Just Corporations and Profits Count. It is time for We The People

Dennis comments ♦ October 20, 2020 ♦ Leave a comment

I wrote this article over 50 years ago.  As the songs says, “When will we Ever Learn?”

DL BLEWITT

IMPEACH EARL WARREN

Memories during the Cuban Missile Crises

                The first billboard out of Boulder on the way to the Atomic Bomb factory at Rocky Flats bomb factory targeted the current Supreme Court Justice.  These were put up by the John Birch Society, which exists now under different monikers, but the message is the same. The next one said “Get the US out of the RED UN.”  This was the end of the cold war.  CU still required a loyalty oath and bomb shelters were found in many basements.  Joe Coors was running for reagent of the university stating he was going to rid the institution of commies.  The CIA had infiltrated the National Student Association, and Ozzie and Harriet was one of the most popular TV shows.  Of course, with atomic bombs, euphemistically called “triggers,” manufactured just ten miles away, missiles manufactured 30 miles away and nerve gas manufactured 40 miles away, I seriously doubt there were many commies in the neighborhood.  However the accusations and fear mongering made good headlines.  In this state of paranoia, a holy war crusade emerged.  Godless communism must be defeated.  In school, we had duck and cover atomic bomb drills, nerve gas drills, and the universal fire drills.  We lived in fear.  Then something happened.  We said to hell with it, why worry about something over which we have now control?  If some goofy bastard launches missiles, so be it.  In the meantime, let’s live.

                The fear mongering produced beatniks and then hippies.  Spirits were free, along with drugs, sex, and rock and roll.  Of course, the uptight rulers got nervous and intensified their attack on the “Godless” communists.  Instead of worrying about communist economics, totalitarian Napoleonic police state and important things, they were worried about lack of belief in a deity.  Communism was the devil.  It had no God, calling capitalism the God of the west.  That was the late fifties and early sixties.  McCarthyism was with us into the sixties and manifested itself in other crusades, such as fear of civil rights and the assertion the Rockefeller was a communist.  Communist and atheist were used interchangeably.  Christians were good, communists were bad.  In the spirit of the Crusades, bumper stickers appeared with the mantra, “Kill a Commie for Christ.”  There was no question of the morality of killing.  Evil was being fought in a holy war.  God was on our side only because the opposition was godless.  Life was as simple as the minds until social upheaval started the young thinking.  Fear of communism distracted from real problems such as poverty, housing, health care and employment.

                Now, as I sit and watch the Occupy Wall Street news on television, I am reminded of the former days of protest.  It has expanded to other cities and could go global.  We no longer fear communists.  We fear terrorists, called Al Qaeda, or Arab extremists, or other words to fit the current prejudice.  However, after ten years of war on terror and war on drugs while the infra-structure, health care, education, and banking risk irreparable harm, the public is fed up.  They see some people taking the lion’s share of the wealth, while fellow citizens lose their houses, jobs, cars and other things.  They see bankers flying to Washington asking for handouts in private corporate jets.  They are fed bullshit that giving money to the rich creates jobs, and God favors the rich.  In short, the people are tired of being screwed and exploited.  They see the Corporations and their Government view them as pigeons to be plucked.  The whole world seems predatory, and Government is protecting the predators.  Police generate revenue, courts generate revenue, jails generate revenue, plus the tax burden on the worker gets more onerous as buying power is cut.  The culprit is the Corporation.  It is godless, without morals or conscience.  Because of the lack of ability to determine what is good for any other entity than itself, it should not have any power.  It is not a person.  It cannot think.  I can not consciously do good.  And, in about 1980, a Delaware Court ruled that a corporation’s and its directors only obligation is to the stockholders; not the public, not the government, not the general good.  Social Darwinism was given Court approval by the Corporate dominated courts.  In the celebration that followed, the people became prey for the vultures of the capitalistic corporations and the predatory state, promoting privatization.

                However, the rich don’t get it.  Finally, the people said “enough,” and took to the streets.  The Corporate controlled media downplayed the news, portraying the social unrest as a bunch of young brats with nothing better to do.  Their analysts conclude there is no threat because the people are not presenting an alternative plan.  These delusional idiots, whose job it is to govern, protect and mete out fairness believe that the Public should do their jobs.  If the people don’t have alternatives, then why worry.”  The capitalist system and free market ideology ruled and was presented to the public by the powerful as coincidental with Christianity.  The exploitation was institutionalized and faith based.  If you believed in a deity, you had to believe in capitalism.  All else was godless.

                This is the same attitude of French royalty and clergy exhibited before they lost their heads.  That revolution didn’t happen overnight.  Their king had many chances to change things, but they were too oblivious to the plight of the people that they danced away in happy ignorance. 

                Now, our rulers do the same thing.  Instead of concluding that there is a problem and that the people expect them to forge a solution, they feign ignorance and ask, “What do you want? What are we to do?”  They don’t quite see that they should be asking those questions of themselves.  Instead of allowing predatory practices, and in some cases joining in on them, the politicians and officials should start protecting their constituents.  Corporations aren’t going to rebel, but citizens could.  The right has ridden roughshod over the people of this country and have produced a nation as bankrupt as their philosophy of greed  They see their millions as a deserving entitlement.  The people see it as a mechanism to exploit them and bribe officials.  They call the curtailment of power taxing the rich instead of creating a climate of social, economic and political justice.  Soon even the bribed politicians will desert the rich in fear for their own safety.  So far, they have the police acting against their class interest believing they will be rewarded by the greedy masters whom they chose to serve.  However, in time even the dumbest cop will see that they are being used to promote oppression and suppress fairness.  Law and order is not justice.  Fascists want law and order, the people want justice.  The bumper sticker that read “Kill a Commie for Christ”  might suddenly change to “Kill a Capitalist for Christ.”  Hopefully the teachings of Gandhi will prevail, and the religious crusades will fade.