Divided We Stand

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From Tom Byrne, via Facebook
hello Nicholas,
when are the American people ever going to stand up and demand an end to all this posturing and bullying done in their name by their government ?

My Response

The tragic answer, I fear, is 'never'. The US, by virtue of its mega-transnational-world power corporations, is the largest weapons manufacturer, distributor, and nuclear proliferator in the world, all the while constantly telling other co...untries whether they should have nuclear weapons, who should be fighting whom, etc. There have been some very instructive studies done, with supporting polls, and there's extensive commentary (Noam Chomsky, Jonathan Schell, Chris Hedges, and others) about the corresponding subject matter and historical periods in question (for the most part post-world war II), that show that the US is (rightly) the most feared nation in history and that most countries, particularly our allies, see us as the biggest threat not only to them, but to world peace. Now imagine how we are perceived (rightly) by our 'enemies'. In this case the best brief example or reference is Middle Eastern and North African countries that never invaded us and countries that offered to come to our aid after 9/11, etc. We chose instead to invade and, to varying degrees occupy Iraq, Afghanistan, and ultimately Pakistan, positioning ourselves, I believe, for an ultimate confrontation with Iran and whomever else in the region wants to get involved.

There was such an air of hope in 2008, with Obama the peacemaker, the man of the people, for the people, making all the right speeches (e.g., Cairo, 2009), using all the right messaging about disengagement, peace, alternative renewable energy, fiscal accountability, competent and honest international relations; he has proven to be the exact opposite, showing clearly that he is a man of the corporations, paying off (bailing out) all of the financial institutions with no built in accountability factors and thus transferring the wealth from the taxpayers to the elite in unprecedented proportions, while increasing the engagement and occupation in Afghanistan, providing unswaying support for Israel's genocidal occupation of Palestine, and widening the platform more than ever for the US to be viewed as the hegemonic empire that it is.

I believe the result of Obama being the exact opposite of the man who was elected is that the American people are left to swallow the bitter pill of powerlessness. The public has become marginalized and disenfranchised, as the man of the people proved that he was a man of the corporation, packaged just the way we needed him to be to provide the consent needed for the final steps in the corporate siezure of our government. If anyone ever wanted to see 'trickle down' economics, we now have it, as our state governments are taken over by corporate politicians doing the exact opposite of what they were elected to do. Obama was an instructive example, as we now see the corporatized political establishment making a frontal assault on unions, civil rights, and social programs. And because Obama is a Democrat, and the Governors are Republicans, we see the population withdrawing to their corners with the standard cry "We'll vote for the other guy next time!" It's time for us to make some deep changes that wipe the corporate corruption from our society, particularly from our political process. But I fear it may be too late.

We are faced with a dilemma that I'm not sure we're ready to address. The American public has been so complacent and so polarized and divided through such simple filters for so many years that I'm not sure we can ever come together in a unified effort of the magnitude necessary to call the sole world superpower to account.

The state of the union, in my unworthy opinion, is this - Divided, we stand.