"American historian, Beard said,
the rich must, in their own interest, either control the government directly
or control the laws by which government operates. Beard applied this general
idea to the Constitution, by studying the economic backgrounds and political
ideas of the fifty-five men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to draw up
the American Constitution. He found that a majority of them were lawyers by
profession, that most of them were men of wealth, in land, slaves,
manufacturing, or shipping, that half of them had money loaned out at
interest, and that forty of the fifty-five held government bonds, according
to the records of the Treasury Department. Thus, Beard found that most of the
makers of the Constitution had some direct economic interest in establishing
a strong federal government: the manufacturers needed protective tariffs; the
moneylenders wanted to stop the use of paper money to pay off debts; the land
speculators wanted protection as they invaded Indian lands; slave owners
needed federal security against slave revolts and runaways; bondholders
wanted a government able to raise money by nationwide taxation, to pay off
those bonds... Four groups, Beard noted, were not represented in the
Constitutional Convention: slaves, indentured servants, women, men without
property. And so the Constitution did not reflect the interests of those
groups". A
People's History of the United States 1492-Present by Howard Zinn page 83
Watching politicians, corporate leaders,
the military and media talking heads lie, flip-flop, prevaricate, double
speak and obfuscate the issues of the day, we might think this is a new
phenomenon. Not so. Under modern democracy the politicians, educators, media
and religious leaders have always lied, always sought to dupe the masses whom
they look down upon and have always done whatever they thought they could get
away with including murder to get what they wanted. America 's political
environment as seen in the current election cycle is demonstrating to the
world just how disingenuous, corrupt and rigged the political process can be
and how candidates easily fall in line and acquiesce to the immorality and
sleaze built into and endemic to the system.
We live in an era where the masses are
programmed to be stupid. Stupidity has nothing to do with innate
intelligence. Stupid comes from the root word stupor meaning to be in a daze,
unconscious, a state of extreme apathy. This aptly describes much of the
public. Yes, we can get hyped for sports, or to revel and party but for
serious things, where our future, our safety and a sense of vision for
ourselves and country are concerned we are not up to snuff.
The ruling class, the shot callers and
decision makers are definitely trying to make us stupid. Are we so out of it,
so comatose and apathetic we will quietly acquiesce and go along with their
plans to dumb us down even further? The ruling elites have no respect for the
masses. They call them the rabble, useless and worse. And their puppets in
politics, the mass media, and business follow their cue and treat the masses
with no respect. They go to great lengths to insult their intelligence in
furtherance of the elite's nefarious agenda.
The one thing that has remained constant
is: the poor and working class hold no check or influence in public, national
or international policy. "Multivariate analysis indicates that economic
elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial
independent impacts on government policy, while average citizens and
mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The wealthy few move policy, while
the average citizen has little power.
When a majority of citizens disagrees with
economic elites and/or with organised interests, they generally lose.
Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the political
system, even when fairly large majorities favour policy change, they
generally do not get it. Modern
society do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as
regular elections, freedom of speech and association and a widespread (if
still contested) franchise. But the truth is that if policymaking is
dominated by powerful business organisations and a small number of affluent
people, then the claims to being a democratic society are seriously
threatened. Modern democracy is essentially an oligarchy not a democracy.
If you are reading this and saying tell
me something I don't already know, then the question to you is what are you doing
in light of this reality? This question is necessary, because in the past
there were countless rebellions, riots, strikes, shut downs and other forms
of resistance to ruling class exploitation and control from colonial times to
the modern era.
The question is what are you/we going to
do about the present situation? Are you one of the millions who doesn't vote
or even keep up with current events? Are you a reformer seeking to bring
about true justice and inclusivity in a corrupt divided society? Are you
seeking to enter headlong into the burning and collapsing house that is
modern democracy? Or are you trying to figure out how to survive the immanent
collapse and build a morally viable and humane community of like-minded
people who know we can do and be better?
 |
Comments
Post a Comment