Inauguration to the Nation (of Sheep)

I'll probably go with a capital "S" on Sheep, because I have a lot of respect for them.  After all they are us. That is, we all - to some extent- act like sheep in the face of some experience.  It's not really helpful at all when we do that and it sells short some pretty amazing tools that we're not using when we're acting Sheeplike.  Humans could really get some serious things done if we used our minds and bodies for anything close to their potential.  'Don't have the answers to how to do that - other than to say, think, read and learn a whole lot, and stay active in some purpose bigger than yourself.

By the way, if this isn't the look of a blog worth following, 'sorry.  Not that I didn't bother to give it a snappier look ('wouldn't know how to do that), but rather that you could miss some good content in your search for a better-looking blog.

I'll have to see what time allows for this indulgence.  My goals for this are no more likely to be met than my goals for any other facet of a busy life.

My first post is about the politics of Sheep.  How did we allow ourselves to come under assault by some of our own.  Well, they weren't (aren't) 'our own', they're the wealthiest one or two percent and are very much like wolves wearing fleeces they took from trade unionists, public servants, migrant workers or any other of society's marginalized members..  (originally submitted for publication elsewhere, so some of you might have read it).  Enjoy (?)

One thing seems to be common in current kitchen table political talk: frustration (i.e., a portion of dismay with a big dash of bewilderment).  It doesn’t take too long before someone says, “I don’t know how things got this way.”   Just where did we go wrong?  

When something slips past our attention, it was either quick or very subtle.  

In a very subtle and systematic fashion America has had its basic story stolen right out from under it’s nose.  When you’re in a story you don’t recognize, you become  disoriented and want to ask if you’re still in Kansas.

The theft was no slight of hand, it was accurately predicted by our outgoing president in 1960.  Your jaw will drop if you take the chance to read Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell speech, that is, if your jaw is somehow still attached after all the disorienting, jaw-dropping events of recent years.

 Another forward-thinker, Joseph Campbell, pointed out long ago that ours is a story-bound species. We are driven by and for a variety of theme-based narratives and for better and worse, it’s how we got to be where we find ourselves today.  Within any society, those who write its story line also control its politics, economy and culture.

As predicted, the story of this country has been systematically co-opted by an elite group of industrialists who get ridiculously rich from “Defense” contracts.  We have essentially become the Corporate States of America.  Their unbalanced financial influence in the political process has stripped education, health care and the economy of vitality so that military “service” has become a great employment option.  They need a materiel market and so we have perma-war instead of foreign policy.  They just slipped their story sequel-fashion into that of our founding struggles.  They debased actual heroics and noble causes of earlier generations by weaving them into a sales pitch for ongoing, invented aggression.

Over half of all our discretionary spending goes their way, but that’s not good enough.  They’re putting out the word that our economic woes are due to entitlements and so good programs now sit in the crosshairs.  We, the People, are under a full-fledged assault and (it wasn’t really theft) we bought the story, in serial chapters, that made it happen.

Ronald Reagan helped the corporate takeover by vilifying unions and by dividing us from our government, when he mouthed the words, “... the government has your money.”  (The founding story has it that we are the government, and it is for us and by us, not PAC millions..)  Bush Sr. (with help from Bill Clinton) staged the short sale of the country by pushing NAFTA, and the Supreme Court has all-but-signed the closing papers with the Citizens United ruling.

Neocons of recent memory want(ed) to run government more like a 'lean and mean' business and the dysfunction we have today is the result.  Why? The story of America was about functioning in a balanced state, with checks and balances working throughout the private and public sectors.  They each have different ends and means and the two worked together for a time, almost like co-authors.  

A proud and moving story that was on the must-read list for the whole world is in real danger of becoming a dust-covered tragedy.  A happier ending to our story will write itself if we but take one important step in the right direction: get big money out of politics.  Like good editors, we’ve amended the Constitution many times before, and a 28th amendment for spare, public financing of campaigns would be a good first chapter in America, Part II.