The American experience has changed, over the years. My father is a man who came into manhood during a prosperous time in the USA. Carl is a man of strong convictions, politically and religiously. He has a highly positive attitude about the country, though he is unhappy with the present government. But his faith in America, as a basically good country, is unshakable. To him, all would be well if we could just get George W. back into the White House.
My experience, as a citizen of the United States, has made a different kind of man. Like all children of my generation, I was taught that the USA was undisputedly the greatest nation on earth, and the world’s best country, both in lifestyle, standard of living, and in godly goodness. We believed that our country was certainly a positive force in the world; indeed, the most beneficent of all countries on earth. We had no doubt of this as children. But my opinion has changed, over these many years. The more I’ve learned about the history of the United States, and the longer I live, I see that I have been misinformed.
There is a wide chasm of difference between the American conservative and those like me, who would be described as a left-wing liberal, between right-wing politics and the progressive agenda. Closely linked to this theme, is another chasm between the traditional patriotic Christian, and the other end of that spectrum, the opposite kind of person, whatever one may call them. (Not to say that Christians are more patriotic than anyone else, but in my family, patriotism and godliness are closely linked). This is true, even though I call myself a Christian, and am so tied to this Faith that I have no choice but to claim Jesus Christ as my Lord.
Among my people, to be unpatriotic is thought to be irreligious; a concept I find to be quite stupid. If I were born in North Korea, would God expect me to be patriotic in relation to my “Great Leader”? If John McCain has his way, and we end up attacking Iran over their alleged nuclear weapons program, should I feel obligated to pray for victory over Iran? There are Christians in Iran. Should I pray for their destruction? Should my link to any certain country be more important to me than my love for a brother in Christ? As I pledge allegiance to the flag, should I condemn those who pledge allegiance to some other flag? [Though I refuse to pledge allegiance to any flag].
Nowadays, religion and politics seem to be moving towards the joining church and state together, so that some are trying to make our laws in accordance with our holy books. This is upsetting to someone like me, who believes that in a democracy, church and state must be completely separate, and no holy books should be opened, when deciding matters of state or federal law. Of course the morality of any population is an influence on their legislative process, and morality is partially formed by the religion of any people. This is not only normal, but is indeed a positive influence. But when particular passages of scripture are used to deny the rights of minorities, it has gone too far. In a democracy, the civil rights of the individual supersedes any religious considerations. When Holy books become the basis for lawmaking, or for guiding foreign and domestic policy, conflict is inevitable.
But there are many in America who believe that our government should be ordered on Biblical principles, and they passionately believe they are right. As a matter of fact, they form the religious right-wing of the Republican party, for the most part.
What causes the tendencies in different people to adopt one side or the other, becoming either conservative or liberal? Society, in the USA, is divided into opposites, each side berating the other, hating each other, working towards opposing ends. What is this about? Is it something in the genes? Are we divided according to our intelligence, or our lack thereof? Is there some form of actual goodness, some virtue that belongs to one side or the other?
I have been exploring this since my adolescence. I myself have gone back and forth from one side to the other, changing as if going through different ‘phases’ in my life. I’ve gone from Beatle-mania to Sunday school Christian, to imitation hippy to becoming a U.S. Marine. Then it was on to trying to become a ‘druggy’, then pivoting to join the most conservative Pentecostal Christian church, and trying to become a minister. I preached dozens of sermons in church and even on the streets of Knoxville, Tennessee. I married a piano player and we led the ‘worship service’ in a charismatic church. I got divorced and became somewhat alcoholic. I got depressed, went to therapy and joined the Unitarian church. I learned some Buddhist meditation techniques and made friends of gays and atheists.
Later in life, I was injured, causing me to have to change my vocation. I moved to Europe, teaching English to adults for six years, during which time I had many discussions with these foreigners who grew up under communism. These people look at things differently than they do back in the bible belt, and I saw my country through the eyes of the Russians, and of the Czechs.
Since then, I have rediscovered my Christian Faith, but this is a different religion from that of my Father, or my brother. I have polar opposite opinions from them, on many subjects. I’m very different in many ways. I wonder how this came about. What makes them like they are, and what makes me like I am? Why this difference, and why the difference between the Republican religious right-wing, and, on the other hand, normal people?
Why do people vote against our own interests, for politicians who want to keep wages as low as possible? Why vote against unions, Medicare expansion, equal pay, marriage equality, and against environmental protection, reducing greenhouse gasses? Why re-elect the politicians who are responsible for many of the problems of the entire world, let alone the emaciation of the bible-belt republican stronghold itself, the southern states?
Look at the situation we find ourselves in. After the 9/11 attacks, the government adopted the patriot act, and began operating differently in many ways. Surveillance of the entire population became very important, and was fully financed and authorized. As a nation, we seemed to feel free to attack any other nation that, even remotely, might have had something to do with 9/11. The police began a militarization program, something that had never been contemplated before. The Geneva conventions went right out the window, and all of the torture tactics that we had condemned for decades, were adopted as standard procedure.
Secrecy became the watchword of this new order. Deception, the misleading of the American public, and even keeping congress in the dark, was adopted as necessary for national security.
Meanwhile, the main-stream media news outlets, having been deceived by the government into dispersing lie after lie, began on a mission of damage control. Rather than face up to the truth that we were all duped, the lies were perpetuated. Even today, we have the very architects of the present middle-east disaster, sitting enthroned on the major networks, blaming the president for everything, and telling us what we should now do, as a nation. Naturally, their advice is nothing but “More war! More destruction! More profits for the companies that I am involved with!” And the Republicans love it.
An aside here: today, on NPR radio, a captive of the ISIS terrorists, John Cantlie, said that hostages were being waterboarded, when they attempted to escape. “…waterboarded by their captors, as Muslim prisoners are waterboarded by the Americans.”No criminal in history ever managed to actually endanger every single American all at once. Before Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and their associates, there was never any talk of “waterboarding”, worldwide, except perhaps as a forbidden thing that was done by criminal enemies. Now, in this present time, we have learned that some terrorist organizations are performing waterboarding upon their captives. The act has been made famous, has effectively been promulgated by these American war criminals. As a direct result of their actions, we are all now at risk of being water-boarded by some terrorist organization, if we happen to be traveling abroad, in countries where Americans used to be able to visit in safety. We all have more enemies, more people who hate us with greater intensity, than we ever had before this damnable “war on terror” was launched. And our present course, as a nation, promises to enrage even more people. The drone war, begun by Bush, has been intensified ten-fold under our Nobel-peace-prize-winning president. With such actions, we are acting as recruiters for terrorist organizations, more effective than any radical website could ever be. Thanks a lot, Uncle Sam. Do you need a dose of anti-psychotic medication?
Just to mention a couple other things that make me wonder, “Why do we keep electing these people?”; Global warming has gotten worse, to the point that we are now being warned that a worldwide release of methane gas, much worse than carbon dioxide, is going to occur sometime in the future, which will have a snowball effect on world temperatures. This is called a tipping-point, meaning that once warming gets to this point, the methane-release point, the methane will pour gasoline on the fire of global warming, and we are talking major catastrophic stuff.
But we have an entire political party, representing about half of the population, who are the party of denial. To them, the science, agreed by 99% of all scientists, is all a conspiracy, done to drive environmental over-regulation. This is being loudly laughed at by every other nation on earth, none of which have a political party of denial, as we do. “We’re not scientists”, they say, “but we know better than the scientists, somehow.” Of course they would say it has nothing to do with fabricated “think-tanks” and phony political parties, created by billionaire professional polluters, such as Charles and David Koch, among many others. It has nothing to do with the billions of dollars of now-legal bribes that are offered to every politician that will kiss the ring of ALEC (a Koch-financed cabal that wines and dines our politicians, and gives them proposals for legislation, that often makes it into law, word-for-word).
So what is it in our society that creates this kind of populace, who votes to perpetuate such a scene? How can this be? Our country has become the greatest agitator of violence on the planet, with the second-greatest rogue-nation being Israel, whom we support generously, politically and financially. They are only able to commit atrocities against the Palestinians because of the USA’s continued support. (This is meant as a criticism of the Israeli government, and isn’t meant to disparage the Jewish people).
But apparently, the voters see no need for change, unless it is to defeat the ‘liberal peaceniks’, and to enable those who cry out for ‘boots-on-the-ground’ in every place we deem worthy of invasion. (We’re there already, only it’s secret–ops special units, or mercenaries of Blackwater ilk).
What kind of force could have produced such a population as we have here in the USA. I know there are many dissenters, but as a population, we appear to be happy with the present state of affairs, or just so stupidly apathetic that we are unaware of our government’s actions, and see no need for concern. Or, as many seem to do, we can perversely blame every problem on the other side, as if there is absolutely no such thing as truth or falsehood. It’s all become a matter of spin to them. In our media every question is debated by two sides shouting at each other, with equal credence and airtime given to the damnable evil bastards, paid-for by big corporations; though the truth is sometimes allowed to be aired in brief spurts, underneath all of the deafening noise.
As proof of the utter complacency of the American people, I offer the recent mid-term elections; a record low voter turn-out, in which the majority voted Republican. To vote Republican is to vote for more pollution and environmental destruction, the mega-rich oil companies going hog-wild to extract and sell as much fossil fuels as possible, while the atmosphere becomes irrevocably saturated with carbon dioxide, and methane. Voting Republican means less equality for women, and for minorities, and ever more economic inequality, as the number of billionaires grows, and the poverty of children grows as well. It means voting for war-mongers, fueling the military-industrial complex, which guarantees we will be caught up in endless wars.
This was the first election, in which the billionaires were ‘turned loose’ and allowed to spend as much money as they wanted to influence the outcome. The vast majority of this money comes from right-wing, Republican backers, though there were a few rich liberals who tried to counter this flood of money from the one-percent. The results of this has been the take-over of the Senate by the Republicans, who had the most benefit from the largesse of the wealthy. Those elected are proud to be associated with the super-rich and their causes. Their futures are assured to be successful. All they had to do is to sell-out the American people in exchange. It’s like Esau, of the Bible, who sold his birthright for a bowl of tasty food, only it is all of us who have had our birthright stolen, to pay for a life of opulence for our millionaire congress. But the average citizen seems to care only about what’s on TV, or which sports team is winning, or which superstar got married or divorced or went into rehab.
With the Republicans and ‘centrist’ Democrats in charge, nothing will be done to counter global warming, that is certain now. The next generation will live to see vast stores of methane released from the thawing permafrost, and from the ocean floor. This will cause the atmosphere to go over the “tipping-point”, with warming increasing exponentially, as more thawing causes more warming, and the reflective white of the frozen poles has given way to darker, heat-absorbing colors.
This legalized corruption (unlimited campaign contributions), brought about by our corrupt Supreme Court’s decisions, will assure that we will have the best government that money can buy, but best for whom? It will be the best for our new corporatocracy, run by oligarchs who care nothing for the nation, since their multinational commerce includes numerous countries, and they have to buy friends wherever they operate, even on opposing sides of every conflict.
These wicked forces will eventually control all news and entertainment, and will eventually even buy control of the internet. The general populace, forced into hardships, will be afraid to oppose the state in any way, afraid to complain, to organize, to resist our abuse as mere expendable worker ants. Protests of any kind will be outlawed, and offenders will be dealt with harshly. Since they own the news media, and have great influence over law enforcement and the courts, they can turn the noblest conscientious objector into a hated criminal. They will destroy even his name.
The adventurous militarism of the United States, led by those who profit from it, will eventually lead to the use of nuclear weapons, by some nation, one of the many nations who have these weapons.
This is not meant to be a warning of what might come about, eventually, if we aren’t careful. It is a simple prediction of our truly bleak future as a country, and even as a planet. I know now that there is no hope. The dark forces are winning, and they will win. Those who are noble enough to resist, to protest, to report the truth with independent media, these brave souls will be destroyed by our all-powerful State apparatus. Indescribable suffering will be inflicted upon us and upon the world by those who we helped to spawn with our careless, uninformed voting, or by our failure to vote, by our timidity, as we become afraid to protest. We are no match for a militarized police force.Either way, we’ll be destroyed by the government of the oligarchs. Only in as much as we serve their purposes will we be allowed to survive.
In writing this, I make no apology; the truth should be told. There is no strategy here, like, “Oh, if they read this, they will wake up and make changes.” No, they won’t.
What should be our strategy? I don’t know. Maybe we have no choice but to fight a losing battle to the last ounce of our strength. Everyone has to make his or her personal choices.
Somehow, Americans have divided into two streams, one flowing in the direction of change, of liberation, and the other stream flowing in the opposite direction. Conservatives seemed to become even more conservative, as a reaction to what they saw as dangerous trends in society. This divide has grown wider and wider, continuing right up until the present time.
However, there is a large segment of the population who are neither conservative nor liberal. I reckon you could call it the party of the apathetic. In doing nothing, in having no opinion, these do more harm than good, in that they are doing just what the elite puppet-masters want them to do. Doing nothing aids the status-quo in a very destructive way. (I won’t mention the recent election again here). Doing nothing enables them to do whatever they please with our country, with our courts, our so-called leaders.
By the way, what shall we call them, these new masters of our electoral process? They are the ones with enough cash to influence the outcomes of elections, but not only that; they are absolutely working against the interests of the people, the citizenry. I’m not speaking of those who are donating for good causes, those who are trying to counter the insidious machinations of the wealthy elite, for they are worthy to be called our brothers. But I speak of those who are working to influence the tax code in order to even further increase their wealth, at the expense of the nation, for instance. What shall we call those who spend millions in order to deny a few hundred dollars to someone who is unemployed, for another instance? Those who invest millions to deny affordable health care to those in need, using lies and misrepresentation to purposefully mislead those who vote Republican?
You know, something occurred to me lately. In associating with various kinds of liberal people lately, I have encountered, only a few, people who seemed to me to be rather irreligious, in a bad way. I’m not talking about the normal atheist or humanist, most of whom are quite morally upright, though they may be unorthodox and nonconformist. No, I’m speaking of the kind who is morally flawed, knows it, and doesn’t care. The kind of person who says, “anything goes. There’s no such thing as sin, but if there is, I’m willing to do it.” But, as a Christian, even a liberal one, I do believe in sin. There really is such a thing as wickedness. Now, of course there are many kinds of sin and wickedness, and what one person sees as sin, another may see as simply a bad habit. But I’m talking about those who care only for themselves, to the point that they are willing to hurt others to get what they want.
This perfectly describes people like the Koch brothers, who would rather pay billions in campaign manipulation efforts, and in lawyer fees, than to pay millions, and do the right thing. The upper-crust, the one-percent, the elite, the oligarchy, whatever one wants to call them, those among them who are working full force to bring about the dystopian future that awaits all of us, fully deserve the title of ‘the wicked’. I think it’s time we started calling them that. Let’s call a joker a joker, and a bastard, who is working to poison everyone in the world, should be referred to as wicked. Progressives have avoided such language for too long, while the pious religious right has been using it against those who don’t deserve it at all.