Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Democracy in the U.S. in 2003 Only 6 large metro newspapers remain independent of giant media conglomerates.   Religious zealots in Texas set standards for most school text books throughout the nation, banning many words and phrases that they find do not fit their religious or political view.   The FCC will soon allow public airwaves to be owned virtually 100% by the five or six remaining media giants.   Local news for thousands of radio stations and profit driven networks is now produced in a single location, with simulated local content, to increase profitability.   Courts seriously entertain the idea that the only sacrosanct individual right is the right to spend money for private gain as one sees fit.  Thus corporations have legal primacy over individuals, since individuals can be arrested and prosecuted for thoughts and intentions, while corporations are only prosecuted if their accounts bend rules too far.  Courts hold there are no such thing as public goods, only individuals, and private goods.   America has the highest percentage of its population in prison of any country on earth.  Politicians accept this rate of incarceration as normal.   Orwellian thought police turn on any celebrity or person of public stature who questions the government’s  political line of the day.  Thus, persons who speak against the war are hooted from stages, have their advertising contracts cancelled, and their TV shows dropped or their speaking engagements cancelled.  Their “crime”?  Raising a political issue outside of the accepted setting of carefully proscribed, anesthetized, debate.   Congress perpetuates itself with 95% of incumbents reelected when they choose to run—similar to the political orthodoxy of communist bosses  in what were formerly communist countries.   Money has become the single idea allowed in politics.  If it can’t be bought, it does not deserve to exist.   U.S. workers are now working more hours per year than virtually any other industrialized nation on earth.    Despite the large GDP and the high average per capita income, the U.S. has the greatest inequality of wealth seen since medieval times.    Like the original Roman republic, our country was founded by peasant farmers and educated land owners, who sought to organize a society where they could be left alone to prosper as best they could.    Our country has become a parody of the ideal of participatory democracy, as developed in ancient Greece and Rome.  Today, our democracy is like the cult of the emperor—a religious idea enforced in name only, with no intrinsic meaning except to perpetuate the rule of those in power.   Take me back to 1984.  We earned more, had more freedom, better health care, less anxiety, and certainly we did not fear terrorist reprisals for the sins of our government.  Plus our air was cleaner, our climate had not warmed, and there were still large fish in the oceans and no off road vehicles in national parks. 11:11:34 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2003 Toby Sackton. Last update: 6/12/2003; 12:31:44 PM.