There is a sentiment that often pops up in a meme posted by veterans, that says something along the lines of “I swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath has no expiration date.” Although, it is normally posted by my more right-leaning brethren, I actually believe the same thing. I just disagree with them on who our enemies really are.
I was reading an article earlier today, from Atlantic magazine by David Frum, about the impending collapse of American Democracy and the rise of Donald Trump (no matter how I try, I just can’t seem to help myself). It was a pretty good article, but there was one thing that really struck home to me; in the section on foreign policy, it quotes a statistic from the Pew Research Center that says that 66% of Republicans polled, and 75% of Trump supporters polled, said that things have gotten worse for people like themselves over the last 50 years. Much as it pains me to agree with anything Trump supporters believe, I have to admit I agree with them. Where we seem to disagree on this is on the WHY.
They seem to believe it’s the fault of foreigners, minorities, Muslims, gays, Democrats, liberals, socialists, progressives, the poor, career politicians, the U.N., and, of course, OBAMA (Duhn, DUNH, DUNNNNNNH!). I believe that most of it is because we’re being colonized by inhuman forces. That’s right – Corporations. Actually, that’s not quite accurate. Corporations are merely the mechanisms through which we are being colonized. The actual colonizers are the people at the top of the corporations, like the Koch brothers, and the same bankers and brokers who caused the collapse of the economy in 2008.
Definition of Colonization:
First, let’s take a look at what colonization is. Out of sheer laziness, I’ll quote my own paper, “Colonizing Shakespeare,” written for a class:
Mel Brooks’ 1974 comedy, Blazing Saddles, unintentionally contains perhaps the most practical definition of colonialism ever, when the villain, Hedley Lamarr plots to take some extremely valuable land from its rightful owners. His henchman Taggart suggests a “number six”:
“‘Well, that’s where we go a-ridin’ into town, a-whompin’ and a-whumpin’ every livin’ thing that moves within an inch of its life. Except the women folk, of course.”
‘Oh, you spare the women?’
‘Naw, we rape the shit out of them at the Number Six Dance later on.’
‘Marvelous!’” (Brooks).
The “number six”, although crude, is more realistic than the bloodless and inane definition provided by the Oxford English Dictionary: “The colonial system or principle. Now freq. used in the derogatory sense of an alleged policy of exploitation of backward or weak peoples by a large power” (“colonialism, n.” 2). European colonization followed a very simple pattern: find a place with ample resources, overpower the indigenous people, force the indigenous people to gather those resources or import cheap slave, prisoner, or indentured laborers to gather them and push the indigenous people out, collect said resources and ship home to the mother nation. Mixed in with that was usually the importation of missionary workers to subvert the local religions and convert the indigenous people to Christianity. European colonialism was ultimately all about increasing the power and wealth of the mother nation and its rulers, both politically and commercially; in other words, a large-scale “number six”.
It doesn’t really matter where you look; the Spanish in South America, Belgians in the Congo, or the Romans, and later the British, pretty much everywhere, or even little old us, right here at home, they pretty much all follow the same pattern. Find something you want, kill or subjugate anyone or anything that stands between you and “it”, keep as much of “it” for yourself as humanly possible while vilifying anyone who questions your right to have “it”.
What makes this corporate colonization harder to spot, is that “it”, in this case, is not land, or resources, or even a particularly physical property; “it” in this case, is simply money (and, if you would argue the fact that money is no longer a physical property, ask yourself, when was the last time you cashed a paycheck, or even held more than a couple hundred dollars in your hand). Money has become less and less familiar to us. Now money is a little plastic card in your wallet, a bank notification in your email, a button on your computer screen. It doesn’t pass from hand to hand anymore, it flies invisibly along wires, and even through the air. Oddly enough, our current unfamiliarity with it has made it even more important, more mystical, more God-like.
A Little Evidence:
One thing I have noticed throughout all this political season’s finger-pointing, patriotic, flag-waving, hyperbole about income and wealth inequality is this; there really hasn’t been all that much. Seriously. Except for Bernie Sanders, the rest seem to pretty much just ignore it, or at best, poo-pooh it as the whining of undeserving whiners. Nobody however, seems to really want to dispute that it exists. I googled “American income over the past 40 years,” and in every chart I saw, the line representing the income of the top 1% looks like my heartrate after 5 minutes on a treadmill. It looks like a rocket trajectory from the ’80’s to today. On the other hand, every chart’s lines representing lower- and median-income earnings since the ’80’s looks like my heartrate if I tried to do 20 minutes on a treadmill (a flat line).
I haven’t heard anyone dispute this. Even Fox News acknowledges that it exists, but even they can only sugar-coat that turd so much. John Stossel wrote that yes, incomes for the rich have increased by 200% over the last 30 years, but don’t forget that the poor’s income has increased by 50 percent over that same time period. I’m not even going to argue with his numbers. Let’s just look at it mathematically. Let’s say the average rich guy made $1,000,000 a year, 30 years ago. Today, that same rich guy would be making 2,000,000. Not too shabby. Let’s say the average poor person made $20,000. Today, he’s making $30,000. Meanwhile, the price of hamburger has gone from $.99/lb. to $4.68/lb. That’s an increase of 472%. Bread was $.50, now it’s $1.98 (almost 400%). In other words, according to Fox News, the only people keeping up with the cost of living are the wealthy. As a side note, we all know that I suck at math. Feel free to let me know if I got it wrong.
How They’ve Done It:
In the old days, the imperial powers used a literal “number 6” approach. Take the U.S., for example. We wanted the land, the gold, the timber, the silver, etc. “What the hell,” we said, “the Indians aren’t even using it. God wants us to have it.” So we took away their food sources, and forcibly moved them to land we didn’t want. If they resisted, we killed as many of them as as it took to make them behave the way we wanted to. We told them, “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you now,” and then just as quickly forgot about them, at least until we found that their was uranium in that worthless land we’d put them on. Then, we claimed imminent domain, and took that too, and poisoned the water while we were at it. Then we promptly forgot them again. If you doubt me, go to an Indian reservation sometime.
The Corporations’ approach is more subtle. They legislate it, through lobbyists who write the bills Congress passes. Through corporate welfare, where employees (including many military members) earn so little that they rely on food stamps, WIC, and other assistance to make ends meet. Through extortion, threatening to move operations to other states or even overseas if their conditions aren’t met. That way, we get union-busting Right-to-Work laws that puts even more power in the Corporate hands.
At the same time, they find, create, and promote other “enemies” to distract us. Those evil unions, all those unnecessary regulations that stop them from turning this country back into a veritable Garden of Eden of freedom and free enterprise like it was in the ’60’s and ’70’s; you know, those halcyon days when our rivers used to catch fire from all the crap they dumped into them. They promote the idea that what’s good for business is good for America, and to show their patriotism and dedication to the American way of life, they hide their money in the Caiman Islands and other places.
They, through their political shills promote the idea that government is the enemy, and convince many to forget that our government is designed to be a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” (Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address). That’s right, you and I are the government. At least, we’re supposed to be. If we’re not any more, it’s our own damned fault. We’re the ones who bought into the bullshit fed us by people only interested in siphoning all the money to the top, AKA Trickle-Down Economics, or, as I think of it, “Let’s piss down their backs and tell them it’s raining” economics.
We are complicit in our own colonization. We’ve turned ourselves into a group of people so stupid that we’re perfectly willing to accept a Facebook meme that is easily disproved with even the most rudimentary amount of research, yet completely unwilling to accept the findings of the scientific community. Until we get sick that is. Then we’re all about the science. The more sciencey, the better. Heart, kidneys, or liver gone bad? Sign me up for a transplant. Hard-on’s a thing of the past? Have some viagra. Yay science!!!!! And all the while we ignore the fact that the same scientific process that made these things possible has also amassed a mountain of evidence that points out that climate change is devastatingly real.
An intelligent, thinking population is necessary, yet we allow our schools to deteriorate. We support our teachers by sharing memes on the Facebook, and elect politicians who gut school programs to cut costs. We’re not going to get really upset as long as they’re only cutting band, music, and arts programs, lunch programs, or things like that. No, we’ll save our wrath for when they start cutting the important stuff, like sports. Well, boy’s sports that is; the only people who care about girl’s sports are the girl’s parents. We NEED boy’s sports. They’re the primary feeder system for college and professional sports. We’ve got to keep those things strong and healthy, so we can keep building new stadiums with tax dollars so our teams won’t move somewhere that will build one.
Because professional sports are important. Without them, what would we do on Sunday afternoons? Spend time doing something with our families? Read a book, maybe? The horror! Besides, without sports merchandise, what would we spend what little money we have on? How would anybody know what team we root for? How would we know what people are just not right? Granted, it’s easy enough when they’re clearly different, but what about the ones who look and act just like me? How else would I know that my neighbor is a Steelers fan, and so, clearly not to be trusted (this is COLTS country, dammit!).
We’ve bought into the idea that the American people are the villains; well, not you and I, we’re the good guys, us and the small group of like-minded, right-thinking individuals like us. The bad guys are all the rest; all those “takers”. The poor, the immigrants (legal and illegal), the gays, the liberals, etc., etc. They’re the ones who are getting rich off of our tax dollars. They’re the ones who are bringing America down with their laziness, their immorality. Hell’s bells, they won’t even take care of their own children! And especially now that there are so many of them.
We want to get back to the good old days, the ’50’s, ’60’s, and 70’s. Back then, people lived right. Men went to work, and women stayed home and took care of their children. Parents taught their kids right from wrong. Parents were there to discipline their kids. That’s what we need to get back to. Except we can’t. Back in those days, in most cases, a man could make enough money working full time to feed, clothe, and house his family, so mothers could stay home and be mothers. Nowadays, and for the last 30 or so years, it takes both parents working to make ends meet.
Back then, if a mother needed, or even wanted, to work, the places where most of them work were closed at night, so they worked while the kids were in school. Now, everything runs 24 hours a day. Often both parents work different shifts, and the kids spend their time with grandparents, friends, or baby-sitters, or at day-care that costs almost as much as the parent makes.
Poverty, just like wealth, is inherited, as are their attendant attitudes. Just as wealthy people become more “entitled” and spoiled the farther removed from actually having earned their wealth they become over generations, accepting their wealth as their due, the poor become more and more accustomed to hopelessness, more and more resigned to living on hand-outs. We see this with every trip we make to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We middle-class white folks go out there and are shocked at the living conditions. We can’t believe that people actually have to live like that, here in modern America.
But the same thing is happening to us. The middle class isn’t shrinking so much as it is falling into poverty. The economic collapse in ’08 was the biggest bang in our colonization, and it wasn’t even enough to wake us up and make us take action. Seven to 10 million people lost their homes in the mortgage crisis, and not only did none of the people responsible go to jail for their predatory and irresponsible lending practices, WE BAILED THEM OUT! We called them job creators, even as they moved operations overseas to save money, as they gutted and pillaged our industrial and manufacturing base.
I know that some of you will say that I’m being ridiculous, that if they drive us all into poverty, then we won’t have the money to buy their products. In answer to that, I say, the guys at the top don’t care. They just want the money. They’ve already proven to themselves that even the poorest of us will go to ridiculous lengths to buy their crap, especially if they can drop the price by making that crap overseas. All they have to do is keep making minor “improvements”, and we’ll just have to have the newest Xbox, or IPhone. Even on Pine Ridge, they’ve all got cell phones.
Besides, these champions of capitalism don’t really believe in capitalism. Henry Ford, as anti-union an industrialist as they come, insisted on paying employees enough that they could afford his cars, raising their pay to almost double the standard. He knew that well-paid workers were loyal, and good for the economy. I once worked for a relative, a staunch conservative and capitalist, in a small skid-making business. He paid an excellent wage for a part-time job, and every year the business did well, he paid me a bonus. This was entirely his decision. I had no idea whether he was even making a profit. In return, I did my best to streamline the operation, drastically reducing production time and costs.
These guys, however, only believe in getting theirs. They know it’s not going to last, so they get in, grab all they can, as fast as they can, all the while ensuring that, if it all goes tits up while they’re in charge, they’ve got their golden parachute in place. Henry Ford was making cars. He was doing it to make money, and he made a lot, but he was making sure he took care of his people (granted, a lot of his methods were reprehensible, but the point stands). He was a capitalist. My relative was making skids. He also was doing it to make money, and he made some, but he also felt a responsibility to me. He is a capitalist. These guys are only making money. They only feel a responsibility to themselves. They aren’t capitalists, they’re opportunists.
But we still see each other as the enemy. We share memes about how fast-food workers want $15 an hour, pointing self-righteously to the fact that EMT’s, and other skilled workers don’t make that much, without ever asking ourselves why, since our GDP grows every year, are EMT’s, teachers, soldiers, police, fire-fighters, and medical personnel payed so poorly? Nobody chooses to work a low-skilled, minimum wage job at McDonalds, or WalMart. They take those jobs because often, they’re the only jobs available, particularly to a population that is poorly educated, and trained not to think, but just to believe. To believe what they’re told by the pundits, and the advertisers, the creators of memes.
The real value of education lies not in just the memorization of facts, but in the development of the ability to think, and to think critically. But if we learn to do that, then we won’t be such easy marks for con men disguised as business leaders, and our prospective overlords just can’t have that.
The question is, what’s it going to take to wake us up, and start us questioning these things? I understand completely if you think I’m off-base with a lot of this stuff, but why do you think that? Where’s your evidence? Do you have any, or is your disagreement based on how you feel?
Feel free to tell me what you think.
