U.S.: The enemy within
Thomas Jefferson said, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
Abraham Lincoln said "The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed."
Dwight Eisenhower, in his Farewell Address to the Nation, warned us of the dangers of the Military-industrial-financial complex. We've ignored Jefferson, Lincoln, Eisenhower and many others. Now, we pay the price of our ignorance and sloth.
A new paradigm has come to exist: The Sun never sets on the American Empire. The United States no longer fights wars in defense of our constitutionally mandated representative democracy. Nay, we fight wars to protect, defend and increase the hegemony of industrial, commercial and financial privately owned corporations. Thus, we mold citizens into divinely inspired true believers in corporate dominance. Before God, Country and Humanity comes the Corporation and its bastard spawn.
Where money rules, just law is murdered and civilized society dies a slow agonizing death. The sanctity of law is destroyed the instant authoritarian powers transform it into a spiked club used to beat the common citizen into bloodied and silent submission.
The Corporate Global Empire reigns supreme. The Trinity of concentrated wealth, power and greed is now the Holiest of Holies. Question not the corporate powers lest you suffer damnation.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, a corporatist of railroad fame and spokesman for the trinity of wealth, power and greed, made clear, "The Public Be Damned." Nothing has changed in the last 200 plus years; the power of industrial-financial interests to privatize profits and socialize costs of their disasters is at its zenith.
Yes, "The Public Be Damned." Yes, our nation, our Republic be damned. The Corporate Global Empire reigns supreme.
There is a frightening truth in Nietzsche's statement that "Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." Sadly, America is not immune to this madness.
Welcome to our Brave New Dystopian World.
J. ALBERT ROWE
bscutter@frontier.com
Coeur d'Alene