OpEds: Venting spleen in the land of deaf mutes

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Vox populi, vox dei—
Venting spleen in the land of deaf mutes

By Mary Pishney

The corporatacy’s relentless march toward a feudal world is blatantly exerting its omnipresent power and control. Obama’s persecution of anyone who exposes systemic evil eclipses previous rulers, including the abject George W. Bush, as has his witch hunting rhetoric. Still, the nation sleeps in apathetic bliss.

Snowden’s revelations and his global persecution reflect the bared teeth of tyranny. Tyrants by definition will seek out and destroy freedom. This truism is being illustrated before our eyes with hardly a veneer of a sophist’s pseudo patriotic platitude. Is that tattered, t­rite canard no longer necessary? Instilling fear has replaced such execises in “soft” public relations. The mantra of “Security!” is constantly sprayed upon the whole political universe, sanitizing huge crimes. And today, with brave Ed Snowden in the equation, an impudent cry of “traitors!” has surged in Washington from precisely the ranks where treachery and self-seeking runs deepest. Federal power —Cheney’s and the Neocons dream of an unaccountable executive, a suitable Caesar’s office for the new Rome—eclipses every Constitutional tenet once believed (naively) to be an absolute barrier to usurpations. No one cares. Revelations of mind-numbing spying, both national and international have evoked more anger from affected countries than our sophomoric citizenry. What an ominous future do such illegal invasions portend?

[pullquote] One can mendaciously boast in sanctimonious tones like our president did when speaking to the ’troops’ on July 4 about greatness and duty and other slop, but this gets to be more and more threadbare and the people know it. In fact this boastfulness is what makes this country so hard on foreigners who bear the brunt of its Real Politik in war and destruction but have to listen to the self congratulating propaganda which was never even equaled in imperialist Britain. —P. Pavimentov
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The country has exchanged patriotic poison for the chimera of security. But as Ben Franklin warned us, “Those who surrender freedom for security will end up with neither.”

Huge, million square foot enclaves, erected just to store the “minimum security bits,” is a ludicrous lie. No one cares. The public apathy, presented in the foolhardy response, “I’ve got nothing to hide”, trumps any warning given by those who see the serpent entwining the public’s freedoms. Warnings given are met with anger, exacerbated if accompanied by undeniable facts. And anger often turns to rage. “Don’t bother us!” “Hang the messenger!” Even for a republic well known around the planet for its political dullness, passivity, and individualistic miasma, our age is quickly providing new appalling examples.

I have experienced this advancing tyranny myself. And, as any reader can imagine, until one is faced with the false façade of “justice” and have witnessed the denial of basic rights, the descent to a police state seems a mere figment of a frenzied mind. Such a confrontation with corporate terrorism in the guise of federal justice for workers is a shattering, paradigm changing event, a stark, personal epiphany of the corporate controlled country we attempt to exist in. Could we have passed a tipping point in the war for our democracy? After the events of the past month, that reality is staring us all in the face.

The maggot media, bloated with profits and ever loyal to their corporate masters, have also reached a new low. Millions protest in Egypt—a world changing event— but little useful explanation besides some confusing images and empty blather is offered on our screens. Instead we get profuse details about the never-ending saga of the Kardashian clan, the latest win or loss by some football team, or similar inconsequential crapitudes. This is all well known, irrefutably documented and hardly news to those who follow social and political events with a clear mind. The problem here is that the United States is not Bolivia (no offense to Bolivia, a nation with a far more progressive leadership and educated people than our own). For while the horrendous failure of the media in a nation like Bolivia might only injure its citizens, doubtless regrettable, the failure of the media in a superpower the size of America has catastrophic consequences for the entire world. It’s a case of the base political coinage of America dragging everyone down along with it. Indeed that is exactly what we witness today, the product of a protracted but inevitable degeneration of a communications system whose predominant allegiance has always been to money instead of truth.

Under such circumstances, with the US media in command, mind-rot has preempted the reality of a world plummeting to a feudal state. Where does truth flourish in today’s America? And does it matter if it NEVER penetrates the national debate? Diogenes sought to find an honest man in his society. His was a futile quest. Were he alive today in these dear old United States, he’d find the situation even more desperate, frustrating and commonplace. Banal evil literally triumphant and defiant. For the honest have been successfully corralled in information ghettos where their voices are allowed but seldom heard. It’s a world of massive delusions in which the average citizen, having imbibed the national myths, is his or her own mental jailer. Tragically for our world, the stakes are now far, far higher. Please tell me that I’m wrong.

Mary Pishney is a former educator with a lifelong interest in history.  She makes her home in Denver, Colorado.