans behind. To try and keep-up the majority of people must go into obscene amounts of debt to have lesser versions of what the top 1% possess. Thanks to the mass media marketing machine we all feel that we have to have every new technology and device advertised, else we are less than a 'real' person. Even the wealthy are constantly jumping a bar raised by the corporate manufacturers' constant supply of new consumer goods. The key element missing from Smith's great hope is enlightenment. Enlightenment implies careful consideration and temperance, not a frenzied chase for more, more, more. There does not appear to be much thought, care or even basic understanding taking place in the daily crush of the work-earn-spend cycle. The process that we are involved in appears to be a mechanical juggernaut whose efficiency precludes any thought beyond its parameters. If we were allowed time to think, then valuable labor hours would be lost.
Political dissident Noam Chomsky, describing American society in the early nineteen-seventies, quotes Hans Morgenthau in the following selection;
. . . Poverty on a large scale, like the decay of cities and the ruination of the natural environment, is a result not of accidental misfortunes but of social and economic policies in whose continuation powerful social groups have a vested interest . . . In brief, the overriding single-issue, of which all the others are but specific manifestations, is the distribution of power in American society . . ." This distribution of power has survived, essentially undisturbed, all movements of reform - movements which "appear in retrospect as essentially futile attempts at accomplishing through rational and moderate reform what can be accomplished only through a radical shift of power and priorities, either through disintegration of the existing power structure or through revolution." American society has chosen to reject its rhetorical commitment to equality in freedom and to use all the means at its disposal to preserve the existing system of injustice, at home and abroad, as its "ultimate purpose" . . . (Chomsky - POKAP, pg. 77)
I do not think we as a society have "chosen" this route, for we are still operating within the parameters described above, not consciously, but through conditioned behavior patterns. We accept for we are given no alternative vision of society.
Infinite Expansion
It is clear that capitalism is a dehumanizing system. It offers an illusion of freedom as it enslaves. Let's discuss how this sleight of hand works. Pervading the American mindset is the idea that anything is possible and a better future is always waiting over the horizon. Hard work, luck and faith in the system can and will reward those who follow its dictates. This faith in "anything is possible" I term as "infinite expansion." Infinite expansion is vital to America's economic and political structure. It is the deep seated belief that any individual can become wealthy and empowered. It is our belief that the freedom our society gives us can solve any problem, secure our personal happiness and ensure an outstanding quality of life. It is the heaven-on-earth syndrome, an illusion popularly called "The American Dream." Only the top 1% ever gets there and they usually inherit the blueprint and keys to the kingdom. Yet, everyone seems to think they can get there. That's why LOTTO is so damn successful.
There is a gigantic problem with this way of thinking. First, it negates any criticism of the capitalist system. Due to the constant allure, though slim possibility, of making a personal fortune most truly believe that our economic system is egalitarian and perhaps the most equitable system possible for humanity. Faith in the system fosters the undeniable expectation that success can and will be yours on your own terms through your own efforts. In actuality the ability to realize your dreams falls under the absolute control of a very small minority who own and operate a system designed to maintain and expand their power while keeping careful checks upon everyone else's. The corporate and political elite are faceless creatures who do not care one bit about any particular American's well being or personal satisfaction. But our blind faith in infinite expansion prevents us from seeing our chains.
This brings us back to ethics. America is a country founded upon inequity, by those who wished to preserve the aristocratic ideal through financial hegemony over the general population and foreign "invaders". Noam Chomsky characterizes early America as a competitive battle to subjugate the weak and consolidate the power of the elite.
After the colonies gained their independence in the course of the great international conflict that pitted England against France, Spain and Holland, state power was used to protect domestic industry, foster agricultural production, manipulate trade, monopolize raw materials, and take the land from its inhabitants. Americans "concentrated on the task of felling trees and Indians and of rounding out their natural boundaries . . ." (Chomsky - 501, pg. 22)
On a more contemporary note, in 1948 the Head of the US State department George Kennan described his vision for US foreign policy as follows;
We should cease to talk about vague and . . . unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of living standards, and democratization," and must "deal with straight power concepts," not "hampered by idealistic slogans" about altruism and world-benefaction," if we are to maintain the "position of disparity" that separates our enormous wealth from the poverty of others. (Chomsky - 501, pg. 33)
This brutality is not reserved for foreigners, it also characterizes the blatant disregard that the American political process displays towards 'we the people.' It is vital that dissident voices either be silenced or sublimated by the American system. Notice how anytime a popular movement begins it is either quenched or made marketable? If the system and its servants cannot beat insurgency they sell it and cheapen it until it becomes impotent.
We believe and participate in a socio/economic system that has no sense of justice or morality; it and the system only cares about profit. By doing nothing to change this we all contribute to a society that is as morally bankrupt as any in human history. Perhaps the most courageous thing that we do every day is to plow through our routines. Getting out of bed and going to work could be considered a weak form of moral behavior. That kind of pathetic victory may keep the wheels greased, but do they deserve to be? Is it a victory for the work ethic or a triumph for mind-numbing social conditioning? The answer is often unclear and that is what is profoundly disturbing.
After the monotony wears us down to apathetic nubs we have to ask - what good is all of our supposed freedom? The tantalizing prospect of a never-ending stream of personal wealth blinds us to the injustices that surround us. We are all so wrapped up in our own personal struggles against the faceless machine that we cannot even look up long enough to see beyond the rules of the game. Of course we all have our opinions regarding morality, justice, ethics and human rights. But there is a vast difference between opinion and conviction. Standing up for an idea or a fellow citizen in need is low on the "to do" list. Especially when the car needs washing or the boss needs a fax sent. We are entranced by a system that is at heart a for-profit organization unbound by ethical considerations.
The only time we get righteous and display conviction is when we go out to other lands and fight to defend our precious way of life by taking others. Whenever we prove yet again that we are the most powerful and greatest, Americans swell with pride and love of country. Maybe this misguided nationalistic pride is our only ethic - love of country and the right to profit and consume. America and corporate (not free-market) capitalism are equivalent. Whatever stands in the way of our economic interests becomes a political issue that can be resolved diplomatically or with military force. The power structure has entrenched a political/economic power structure that erases the distinction between the moneyed elite and elected officials. Yet, despite these faults we still get up everyday and go to work. Why? Our striving for better, faster, more! That is the engine that drives the economy and keeps faith in infinite expansion alive and well.
The Emotive Power - Faster, Better, More!
Progress is a tainted notion. The term itself has been cheapened due to its continual use to describe improvements in technological and consumer goods rather than the general betterment of humanity. In America progress means -- faster, better, more. We are conditioned to believe that appearance supercedes substance. We are largely defined by what we have and how we present ourselves in public. To be complete, people are expected to possess an immense variety of objects. To be ranked in the social order you are categorized by dollar amounts. When a society is shaped by images, sounds and ideas designed to sell things, the slide into shallow pretense is inevitable. Contrivances sublimate conviction in our society, a society whose mantra is - faster, better, more.
The emotional appeal of consumption is tremendous. In fact, it is inescapable. While substance and integrity do exist, the utter dominance of the mass media advertising machine essentially levels anything anomalous, unique or intrinsically "different." The social conditioning wrought by advertising giants begins at birth. From that point forward original or dissident thought is expressly discouraged and popularly condemned as counter-productive. It is also a constant source of suspicion. Those who do not agree with the rules of the game are either sore losers or odious malcontents. These perceptions cripple and shackle the public to pedestrian ideals. It also ensures that the haves keep their grip upon our lives and livelihoods. By encouraging the false freedom of consumerism, our society obfuscates our enslavement and discourages self-empowerment in the political arena.
Toys and distractions make us docile. We haplessly graze upon field after field of designer fodder always striving to jump the fence and get to the greener feed. Unfortunately, that leap is too often facilitated by a high interest, long-term loan. But, our friends and neighbors will always make sure that we keep pace in the consumer frenzy. Peer pressure is too acute. To be banished as a malcontent is a fate most will never risk. No one wants to be exiled from the social gatherings where everyone describes why what they have is faster, better and more than yours.
II Democracy
Free to be Enslaved
Democracy is the will of the people expressed through those they elect to represent them. It is also supposed to mean that we have a direct choice in directing our individual destiny. In America it is said that we have attained the most democratic society that the world has ever seen. At least that's what we are told. When I ponder our democracy, I always think about how limited my choices are. I have two candidates to choose from in an election. Yet, I am deluged with offers from long distance providers most every day. I cannot choose my health care provider thanks to the HMO overlords. But, at the grocery store I have an entire aisle of sugar waters to choose from. There is a definite pattern here. I have little to no choice is my destiny as a person, but I have a plethora of relatively meaningless freedoms. Additionally, each of these freedoms costs me my hard-earned money.
That is where enslavement comes in. To tangibly exercise my freedom, I have to earn money to make meaningless choices. In America we have to buy our freedom! Much of the time even this crass freedom to choose is severely limited by economic circumstance. The bare necessities often preclude the great American pursuit for luxury goods. Our freedom in the land of plenty is largely an illusion. We are free to accumulate debt, starve or become homeless, unless we play the game. The game dictates employment, debt and servitude until retirement - if you get that lucky.
American freedom is brilliant. It provides tangible or "real" choices while simultaneously maintaining strict social control and checks upon individual liberty. We have to work just to maintain a standard of living. To improve our quality of life we are usually forced to debt. Debt dictates many long years of steady full-time labor. To relieve this crushing daily grind we are given two weeks of vacation and holidays. Our free time is perfect for accruing more debt, which in turn further enforces our need to work. The debt/labor vortex effectively limits our individual liberty. The puritan work ethic has reached fruition on American soil. It was devised to maintain social order in a wild land. Now its tenants have become intrinsically American. Work hard, pay bills and be a "real" person by playing the game and purchasing the righteous objects that embody the consumer ideal.
It is a brilliant system. The cycle is embedded in us from the moment we are born. Stay in your seat, be quiet, play the game and you will be a good person and rewarded accordingly. No one is ever given much of a chance to go beyond its centrifugal whirl. Yet, we are free and better than the rest of the world. The American ethic is rote adherence to a routine that ritualistically enslaves us through the ideology of consumer fetishism. God bless it.
Democracy = Mediocrity
The utter dominance of the two-party system has rendered the American political system impotent. The choice we have is really no choice at all. There used to be vital ideological and legislative distinctions between Republicans and Democrats. Now both parties have become so centrist that either side can change its agenda at will to win the majority vote. Partisanism does not represent the people's will or interests; it fights to consolidate party power to their own benefit. This now transparent corruption not only devalues our taxpaying right to fair representation in government, it is an indictment of the people of America. To sit by and allow an elite political system to take control of our destiny proves that we are one of the most mediocre constituencies in history. The frustrating thing is that we have the ability to change this situation. The first step is to go out and vote, a basic right that almost half of the population ignores.
The potential for individual empowerment exists in the system, but has been covered in so many layers of filth and sound-bite rhetoric that most of us do not believe that we can make a substantial difference in the process. This specter of apathy should haunt us at every moment. Since the two party system is stagnant and the difference between Republicans and Democrats is packaging, the two should be folded together into one mediocre monolith. It would be called the Establishment party and then we would truly have something we can raise our dissident against. There would be no replacement of the "lost" second party. Everyone would either have to choose from the establishment party or an independent candidate. It is just a thought, but all I know is that the dominance of two indistinguishable parties has made a viable choice in voting freedom impossible.
The following quote from P.J. O'Rourke sums up the American political situation
very aptly; "If the {campaign} money comes from the government, people
who want to run the government will have to get their campaign financing from
the people who run the government already. Something a little East German about
that?" It is almost amusing to realize that we are living in a nation that is every bit as
despotic as any former Eastern Bloc country. Our choices are merely an appearance
and we seem to be placated by that illusion. It seems that bread and circuses
work just as well for the US government as they did for the Russian czars.
Despite all the problems facing the two-party system, the existence of third party candidates and watchdog groups reveals the potential for political rejuvenation in America. Many Americans are very concerned about the current state of affairs and are interested in promoting their concerns rather than those of the power-elite. The eternal problem facing the people is money. We are barred from political activity due to lack of adequate funding. Influence, exposure and persuasion exist in the media and to gain access you have to pay the price. We have trouble keeping our livelihoods afloat, much less launching political campaigns in the name of integrity and justice. Without substantive change in the entire process our system is relegated to this equation: Democracy = Mediocrity.
Squandered Opportunity
Our understandable apathy wastes our chances at reform and our blind trust in government during times of trouble and prosperity robs us of the motivation to take charge of ourselves. In America an elite class makes decisions for us that have no real consideration for the under classes. The voices of the downtrodden are rarely given a venue where their concerns can be heard by all. When they are allotted a time slot their appearance on the media radar is fleeting at best. They are quickly forgotten and lost in the daily whirlwind that comprises most Americans' typical work day. Working class people, blue and white collar alike, rarely get the chance to influence the political process for their own benefit. Instead a grudging acceptance of the "way things are" wins over even the brightest sparks that could help ignite egalitarian reform.
What makes America tragic is the fact that there is enough wealth and resources available in this country to provide its entire citizenry with a standard of living and palette of empowered ideals to choose from that would be unequalled in human history. Yet, the economic machine and established social conditioning precludes equality from the start. Social Darwinism has been derided for decades as antiquated and irresponsible. Yet, the Darwinian perception of social structure is woven deep into the fabric of American culture. It is encouraged by the entire system, for it justifies inequity. Those who succeed at the game are superior to those who fail. Thus, the "haves" have the right to dictate the rules that the rest of live by due to some natural law of genetic dominance. At least that is how things currently sit.
The status quo perception of American society is that the herd is unworthy and must be led by those who know best for its future. Well, I believe that the herd is perfectly capable of taking care of itself if given the time and access that the elite have through inheritance, manipulation and luck. The opportunity for individual empowerment and the establishment of a truly democratic nation is waiting to be tapped. It may take a cataclysmic event or a concerted, sustained effort to create a new America, but it would be worth it to stop squandering an amazing potential for a cognizant and egalitarian society.
III Freedom
Free to Be Like Everyone Else
A critical factor in the American ethic is conformity. A population that plays by the rules is vital to the elite's productivity and profit margin. Whenever there happens to be an outbreak of rebellious ideas and appearances it is usually quickly sublimated into the consumer culture. When something can be marketed and sold it becomes a trend. Trends are dumbly followed by consumers who spend their money to buy an appearance that they are told is on the "cutting edge" of contemporary society. A paradigmatic example of this was the punk culture of the late nineteen-seventies. Once t-shirts were sold pre-ripped and pinned the social commentary got lost in a youthful consumer frenzy. Countless examples can be cited, but the result is the same every time. Diversity is touted as one of the great American values, yet crushing sameness is the reality of American society. It helps to make things much easier for our keepers.
The disappearance of independently owned businesses can be blamed on corporate America and its marketing machines. Discouragement of individuality is crucial to maintaining a stable and docile workforce. For these reasons conformity is the corporate religion. Without it the elite would not be able maintain it impressive grip upon consumers and the labor force it employs. Despite our widespread access to information, entertainment and consumer goods, we rarely think beyond them to realize that they are limits upon our ability to choose. What we are sold is given to us and what we can choose between is a limited palette. The elite decide what we can buy, how we are entertained and how we are informed of our socio/political and economic situation. Our world is fabricated by unseen hands and our destinies are only known by those who control us. We play at freedom, but know nothing about it.
The privileged have access to information that we can never know about. If we did we would pose a threat to their economic and social hegemony. We are only allowed to be unique or individual in appearance. That is why we are constantly bombarded with consumer and entertainment fodder that promotes diverse appearances. We are conditioned to believe that appearances equal substance and individuality. Thus, we have no need to go beyond the parameters and rules set by the corporate machine. They make it impossible to see beyond the limits they impose. We are fooled into believing we are free and empowered through purchasing power. Our very enslavement is considered by us as our liberation in the marketplace. The great contradiction should be apparent.
1) We are socially conditioned.
2) We believe we are free.
3) Those who control us rely upon our blindness.
4) How can we ever see if the chance is never presented?
5) They will do everything to make sure we never get the chance.
6) They do this by selling us freedom.
7) To sell they reinforce conformity at every turn.
8) We are scared to be non-conformists due to our social conditioning.
9) Contradiction: Freedom cannot equal enslavement, but they have made us believe that to be absolutely so.
By placing appearances ahead of substance and integrity we truly believe that we know what our society is all about and that we are free beings. We have been lulled into apathetic slumbers which deny us the basic right to be human. We are instruments in an orchestra we'll never get to hear.
So, our faith in appearance as an expression of individual freedom coerces us into less than ideal jobs and buying consumer goods that we are expected to have no matter how much debt and anxiety it causes. To maintain respectability we lose any vestige of dignity. To see beyond this vicious game is almost unthinkable, or at the very least is frightening to us all. But if we all remain the same and remain conditioned, we will never be empowered human beings in control of our destiny. Conformity is the freedom to be like everyone else in America and it is the only freedom we are offered. Who do you think you are? No one else will ask you this question, you have to ask yourself and act accordingly.
Distrust of the Non-American.
Fear is not freedom. As we have been discussing, our own personal fears have largely been instilled by those who control our destiny. They invoke fear as a weapon of control, for they ultimately fear us. If we do not actively participate in the social and economic order then those who own that hierarchy will lose their power. So, at every turn we are told that we are a diverse people and that diversity is what makes America and Americans as a people great. But our supposed diversity is just a ruse. We are taught and told that we are all equal, yet unique at the same time and nothing could be further from the truth. To be different would mean liberation and a declaration of inequity. It would mean that individuals are just that, not mindless drones in a workforce where everyone is equally exploited. By declaring equity in diversity the American ideology neatly disarms dissent. We all think that we are unique which makes all feel special or cared for. Yet, the equity part of the equation essentially ruins diversity for it demands conformity. We are actually equals only as consumers, while our diversity is trivial and mainly appearance and opinion rather than substance and conviction.
Since the American way has become the way of the consumer we all actually fear the truly different and especially the unknown. The last time I checked the unknown and different were part and parcel of anything "diverse". In essence we choose between options that have been sanctioned for us. Our diversity is yet another sham of appearance masquerading as substance. That is best revealed in our deeply instilled distrust of non-consumer societies. In other words we are taught and conditioned to react against cultures that are not based upon the consumer ideal and free-market raison d'etre that composes American "culture". It is amazing that in our diversity we essentially distrust ideas that fall beyond the parameters set by our own society. Socialized healthcare and education are untrustworthy as are economic systems based upon anything other than personal profit. Yet, our Americanism denies our own ability to be different within America itself!
A crass example should capture this absurdity. Consumerism offers nothing beyond what is for sale. When something is declared obsolete you can no longer get it, the parts to maintain it or a qualified repair technician to fix it for you. You cannot appeal to the manufacturer to continue production, in fact you cannot do anything about it whatsoever. What would happen if everything that you have and consume is phased out? Where is your individuality then? Are you not phased out as well? There is a profound perversity in this schemata of freedom. Since our apparent "diversity" is based mainly upon the consumables we choose, if we do not even have control over their availability then we do not even have any sanctity in out illusory sanctuary of individuality. We are left with nothing but distrust of the non-American way of life.
Privilege, Not Rights
The only people in America who have rights are those who have money. Money is the key to political and economic influence, which are the only influence that exists and counts. Average Americans have no means or recourse to promote the ideas and policies that are in their best interest. The hegemonic stranglehold of the two-party political system makes discussions of representative rights empty argumentation. Behind every successful politician there are very rich and powerful forces at work and they are not working for us, but against us. Politicians are manipulated just as they try to manipulate the voting public, so where does just representation come into the picture? Nowhere I can see. The malignancy is just far enough removed to maintain democracy's illusion of legitimacy and vitality. We do seem to have a faith in the system because we don't do much to change it and still believe in the empty promises of our candidates. The politicians are merely a front to keep us in line as relatively content and docile grazers in the fields of freedom.
The following was written by Chomsky in 1993 and if anything things have worsened since:
One important achievement of the new imperial age is that it further marginalizes the general population, clearing the way to uplifting rhetoric about our democratic ideals without fear that the wrong people might take it seriously. The global rulers can now operate with fewer constraints, more coordination and central management, and less interference from the rabble, who do not only have no influence over the decisions of the rulers (the basic principle of capitalist autocracy), but also lack of any awareness of them . . . Citizens know nothing.
(Chomsky - 501, pgs. 63-64)
The great thing about those who have the money and political power is that they manage to hold onto their position and wealth to the death. The spoils rarely go beyond the barbed wire that surround their close-knit elitist community. Entry into the realm of the powerful is restricted. A pedigree and its accompanying wealth are hard to come by for most, so we have no say in our destiny due to the perpetuation of social Darwinism and income disparity. Even winning the lottery is not enough for empowerment; taxes and your own lack of experience will not give you, the average American, a voice in your destiny.
Due to the lopsided distribution of wealth, we the people have no real say in our future or our present situations. All of this goes beyond the usual accusations of corruption and corporate control of the White House. The problem is much deeper and more malignant than any media expose. It is a deep-seated chain of command that has been based from the start upon perpetuation of the aristocrats at the expense of the labor force. I know that this contention is indeed contentious, yet, upon close examination nothing else rings true. We are not a free-wheeling population of liberated individuals. We are mules yoked to harnesses being whipped by well-dressed-twentieth generation English dandies. Nothing short of revolution or mass dissidentism will pry the whip from their hands. Otherwise nothing will ever change. Those who have money finance campaigns. Politicians cannot run for office unless they are subsidized. If politicians do not cater to moneyed interests then they will not be allowed to run effectively again. Thus, the haves have it! Privilege is the key to power in America, and that one percent has rights, we do not.
IV - God
The False Morality
God has long been the ultimate authority figure, a phantom utilized for social control. In our secular age, God's only real purpose is to symbolize moral righteousness and proper conduct. Daniel Bell characterizes early America's Protestant religiosity and ethical blueprint as "codes that emphasized work, sobriety, frugality, sexual constraint, and a forbidding attitude toward life. They defined the nature of moral conduct and social respectability . . . The Protestant ethic and Puritan temper in the United States were the world-view of an agrarian, small-town, mercantile and artisan way of life." (Bell, pg. 55) Nothing much about spiritual enlightenment in that description. Since the basic structure of American economics and society have no structural commonality with the days of yore, why does religion or God persist?
The true godhead of American culture bears the Almighty's name, the dollar. It is no accident that God is on all of our currency, for it denotes the reward that is given for hard work and devotion in America. It is another sleight of hand that brings the deity down to earth by equating salvation with secular gain. Hard work, frugality and thriftiness may have characterized early America, but the Protestant work ethic has largely fallen by the wayside. By the nineteen-twenties electrical appliances, automobiles and most importantly the advent of credit purchasing power ushered in our modern age of instant gratification. The new consumerism effectively dealt piety its deathblow. Crass materialism replaced saving for necessities. When objects became paramount and their acquisition instant American society was radically altered a shift resulting in the placement of innovation and crass material gain above hard work and cultural stability.
The shifting sands beneath our feet are purely secular, yet religiosity still hangs on, influencing policy and politics. We are just another culture suffering from the Jesus hangover. In the past human beings drank deeply from the divine chalice, now we appraise its value. Despite obvious questions regarding organized religion's validity, let us assume for a moment that they are. If they are, then their texts, symbols and essential meaning are in direct conflict with every aspect of American life.
If you preach or proclaim God as your rudder and ultimate authority then you better not participate in capitalist endeavor. Religious morality in America is nothing more than an appearance. All faiths proclaim the unimportance of material gain in this life and that true faith and conviction in their tenants will provide eternal life in the other world. Personal faith in a religious doctrine is admirable and is a deeply individual choice. I have no argument with that aspect of religious practice. But, if you spend every day in the pursuit of material glory you will have violated the sacred trust in the eternal. In short, you cannot be a capitalist and a "true" Christian at the same time. The ancient and mystical tenants of the major world religions have little bearing upon contemporary society. Magic is dead and a living God presence in the world is as well; we killed it through rationalism, science and technology.
Consumerism is driven by material gain and "enlightened" self-interest (The Adam Smith hangover.) Our culture is inherently Godless and even anti-religious. Yet, it is still dragged out and used as a valid argument and surrounds us in our "One Nation Under God" . . . People invoke religious fervor and attack others in the name of God all the time. Just look at the abortion clinic bombers, are they at one with the Lord? It is absolutely absurd to use God when it suits your needs. God and religion are not supposed to supply rationalizations and justification in material affairs, they are personal guides to the other world. They cannot be put aside when you head to work and promote consumer culture.
There is nothing pious about our culture. We consume and pursue material gain, not salvation. It is one of the reasons why America is a hotbed of spiritual identity crises and moral laxity. But, it is too late to resurrect ancient texts and antiquated ideals to solve these problems. They must now be faced on secular turf, because God gave up and walked out on us a long time ago. It is time to face reality and quit pretending that anything ethereal is applicable to our situation.
Double Standard
Christ was no venture capitalist. No one can be a Christian and an active capitalist in the same time and space. It is obvious who is winning here in America so let us dispense with our religious artifice altogether. The reason that this is important is due to religion's impact, albeit limited, upon policy in the both the private and public sectors. Its presence is a powerful force in the elite power class and is conversely a panacea that lulls much of the American people into apathetic slumbers. It is no surprise that the rural poor and urban destitute cling to God as their only hope for a fair share in the next life. Perversely, the wealthiest of Americans have the luxury of worship and often attribute their success to divine reward for their "hard" work. The only accurate assessment of both assertion is that delusion does not exclude anyone from rationalizing their material circumstance.
The simultaneous and incongruous acceptance of both God and gain has to be obliterated. It is a vital step towards self-empowerment and personal responsibility in a society of scapegoatism and false victimization. Religion's disappearance may be key to bettering our lot in this life. Faith in ourselves and our ability to self-govern should take precedence over the ancient abstraction in the sky. This is a bold proposal, but, it does not mean the loss of personal private faith. It means the banishment of all organized region from the public sector and this has never been accepted in any human society. If it ever can happen, the materialist and capitalist basis of our society is the best bet. If all of our faith, trust and acceptance resides in this world, then we may care enough to start taking charge of our earthly affairs and found a new humanitarian morality.
In America we have the resources and infrastructure to create an earthly paradise. Those who own most of this nation could easily feed and house everyone in need. By eliminating religion and God from the secular public domain all rationalizations and justifications for current disparities will be our responsibility, not luck of the draw or divine will. What is more morally repulsive? A wealthy "religious" family who refuses to feed the needy or an atheist social worker? If you are truly devout, go out and gather a flock, renounce your worldly possessions and stay out of public affairs. Otherwise, leave it alone and deal with your situation and America's problems on their own terms. We have to realize that morality is based upon human interconnectedness and interaction, not divine judgment.
Contradictions Left & Right
God and spirit have nothing to do with how we live, act and for the most part feel. Any American who preaches God is a hypocrite. Unless a person actually renounces the capitalist system no one can pretend to be devout to any religious faith in the land of self-interested gain. You just have to ask yourself, if you consider yourself one off the faithful, whether or not you truly feel comfortable living in absolute contradiction. Conviction is a wonderful thing, but it is next to impossible to overcome the inherent anti-religious bent of American life. Appeals to religion as the key to morality, right conduct or just action are untenable in our contemporary socio-political/economic landscape. Religion and capitalism negate each other and acceptance of both at the same time leads to utter contradiction and personal confusion.
Clarity of thought and action are what make justice, morality and egalitarianism possible. To become self-actualized you must either refuse to participate in our system or accept it on its own terms with a clear head. Reform and positive change can happen only if the game is played against itself on its own terms without irrational appeals to a spiritual game we cannot really "know" anything about. Mysticism is important, but not as a weapon against material forces as powerful as the ones that govern American life. God is not a viable trump card any longer. It is a tough decision, but it has to be made in the process of bettering our lot in contemporary America. We have the potential, resources and power to be an ethical exemplar, but we have not sorted out our national psyche enough to do so.
To do so requires a tremendous effort on the part of us, the people. We are one nation. We are a people comprised of minds, bodies and imagination and it is those resources that must be tapped to bring a true American ethic to fruition. We cannot pin God on our sleeve while clutching cash in our hands. There is no avoiding the imperative.
Essay 2 - Science and Technology
New/Old Religion
Science has established itself as our contemporary religion. This is an assertion that can be made without qualification, but what are its ramifications? Religion is a vessel of faith. We place our trust and very being into it and expect that it will provide shelter from and direction through the maelstroms of life. It involves a leap of faith, suspended disbelief, daily comfort and a sense of salvation from harm and disaster. Those being the salient characteristics of religious faith it is easy to accept that science is our contemporary religion.
The question we have to ask is whether or not science is actually more rational and less biased than the old ways. I argue that it is not. Science is fraught with just as much uncertainty and bias as any organized religion. What could require more faith than reliance upon abstract numbers as the basis for rational thought and decision making? The guts of science are composed of symbols that do not physically exist in any time or space. They are holy in their abstraction, static entities that are "true" and obvious for all eternity. The theoretical aspect of science is known only to a privileged few, not unlike a monastic order which has exclusive access to the secrets of the universe. Most of us do not have the slightest understanding or interest in what exactly science is, but we constantly defer to its authority and accept its conclusions as being truth incarnate.
Take for example the omniscient power of statistics. Statistical analysis is not exactly the loftiest of scientific pursuits, but it is one that we peasants can grasp and pretend to understand. We constantly refer to them, are bombarded by them and allow our opinions to be determined by them. Our society is inundated with polls, pie charts, graphs and percentages that tell us who we are, what we think and believe, what we should buy and what we should do. This acceptance of abstraction and authority in our daily lives is analogous to the sheep-like faith that the followers of the Medieval Church had in the clergy. We are an essentially illiterate mass swayed by experts who no longer wield scepters, but computer printouts and colorful graphics. Even worse we have deluded ourselves into believing that they are cold hard facts rather than yet another set of assumptions.
However, deep inside I think that we are all a little skeptical. We instinctively know that much of what we are told by "experts" is merely self-serving and self-aggrandizing. The scientific community, out of necessity, constantly changes its mind and often makes mistakes that mislead or are inconclusive at best. Yet, our skepticism is short-lived the moment a new cure or product is unveiled thanks to the divine grace of science. The thing that science has over all previous religion is that it provides "real" world results. It is tangible and more and more its rewards are made instantaneous. There is nothing an American loves more than instant gratification and we get that from our friend science. Beyond the material benefits that science provides, there is also a deeper or metaphysical meaning that we derive from it.
In our state of suspended disbelief, we want to believe that everything is rational and under control. What better way to attain that comfort than to have the most advanced area of human knowledge tell us that everything is going to be just fine. There is no problem or catastrophe so great that science cannot provide an answer, if not today then tomorrow. One thing is certain, we have all been instilled with a belief that anything can eventually be explained and placed under our control through scientific endeavor. And who are we to question experts, computers, data and analysis? Since we the people cannot even understand the most basic aspects of contemporary science due to specialization and "expertism" we have been robbed of an ability to question it. That is why criticism of science is so unpopular and is deemed as blasphemy or fanaticism. Philosophy of science is hated in academia because it is devoted to critiquing science and exposing its flaws, bias and faulty methodology. Then again, philosophers do not create new and exciting ways to keep your favorite breakfast cereal crunchy after being in milk for ten hours.
The point is that science is an authority that we accept and cannot question. At this point to question it is to question reality itself. I am not arguing that science is inherently evil and we all need to revert to primitivism. What I am saying is that the Nexus has control over science and delivers our technology in its constant quest to maintain absolute power. Knowledge has always equaled power and since most of us do not even understand how our cars or computers work how can we have any say in what science does or will do next? To clarify this question and explore the possibilities for a more humane vision of science, we must now discuss how science currently works and who it works for.
Quest for Truth?
During the Renaissance science represented the dawning of human empowerment. It was a quest against the Church's hegemony over both the physical and spiritual realms. Early scientists were persecuted and often conducted their research underground in fear of reprisals from an archaic and anachronistic power structure of king and clergy. Given time, science vanquished the Church and monarchies crumbled. By the twentieth century science took its place as the penultimate purveyor of human truth and wisdom. Only one force became more powerful than science, capitalism. During the course of the last century scientific endeavor has been directed by economic forces rather than an altruistic quest for truth.
Perhaps science itself is to blame. The more it has uncovered, the more we have discovered that reality is irrational, ruled by probabilities and uncertainties rather than immutable laws and static principles. Yet, science passes itself off as a set of concrete laws than cannot be transgressed. When a discipline rests upon a shaky ideological base it is easily swayed by our old friend "profit" rather than prophets. Any scientific research conducted in the twentieth century can be traced back to an economic impetus. Take lead. Lead was never necessary in gasoline, in fact it posed a huge public health and environmental threat. Yet, powerful industrial lobbyists claimed that it was the viable additive to eliminate "knocking" in internal combustion engines. So, for almost fifty years we utilized fuel that poisoned us while claiming to be the best means to propel us merrily about in exquisite freedom. Now lead is widely disparaged and known to be deadly and unnecessary. Science knew this in the 1920's, but rolled over under pressure applied by corporate America.
That is but one example. Medical, environmental and alternative power source research have all made huge leaps towards better and safer ways of improving and extending human existence. Yet, all too often I read about a new discovery only to watch it disappear due to its "impracticality." Impracticality essential means the following;
1] Too expensive to mass produce.
2] Requires unacceptable levels of retooling and restructuring.
3] Has not yet been proven to be "safe."
4] Will take too long to implement.
5] In essence, it would undermine the Nexus' power and stranglehold upon economic supremacy.
If an idea, theory, invention or innovation does not fit within the current structure it is not perceived as a breakthrough, but a threat.
The theory that science does not readily change due to the difficulty of accepting a new paradigm does not rest upon ideological or theoretical difficulties. It rests upon profitability. Once an industry is established, it will not take its extinction lightly. That is why we continue to utilize means of production that are antiquated and dangerous. Some would say, what about the rise in computer technology? It has arrived and made dramatic change. Yes, it has. But, it enhances existing technologies, it does not drive them out of business. Witness the failure of pure e-business. Computers and the internet will benefit only those who already have an established power base. We cannot overcome the physicality of reality and the physicality of cold hard capital.
What of our quest for truth? Well, it has to turn a profit without rocking the boat. That is about as much "truth" as science is allowed. Theoretical physics is a field that used to be the crowning jewel of scientific endeavor. But, since it has not produced any "real" results over the past ten years it has lost its potency. The genome project has been hailed as a remarkable advance in human knowledge. However, more important is the fact that much of it can be patented and sold to the highest bidder. Many companies have been competing since its beginnings in the early 1990s to purchase bits and pieces of the code. One company planned to own the blood type "O negative" and essentially control the entire market for that blood type. When those are the issues driving research and scientific inquiry, we have to question what exactly science is and if we can trust its motives. The government's set of controls and regulatory policies are just part of the game. They are determined by the profitability and advantages that can be gained by the Nexus. It's up to us to decide what is truly the best for ourselves and America.
Better Living through Chemicals
Part of our conditioning from youth is to trust and respect not only immediate authority figures, but the authority of the scientific community. Corporate and medical science are the big two that we are taught to revere as the ultimate arbiters of truth and benevolence. Their primary connection to us, the people, is through the media. On television products and images are constantly presented that declare that some new innovation must be acquired in order to secure a "proper" standard of living and social acceptance. Medicine also has its spotlight in the media onslaught, proclaiming that new drugs and treatments are not only necessary, but absolutely essential if you are to live comfortably or even live at all.
A distinction must be made; we are now discussing the real-life or tangible aspect of science that we all interact with and accept in our lives. Since we don't really understand science itself, the Nexus makes sure that its results are easily accessible and well marketed so that we can benefit from its wellspring of miracles. Since they have a captive and relatively inert audience, science can pretty much tell us what we need and want through consumable goods and services. Corporate science unveils new lines of products each and every financial quarter, encouraging us to reap the benefits of scientific advance by upgrading our current possessions to newer and better models that are not only more convenient, but safer than previous ones. This constant upgrade mentality has often led me to wonder why they put so much worthless junk out in the first place. I guess science and technology just move so fast that not even corporations can keep up. Or maybe intentionally engineered obsolescence ensures that they will continue to make tons of money. You be the judge.
Miracles?
One of the things that really keeps science going strong are its "miracles." Strange that a word with so many mystic and religious overtones is used to describe the achievements of an objective discipline. Scientific miracles take many forms. Medical, technological and theoretical advancements all shape our cultural view of the world and our place in it. The corporate/media nexus is always there to help science spread the greatness of its achievements. The latest advancements are always given just enough time in the spotlight to mystify the audience and awe us with their power. But, there is rarely enough time or access to truly discern what exactly these powerful miracles are good for.
Instead, what we get from the media is the carefully groomed and sanitized version of what our research dollars have helped to create. We must remember that large amounts of public funds make scientific research possible. The human genome project is a great example of what science shows us without really telling us anything. This project is a basic map of human DNA. It seems impressive, yet it will take decades before it will do much to help the ordinary citizens of the world. They show us mutant bunnies that glow in the dark and claim that such displays reveal the latent power of genome research. They don't tell us that the research more or less illustrates your entire identity. It's true power will be the empowerment of the powerful over every aspect of your existence. In Europe there is already talk of utilizing genetic mapping to decide who is eligible for healthcare. We don't hear much about that. There will come a time when the miracle will lead to judgment. If your map shows a predilection towards a debilitating disease you will not be getting the medical coverage you otherwise would be entitled to. It is a miracle for corporations and a disaster for humanity in general.
The day is much further off for this new wealth of information to provide cures and preventions for disease. So far most of our tinkering with the natural world has produced results that are dubious at best. Sure, things are better than they were during the middle ages, but how much of that is due to technology rather than basic sanitation and better information about personal hygiene? My contention is that science has two sides. The raw information that it provides empowers anyone who has the time and access to learn about it and put it into practice. The other side provides finished products that are produced via scientific research and they are not empowering, but coercive. They are tied to the business and political interests of the Nexus. Medications and new technologies are gift wrapped and sold to us, but we know little or nothing of the alternative visions of the rogues who refused either to sell-out or decided that more work needed to be done before spewing more all too fallible jetsam into the world. The trend that best illustrates my contention can be seen in the diet industry. How many different types and kinds of diets have we seen come and go? The moment they tell us one way is the healthiest they turn around and realize that it in fact is detrimental. Greed drives the science we are given and it is unfortunate that we have little chance to know what exactly is going on. If we did maybe we could help to determine the difference between a logical choice and one made under the auspices of the Nexus' interests.
The Transparency Issue
Many would argue that science is not coercive, but instead brings transparency to the human condition. Humans are social creatures and for a democratic society to function as such full access to information would appear to be a given. It would also be assumed that the best way to get "objective" information is through scientific methodologies. Or so you would think. The Nexus does not use its access to information and technology to create a transparent world of unlimited access. Instead, we are only given a glimpse and the glimpse is far from benevolent. As discussed in previous sections of his chapter we are only given what has been deemed acceptable by authority. I would feel much better if I knew what possible cures for diseases are in the works or if I knew what new computer technologies will be made public in the next few years so I could make informed decisions that would be to my benefit. We would all be better off if we had total access, but the Nexus does not relent its power and even appears to believe that we are too stupid to make up our own minds. So, whenever anyone claims that we are becoming a more transparent society, realize that the opposite is true. Now there are just more ways to obscure the truth and keep it from us.
Essay 3 - Consumerism
Advertising is Evil.
The greatest blight upon this planet is a mentality and power structure that essentially destroys everything in its path. It renders all thought impotent and demeans us all through coercive tactics that have no raison d'etre beyond crass profiteering. The corporate juggernaut has only one skill that is honed to utter perfection and that skill is advertising. It is all around us at every moment every day. Everything that anyone possesses has a label on it. We have become walking advertisements, name brands literally brand us and hasten our dehumanization. Our concept of quality or worth is completely entangled with labels sewn into the very fabric of our minds. This phenomenon is so all encompassing and pervasive that it is literally inescapable. More importantly, it is not benevolent, but evil.
Now, I know all too well that it is old-fashioned to use the diametric of good vs. evil, but it must be used in this case. There is no redemption in marketing, for it is dehumanizing. It has no use beyond taking and accumulating our very being. If our lives are spent working to earn money, whatever enters to fleece us of our hard earned cash cannot be considered anything other than evil. It goes back to the idea of choice. When the palette is limited by corporate analysts and marketing wizards we are left in a haze. In the fog we pick and choose blindly, grasping for things that are all too often easily within reach. Convenience supercedes intelligence and our intentions are left behind as we have to accept "that this is just the way it is." There can be no protest against it, unless you make everything yourself from the raw materials around the neighborhood.
The point is this. All of us are bound to tastes and conventions that are created for us, not by us. We do not have much say in decisions about what will be best for us or made available to us. All of our choices are made for us and there is an elite over-culture that dictates our tastes and predilections. That is the way it has been since the birth of industrial capitalism and its immediate by-product - consumerism. The worst thing about advertising and marketing is that it encourages human nature's worst qualities. It encourages mindless consumption. It demands competition and the ultra-importance of appearances. It derides substance and dignity. It reduces us to crawling slavish creatures mesmerized by illusions designed to rob us of whatever independence that is left to us after the workday is done. It is also an affront to our individual and collective intelligence as American citizens. However, it is not our fault, we have been trained to accept and even define ourselves according to the dictate of the Nexus.
Conditioned Responses
How have we been abandoned by our natural faculties and held captive by such unnatural forces? It begins very early in our lives. We are conditioned to be consumers. We are fed an ideological construct that demands not only social conformity but a shared material agenda. Possessions are vital from the start. When we enter the flow and begin to become social creatures we are given certain standards to uphold. The right clothes, toys and general appearance are vital to developing into good little soldiers in the system. Social organization in America entails much more than civil obedience. It also has an overarching theme provided by the politico-economic nexus. That theme is generally known as the "American way." Television is its best coercive tool. From cradle to grave we are provided a blueprint of expectations that drive not only our desires but the economic system itself.
Consider this. The most unacceptable thing you can be in this country is homeless. In our supposedly egalitarian society we have a caste system and the untouchables are those who hold not titles, deeds or permanent mailing addresses. The homeless are vilified, demonized and considered by most respectable citizens to be less than human. What is their real sin? They have either by choice or circumstance refused to participate in the game. Those who abandon the rules are not only dangerous but definitively un-American. The only demographic that gets to play outside of the lines drawn by our society are those who have been utilized as commodities by corporations. We admire and even worship actors, artists and musicians who are in the public eye. They are placed there for our amusement. The beauty of the arrangement for the powers that be is that these misfits are under control and make them tons of money. If something begins to stray from the paths of normalcy in America it is either ignored until it goes away, is actively destroyed or is sublimated into the system through wholesale liquidation. If anything has marketing potential it won't remain outside the pale for long, it will be packaged, sanitized and offered up as another consumable item. Our friends the homeless don't have that kind of potential. They are not suitable to anyone's needs, unlike chia pets and exploding tires.
Every image and expectation we have is conditioned through the educational and socialization process. We are to buy cars, houses and every accoutrement necessary to properly accessorize our lives to the point of utter suffocation. There is no escape from the game of consumption. Rotating debt and sacrificing our lives is demanded by our own predilections. Predilections shaped by years of indoctrination into a mindset that cripples and deforms our very sense of self and the world we are immersed within. Quite literally we have no perspective above or beyond the one that is provided for us. Our imagination and sense of destiny is most often expressed in material terms. The most common way of introducing oneself is to tell someone what you do, which immediately implies a dollar value. From there discussion goes temporarily to personal relationships but inevitably turns to material circumstance present and future. "It may not look like much, but in a year or two I'll be rolling in cash." That is where all of our wonderful freedom leads us, to entanglement and false consciousness. We are all taught to be worker drones and my oh my the system has created a nearly foolproof means to make us believe that that is all we are.
Thinking in a Box.
Which brings us to the Box. The Box symbolizes the boundaries of our perception and conception of reality. It is a set of rules that we all are conditioned to follow consciously and sub-consciously. Since we are all largely raised within its confines, there is a necessary difficulty in discerning its nature. The rules which govern its existence are rarely exposed to direct discussion or logical dissection. Since we are on a mission to do just that it is time to put it under the knife.
As with everything humans create, the Box is an ideological phenomenon. In America its primary elements include materialism, consumerism, capitalism, democracy, a strong sense of national pride and an apparently unflagging acceptance of all those elements. In America acceptance is much easier to swallow. Every nation has a sense of national pride, but our position in the global arena as the leader of the free world makes our avarice so strong that it is almost unquestionable. Our way is the only way. Despite its imperfections, nothing better has come along. If you find yourself agreeing with those two statements then you are safely within the Box's confines. Being in the Box makes life quite simple. Play the game and turn a blind eye to its defects, you will be rewarded with a decent job and a paid vacation after a year of loyal service. Thank you for your cooperation.
However, once you realize that it exists things begin to get a little blurry. A purely material or capitalist conception of reality does not really provide much solace for the side of us that is profoundly human. As the edges blur a sense of injustice should follow. The necessary realization could go something like this;
My reality is an act of mystification and coercion committed upon my being by a force that cares nothing for me.
This Box I have been locked within is designed to contain spirit and imagination within acceptable limits.
Acceptable limits set not for my benefit, but for the enrichment of a privileged few, i.e. the Nexus.
The aspects of my being that make me intrinsically unique and human are kept from me.
I have been a sad creature in a zoo and have become my own keeper by adhering to rules I never had a chance to examine.
Why do I accept the unacceptable?
Noam Chomsky describes the contemporary version of the Box in the following;
The end of the affluent alliance and the onset of the "new imperial age" have intensified the internal class war. A corollary to the globalization of the economy is the entrenchment of Third World features at home: The steady drift towards a two-tiered society in which large sectors are superfluous for wealth-enhancement for the privileged. Even more than [ever] before, the rabble must be ideologically and physically controlled, deprived of organization and interchange, the prerequisite for constructive thinking and social action. Chomsky, 501 pg. 275
We, the rabble, are controlled physically by work and daily obligation. We are mentally controlled by the media/advertising complex. In our daily world there is no lateral movement, just a never ending push forward towards a goal we are conditioned to desire and expected to attain. Yet, the goal is never attainable. We have to keep going and going and going, wasting our lives in a pursuit that lines the pockets of the Nexus. We are given a pittance for our lives as long as we remain safely oblivious in the Box they have constructed for their amusement and personal benefit.
The corporation has never cared and never will care about those they employ to meet their fatally unattainable goal of complete market domination. Here is a telling historical account from the early of the twentieth century recounted by Jack Beatty:
The different implications of different forms of ownership were much in the minds of contemporaries as they tried to gauge the corporate effect on economy and society. "If all industries were owned and operated by individuals," a report for President Woodrow Wilson's nonpartisan Commission on Industrial relations noted, "there might be some reason to hope that generally satisfactory wages and physical conditions might be attained through the education of the owner," who after all, was in business for the long term. "[B]ut with the impersonal, remote and irresponsible status of control by stock ownership, such a hope must be purely illusory." Workers interviewed by the commission saw this diffusion of responsibility with the clarity of its victims: "They say that in the modern corporate business the actions of officials are governed not by their personal intentions, but by the inexorable demands for interest and dividends, and are driven not by their desire to create a permanently successful business with a contented labor force, but by the never-relaxed spur of the comparative cost sheet." In one hearing of the Commission, its chairman, Frank P. Walsh, a prominent Kansas attorney, had this revealing exchange with J.P. Morgan, whose reply must have confirmed the disbelief in the incorporated conscience.
Chairman Walsh: In your opinion, to what extent are the directors of corporations responsible for the labor conditions existing in the industries in which they are the directing power?
Mr. Morgan: Not at all I should say. (Colossus, page 176)
Yet we still place our very existence in the hands of corporate America. We work for it, we buy from it and derive our self-definition from its guidelines. And it doesn't care one bit. We are all objects to be placed among things to perform tasks that take nothing about ourselves into account. As long as it is productive and efficient the company is happy. Our happiness was never built into the equation.
Essay 4 - Moral Contradictions
Human Rights
The road we have been taking leads irrevocably to this next conclusion. America is a dehumanizing society based upon a dehumanizing ideology. Yet, we constantly hear about how important human rights are and how everyone is created equal. Well, those are nothing more than platitudes spewed by the Nexus. All policy is touted as a great step forward and an advancement for the betterment of humanity. The media constantly promotes each news item with the usual disclaimer; "Despite all outward appearance what we have just told you is absolutely vital to our national interests and the protection of human rights the globe over." Amnesty International knows it and has recently given the US very bad scores on the human rights issue. Since that is the case, why is this problem unapparent to many Americans? Perhaps we just do not think about it very much since we are 'free' and 'equal.' However, every time we make life harder for a foreign nation we are directly worsening the living conditions of its people. In addition, our chase for domestic prosperity has little to do with empowering those who are in need within our own boarders. In America most things translate into what is best for business instead of people.
The notion of human rights is so new that it still carries weight, but its impact is diminished with each year that passes. Our economic and political foundation is built upon the principle of competition and competition demands that someone loses. If it was just one person a case could be made for the well-being of the majority superceding the minority. Yet, we have an national majority comprised of losers. Every working citizen is bound to work, but is not guaranteed anything beyond the current pay period. In my mind I think that we are all entitled to health insurance, quality education and real time with family and friends. By saying that I am being wholly un-American. It wouldn't be right to have all of those entitlements unless you deserve them. Nothing is free and you have to earn you right to be human by destroying your humanity within the sanctioned boarders of the Box. Sounds a bit absurd, but it's the way that our fine nation works.
It is also interesting how and where we decide to take an action based upon the human rights trump card. You never get the follow-up stories on the evening news. Sure, we hear all about great acts of benevolence and empowerment. The cameras never go back a few weeks later to see if it has been sustained or done any good. That is because defending human rights costs money and is largely unprofitable. In fact its bad for business and anything bad for business is bad for America. The argument could be made that our system negates the very possibility of a humane society. The Nexus requires dehumanizing tactics to perpetuate itself. And we all know that the Nexus is not going to relinquish its hold upon us unless we rise-up against it en-mass. Otherwise, no American really has the right to say that they are a humanitarian.
Justice
Injustice is nothing new to anyone who lives in America. It is bandied about on the news, in our entertainments and is a common theme that everyone can identify with. Yet, beyond the everyday morass all Americans seem to have an undeniable faith in the justice that our nation provides us. We are also always quick to defend our actions abroad as just and righteous. The justice I want to discuss is not the legal variety, but the more elusive sense of what justice really means in our daily lives. Can a country such as ours with its competitive ideology ever truly be just? Let's look at some crass examples, just to make my case obvious.
Everyone will agree that racism is unjust. But, this is a new idea for America. Not so long ago this nation was divided by race and with the rise in Hispanic population the ugly old specter has raised its head again. In fact, not much has been done about actual racism in this country. In a very real sense racism has been woven into the very fabric of American life. It has been institutionalized. Demographic studies always divide up opinion and voting tendency by age, geography and race. If we truly wanted to abolish the race issue we would quite simply lose the term altogether and quit making all of our social definitions based upon it. If anything is an affront to justice it is our whole definition and conception of race in this country. It is one thing to try and preserve our different heritages, but it is quite another to pit them against one another in the public and private sphere. Black immediately means something, whether good or bad in a particular case, but it carries a weight with it. Baggage from a supposedly bygone era. Well, it has not gone away. Attempts at inclusion are a charade, for by making a distinction in the first place you have already divided the nation.
Race aside, there are plenty of other areas that defeat and deny any real justice in America. The huge economic divide that separates the Nexus from the public negates any meaningful sense of justice in America. The wealthy are entitled to a brand of justice that is largely unavailable to the average citizen. If you cannot afford to defend yourself you are denied the basic right to be heard and receive the same treatment as someone who can afford it. Fair treatment only comes with the right appearance, connections and fiscal ability. Without those you are left with nothing except publicly funded courses of action that are not only corrupt and ineffective, but have absolutely no concern for any particular individual's grievance. How many times do we hear about an example of someone getting the shaft by the legal system? Everyday. Where is our justice? What do we get for our tax dollar and faith in the legal system that those dollars help to fund? Justice is not only theoretically elusive, it does not even properly exist in the American legal system. When winning a case is tied to purchasing power, the entire endeavor must be questioned. I wonder how many millionaires and corporate executives are on death row?
The chase for profit is in direct contradiction with justice. Capitalism dictates that the end justifies the means. This basic principle is in effect at most every level of American society and is part of the bedrock of our infrastructure. Our economics negate justice. Justice cannot exist in this environment. Fair representation and egalitarian concern for every citizen is banished by our fiscal cravings. It is often said everyone has full access to anything that is publicly available. The fact that that is not true, coupled with the elitist exclusion of most citizens from the information and resources that exist, soundly defeats the possibility for a truly just society. Full access to the law and information requires the kind of fiscal resources that most of us cannot afford. It is shameful that we proclaim ourselves a nation ruled by law when we are actually ruled by money.
Legal Rights - Only If You Have The Means.
Earlier we discussed justice. The assumed protector of justice is the law. Since we revealed that justice is a phantasm it is now time to criticize the system that perpetuates the lie. The American legal system is highly flawed. That in itself in is no revelation, until you are affected by it. Most of us remain detached observers and socially agree that lawyers are corrupt and that the system is rigged. This assumption is also an acceptance of the way things are and is an apathetic stance at best. In essence we assume that we cannot do anything about it and besides, it is still better than any other existing system. Yet, the American conception of law is almost religious. In principle we are a country founded upon laws which protect us until we are proven guilty of a transgression. We vote to alter the law to adapt to our ever changing social climate. So why do we simultaneously disdain the system and revere the law?
What good is law if it is not enforced and adjudicated fairly? It obviously serves to preserve order. Yet, shouldn't our sense of order also have our full support and trust? It should, but money enters in once again to discourage full transparency and egalitarianism. Loopholes and 'justice' are accessible only to those who have the means and clout to seek them out and bring them to full force in the public sphere. A good lawyer, properly paid, can literally help you get away with murder. Meanwhile an innocent can languish eternally due to the slovenly routine represented by our public defenders. If you have the money and time almost anything the law states can be circumnavigated. If you do not have the means then you are likely to discover that the law is just another social agreement over which you have no say or control. As a matter of course the American legal system is the property of the Nexus. Law is the elitist arm of the American political system. The Supreme Court decides our fate and we have almost nothing to do with choosing the justices, who can serve for life. Low voter turnout also contributes to the problem because we are responsible for electing the officials who decide on the justices appointed to the court.
Law is mutable and abstract, another aspect of its essence that excludes the average citizen from its actual workings and intrinsic meaning. It is an authority that binds us to an entire bureaucracy of authorities that all require payment. We all have to pay to protect our legal rights. We cannot know enough about the law to defend ourselves because it is an exclusive circle. So we have to hire an expert who offers no guarantees at best and at worst can make a mistake that will send your destiny into the dirt. The law is theoretically in the public sphere and the property of all. But, the praxis of law resides in the private realm of moneyed interests. As with every aspect of our lives, the law is not of and for us, it is another unquestionable institution that we are told to trust. How many times have we had our trust violated? How many times do we have to betrayed before we take back what is supposedly ours? I am not promoting a lawless culture or an anarchist call to violence. I am calling for the reclamation of the law from uncaring authority. I am calling for full the disclosure and transparency of the rules of the game. This means that the law must be made clear to all and that representation should not be based upon fees, but upon ability and a universal access to expertism. How and if this will ever happen is up to us.
Essay 5 - Media and Mediocrity
Corporate Rape
The greatest crime committed against the American public is the perpetuation of misinformation through coercive tactics. We are purposefully held under the control of conglomerates who exploit our labor, our money and our very beings through the mass media machine. In essence, by giving us no choices beyond those they delineate we are robbed of freedom and spiritually raped. Virtually everything that we are given to buy, eat and generally consume is created by entities that have no interest beyond profit and self-perpetuation. There are alternatives, but they are relatively insignificant due to the supremacy of corporate networks, manufacturing techniques and media-driven advertising. The reach and power of the Nexus knows no boundaries. United it stands and it stands directly in the way of our basic rights as human beings and American citizens.
In our supposed democracy capitalism inhibits rather than encourages the exercise of our rights. In fact, capitalism and the consumer mentality flourish under despotic conditions just as well as in democratic states. Here's a word to that effect by Benjamin Barber:
. . . rhetoric that assumes capitalist interests are not only compatible
with but actively advance democratic ideals, translated into policy, is difficult
to reconcile with the international realities of the last fifty years. Market
economies have shown a remarkable adaptability and have flourished in many tyrannical states from Chile to South Korea, from Panama to Singapore. Indeed, the state with one of the world's least democratic governments -- the People's Republic of China -- possesses one of the world's fastest-growing market economies. 'Communist' Vietnam is not far behind, and was opened to American trade recently, presumably on the strength of the belief that markets ultimately defeat ideology. Capitalism requires consumers with access to markets and a stable political climate in order to succeed: such conditions may or may not be fostered by democracy, which can be disorderly and even anarchic, especially in its early stages, and which often pursues public goods costly to or at odds with private-market imperatives - environmentalism or full employment for example. On the level of the individual, capitalism seeks consumers susceptible to the shaping of their needs and the manipulation of their wants while democracy needs citizens autonomous in their thoughts and independent in their deliberative judgments. Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn wishes to 'tame savage capitalism,' but capitalism wishes to tame savage democracy and appears to have little problem tolerating tyranny as long as it secures stability. (Barber, pgs. 14-15)
Stability is the key, but what do we get for all of our wonderful predictability? What do we get as we idly watch the world transform without our consent? We get truckloads of consumer goods and places to waste our hard-earned dollars on frivolities that advertisers have us believe to be necessities.
Beyond the crass consumerism and media hype of advertising, the physical rape of America is vivid across the landscape. Strip malls and cracker box suburban sprawls obliterate the natural order in a theatrical display of avarice and ugliness. It is a mocking spread of mediocrity and uniform conformity. We are told that it is all in the name of progress and is for the good of all. Our conditioned response is to agree publicly, but in the private sphere of friends, family and our own minds I have heard too many complaints to believe that we truly agree with what is being done to our world. The constant concern and hype in the media circles around and hints at the social ills plaguing this nation. Frequent subjects on the evening news include education, family breakdown and public apathy towards the Nexus. Unfortunately we largely watch from the side lines rather than actively trying to do something about it. Media critiques of our society are nothing more than platitudes. If they truly wanted to expose corruption and the injustice in America they would lose their advertisers. Without advertising they would quickly be replaced with corporate friendly media juggernauts. Public broadcasting tries to give objective accounts, but who really listens to public broadcasting anyway? The media gives us just enough information to give the illusion of social awareness. Anything more would threaten the Nexus and we already know that is not allowed.
Television
If there is one thing that truly unites America it is the idiot box. Our common bond and shared experience is primarily forged by the ultimate supremacy and omniscience of television. It is our universal source of information, entertainment and indoctrination into consumerism. Everything on television is designed to unite us. It unites us by offering a presentation of reality that is aimed to placate. It is an irresistible lure into escape and promotes apathy as a religion. Before I continue, I will say that public television offers some respite from mediocrity, but how many of us really watch public stations? That aside, television's primary goal is soporific. It lulls us into a world where nothing is all that bad. Television's allure rests upon simplifying and neutering the world and our place in it. Our place is in front of the box where we remain safe and spoon-fed. Otherwise we might get a look beyond the box and start getting ideas of our own.
The last thing that the Nexus wants is for us to get any ideas of our own. So, they flood us with versions of reality that try to appeal to every demographic. If you are a malcontent or an iconoclast, well, they have a program and set of ads just for you . . . and so on and so on. Once again, it is the same scenario we have discussed throughout, a timeworn theme whose effectiveness and affects cannot be questioned. Just as we are limited in our choices in the consumer world, we are also limited in our ability to choose our news and entertainment. The palette may have numerous hues, but there is nothing readily at hand for those who want to go beyond the basic spectrum. Television effectively delineates the borders and content of many Americans' minds. Imagination is an unnecessary diversion. Critical thought, critique and reflection are quaint notions to a nation of passive viewers. What good is a book or an original idea when there are so many channels to choose from? It kills the spirit and saps the will and has created the perfect population for corporate America. Television soothes a population that could easily turn on its captors and topple the parapets of inequity. But who wants to go through all that trouble when the season finale of "Friends" is on?
The primary problem with America is apathy. Television is the primary conduit and source of apathy. The solution? Walk away from it. If people would actually quit watching television I believe that this nation would undergo some tremendous and positive structural transformations. However, TV is so powerful, more powerful than anything else in American culture, that refusing to watch may be impossible. The ease, availability and escape of television has made us into a nation of addicts. Even the most insidious drug cannot compare to television. It is a dealer's dream to have something so alluring to sell. And the dealers are corporations, the enforcers are on Capital Hill and the users are us. It has been said that "After 7:00 p.m. no one wants to think." Well, nobody asked me my opinion. The sheer avarice and hubris of television is grounds to destroy it. It presumes to know what is best for us and what we want to see and hear and experience. The reality is that every decision made about broadcasting has no basis in anything beyond profit. It is the artistic expression of capitalism at work. That should tell you what kind of uncaring beast drives the engines of commerce. Our foundation and perception of reality is largely beyond our control. We have nothing to say about its creation and its content. Our indoctrination has been so effective that we are happy to choose from the given choices. However, the moment you get beyond the Box and abandon all the assumptions that have been drummed into you mind, I think you will agree that TV is intrinsically evil. It wants your attention to anesthetize your spirit and extort your hard earned dollars - nothing more or less.
Misinformation and Obfuscation
It gets even worse. Not only is the information given to us watered down and oversimplified, it is often a series of bold faced lies. Anything that poses a threat to the Nexus will either be marginalized in the public eye, lied about or suppressed altogether. We have all heard the tales of corruption and corporate greed which led to catastrophe for the general public. But, they are only told safely after the fact and often dressed-up by the media's favorite sanitization method - entertainment in the form of movies and TV shows. There is no doubt that we are regularly lied to, told partial truths and often led to believe the very opposite of what is really going on behind the scenes. There are many popular theories that contend that the government lies regularly to the people. This idea is portrayed over and over in the entertainment mediums of film and television. I wonder why that is? I also wonder why people are so willing to accept that much of what the Nexus does happens behind closed doors? By having suspicions we also have the responsibility to tear away the curtain and see what exactly is going on. But, our national interests would do everything to keep that from happening.
Here's a little insight into America's agenda after WW2:
The New World Order of 1945 is sometimes described with considerable candor in mainstream scholarship. A highly-regarded study of US-Brazilian relations by the senior historian of the CIA, Gerald Haines, opens frankly: "Following World War II the United States assumed, out of self-interest, responsibility for the welfare of the world capitalist system." He could have gone on to quote the 1948 CIA memorandum on "the colonial economic interests" of our Western European allies, or George Kennan's call for reopening Japan's "Empire toward the South," among other analyses reflecting real interests.
"American Leaders tried to reshape the world to fit U.S. needs and standards," Haines continues. It was to be an "open world" - open to exploitation by the rich, but not completely open even to them. The US desired a "closed hemispheric system in an open world," Haines explains, following Latin Americanist David Green, who had described the system "formalized" after World War II as "A closed hemisphere in an open world." It was to be a world closed to others in regions already controlled by the US or held to be of critical importance (Latin America and the Middle East), and open where US dominance had not yet been established. Haine's phrase captures the vaunted principle of the Open Door in its doctrinally approved sense: What we have (if it is important enough), we keep; elsewhere, open access to all. The operative principle was articulated by the State Department in 1944 in a memorandum called "Petroleum Policy of the United States." The US then dominated Western Hemisphere production, which was to remain the largest in the world for another quarter century. That system must remain closed, the memorandum declared, while the rest of the world must be open. US policy "would involve the preservation of the absolute position presently obtaining, and therefore vigilant protection of existing concessions in United States hands coupled with an insistence upon the Open Door principle of equal opportunity for United States companies in new areas. (Chomsky - 501, pg. 157)
A microcosm of how the Nexus operates. Leaves you with a warm feeling inside. This approach to the world is reflected in the Nexus' approach to American citizens as well. Who knows what will be discovered about current policy fifty years from now?
To keep us "safely" unaware misinformation and spin doctoring are an industry unto themselves. We forfeit our right to information in exchange for national security and economic stability. Is that too high a price to exchange for our basic rights in a democracy? We should be guaranteed access to information regardless of circumstance. Transparency has become standard for our lives, our credit ratings and every other aspect of our paper trail in officialdom. However, our government and major corporations enjoy a thick smoke screen which keeps their activities secret and their intentions veiled. They are not subject to the same rules and legalities we are beholden to.
This obfuscation of reality raises the question; why do we let them get away with it? I think most of us can agree that no one should be above the law. But, our conditioning is not conducive to questioning authority, its methods, intents and act ivies. No matter how insidious their offences to humanity are, we accept it as part of the cost for our wonderfully controlled freedom.
Our Faith in the Faithless.
We are mindful of authority and the safety it provides, despite the fact that it has little or no regard for any particular citizen of this country. The faithless command our faith in them. The Nexus has no use for the American people on anything other than a political level of interest. We are the key to their power, but we are to be manipulated and coerced rather than represented. Our designation in their reality is as a constituent. We are an abstract phenomenon to be statistically charted and coerced according to demographic research. Just as an employer has vested interest in productivity, all gestures made upon our behalf are made to ensure our proper behavior, i.e. we elect and re-elect them.
It would be too easy to entirely blame the political system for this dilemma. We are ultimately responsible for who we put in office and how much interest we take in what they are doing for and against us. In most elections half of America's registered voters don't bother to vote. Factor in the countless number of people who are eligible, but not registered and the apathy becomes almost overwhelming. Resignation to a fate beyond our control defeats any realistic conception of self-empowerment. It is not that we actually have a faith in the faithless, we just let them. It is not a product of a misguided sentiment, it is a passive acceptance of the unacceptable. Intellectual sloth and refusal to take an activist stance effectively eliminates our ability to choose our destiny.
The faithless would not have it any other way. Our apathy gives them free reign over the nation. The less interested we are the more they can get away with. If a successful business were run in this fashion it would be bankrupt in no time. America's public sector is bankrupt in more ways than one and that places it in contradistinction to the corporate sector. This contradiction reveals an underlying weakness in the American ideology. In the pursuit of profit we expend all of our ability and resources, but when comes to our basic rights as citizens we expend as little effort as possible. The reason for this is evident. By keeping us occupied in labor we do not have the time or will to question government or law. Thus, the enslavement of our spirit is complete. The daily grind chains us to material concerns and saps our strength. This enables the faithless to have their way and pursue goals that serve their own interest and preserve the elite's power. This vicious cycle effectively negates the Democratic process in America. In this case the blame is placed upon everyone involved.
Essay 6 - The Land of Dreams and Plenty
The Dream
One of the most pervasive and salient myths in American life is the dream. There is a romantic affinity that most Americans have about how this nation was founded, the notion that everyone is equal and everyone has the opportunity to realize their dreams. The freedom to choose a destiny and attain personal satisfaction in every aspect of their lives. This dream is instilled in us very young. Our favorite entertainments and diversions all involve a version of this dream. Rags to riches tales, the defeat of a faceless bureaucracy by an empowered hero figure and stories of love and devotion that overcome all the odds. The dream is important for America and for us. It is the symbolic representation of hope. It keeps our faith alive and our devotion to country intact. The dream is that we all shall overcome adversity to achieve what has been promised us. Unfortunately the dream is dying on the vine.
As the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us continues to widen, our dreams are beginning to grow dimmer and dimmer. Opportunity comes to fewer and fewer doors and this elusiveness is not only disheartening, it is a tragedy. The unconscionable aspect of our current situation is that we are still led on by a promise that cannot be kept. For, if we lose the dream we might not be as willing to toil in the causes of the wealthy. They need us to keep their reality (our dream) alive. So they promise that it could happen to anyone of us at anytime to ensure our loyalty in their cause. Politicians promise us things all the time. The religious at least make a promise that cannot be verified, but everyone else offers a possible future that they have no intention of delivering. If they did it would threaten their supremacy and prostrate their elitist stature.
The crime in this case is the same as all the others we have been discussing. We are misled and misinformed. The resources and information that should, by every law and moral sentiment, be readily available are denied most of us. In this land of plenty it seems that most us have to make due with almost nothing while the elite get everything that we deserve. For all of our labor, taxes and adherence to the rules we do not get nearly enough in return. We don't even get respect or even notice from those who direct and place demands on our lives. Instead we get a dream that is almost impossible to realize. However, the dream can be realized. It is realized the moment that you understand what it really means and what it has been used for up to this point. The real dream is to destroy the illusion and radically restructure our waking world. The dream can exist in every moment, but only if the old chimera is banished from our hopes and expectations. It is time to turn to what we get here in the land of plenty.
Plenty of What?
What do we get for our trouble? Since the dream is denied us we are given little slices of freedom that come with a cost. Since most of us want what we cannot immediately have, we expect instant gratification and we are given credit. Credit is something we get plenty of, along with payment plans, mortgages and loans. Our dreams are financial nightmares. They are nightmares because of interest. It is ironic that a supposedly Christian nation forces all of its citizens to be victims of usury. Along with debt there is the added bonus of mandatory insurance. If you buy an insurable item on credit you have to have full coverage insurance upon that item so that the bank's investment is protected. So not only do we not own most of what we have, we have to pay the price to insure them. If there is one thing we have plenty of it is debt and indebtedness to our financial institutions. Otherwise most of us would not have homes or cars to "own." The greatest illusion is that we actually think that we own a part of the dream. No, all we have is a payment plan under the watchful eye of the faithless.
In an even broader sense we also have plenty of coercion. We are coerced into debt by society's expectation that each of us will desire normalcy as they and we have come to define it. We have plenty of expectations that are constantly fueled by the media and our fellow Americans. There is a very real sense of urgency within all of us to succeed and our success is not defined internally, but through external accumulation of consumer goods and investment in "permanent" structures. There can be little doubt that this method of defining success is a pure act of overt coercion by the faithless corporate juggernaut. It is also another perfect manifestation of social control. By keeping us indebted we have to keep working, just look at the recent increase in retirement age. Without becoming indebted we become disenfranchised outsiders, socially excluded and shunned by those who keep the dream alive. Wandering beyond the safety of the box is not presented or represented as a viable option by the Nexus. The circle is complete.
1] Taught to pursue a dream.
2] The dream requires success.
3] Success requires submission.
4] Submission is employment and debt.
5] Debt and proper employment is coercion.
6] Coercion is the actuality of the dream.
7] Cycle complete, thank you for submitting.
But, what about all the dissatisfaction and grumbling we constantly hear? We know that we are in a vicious cycle, but we do not have the resources to escape it. Dissatisfaction always breeds discontent, but we don't have enough belief in ourselves to oppose the Nexus.
Our apathy, disillusionment and dissatisfaction is quite real for very legitimate reasons. As a collective, we Americans know that we are not getting enough in return for our efforts. Yet, we keep up the good fight because there appears to be no other option. "One day things will get better." Well, they won't unless something is actually done by the collective rather than the supposed experts we rely upon to run the show. As demoralized as we have become, whether you admit it or not it is true, it seems that we are acclimated to dashed hopes and disillusionment. Youthful dreams give way to the daily grind and the spirit and élan is sucked from our very marrow. It is a crime to accept this lot in life. The dream may well be dead, but we are not and neither is our spirit and imagination. We may be battered, but hope is always alive in every human being, or else we would all commit suicide.
The Dream is Dead.
Once a realization is made, something has to change. It is just like growing up all over again. When you are young you believe in many things that are fantasy. As you get to know the world these illusions are gradually discarded and replaced with a new mode of thinking, perceptions and conceptions of ourselves and the world are constantly changing. Stasis is never an option in the phenomenal realm and guess what? We are a part of it, so stasis is not a viable option. If this fantasy that we are fed is an illusion, why not discard it and build a new goal. A goal centered on egalitarian concern and individual empowerment aimed at improving the collective. The Dream in America should be infinite possibility rather than strict adherence to an ideology that has obviously failed us at a fundamental level. Humanity should care more about itself than to allow things to remain in the current state of stagnation and deprivation, both material and spiritual. Therefore, as one dream is pronounced dead, we should do what comes naturally and create new one, and another and another until we get closer to our possible liberation from the crass and greedy ideology that our leaders deem a necessity. It is not a necessity, it is gratuitous exploitation of the citizens of America.
Essay 7 - Education and Academia
So far we have focused upon the economic, political and secular/non-secular faiths present in America today. Now I would like to savage my old, albeit short-lived profession, academia. The greatest flaw in the American paradigm is our educational system. Not only is it ineffective in the quest for personal edification and self-empowerment, it is an outright method of social control that is proven ineffective in that lowly capacity. That indictment is for our mandatory educational system. The higher echelons of academia are no better for different reasons.
Maintenance vs. Edification
Learning and reading are two of the most important ways by which a human being can gain access to inner-awareness and an accurate conception of reality. Unfortunately the American educational system is most concerned with maintaining social order and directing the youth towards career paths. The poor are expected to fall into the menial labor category while the rest are assigned to their specific posts and accompanying tasks by merit, social position and their ability to follow and believe in directions given from authority. Since our children are legally forced to get an education they really do not have much of a say in what they will be given access to. The information and opportunities afforded by the public school system are not only inadequate, but are often negligible at best.
Human beings are capable of almost anything if given the chance. The current system encourages conformity over creativity. It effectively beats the life out of young minds by demanding that they follow a routine and regimen rather than the pursuit of knowledge. If the routine and regimen did effectively maintain order and promote safety we could maybe forgive the system. The prevalence of violence in our nation's schools reveals the fact that the system is not doing well at all. In fact it seems to promote violence and divisiveness in our children and their social development. Competition is a natural human trait, but the quest for grades has been overtaken by these kids' seeming need to cry out against their peers and their teachers. Perhaps the system cannot be held directly at fault, but all of this is happening within the confines of it, so it makes it difficult to accept that everything is in working order. We know that the schools are not bastions of reflection and creative thought. We used to have a faith that our kids would at least be relatively safe there. When both fall away there is really not a whole lot left to defend the public school system in America.
I've never read a more apt description of the American school system than the one offered by Jack Beatty. Here's an excerpt:
When Channel One brings television advertising into the classroom, teachers can be sure that it is not in order to provide an audiovisual too for teaching critical thinking. Without a concerted pedagogical effort, television is unlikely to enhance learning: It is better at annihilating that at nurturing the critical faculties. Private consumption cannot help youngsters develop an empowering sense of the need for public goods - something that might throw McWorld [Beatty's equivalent of the Nexus] into doubt. Television enmeshed in commerce cannot but view children as prospective consumers rather than prospective critics and citizens.
Education is unlikely to ever win an "open market" competition with entertainment because "easy" and "hard" can never compete on equal ground, and for those not yet disciplined in the rites of learning, "freedom" will always mean easy. Perhaps that is why Tocqueville thought that liberty was the most "arduous of all apprenticeships." To grow into our mature better selves, we need the help of our nascent better selves, which is what common standards, authoritative education, and a sense of the public good can offer. Consumption takes us as it finds us, the more impulsive and greedy, the better. Education challenges our impulses and informs our greediness with lessons drawn from our mutuality and the higher goods we share in our communities of hope. Government, federal and local, with responsibility for public education once took it upon itself (back when "itself" was "us") to even up the market and lend a hand to our better selves. Now via vouchers the market threatens to get even with public education. This sorry state of affairs is not the work of villains or boors. It arises all to naturally out of the culture of McWorld in a transitional era where governments no longer act to conceive or defend the common good. (Barber, pgs. 116-17)
Knowledge is discouraged in this country because it is a pernicious threat to the Nexus. If people saw through the illusion that is daily life in America the whole game would crumble before their eyes. As long as we accept the way things are we will remain grist for the mill.
We the people are directly at fault. Most parents are loathe to give their tax dollars to education yet complain endlessly about its shortcomings. Teachers are not paid enough to make the necessary efforts to innovate in the classroom and their training discourages innovation in favor of authoritative methodologies. The antiquated state of the physical buildings, teaching materials and methods employed contribute to the futility of the entire endeavor. Sure, children are leaning to read, but do they actually get it? Do they truly realize that they are receiving a gift and a power to transform themselves and the world they inhabit? I say no. They are not being given a sense of greatness. They being given a sense of completing tasks for an arbitrary symbol that defines their worth. A's and D's are the kids' first taste of alienation from their own creativity. It conditions them to accept a paycheck in return for the bulk of their waking hours. The most horrifying thing about this entire mess is that they have no access or ability to question what is being done to them. If they break the rules, either physically or intellectually they are punished and branded by the system and cast out from their fellow students. Either that or they are put on drugs to control their inability to conform. The greatest crime we have committed in America is against our children and no one is willing to admit it or take the blame. We cannot easily rebuke the system because we all went through the damned system and many of us have turned into hapless sheep who accept the atrocity and allow it to be repeated ad infinitum. That is our great crime and we are all to blame for letting it happen everyday in every way.
Academia.
Higher education in America is not much better. The first demand placed upon entrants into the system is that they have to find a way to pay for it. This usually means many loans and a part to full-time job in order to live. The next demand is that you must choose the specific training guide for your professional future. A college education has less to do with learning than accruing the necessary skills to make yourself marketable in the corporate world. Due to the inadequacy of public education, many students enter college ill-prepared for the demands placed upon them. In the sifting process students may have a huge set of options to choose from as far as where they can go to school. But ultimately most are excluded from the better universities and are relegated to large state schools that are not only impersonal, but are also offer inferior curricula and instructors.
There is also the sad fact that a college degree now carries as much weight as a high school diploma. Often employers do not even look at what degree an applicant has attained, they just want to know that you got one. Undergraduate education is a mere continuance of the mandatory educational process in America. The big difference is that you have to pay an outrageous sum of money for the privilege of being considered for any job that is above entry level. Even then, many companies hire new graduates at entry level and send them through the corporate labyrinth without any relevant attention paid to what these people studied or have to offer as uniquely qualified individuals. Thus, the college experience today is more of a four year, no expenses paid vacation that staves off the inevitable submission to the job market. Students who do go to enrich their minds and expand their palettes find that their choice to be free spirits leaves them with nothing to show for their efforts in the world of experts and professionals. What can you do with a philosophy or general studies degree anyway? I myself cook for a living, thank god for that masters I worked so hard on.
That is the next step. After undergraduate you can push ahead and go into the next level of training. Law or Medical school are popular options, though they no longer offer guarantees of success. There is also graduate school and the possibility afterwards of a PhD. At the graduate level you are supposed to be following your creative urges a bit more and building your own conception and interpretation of your field of expertise. However, you do have to keep in line with the status quo, else you are banished and branded as a malcontent. In the legal and medical fields the pressure from mentors is even more severe. So despite the lofty pretense you are actually less free than ever to pursue your inclinations. You are instead molded into an expert, one of those people that you used to hate when you were younger. By the end of the process any creative spark is dead and you have joined the armies of the walking dead. A full fledged professional with a good income, plenty of debt and a yearning for that two weeks a year at Disneyland.
The educational cycle is consistent with the rest of the American paradigm and is the actual mechanism that indoctrinates us as good and docile citizens. Those who buck the system are not important for they are the ones who have "failed." But I contend that the service and blue-collar workers of America should be applauded for their failure to become fully indoctrinated. Though they are not exempt from responsibility for the sad state of affairs in this nation. Completion of the educational algorithm means the end for many people. It means that work is paramount. Escapism is the only diversion for the odious continuum of work, sleep and death. Knowledge is meant to empower, but in America it is aimed to hobble the spirit and enslave the body.
The educated person's mantra: Debt, follow the rules yet again, we'll give you all the info, but do not dare transgress the status quo else you lose credibility for your professional future and the means of repayment. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Essay 8 - How Much Longer Should We Be Trusted?
The remainder of this work will be devoted to America's place and importance in the global sphere. In this chapter I will discuss trust. We have already seen why Americans should have serious questions about the integrity of our politicians and corporations, now we must turn to the rest of the world and discuss why America should not be trusted by it. The conservative right is coming back with a vengeance and its agenda has always called for economic and military hegemony in the global sphere. With that in mind we have to realize that our presence is always presented as benevolent, but that benevolence is a thin veneer covering an ideology armed to the teeth and in search of profit. In the aftermath of 9/11 we have to realize that our agenda is unchanged and as unpopular as that may be to say, someone has to. Our war is not literally against terrorism, it is against anything that disrupts the Nexus' global endeavors.
Wanted: An Enemy.
Since the collapse of Russia in 1989 America has struggled to find a new adversary. Saddam Hussein is just not enough, for our government and industry need a worthy foe to legitimate their activities. When we have an enemy we have a demand for military expenditure which drives industry, encourages scientific research, technological innovation and keeps conservative business interests sated. The last decade has revealed what happens when we are at peace. Social, environmental and liberal issues begin to dominate the political scene and the economy turns to the service sector for growth potential. The recent economic downturn reveals that the capitalist system becomes very shaky when it is based upon the service sector. Bin Laden and the al-Quaeda network have provided an adversary, but it is not enough. They are individuals, not nations and we need a constant and formidable foe to keep the game healthy and promote economic recovery.
Faith is what drives capitalism and what better way to promote faith than to have an evil nemesis to combat. Christianity wouldn't have been s |
