Saturday, January 19, 2008

Hearts of Darkness

America is a great country and Americans are a great people. The potential for contributing to our own common good, as well as towards beneficial influence abroad has been enormous.

Tragically the Hearts of Darkness in Washington and on Wall Street have corrupted and abused that potential with their selfish lust for power and profit. Look what they've done to others, and shamelessly claimed to do have done in our name. They have lied and bullied, looted and pillaged, impoverished and exploited. And if none of those worked, they bombed and invaded countries, and murdered people who were no threat to us.

They dare to claim the right to impose "regime change" on anyone not cooperating with their agenda. Their illegitimate seizure of both foreign and domestic assets and resources has been the pattern of their empire building. The boldness they exhibit has now reached a level that cannot be ignored.

I urge you to read John Perkins' "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." It is an outstanding first person account and history of the cruel meddling by American corporatism in vulnerable countries.

I may be accused of blaming America, but we know our citizens never asked for these horrible acts of imperial aggression. When the US inevitably got attacked, the Hearts of Darkness then had the gall to tell us, "They hate us for our freedom."

It's time for revolution. We need revolution to expand our consciousness of what has been done. We need revolution to expand our conscience to guide us into doing something about it. The revolution can succeed if it is peaceful. Violence will only destroy us further and give the power elite another reason for additional repression. The government is already sculpting laws that treat dissent as terrorism.

Now they are turning on us because we, the people, are waking up and demanding justice. And justice is the last thing Washington and Wall Street want. They scorn and ignore the rule of law when it limits their power. They pervert the rule of law when it suits their objectives.

We are the ones now in their sights, and are targeted for total surveillance and control. They are the ones who hate America. Those Hearts of Darkness are the ones who hate us for our freedom. It is their institutionalized evil that is destroying our beloved country. The deadly convergence of corporatism and militarism is our nation's fatal disease.

I wonder, how will those foreigners "hate us for our freedom" when we have no freedom left?

We must learn from Gandhi’s example how to resist empire. Sooner or later we will be forced into acts of non-violent non-cooperation. We have to get at them where it matters. Boycotting the most egregious anti-American corporate entities would be a good start.

The economy will reach the point where our money won't be flowing into the corporatocracy like they've been used to. We have the numbers required to wield the power of purchase or non-purchase. We need to identify where the money flow will hurt or help us. I believe we can regain our nation's moral compass, though the obstacles are numerous and difficult.

Reclaiming our media to work in the public's interest is a vital goal. We need more exposure to Bill Moyers' kind of compassion and curiosity. And we need less exposure to the Rush O'Reallys' authoritarian fueled lies and bluster.

The corporate media has betrayed our trust in its use of the public-owned broadcast spectrum. Instead of informing us on what the government is doing to us and others, it has sided with corporatists and authoritarians by keeping us frightened, ignorant, angry and confused.

Information is our ammunition. Our collective buying power is our weapon. The people still have power. The question is when will we as the people realize this and activate that power. We need to use it, or we shall surely lose it.

18 comments:

Anne said...

Nice post title, and the content is great. Revolution is such a bad word in our country. Why?? I'm not afraid of it, at this (sad) point in time.

jmsjoin said...

Dave
The entire system we used to rely on has turned against us. the Government, The legal system, the media, they are all complicit in what is happen
When I first said we were going to have to come together as we did to establish America and that we had to come together once again if we want to get it back, people got pretty mad at me and distanced themselves.
Now that the idiot has so much power over us and the future I think it is too late but never the less it will come to that.
If there is to be anything positive done for we the people and our America it has to come from us. and that would just be a start.
The whole world is now involved, siding up to take Bush on. We would have to get the entire world to realize the brevity of our situation. I was thinking about it today and how we would have to do it on a grass roots level around the world.
I have hope that I can get the 90 year old relentless liberal who is more relentless than ever and who has more political pull than anyone I know will realize how bad this is and what we once again must do.
I am still working on him and his son 65 year old Danny. Danny E'd me and said we hit it off and I am in touch Daily so I have hope!

TomCat said...

Hi Dave. First. thanks for your visit and lucid comment at Politics Plus. This article is superior analysis and I fully agree with it. I'm especially impressed by your commitment nonviolence as a means of change, as I too subscribe to the philosophy of Gandhi and King.

Dave Dubya said...

Annie,
Let's remember the last line from The Beatles' Revolution. "Don't you know it's gonna be alright."

Jim,
We are not so blind so as not see they are out to subjugate us. Yes, grass roots is the way the Right built its power base. Time for that wheel to turn.

Tomcat,
I must say, I'm happy to have finally made it over to your place. Looking forward to seeing much more over there.

TomCat said...

Thanks for the kind words, Dave. You are more than welcome. Loved your tune, BTW. Since our ages are similar, are you also a retreaded 1960s activist?

Unknown said...

Peaceful revolution is a nice thought, Dave, but I think we may be past that point. I hope and pray that I'm wrong. The Corporatists have siezed the power using the name of America. They will NOT give it up easily, it will have to be wrenched from them. They have rent the Constitution, to the point it is almost unrecognizable. And as you pointed out, are making dissent an act of terrorism. The longer we try using peaceful means to change things, the harder it will become to effect the change.

Nice post, keep up the good work.

Dave Dubya said...

Tomcat,

Glad you like my tune. I'll have to put my music links up front.

In the early 60's (The little town in the big North Woods where I come from was still in the early 50's then.) I wanted go to a military academy and be a pilot.

My brother went to ‘Nam in '66 and was attached to the 101st Airborne. He soon strongly advised me not to join the military. I listened.

By 1970 I learned that I'd rather hold a guitar than a rifle. I discovered I wanted to explore life's mysteries, instead of adhering to closed minded assumptions and belief systems. (Hmm. Maybe that's why those fellow yokels started calling me freaky hippie.)

I found faith without dogma, truth in my heart, and peace in my soul. (Hey, maybe that's why friends asked me to get ordained online, so Rev. Dave could officiate their wedding.)

Politics seemed vain and pointless until I saw the country slip away under Reagan, and Bush, and Clinton, and......AARRGGHH!. The death of democracy in 2000 got me off my ass, and the obsession set in. My first march in the street was in February 2003, along with the rest of the un-hypnotized people of the world.

When I retired in 2005, friends and family told me I needed to start a blog. I never considered myself a writer and didn’t seriously think about it. Since my dear wife Sue got me a domain name for a retirement gift, I eventually decided to poke around with it a bit.

Maybe having my comments read the on the Jack Cafferty File on CNN stimulated my need for attention, too. (See those near the bottom of 2007 link.)

Thanks to those good folks close to me, who probably got tired of me on the damn soapbox all the time, I can vent and rant and release without hurting their ears.

And it’s more than just personal, of course. For too long, we as a nation have been conditioned by the insidious nexus of corporate media and corporate government to go to work, and come home to our telescreen illuminated cages, and shut up.

I can’t shut up, and it’s time to rattle those cages.

Dave Dubya said...

Brother Tim

Thanks. I just can't see how anything but peaceful revolution can work. Even if the military could truly defend the Constitution instead of only protecting the government, the transition must be done peacefully and politically.

We need constitutionally motivated opposition policies enacted by a Congress with courage and conviction. We the people need to push them into that realization. If they knew they’d lose their jobs, then they might do the right thing. The people must act.

The times are changing. The impetus may come soon. Have you seen the Dow has dropped 10 percent in the last four weeks? It may just take a depression to wake up Congress. Let's hope for an FDR inspired leader in the White House nest year.

Unknown said...

Dave--
If we're gonna get an FDR inspired leader in the White House next year, it is someone who is yet unannounced. Not a single candidate to date, would equal a pimple on FDR's *ss.

That's my opinion anyway.

Unknown said...

One more thing, Dave. The reason I hold little hope for a peaceful revolution is this: It's my belief that the Prime Targets of all the illegal wire-tapping were the members of both Chambers of Congress; the everyday average citizens were just lagniappe. If you don't think that possible, need I remind you of how J Edgar Hoover held on to his power for 48 years? The only one that was able to take him out, was the Grim Reaper. Rather than have their reputations sullied, they will play to the status quo. All the illegal spying is firmly entrenched, and will be a massive undertaking to dismantle it. With all the stuff we already know about, just think of the stuff we've yet to discover.

I do seriously hope that you're right and I'm wrong though.

Ya know, the only time Jesus ever 'lost His cool', was when He had to physically throw the money-changers out of the temple. See any correlation there?

Wheeeeeew....Old Irish Preacher needs to go take a nap now.

Geezer Power said...

Dave

We might have been closer to the answers to todays problems back in the 1960's when we were thinking seriously about George Orwell, geodesic domes and communal living. We could feel the change that was coming but many of us were reading the Whole Earth Catalog and seeking the simple life. Living in Santa Cruz, right in the middle of the hippy movement. I was what was called a weekend hippy, until my hair got so long that I was among the first to get layed off during the early 1970's when I quit working for a couple of years and lived on unemployment and flea markets.
I was pretty much apolitical and hadn't voted since the Kennedy assinations. Politics didn't seem as important as social change and the hippies thought that we were on some kind of forefront of awareness known only to Guru's and medicine men. Oh well, it was fun and I eventually decided to vote again, when I heard that GWB was running for presiden't. I had a computer that was on line so spent a lot of time on the internet and eventually ventured into blogging about Bu$hco and the Evil Empire. My old Toyota van is covered with antiwar stickers, my favorite being "Ronald Dumsfeld", and like you my first anti war marches were in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Thanks for your comment on my blog and for the folk music, it would be fun to set in with ya'll. I like porch music and can play a little in C D e and sometimes...G:

Dave Dubya said...

Brother Tim,

You’re right, none of the leading candidates would be worthy of holding the job of cleaning FDR’s cigarette holder. We can hope the person will at least draw a little inspiration from our own historical role model.

The new president will need to figure out how to get us out of a depression and back to working on our domestic needs. As the economy declines, the popular demand for New Deal style measures will rise. Fixing our collapsing infrastructure would provide an incredible job program. It doesn’t require that much vision, just a little sense of a unifying purpose for American workers.

I’ll bet there are a lot of unemployed former republican voters who would agree.

You won’t find any disagreement from me on the illegal wiretapping. That’s a done deal. We know from former AT&T technician Mark Klein that the entire data stream was tapped at the Folsom Street Facility in San Francisco. We can also assume the presence of untold numbers of Hoover clones secretly abusing that information.

Let’s hope someone comes out and exposes this soon. If enough people report this blackmail, it could be turned against the Hooverites.

The reason immunity for the telecoms is demanded, is because there was a crime. Merely debating this immunity could lead to a deal. The dems are arguing that in order to give immunity they want to see more of what the program has done. I think they are in a position to pull this off. It will take a little unity and nerve. Dodd has given them an example by preventing recess appointments.

How about an immunity deal for, not just the telecoms, but for everyone in the database? Prohibit any information that was data mined from being released or used unless there was a previous warrant for it.

As far as the blackmail is concerned, if a group of politicians came forward and said, “We are being threatened by the criminal wiretappers who will say anything to stop us. They have proven they can’t be trusted. We are now taking a stand to stop them from doing this to the rest of America.”

With the economy shattered by the Republicans, people will listen to the opposition.

Dave Dubya said...

GP,

Add an A Major and you know all the chords to Biggest Brother. That was about all I knew on the mandoline, and I was ten years rusty to boot.

Thanks for listening.

Unknown said...

"How about an immunity deal for, not just the telecoms, but for everyone in the database? Prohibit any information that was data mined from being released or used unless there was a previous warrant for it."

Dave, that is about the newest, most sensible idea, and also the most logical one, that I have ever heard in regards to this fiasco. That is astute thinking at it's best. It should be shouted from the rooftops. I'll be using that line myself. It would be a dagger in Bush's black heart. Thanks, my friend!

TomCat said...

Dave, after the 1968 convention in Chicago, the weather faction gained the upper hand in SDS and in the anti-war movement as a whole, and I dropped out, because I could not reconcile the tactics with belief in nonviolence. The abuses under Bush I rekindled my interests, and when Crawford Caligula ran for President, that energized me to become involved once again.

Larry said...

I don't know what kind of revolution it will take but obviously playing nice doesn't get their attention, nor does the corrupt ballot box.

TomCat said...

With Edwards gone, there are no progressives left, we still need to keep the Repuglicans out of power. maybe the time to join a 3rd party is 1/21/2009.

TomCat said...

I added you to my blogroll. Please pardon the delay.