Futile Unrest in an Obama Age
For someone who might have begun reading this blog at its inception, over half a year ago (give or take), I’m sure their thoughts may likely, upon reading my latest posts, turn to the question: “wasn’t this a political blog?” Yes, during the 2008 pre-election phase I had a lot of material to spew out. It was important to me to add my tiny voice on my tiny blog with my tiny 20-30 person on-a-good-day readership to the chorus clamoring for a progressive change in our government’s direction. And so, as they say, it came to pass. Voila: President Barack Obama. Young. Black. Democrat. Historic. All grand. Fun to watch on television. And he has set out to do what he promised he would do. He is exactly what he presented himself as – a pragmatic progressive democrat. And it is better than the alternative. And it is far better than Mr. Obama’s predecessor. But I must admit, I am in a deeper personal-political dilemma than the normal post-election what-do-I-do-now funk. It has been a long time since we saw the progressives have this much power in Washington. It is what I wanted. But it isn’t nearly enough.
The United States of America is suffering from a malady that has festered for so long that there likely is no cure for it. There will only be decline. As Rome’s magnificent, dominating society slowly became unstable, chipped-away, less esteemed, less respected, less powerful, and, finally, broken apart – as the Roman Empire fell to ruin, so will we. The “American” ideals that served us so well in the colonial and industrial ages have accelerated past the point of usefulness. It is a runaway train… and there are no brakes.
Over-simplifying (I’m not an economist or a political scientist): There probably was a time when our American brand of capitalism advanced our society. It encouraged citizens to build, invent, design, innovate. It encouraged individual Americans to be successful – by working hard and by investing in American businesses. And by their individual successes the whole of society (though not everyone, as we all know) profited. The problem is that there is no natural end to the game. The dirty truth is – what capitalism really encourages and rewards is greed.
Now we, as individuals, are slaves to our own greed as well as the uber-greed of the mega-corporations. Sell the product by any means necessary – deception, over-saturation, political influence and corruption. Fraud. We are arrogant. We are selfish. Our companies are now resistant to the same spirit of innovation that gave birth to them because it threatens their bottom line. Industry exerts pressure on government. Government in turn exerts pressure on other nations. Arrogance. Greed. Every man for himself. And we wonder why the rest of the world despises us.
So what we have done, in this past election, is substitute one capitalist with another (albeit a kinder, gentler one – we hope). Better than the alternative, but still serving the corporate dollar. This new democratic regime will at least champion health care reform, alternative energy, equality, diplomacy, etc. But it is still bending over backwards to save companies that deserve to die. It is still propping up institutions that are “too big to fail”. (Antagonists will point out here that allowing the companies to fail would be the ‘true’ capitalist way - survival of the fittest and all that - but the real problem is the deeper one. This is what we spend taxpayer dollars on? Saving wealthy investors and poorly-managed corporations instead of feeding, clothing, caring for the desperate human beings who live among us.) Its health care reforms will be tempered to a large degree by political deference to the insurance companies. And the right-wing media is trying to brand Obama as a “Socialist” and a “Marxist”. Those dirty words.
Barack Obama is not a socialist, or else he doesn’t have the backbone to be one publicly. A true socialist – an honest socialist – could not get elected to so high an office. They’d be pulling gold-plated arrows from his assassinated character long before he made any significant progress on the campaign trail. The anti-socialism propaganda is so entrenched in the public understanding now, and the average citizen’s attention span is so short and his or her knowledge base is so limited and his or her curiosity is so anemic, that there is no persuasive, productive discussion to be had on the matter. We live in a “tell me what to think” age. On the radio, Marx – a philosopher – is mentioned in the same breath as Stalin – a tyrant. Branding.
Where is this going? I don’t have an answer for that. There is, like so many other macro-scale topics, no nifty little bow to tie around it. I know I am a socialist. I know, in my gut, that it is the only moral, ethical, compassionate socio-economic path. I also know, in that same gut, that there is no way in hell America will loosen its grip from its collective wad of filthy cash.
I am a socialist, but I am calling for no revolution. I am merely pulling up a lawn chair to observe the downfall of our once mighty nation. More to come, as I flesh out my thoughts on the matter. I know, dear reader, how you will wait with fervent anticipation. Goodnight.
