Here is what I’m thinking about this week. Nothing too much out of the ordinary, frankly.
Another lie falls flat. Just listened to a harrowing story on Democracy Now!, about ten days old (I listen to the podcasts up here in nowheresville). Amy Goodman was talking to the wife of an Iraqi detainee – a partially disabled ex-general who’s been locked up by the Iraqis for about a year, tortured hideously, without charge or any prospect for release. The story is sadly familiar in its contours – you can find similar ones in practically every country we’ve ever “helped”. Listening to it, I could only think of one of the many justifications for the invasion of Iraq; that of protecting human rights, ending torture, etc. There will be no more rape rooms, George W. Bush promised to the Iraqis as he announced his unilateral, criminal war in March 2003. Well…. there are rape rooms. Another lie bites the dust.
Not your monkey. It’s the economy, stupid, to be sure, but what about the economy? If a generalization can be made about the past three decades in U.S. economic history, it’s that the rich have done extremely well and the middle class and poor have lost ground… lots of ground. Someone no doubt has shouted “class war!” already, but friends, there has been a class war underway for thirty years now, and it’s being waged on us. And frankly, we’re losing. Part of the reason for that is that we are atomized, disorganized, and at war with one another. We are encouraged to be so from the moment we become aware of the world around us.
Look at the media / pundit reaction to the massive protests across Europe in opposition to austerity measures (to the extent that they’ve been covered, that is). Over here, the narrative is that these are spoiled workers complaining about nothing. Unspoken is the fact that, here in the land of the free, it is literally against the law to call a general strike (see: Taft-Hartley). What those folks are doing across the pond is something we are not allowed to do, with our constitution, bill of rights, etc. That’s because they’ve hung together and fought to hold on to their rights, whereas we appear poised to allow the true party of corporate power (rather than the second-choice party of corporate power) to run the game again.
When will we stop losing this class war? When we finally stand up and tell that top 3 percent that we’re not their monkey anymore.
luv u,
jp
