| Rayne Today Searching for dharma, in spite of the weather... Proud member of the Reality-Based Community
Shockingly, we’ve found a Rosetta Stone, a touch point where hardcore rightists and equally hardcore leftists agree. It’s the New Freedom Commission’s initiative on mandatory psychological testing of children, funded by taxpayers, at the behest of this administration. The party that stands to benefit most from this initiative: Big Pharma corporations. Digest this for one moment. Note the name of the group appointed by the president to create the study that spawned this initiative. New Freedom Commission. Is this really “freedom”? What’s “new” about it? If you are a hardcore rightist, what’s your response here? For those of us on the left, we’re not surprised at all by the name of this group. Healthy Forests. Clear Skies. Get it? We’ve already seen this modus operandi before in other initiatives and schemas. The party that benefits most from Healthy Forests: Lumber and Paper producing corporations. The party that benefits most from Clear Skies: Energy producing corporations. The left has been extremely angry over the perceived automatic response from the right, defending these initiatives. There is the same parallel at work right now in New Freedom that worked in Healthy Forests and Clear Skies. For those of you on the right, can you defend this New Freedom initiative in the same way you defended Healthy Forests and Clear Skies? Why or why not? What differentiates any of these initiatives? It’s my fervent hope that the right finally sees the truth of the matter, that this country is succumbing to a plutocracy of corporate owners. Several of the rightists who comment here believe that so-called liberals blindly believe that government is the solution to all problems. Not so. Patently untrue. What this particular progressive / liberal / leftist / pick-your-label believes is that there is a matrix of power, one that when carefully balanced serves all humankind. One node in this matrix is personal responsibility and accountability. Work hard, learn continuously, be kind and charitable, collaborate, cooperate – these are the bright facets of this node when it is healthy and working well. Another node in this matrix is the aggregation of the individual, in the form of society and government. One person cannot insist on responsibility and accountability from everyone else, but an aggregate entity of many individuals can do so through their mutual agreement on responsibility and accountability to each other in the form of codes and laws Yet another node in this matrix is the mechanism by which we exchange goods and services. One person may not be enough to be a profitable market, but an aggregation of consumers may. Serving an aggregate through entrepreneurship – the willingness to take risk in order to make a profit in return – may need assistance from society and government to fulfill the needs of the aggregate market. Laws and codes permit and encourage the formation of the corporation as a vehicle for exchanging goods and services to this end. There is meant to be a healthy dynamic tension between the individual, the aggregated individual as society and government, and the corporation through which the individual, society and government meet their needs. There is a dialogue in the form of exchanges that is meant to be fluid, flexible, highly responsive, in order that all are served effectively. (Business students begin their education by discussing the “invisible hand” of the market, coined by Adam Smith; it is this invisible hand at work between the demand of consumers and businesses that produce consumables.) Unfortunately, we’ve arrived at a point where the government no longer represents the aggregate will of the people. It sees itself as an entirely separate entity; it seeks to represent a plutocracy, ensuring that a handful of persons that operate corporations benefit at the expense of the people. This is supposed to be a government of, by, and for the people, isn’t it? We are NOT supposed to be separate from it; it is NOT supposed to be a bad thing. Government is meant to reflect US, our aggregated will, supposed to protect us as an aggregate by our command as an aggregate. Corporations are entities, not citizens; they are not supposed to have more power than us, the people, individual or aggregate. Corporations do NOT represent us; they are meant to serve us as providers of goods and services. Nothing more than that. The New Freedom Commission’s initiative is an example of this breakdown. The legislation that approved and funded this initiative slipped by us, the people, without our aggregate approval, without our express consent. Legislation was slipped into a massive omnibus bill, whisked hurriedly by our representatives, and in such a manner that our representatives had no choice but to approve it. Corporations had a hand in assuring this would happen. So too other measures like Healthy Forests and Clear Skies slipped by us, the people. These initiatives by-passed us through committees, groups, entities that don’t represent the aggregate will of the people. And once again, corporations also had a hand in this. Further, corporations have manipulated a substantive portion of the people, by way of media and marketing. You’ve been told that New Freedom means something good for you, in the same way that Healthy Forests and Clear Skies have been sold to you. You’ve been had. Bent over. Are you familiar with the term, "BOHICA"? What new initiative must come to pass before the right gets it, sees that this has been happening all along? And yes, this happened under Democrats as well. It’s the reason why a substantive number of us who’ve voted as Democrats are angry and are seeking to reform the entire party. It cannot be business as usual. Quite bluntly, it can’t be business at all. It’s about us, our families, our flesh and blood, our communities. It's about we, the people. ======= What the current EPA says (note the use of (applause) in the quote): Contradiction: What the current Forest Dept. says (note the appealing child in the photo): Contradiction: 11:36:35 AM  comment []
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