The sign on the bus said, “What will you do when this circuit learns your job?” Someone scribbled in response, “brake the circuit.” When I saw that illiterate and violent reaction, in 1962, as a high school student, I realized that violence comes from ignorance and that free-thinking people need to be worried about the actions of the ignorant.
I see this again today in America. Too many citizens, who are uneducated, or undereducated, are full of ignorance and fear. They are being kept in their place by the circuits of privilege and wealth who are out to break them. They have been rendered illiterate and fearful by the rich and powerful. The problem is, these voters are now “just too plain stupid” to understand these simple facts.
Today, economic power and political might rest in the hands of corporations. Global industries are controlling the accumulation and preservation of wealth around the world. Too many of their principal owners are unprincipled arbiters of world policy. The very rich are very few and very powerful. We are not really ruled by governments anymore, but, rather, controlled by the greedy dictators of the banking, energy, insurance, defense and pharmaceutical industries.
In order to continue their plunder of world treasure, these companies need to shed government regulation, eliminate worker benefits, skirt environmental protections, dismiss the sick and the elderly, exploit cheap labor and manipulate public debate.
They do this through the political and propagandist maneuverings of a cabal who will do their bidding. Here, in America, that cabal would be the Republican Party, FOX News and conservative radio talk show hosts. Their job is to obfuscate and keep the masses misinformed and fearful, keeping their eyes averted, while the corporations profit from the accumulation of the world’s resources.
In pursuit of that goal, the cabal gets the “just plain stupid” to look the wrong way. They get them up in arms against “ground zero mosques”, “death panels”, terrorism, gun control, school prayer, illegal immigration, gay marriage and the like. They make the misinformed think that they will lose their guns, their neighborhoods, their livelihoods, their liberties, their "way of life." Of course, these are all canards, meant to distract, while those in control raid treasuries, reduce their own taxes and operate with abandon to increase their influence and wealth.
To keep the spotlight off their own shenanigans, the corporations and their puppets want the “just plain stupid” to think that government is their enemy, particularly a progressive federal government.
But, in fact, it is the corporations who are foreclosing on people’s homes, sending jobs overseas, raising health care costs. Corporations have taken away worker benefits, fouled the atsmosphere, bankrupted pension funds and are now trying to end Social Security benefits. The same companies and their political hatchet men are trying to end public education in favor of a so-called voucher system, which will, of course, benefit the rich at the expense of the poor, keeping the underclass undereducated.
Their greedy pursuit of more money at the expense of common workers and national economies has been relentless. Their elimination of pensions and benefits has been planned. Their reduction of the living wage for American workers in exchange for exploitation of cheap foreign labor has been purposeful. Their abandonment of the sick and elderly has been cynical. Their dishonest “dumbing down of America” has been incrementally successful and fruitful.
At the moment, they are working forcefully and diligently to all but eliminate taxes on the wealthy. They say if the rich have to pay more taxes, they won’t invest in the economy. They say small businesses will suffer and go broke. They say more money in the pockets of the rich will trickle down and mean better lives for the middle class and the poor. These are all lies, pure and simple. When they are repeated loudly and often, they take on the ring of truth. But, lies are still lies, no matter how loudly and repeatedly professed.
When the Republicans talk about “getting the government out of our lives”, they don’t mean the lives of the common person. That's just a scare tactic making voters think that the big, bad, federal government is trying to control their health care decisions, personal relationships, ways of worship. Again, all canards. What the Republicans mean to protect from government control are their corporate benefactors. They mean to set those companies free to exploit with no oversight or consequence.
But, it is government that protects the citizenry. With no federal watchdogs, corporations will no longer be held responsible for paying decent wages, giving benefits to their workers, making safe products, protecting the environment, paying their fair share of taxes or taking responsibility for their actions.
It is a free and vibrant press, in turn, that keeps everyone honest. So, attacking and destroying the credibility of journalism is another goal of the rich and powerful. If they can make everyone question the veracity of legitimate news reports, then the atmosphere for their deception is rife. Lies again become the truth, and the lives of the liars are enriched.
All of this should be painfully obvious to anyone with a decent intellect and a working knowledge of current events.
But, alas, more and more of the “just plain stupid” are believing misinformation, distortion and deception intentionally meant to manipulate them, frighten them and move them to angry outrage against gays, immigrants, Muslims, elites, progressives, government, intellectuals, media, whatever - all red herrings.
In short, the true enemies of the common man, the corporations and their cabals, have turned the ignorant masses against their natural benefactors - progressive governments and a free press.
So, how do we get the “just plain stupid” to understand that they have been snowed? How do we get them to understand who is really on their side? How do we get them to understand that they are being intentionally manipulated? How do we “break the circuit” of deceit? What should we do?
I guess we need to keep repeating, as convincingly as possible, the truths that should be self-evident. And we need to reform and repair those public institutions that have been damaged or broken. I suggest that these are things that should be done:
JOURNALISM: A lie should be called out whenever and wherever it tries to destroy the truth. Distortions should be countered with facts. Journalists should reclaim their mantle of credibility and never allow a mis-truth to be spoken without challenge.
NEWS ORGANIZATIONS: No company should be allowed to identify itself as a news organization if it contributes money or reportorial space in advocacy of any political party or cause. All news and commentary should be separated, with all opinion clearly identified.
MEDIA COMPANIES: No media company should be allowed to own the collection, creation and dissemination of information. Each should be separate to prevent a monopoly on that information.
INTERNET: The Internet should remain unregulated, un-owned, free and open for anyone and everyone to use as they see fit. And, as a self-policing check and balance, everyone getting information off the Internet should fact check it before endorsing or disseminating it.
REGULATION: No corporation should be allowed to endanger the population in any way. Regulating the energy, financial, industrial, pharmaceutical, defense, insurance, medical industries is a must.
STOCK MARKET: The buying and selling of financial instruments should be regulated, so as not to gamble away the capital wealth of honest investors and unwitting shareholders.
CORPORATE TAXES: Corporate giants should not enjoy the benefits of unfair tax advantages while reaping obscene record profits. The more they make, the more they should pay in taxes.
FAIR TAXES: The tax codes should be rewritten so that everyone pays their fair share. That is, very simply, again, the more you make, the more you pay.
JOBS: Companies that operate on American soil should have an obligation to their communities. There should be tax incentives for job creation here and tax penalties for sending jobs overseas.
LIVING WAGES: Workers should be afforded a decent living. Minimum wage requirements are, and should be, the purview of the government. Labor unions should be encouraged to negotiate for better wages and benefits.
PENSIONS: Workers who have given a lifetime of labor for the benefit of a company should, by law, be benefited in return by that same company.
HEALTH CARE: Everyone should have the right to a healthy life. Insurance companies should be prevented, by law, from purging their rolls of the sick and the elderly. Doctors and hospitals should strive for lower medical costs.
ELDERLY CARE: We should take good care of the senior members of our community. Their health care costs should be lowered and subsidized with tax dollars. And, Social Security, should continue to be funded by the government for this generation and all generations to come.
EDUCATION: Public education needs to be funded by all tax payers instead of by property owners in a school district. The current funding insures that rich neighborhoods turn out the well-educated and poor communities turn out the ill-educated. We owe all our children an equal education.
MARRIAGE: Anyone, anywhere, anytime should be able to profess their love for another and marry them. Period.
IMMIGRATION: We should be the most welcoming country on earth for immigrants. Those who have come here illegally to benefit themselves and their families should be given an opportunity to present themselves and become resident workers or U.S. citizens.
GUNS: Those who have hunting rifles or personal handguns should register them. No one, outside law enforcement, should own an assault weapon.
TERRORISM: We should stop treating terrorism as a war and, instead, use our law enforcement and intelligence community resources to identify, target and eliminate those we have proven intend to do us harm.
WARS: No war should be waged without a declaration of The Senate of the United States, as defined in The Constitution. The unlawful wars being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan, meant to change Islamic & Arab cultures, garner oil resources and support the energy and defense industries, are misguided and unsustainable. We should bring our troops home promptly.
VETERANS: All veterans, by law, should have their service honored with full education and health care for life, paid for with tax revenues.
RELIGION: Everyone should be free to believe or disbelieve whatever religious philosophy they choose. And, by law, no one should be allowed to prevent anyone else from practicing their religion when and where they choose. By the same token, by law, no one should be forced to endure the preachings of any religion in a government or public space.
BUDGET: Our federal government should be prudent and efficient in its collection and spending of tax monies. The Obama administration should develop a thoughtful and just plan to reduce the current deficit, irresponsibly created by the Bush administration, with the goal of returning to the budget surplus of the Clinton administration.
FEDERAL SPENDING: Defense spending should be reduced, as it has always been larger than necessary. Seed money for university research and development in the fields of energy and medicine should be greatly increased. A plan to keep Social Security solvent ad infinitum should be developed and put in place. Money for unemployment benefits should be earmarked and set aside. Unjust tax breaks for the wealthy should be eliminated. Tax incentives for businesses to create new jobs and industries in the United States should be written into law. Federal money should be earmarked to help states repair and improve the nation's electrical and transportation infrastructure.
ELECTIONS: Congress should pass a law over-ruling the Supreme Court’s decision to allow corporations unlimited spending on political messaging. No person or entity, by exercising their First Amendment rights, should be able to use the might of financial power to wield undue, monopolistic influence over political discourse and, thus, election results.
All in all, we need to call out the lies and defend the truth. No one in America should make important voting decisions based on information intentionally meant to deceive and manipulate. That would be "just plain stupid."
