Progressive Ponderings: More of the Same
"Progressive Ponderings"10/25/2007
by Joe Mayers
October 25, 2007
Some people have spent six and one-half years ruining this country – loss of civil liberties, disrespect of human rights, secrecy in government, election fraud, widening the income/wealth gap, increased corruption, environmental devastation, politics of fear and money, promise of perpetual war, rejection by world opinion, a crumbling infrastructure, a legacy of obscene debt to our heirs, and a rule by capitalism in place of democracy. Without rejecting the disastrous consequences or accepting any responsibility, presidential candidates promise more of the same. Analysis of America's problems, foreign and domestic, places self-introspection "off-the-table." Should a candidate of either major party suggest fault with our own policies, the right-wing hate mongers move into action. The diatribes are echoed throughout the media as a warning that campaigning on the main issues of public despair means political suicide.
The political sphere now panders to the religious sphere. This so-called Christian sphere is not recognizable in the life and teachings of its namesake. Compassion, reaching out to the downtrodden, and "love neighbor as self" are condemned as signs of weakness. In place of Jesus' true nature, an ideology of hatred, violence, self-indulgence and a wealth gospel is substituted. Mainline Christianity observes in self-muted silence this new crucifixion taking place in the name of wealth and power.
A government that ignores the will and rights of its citizens will ignore the will and rights of other peoples, nations and cultures. A government that suppresses the public opinion and needs of other nations and peoples will suppress the opinion and needs of its own people. A government that manipulates its own people through secrecy, fear and hatred will do the same to other peoples and nations. A government that lies to the world will lie to its own people. Patterns of governing stay consistent regardless of what constituencies are victimized.
Fear, hatred, secrecy, lies, violence will never achieve peace. Peace is never an objective of power which parades dominance as "peace." The only path to guarantee peace, domestic and international, is respect for the human and civil rights of all peoples.
In this age of staged "reality television," our politicians stage a public relations scenario. Only power, theirs, can correct the devastation they have created and that more of the same will bring about different results. The public, the citizens, the taxpayers behind these schemes are both the victims and the enablers in this system of imagery. Public relations drowns reality as politicos reinvent themselves to accommodate a make-believe democracy. The cause of our problems has no role in this script. The corporate sponsors of unreality will pay for only profitable pseudo solutions. Real solutions that improve the lives of real people are never cast in this script.
The main enemy today is our own bad traits: an indifference to the common good; pride; selfishness; an inner aggression and violence; a God created in our self-image. Until we turn our struggle to our own personal demons, the hunger for peace and justice stay on the stage of imagery.