Feel like I'm going a bit crazy. Lately I've been doing a lot of learning, here at my desk at work, and while I'm at home (freedocumentaries.org is a nice site and the daily show is kind of an essential) and honestly it's freaking me out just a bit. Mostly it surrounds the current health care debate, but while I am picking up more and more peices, a bigger picture is forming and it does not bode well for human beings. It isn't just about the details of this particular conflict, but rather the way it is being fought and the reasons behind it.
I cannot recall ever hearing so many brazenly hateful and ignorant things coming from so many people with so little subtlety or restraint. Regardless of opinions, there are too many tears, too much screaming, and not enough discussions happening. And beyond the confused and upset citizens of the country I see a huge and shadowy network urging, pushing, inciting them to the boiling point, anxiously awaiting its explosion, profiting off of the chaos and rage. It would be most simple to point at the media, especially Fox, which has been producing a constant and steady stream of blatant hatred, reminding their viewers they have "lost their America"*, and surreptitiously gathering an army of the poor who are being encouraged to fight the idea that the poor should have the same privelidges as the rich. There is no transparency in this- they are doing this by means of propaganda. ** The rest of the media doesn't have clean hands either. But it goes beyond the media, as well.
To point out the real culprit I have to derail for a moment. Since the end of World War II, business has been using psychology to create a culture that wants more than it needs. What I mean by this is that human beings did not always posess the desire to own multiple cars, huge houses, endless trinkets and gadgets and accessories and outfits, the latest and greatest, essentially material extensions of themselves. There was a time when consumption occured because of need. People were hungry and so they bought food. Their clothes wore out so they bought new ones. This did not change naturally. This was changed consciously by businessmen. And it was changed by using psychology and understanding of human insecurities to suggest that we can fix our flaws and become better people by owning material goods. As someone going into commercial design, I know that we as artists use psychological manipulation. The whole developed world is wrapped in a frenzy of want and materialism, a cycle of desire that can never be satisfied.
Our world is now firmly settled in the hands of great mindless machines created for the sole purpose of making said machines ridiculously wealthy at any cost. I mean of course corporations, entities originally created to expidite community projects and then highjacked by the greedy for their attractive qualities of being legally responsible to no one. A corporation can be fined for breaking the law, but all it really does is put a price tag on the law, one that most corporations can easy pay. With enough money, there are no laws. Unfortunately, that doesn't do anything to help actual human beings living our actual human lives. In our rush to make ourselves wealthy, to make ourselves better, we created great beasts that don't play by our rules, have no conscience, and suffer none of the consequences of their actions. And this discrepancy is becoming much wider- those who are in the know, who are making money hand over fist, who have sacrificed their humanity, that part of them that cares what happens to their neighbors so as to become infinitely more wealthy and keep that wealth from others; and those of us who are not even aware of the "game", who are simply trying to live day to day, who idolize those who are, behind the scenes, gaining their fabulous material wealth by stripping the world and spitting in our faces. And they are so good at lying to us now, and we are so unaware that they are playing us, that we grumble a bit, but don't see how things could be any different.
The beast I refer to is evil. And that evil exists where human beings decide that other human beings are fair game, that the world is fair game, that life itself is a game and they play to win, regardless of the cost to the other players. This competition is not healthy, this wealth is not worth it, and where this train of thought brings us is only to destruction. It is time for people to stop admiring predators and desiring the lifestyle of the wealthy. If we want to survive we have to become human beings again. That means sacrificing wealth, putting others equal or higher than oneself, and aknowledging that what is good for the lowest member is good for all members, that a society should judge itself not by its elite but by its poor, that our weaknesses can be strengthened not by money or goods, but by meaningful relationships with others, and that power is only meaningful if it is used to raise up the powerless rather than keep them down.
*This phrase is the acceptable way to say that the country was at one point and should forever into the future be dominated by white fundamentalist Christians, and anyone not included in that group cares only about destroying it. Considering that this nation has always been a chaotic blend of cultures, religions, and people from all over the world, attempting to build up one part as the "real America" while throwing the others away seems to me like the kid who refuses to play with anyone else on the playground. That kid doesn't get the playground to themselves. In fact there is no situation in which stubbornly and selfishly wanting everything for yourself the way you like it is going to actually improve your relations with anyone. To live with others, we have to converse, compromise, and come to terms. This is one of the biggest lessons we learn as young people. The only way to get everything you want as you want it is to get rid of everyone else, which I fear is the road this group is being provoked to take.
**I was reading the responses to Fred Clark’s blog entry regarding Barney Frank’s succinct response to a Town Hall protester (The now infamous “Dining room table” comment) and out of curiosity looked at Fox’s take on the event. Of course for many on the liberal side of things, Barney's clear dismissal of the childish behavior of the woman was sort of a moment of glory, and I like many of the other posters in Fred's blog expected to see the notorious Fox twisting it into a moment of shame. What I found upon reading their article, however, was not condemming of his response, but more of an omission. Fair enough, why give readers a taste of what he said, intruiging them into listening to the whole argument and recieving the same wake up call that woman and those like her must have gotten? Much safer to simply breeze over it. That is not such a surprising decision. What did disturb me was that, though brief, the article is as fine a piece of propoganda as I have ever read. The opening sentences read as such (emphasis mine):
It was a tough crowd Tuesday night at the senior center in Dartmouth, Mass. But neither Rep. Barney Frank nor his critics seemed to back down.
The often contentious town hall-style event with the Democratic congressman, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, drew more than 500 people, some shouting and booing as Frank spoke.
Yes, it may be common journalistic practice to try and establish the atmosphere of an event. But the choice of words in writing, no matter the overt message, subtly affect what we are thinking.
The closing sentence of this article:
Extra police were assigned to the meeting after angry protesters turned up at widely publicized town hall events held by Democratic lawmakers.
They open and close their article with anger and threats of violence, but unlike the blatant instigation I see so much of on TV, this is going in even deeper. This is how they have such complete influence and control on their watchers.
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