Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, in their article "The (Elusive) Theory of Everything," which appeared in the October 2010 issue of Scientific American, share a valuable insight:
Whenever we develop a model of the world and find it to be successful, we tend to attribute to the model the quality of reality or absolute truth... The same physical situation can be modeled in different ways, each employing different fundamental elements and concepts. It might be that to describe the universe we have to employ different theories in different situations. Each theory may have its own version of reality, but according to model-dependent realism, that diversity is acceptable, and none of the versions can be said to be more real than any other.
Another way to say this is, "The map is not the territory, and any map that works is as good as any other map." To which I would add. "The territory is ultimately unknowable."
In my simple-minded way I always assumed there was "one reality" (otherwise known as the hard physical reality in which our planet is being destroyed), and my alternate "models" (otherwise known as "altered states of consciousness") were somehow less relevant. But recently I’ve come to accept the fact that never the twain shall meet. In my experience, different models seem dominant at different times, and no model is more relevant than any other.
As far as I know, we can’t escape the reality that our planet is being destroyed. But we have the capability within ourselves to transcend the illusion that physical reality is all there is. As Shakespeare said, "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Confessions of an All-American Boy
I started this for Grassroots Press but never finished it.
I used to consider myself quite the all-American boy. I was born in Texas, for crying out loud. I went to public schools five days a week, and Southern Baptist church every Sunday. I loved everything military – my friends and I refought World War II over and over again in our backyards, and I drew war pictures in school while the teacher droned. I watched way too much TV – Howdy Doody, Mickey Mouse Club, Bonanza, Ed Sullivan, and countless cartoons. I listened to rock and roll radio constantly, ate Pop Tarts, sucked my milk through Flav-R Straws, and combed by hair like Edd "Kookie" Byrnes. My family saw the USA in our Chevrolet. We cooked hamburgers in our back yard. My every cell was American. My very DNA was American. My brain played American music back to me day and night. My feet tapped out an American rhythm. I thought I sort of understood this country. I thought "freedom" actually meant something. I thought that Americans had some innate level of decency and common sense.
By the time I was 16 or so, things were starting to, like, not quite add up, you know? Something was terribly wrong that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Then came the Vietnam War, and I began to see through the glass darkly. I became radicalized. Power to the people, make love not war and all that. But the war eventually ended, and like many others of my g-generation, I found that I was very good at doing my own thing. Smoking my own pipe. Following my own drum. Life went on. Despite Reagan and Bush I, life in America was nothing to get hung about, or so it seemed at the time. It wasn’t until 1995, when I read an article by Noam Chomsky in The Nation which described the true power dynamics in this country (the rich want it all!), that I rediscovered that yes indeedy, I was still very much a radical... which is to say, I still believed in peace, justice, saving the Earth, power to the people, making love not war, and dancing in the streets whenever possible. Some things never change.
Life continued within me and without me. Ace Ventura, Pet Detective... Slick Bill Clinton, Stealth Republican... Monica Lewinsky... impeachment... the dot com boom and high tech bubble... is this country screwed, or what? I was appalled by the 2000 coup d’etat and the subsequent hard-right governance of the Bush regime and their Democratic enablers. On 9-11 I realized as soon as the planes hit the towers that Bush had been handed almost unlimited power. I was saddened in 2002 when the Republicans took control of Congress with a plurality of less than 100,000 votes. But what finally did it for me was when 70% of Americans supported the Shock&Aweรข that so many of us peaceniks had worked so hard to prevent.
You know, I realize that half of all Americans have IQs of less than 100. But invading Iraq was beyond dumb and dumber; in fact, it was so far beyond stupid, it was pathetic. Americans are famously clueless, but with the invasion of Iraq their cluelessness reached a new quantum level. I bet if you took a poll, very few Americans could tell you what "Pandora’s Box" means. Further, I bet a high percentage wouldn’t be able to tell you what the old saying, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" means. How could the progeny of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone get so dumb? I don’t recognize Americans anymore. Which leads me to suspect that a critical mass of Americans have morphed into something different... "Murkans," citizens of a new country, Murka, with a new faith-based culture, simultaneously high-tech and medieval.
One aspect of our ongoing American tragedy is that intelligent people have been systematically excluded from real power in this country. As I used to say at Peace Vigil, referring to the Gandhi and Bush puppets people brought for dramatic effect, "They make policy, we make puppets." What a waste.
I used to consider myself quite the all-American boy. I was born in Texas, for crying out loud. I went to public schools five days a week, and Southern Baptist church every Sunday. I loved everything military – my friends and I refought World War II over and over again in our backyards, and I drew war pictures in school while the teacher droned. I watched way too much TV – Howdy Doody, Mickey Mouse Club, Bonanza, Ed Sullivan, and countless cartoons. I listened to rock and roll radio constantly, ate Pop Tarts, sucked my milk through Flav-R Straws, and combed by hair like Edd "Kookie" Byrnes. My family saw the USA in our Chevrolet. We cooked hamburgers in our back yard. My every cell was American. My very DNA was American. My brain played American music back to me day and night. My feet tapped out an American rhythm. I thought I sort of understood this country. I thought "freedom" actually meant something. I thought that Americans had some innate level of decency and common sense.
By the time I was 16 or so, things were starting to, like, not quite add up, you know? Something was terribly wrong that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Then came the Vietnam War, and I began to see through the glass darkly. I became radicalized. Power to the people, make love not war and all that. But the war eventually ended, and like many others of my g-generation, I found that I was very good at doing my own thing. Smoking my own pipe. Following my own drum. Life went on. Despite Reagan and Bush I, life in America was nothing to get hung about, or so it seemed at the time. It wasn’t until 1995, when I read an article by Noam Chomsky in The Nation which described the true power dynamics in this country (the rich want it all!), that I rediscovered that yes indeedy, I was still very much a radical... which is to say, I still believed in peace, justice, saving the Earth, power to the people, making love not war, and dancing in the streets whenever possible. Some things never change.
Life continued within me and without me. Ace Ventura, Pet Detective... Slick Bill Clinton, Stealth Republican... Monica Lewinsky... impeachment... the dot com boom and high tech bubble... is this country screwed, or what? I was appalled by the 2000 coup d’etat and the subsequent hard-right governance of the Bush regime and their Democratic enablers. On 9-11 I realized as soon as the planes hit the towers that Bush had been handed almost unlimited power. I was saddened in 2002 when the Republicans took control of Congress with a plurality of less than 100,000 votes. But what finally did it for me was when 70% of Americans supported the Shock&Aweรข that so many of us peaceniks had worked so hard to prevent.
You know, I realize that half of all Americans have IQs of less than 100. But invading Iraq was beyond dumb and dumber; in fact, it was so far beyond stupid, it was pathetic. Americans are famously clueless, but with the invasion of Iraq their cluelessness reached a new quantum level. I bet if you took a poll, very few Americans could tell you what "Pandora’s Box" means. Further, I bet a high percentage wouldn’t be able to tell you what the old saying, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" means. How could the progeny of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone get so dumb? I don’t recognize Americans anymore. Which leads me to suspect that a critical mass of Americans have morphed into something different... "Murkans," citizens of a new country, Murka, with a new faith-based culture, simultaneously high-tech and medieval.
One aspect of our ongoing American tragedy is that intelligent people have been systematically excluded from real power in this country. As I used to say at Peace Vigil, referring to the Gandhi and Bush puppets people brought for dramatic effect, "They make policy, we make puppets." What a waste.
Full Speed Ahead and Damn the Icebergs!
Here's another early Grassroots Press column from 2004:
American consumerism has entered its final, baroque stage. "Baroque" is defined in my dictionary as "exaggeratedly showy or ornate," and this is a perfect description of early 21st century America -- the SUVs are bigger, the superstores are larger, the houses are more ostentatious than ever… while at the same time the polar ice caps are melting more rapidly, the rainforests are being destroyed even more voraciously, and the atmosphere has reached a state of near-terminal pollution. America has gone stark raving mad. Like passengers in an out-of-control car headed for a brick wall, Americans glance up from their TVs and ask, "Is that a brick wall we see up ahead? Well then, let’s SPEED UP! That’ll show em! Any more brick walls around? Bring em on! Yee hah!"
The sinking of the Titanic makes an even better analogy, since it lasted long enough for the drama to fully develop. Crashing into a brick wall is over much too quickly for the lesson to truly sink in.
Like America, everybody thought the Titanic was invulnerable. Like America, the Titanic was ultra-modern, the highest high-tech. Like America, the Titanic carried all social classes, and this is why the disaster achieved such mythic power. If it had held only steerage rabble, no one would have remembered. But the thought of John Jacob Astor slowly freezing to death in the icy waters of the North Atlantic -- now there’s a scenario from which legends are made. (Back then, the wealthy were still hated, and there must have been considerable satisfaction realizing that even the rich can suffer and die like that.)
Like America, the Titanic was on a corporate mission, a mission from God as it were. In this case, the mission was to reach New York in record time. Imagine the headlines from the lapdog press if the Titanic hadn’t hit the iceberg -- TITANIC BEATS TRANSATLANTIC SPEED RECORD. What an advertising coup for the corporation this would have been! The corporation anticipated a long and profitable career from their new investment.
Unlike America, the corporation chose their best, most experienced captain to be in command. But like America, the captain had serious gaps in his resume. Specifically, he had never encountered significant danger from icebergs. He was clueless about what an iceberg could do to the thin steel hull of a steamship. Having never been challenged by icebergs, he considered himself and his ship invulnerable.
During the voyage, some of the passengers became aware that they were heading into the iceberg zone. They spoke to the captain and other crew members, and urged them to change their course to a more southerly latitude, or to at least slow down. But no, the Titanic was on a corporate mission, as you will recall, and changing course was not an option. (Sounds like the Bush administration, doesn’t it?) In fact, the captain decided to SPEED UP so they would get through the danger zone faster! Don’t you just love corporate logic?
(What we have here, of course, is the common situation in which the people in power ignore the people with good information. Why do they do this? Because they can. This is why Global Warming will turn into such a disaster as the 21st century progresses. The powers-that-be were amply warned, but chose to ignore all the good advice they were so freely given, and now we will all pay the price.)
When the Titanic hit the iceberg, the first response was, of course, denial. Faith-based ideology trumped reality: "This ship is unsinkable, therefore it will not sink." (Obviously, the Titanic was owned and operated by Republicans, and in fact the majority stockholder of the Titanic was none other than American plutocrat J.P. Morgan.) Only when the ship started to tilt at an impossible angle was it time to break out the lifeboats and save as many rich people as possible.
Even after the lifeboats were deployed, the remaining passengers clung to hope. They had their life vests, after all. Few stopped to consider how cold the water was. (Just as today, few people stop to consider what this planet will really be like without rainforests and polar caps.)
The Titanic disaster illustrates an important aspect of human nature: By all means, let’s avoid thinking if at all possible. Before the disaster, nobody wanted to talk about prevention, and after the disaster, the situation was self-evident and nobody needed to talk about it. Both before and after the disaster, human intelligence was dispensed with. This is exactly what has happened with Global Warming. Now that we have probably passed the point of no return, more people are finally starting to talk about Global Warming, but talk is way too cheap. The wrong hands are on the tiller. As long as corporations run our ship of state, the intelligent people with good information will be ignored. What can we expect, when idiots are in command?
Clearly, the American system (a combination of corporate capitalism and what passes for democracy) has failed utterly. This system, hastily cobbled together during the 18th century, has seldom been capable of making wise decisions, even during the best of times. Now that we face unprecedented global environmental disaster, the limitations of the American system have become lethal for the entire planet. As long as the American system remains intact, people have no incentive to change their behavior, which makes ecological disaster inevitable. We’re in a hell of a pickle, I would say.
American consumerism has entered its final, baroque stage. "Baroque" is defined in my dictionary as "exaggeratedly showy or ornate," and this is a perfect description of early 21st century America -- the SUVs are bigger, the superstores are larger, the houses are more ostentatious than ever… while at the same time the polar ice caps are melting more rapidly, the rainforests are being destroyed even more voraciously, and the atmosphere has reached a state of near-terminal pollution. America has gone stark raving mad. Like passengers in an out-of-control car headed for a brick wall, Americans glance up from their TVs and ask, "Is that a brick wall we see up ahead? Well then, let’s SPEED UP! That’ll show em! Any more brick walls around? Bring em on! Yee hah!"
The sinking of the Titanic makes an even better analogy, since it lasted long enough for the drama to fully develop. Crashing into a brick wall is over much too quickly for the lesson to truly sink in.
Like America, everybody thought the Titanic was invulnerable. Like America, the Titanic was ultra-modern, the highest high-tech. Like America, the Titanic carried all social classes, and this is why the disaster achieved such mythic power. If it had held only steerage rabble, no one would have remembered. But the thought of John Jacob Astor slowly freezing to death in the icy waters of the North Atlantic -- now there’s a scenario from which legends are made. (Back then, the wealthy were still hated, and there must have been considerable satisfaction realizing that even the rich can suffer and die like that.)
Like America, the Titanic was on a corporate mission, a mission from God as it were. In this case, the mission was to reach New York in record time. Imagine the headlines from the lapdog press if the Titanic hadn’t hit the iceberg -- TITANIC BEATS TRANSATLANTIC SPEED RECORD. What an advertising coup for the corporation this would have been! The corporation anticipated a long and profitable career from their new investment.
Unlike America, the corporation chose their best, most experienced captain to be in command. But like America, the captain had serious gaps in his resume. Specifically, he had never encountered significant danger from icebergs. He was clueless about what an iceberg could do to the thin steel hull of a steamship. Having never been challenged by icebergs, he considered himself and his ship invulnerable.
During the voyage, some of the passengers became aware that they were heading into the iceberg zone. They spoke to the captain and other crew members, and urged them to change their course to a more southerly latitude, or to at least slow down. But no, the Titanic was on a corporate mission, as you will recall, and changing course was not an option. (Sounds like the Bush administration, doesn’t it?) In fact, the captain decided to SPEED UP so they would get through the danger zone faster! Don’t you just love corporate logic?
(What we have here, of course, is the common situation in which the people in power ignore the people with good information. Why do they do this? Because they can. This is why Global Warming will turn into such a disaster as the 21st century progresses. The powers-that-be were amply warned, but chose to ignore all the good advice they were so freely given, and now we will all pay the price.)
When the Titanic hit the iceberg, the first response was, of course, denial. Faith-based ideology trumped reality: "This ship is unsinkable, therefore it will not sink." (Obviously, the Titanic was owned and operated by Republicans, and in fact the majority stockholder of the Titanic was none other than American plutocrat J.P. Morgan.) Only when the ship started to tilt at an impossible angle was it time to break out the lifeboats and save as many rich people as possible.
Even after the lifeboats were deployed, the remaining passengers clung to hope. They had their life vests, after all. Few stopped to consider how cold the water was. (Just as today, few people stop to consider what this planet will really be like without rainforests and polar caps.)
The Titanic disaster illustrates an important aspect of human nature: By all means, let’s avoid thinking if at all possible. Before the disaster, nobody wanted to talk about prevention, and after the disaster, the situation was self-evident and nobody needed to talk about it. Both before and after the disaster, human intelligence was dispensed with. This is exactly what has happened with Global Warming. Now that we have probably passed the point of no return, more people are finally starting to talk about Global Warming, but talk is way too cheap. The wrong hands are on the tiller. As long as corporations run our ship of state, the intelligent people with good information will be ignored. What can we expect, when idiots are in command?
Clearly, the American system (a combination of corporate capitalism and what passes for democracy) has failed utterly. This system, hastily cobbled together during the 18th century, has seldom been capable of making wise decisions, even during the best of times. Now that we face unprecedented global environmental disaster, the limitations of the American system have become lethal for the entire planet. As long as the American system remains intact, people have no incentive to change their behavior, which makes ecological disaster inevitable. We’re in a hell of a pickle, I would say.
A Brief Overview of History
In 2003, before I started my New Earth Times blog, I wrote a series of articles for Grassroots Press in which I presented some basic historical facts. Here are parts 1 and 2. If I ever find part 3, I'll tack it onto the end.
Part 1: The Elite vs. The Rabble
Americans have traditionally had a limited grasp of history beyond the superficial "authorized version" we learn in school. In recent years this situation has become even more extreme, because 70% of Americans get their news from the cable news networks, where yesterday’s news is quickly replaced by today’s and tomorrow’s spin. Americans live in a timeless reality which is always changing, but seems to remain the same. Having little sense of history, we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again.
I would like to contribute a very brief overview of history, concentrating on the perpetual conflict between the "elite," who own most of the wealth, and the "rabble" -- everybody else. Until the establishment of agriculture 10,000 years ago, humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Possessions were few, and limited to what could be carried from place to place. This tended to keep people relatively equal. This all changed with agriculture. Now, for the first time, humans were sedentary (and thus easily controlled), and produced surpluses of grain and other food which had to be stored and defended. These surpluses meant unprecedented power for whoever was able to control them, and the first elite was born. For the first time, organized war became possible.
It’s fascinating to consider that the socio-economic system we have in modern America goes all the way back to prehistoric times. The true elite (typically 1% of the population) is far too small to dominate the other 99%, so they have always depended on "enablers" to enforce their will upon the rest of the population. There are three classes of enablers: a) the priesthood, who promote the "authorized mythology"; b) government bureaucrats, who collect taxes, administer the realm, and settle disputes between the rabble; c) the military -- aided in modern times by police -- who defend the realm from invaders, and also keep the rabble under control.
There are dozens of ancient civilizations that fit this pattern -- Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Rome, the Aztecs. In each of these cultures, a small elite class, with the aid of their enablers, dominated the rest of the citizens, and controlled most of the resources. This is exactly the system we have in America today.
Most of human history since the rise of agriculture has been a continual nightmare of war and exploitation, with elites always in control. Although they comprise most of the population, the rabble have typically been unorganized and relatively helpless. They have lived as peasant farmers or small-time artisans. In times of war, they were pressed into military service, where they died in vast numbers.
This pattern was modified somewhat during the 16th century, when European sailing vessels discovered that there was a whole world to exploit. For the first time, the amount of wealth flowing into Europe was greater than the elites could absorb, and a small middle class formed from the surplus wealth.
When the English invaded North America, they found a continent unbelievably rich in natural resources -- timber, minerals, fish and game, abundant water, rich soil. A peasant could move out to the frontier, make a primitive living, and be freer than any of his ancestors had been for millennia. Middle class and elite Englishmen who moved to America found themselves amazingly wealthy. Before long, a new American elite formed, many of them originally from lower-status stock. They chafed under the constraints the English elite imposed upon them. They wanted to be free on their own terms.
Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of America should be required reading for all high school students. He maps out the true dynamics of the American Revolution. We have all been raised on the standard view of the revolution, in which American patriots became tired of taxation without representation, and threw off English dominance.
Actually, it was the American elite who grew weary of English dominance. Many rich Americans were far wealthier than their upper-class English counterparts, and were tired of being treated like second-class citizens. They were tired of paying taxes (sound familiar?). It was the American elite, led by the wealthy George Washington, who hired and trained the Revolutionary Army.
After the Revolutionary War was won, a political system was organized that gave most of the power to the elite, but offered enough concessions to the upper middle class that they would identify with the elite rather than the rabble. A new era, and an unimaginably wealthy plutocracy, was born.
Vast fields of coal and iron ore were discovered, and so this country was built on steel -- steel rails, steel locomotives, steel skyscrapers. It was also built on the backs of a limitless supply of immigrant labor -- people who were so grateful to move to America, they were willing to work for almost nothing. Exploiting them were the elite, the filthy rich, for whom enough is never enough.
May 2, 2003
(Next issue: PERPETUAL WAR)
Part 2: The Corporations Achieve Immortality
Last issue I talked about the ongoing saga of the elite (who control most of the wealth and set the agenda) versus the rabble (everybody else). At the end of the article I promised to talk about the elite’s strategy of perpetual war to ensure perpetual control, but before I do that, I need to talk about how the elite achieved immortality and unlimited power.
The elite’s favorite organizational tool is the corporation, which allows owners immunity from liabilities. The owners can do business as a corporation and be personally immune if the corporation goes bankrupt or gets sued. This excellent deal is called "limited liability," and it’s no wonder corporations are so common.
The original English corporations were granted royal charters. There were few of them during colonial times, but they were very powerful. The one we remember best today is the British East India Company, which had the monopoly on tea in the colonies. The Boston Tea Party was an anti-corporate protest that made the history books.
After the Revolution, Americans were suspicious of corporate power, so corporations were tightly controlled. Corporate charters, which were granted by the states, had to be periodically renewed, and could be revoked if the terms of the charter were violated. This is a far cry from the slash-and-burn corporations of today.
The turning point for corporate power began during and after the Civil War, when corporations made such huge profits that they were able to buy off legislatures and judges. (Some things never change.) Abraham Lincoln foresaw "an era of corruption in high places" until finally "the republic is destroyed." His words seem to be coming true today.
Thanks to a compliant legal and legislative system, corporations continued to grow in power and influence. The enormously powerful railroads spearheaded this process. Corporate charters no longer had time limits, and thus corporations became immortal. Finally, in 1886, in a casual comment appended to the case "Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad," the US Supreme Court granted personhood to corporations. No longer were corporations "artificial persons;" they were now full-fledged citizens, with full Constitutional rights, including free speech.
Since corporations are far more powerful than all but the wealthiest citizens, and have vast resources to hire lawyers, judges, and politicians, they have been successful in subverting our original "one person, one vote" form of government into the plutocracy we have today.
The Great Depression of the 1930s was a temporary setback for America’s corporate elite. The rabble were suffering so badly that there was danger of revolution. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a member of the elite himself, saved the day by doing just enough to prevent revolution. Many radical solutions were proposed, but few were implemented. Why try surgery when a Band-Aid will do? His most lasting legacy is Social Security, which the elite have been trying to destroy ever since. Stay tuned on this one.
World War II began the modern era. For the first time, the US became a global superpower, and by the time the war was over, America reigned supreme. The corporate profits from World War II were beyond belief. The Civil War and World War I were extremely profitable, but World War II was ridiculous. What to do with all this new power?
One advantage to enormous wealth is that you can hire the best brains money can buy. The elite evidently hired the very best as World War II came to a close. The brilliant strategy they devised has still never received the credit it deserves.
Democracy had always been a mixed blessing for the elite. The rabble required relatively little control, since they were self-limiting -- their imaginations were limited mostly to getting along and feathering their own nests. Americans worked hard, followed orders well, and had minimal expectations. Being left alone, and being free from jack-booted stormtroopers, was enough to keep them relatively content. But one potential problem: the rabble had that pesky vote. They could always be led astray by liberals or populists.
1945 was an unprecedented historical juncture point. During the 30s, the rabble had shared the collective trauma of the Great Depression. Then, during World War II, taking terrible losses, they vanquished some truly despicable enemies. Shared trauma brings solidarity. Solidarity can be dangerous if misdirected. What if the rabble decided to TAKE OVER?
It was decided that war would continue indefinitely. Communism would become the new enemy. Fear would become an important management tool -- the rabble would now fear Communism and nuclear war. The economy would remain on a permanent war footing; the taxpayers would continue to subsidize the armaments industry. And -- probably the most diabolical plan of all -- the tax burden would gradually be shifted from the elite onto the rabble. More about this next issue. The Cold War had begun.
Part 1: The Elite vs. The Rabble
Americans have traditionally had a limited grasp of history beyond the superficial "authorized version" we learn in school. In recent years this situation has become even more extreme, because 70% of Americans get their news from the cable news networks, where yesterday’s news is quickly replaced by today’s and tomorrow’s spin. Americans live in a timeless reality which is always changing, but seems to remain the same. Having little sense of history, we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again.
I would like to contribute a very brief overview of history, concentrating on the perpetual conflict between the "elite," who own most of the wealth, and the "rabble" -- everybody else. Until the establishment of agriculture 10,000 years ago, humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Possessions were few, and limited to what could be carried from place to place. This tended to keep people relatively equal. This all changed with agriculture. Now, for the first time, humans were sedentary (and thus easily controlled), and produced surpluses of grain and other food which had to be stored and defended. These surpluses meant unprecedented power for whoever was able to control them, and the first elite was born. For the first time, organized war became possible.
It’s fascinating to consider that the socio-economic system we have in modern America goes all the way back to prehistoric times. The true elite (typically 1% of the population) is far too small to dominate the other 99%, so they have always depended on "enablers" to enforce their will upon the rest of the population. There are three classes of enablers: a) the priesthood, who promote the "authorized mythology"; b) government bureaucrats, who collect taxes, administer the realm, and settle disputes between the rabble; c) the military -- aided in modern times by police -- who defend the realm from invaders, and also keep the rabble under control.
There are dozens of ancient civilizations that fit this pattern -- Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Rome, the Aztecs. In each of these cultures, a small elite class, with the aid of their enablers, dominated the rest of the citizens, and controlled most of the resources. This is exactly the system we have in America today.
Most of human history since the rise of agriculture has been a continual nightmare of war and exploitation, with elites always in control. Although they comprise most of the population, the rabble have typically been unorganized and relatively helpless. They have lived as peasant farmers or small-time artisans. In times of war, they were pressed into military service, where they died in vast numbers.
This pattern was modified somewhat during the 16th century, when European sailing vessels discovered that there was a whole world to exploit. For the first time, the amount of wealth flowing into Europe was greater than the elites could absorb, and a small middle class formed from the surplus wealth.
When the English invaded North America, they found a continent unbelievably rich in natural resources -- timber, minerals, fish and game, abundant water, rich soil. A peasant could move out to the frontier, make a primitive living, and be freer than any of his ancestors had been for millennia. Middle class and elite Englishmen who moved to America found themselves amazingly wealthy. Before long, a new American elite formed, many of them originally from lower-status stock. They chafed under the constraints the English elite imposed upon them. They wanted to be free on their own terms.
Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of America should be required reading for all high school students. He maps out the true dynamics of the American Revolution. We have all been raised on the standard view of the revolution, in which American patriots became tired of taxation without representation, and threw off English dominance.
Actually, it was the American elite who grew weary of English dominance. Many rich Americans were far wealthier than their upper-class English counterparts, and were tired of being treated like second-class citizens. They were tired of paying taxes (sound familiar?). It was the American elite, led by the wealthy George Washington, who hired and trained the Revolutionary Army.
After the Revolutionary War was won, a political system was organized that gave most of the power to the elite, but offered enough concessions to the upper middle class that they would identify with the elite rather than the rabble. A new era, and an unimaginably wealthy plutocracy, was born.
Vast fields of coal and iron ore were discovered, and so this country was built on steel -- steel rails, steel locomotives, steel skyscrapers. It was also built on the backs of a limitless supply of immigrant labor -- people who were so grateful to move to America, they were willing to work for almost nothing. Exploiting them were the elite, the filthy rich, for whom enough is never enough.
May 2, 2003
(Next issue: PERPETUAL WAR)
Part 2: The Corporations Achieve Immortality
The elite’s favorite organizational tool is the corporation, which allows owners immunity from liabilities. The owners can do business as a corporation and be personally immune if the corporation goes bankrupt or gets sued. This excellent deal is called "limited liability," and it’s no wonder corporations are so common.
The original English corporations were granted royal charters. There were few of them during colonial times, but they were very powerful. The one we remember best today is the British East India Company, which had the monopoly on tea in the colonies. The Boston Tea Party was an anti-corporate protest that made the history books.
After the Revolution, Americans were suspicious of corporate power, so corporations were tightly controlled. Corporate charters, which were granted by the states, had to be periodically renewed, and could be revoked if the terms of the charter were violated. This is a far cry from the slash-and-burn corporations of today.
The turning point for corporate power began during and after the Civil War, when corporations made such huge profits that they were able to buy off legislatures and judges. (Some things never change.) Abraham Lincoln foresaw "an era of corruption in high places" until finally "the republic is destroyed." His words seem to be coming true today.
Thanks to a compliant legal and legislative system, corporations continued to grow in power and influence. The enormously powerful railroads spearheaded this process. Corporate charters no longer had time limits, and thus corporations became immortal. Finally, in 1886, in a casual comment appended to the case "Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad," the US Supreme Court granted personhood to corporations. No longer were corporations "artificial persons;" they were now full-fledged citizens, with full Constitutional rights, including free speech.
Since corporations are far more powerful than all but the wealthiest citizens, and have vast resources to hire lawyers, judges, and politicians, they have been successful in subverting our original "one person, one vote" form of government into the plutocracy we have today.
The Great Depression of the 1930s was a temporary setback for America’s corporate elite. The rabble were suffering so badly that there was danger of revolution. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a member of the elite himself, saved the day by doing just enough to prevent revolution. Many radical solutions were proposed, but few were implemented. Why try surgery when a Band-Aid will do? His most lasting legacy is Social Security, which the elite have been trying to destroy ever since. Stay tuned on this one.
World War II began the modern era. For the first time, the US became a global superpower, and by the time the war was over, America reigned supreme. The corporate profits from World War II were beyond belief. The Civil War and World War I were extremely profitable, but World War II was ridiculous. What to do with all this new power?
One advantage to enormous wealth is that you can hire the best brains money can buy. The elite evidently hired the very best as World War II came to a close. The brilliant strategy they devised has still never received the credit it deserves.
Democracy had always been a mixed blessing for the elite. The rabble required relatively little control, since they were self-limiting -- their imaginations were limited mostly to getting along and feathering their own nests. Americans worked hard, followed orders well, and had minimal expectations. Being left alone, and being free from jack-booted stormtroopers, was enough to keep them relatively content. But one potential problem: the rabble had that pesky vote. They could always be led astray by liberals or populists.
1945 was an unprecedented historical juncture point. During the 30s, the rabble had shared the collective trauma of the Great Depression. Then, during World War II, taking terrible losses, they vanquished some truly despicable enemies. Shared trauma brings solidarity. Solidarity can be dangerous if misdirected. What if the rabble decided to TAKE OVER?
It was decided that war would continue indefinitely. Communism would become the new enemy. Fear would become an important management tool -- the rabble would now fear Communism and nuclear war. The economy would remain on a permanent war footing; the taxpayers would continue to subsidize the armaments industry. And -- probably the most diabolical plan of all -- the tax burden would gradually be shifted from the elite onto the rabble. More about this next issue. The Cold War had begun.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
So Many Words, So Little Time!
I'm starting this overflow blog in an effort to avoid overwhelming the main blog with even more verbiage. This way, people can click the link and read the posts on this blog, leaving the main blog open for pretty pictures, etc.
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