Ah...
Here we are in the 21st century, mindlessly basking in
the warm rays of de facto bloodsucking U.S. corporate
domination combined with at least four ongoing bloody
U.S. wars and military interventions abroad, an impotent
and hypocritical Democrat and Republican Congress,
and a "peace" prize toting- predator drone
/ torturing president whose claims to fame are his
slippery tongue, his pigmentation, and his inexplicable
rise from relative obscurity to be the adorned head of
the U.S. corporate/military Empire. Oh...The unspeakable
joys of watching the gutting of U.S. constitutional rights
under the auspices of the now expanded 'Patriot
Act's' so called war on terror, the trillions of dollars
of blood money stolen from everyday people for
the coffers of the corporate elite, and the ceaseless
obfuscation and prevarication by the U.S. corporate
owned, corporate-stream media and other systemic institutions.
What joy! What sad and utterly pathetic joy in this year
of 2011!
Today's
combination of unbridled corporate hegemony and unending
military adventurism is 'America's' democracy. It is the
best form of fascism money can buy. That's right, fascism!
People
in this nation have been brainwashed by decades of systemic
misinformation and disinformation to believe that fascism
only exists in the blatant forms of jackboots and/or
storm troopers marching down the streets. The reality
however is quite different. There is a systemically
entrenched economic and political symbiotic relationship
between the elites of corporations and those of the military.
The fundamental component for the fruition of fascism
is the systemic integration of and by the corporate
and military elites to "manage" [i.e. control]
the nation's economy and the daily functioning of the
nation on virtually every level of significance. The extent
to which corporate and military systemic integration (which
include the areas of research and development) have ballooned,
in real terms, means that the corporate/military
elites dominate and control the very life-blood
of the U.S. economy. There is no nice or tender way of
stating this. It is an insidious 21st century form of
fascism by any other name. Thus, democracy (and most importantly
the democratic "process") is, and has
been, mortally subverted and thereby rendered, in essence,
null and void--no matter the pretense.
It does not take a rocket scientist to grasp the fact
that when the process itself has been subverted,
the end result is anything but a genuine people's
democracy.
When,
for example, most people think of corporations such as
Exxon/Mobil, British Petroleum, Boeing, Lockheed, General
Electric, Whirlpool, CBS, etc. they are totally
unaware of how deeply these companies are involved in
making trillions of dollars from U.S. military government
contracts, including research and development thereto.
However, contrary to popular mythology, these military
contracts do not translate into a massive amount of jobs
for everyday people, but rather huge profits and dividends
for the corporate elite. Additionally, everyday
Black, White, Brown, Red and Yellow people are kept ignorant
of the outrageous and enormous financial/political influence
these corporations wield over the corporate-stream "news"
media. Indeed, many of these corporations actually own
or otherwise financially control so-called "main
stream" media networks locally, nationally, and internationally.
This is yet another example of the utter subversion of
democracy.
Nationally,
various tactics, some covert and others overt, such as
the Emergency Financial Management (EFM) Law in
Michigan, are utilized to institute corporate / state
take-overs of townships and/or cities, etc. which blatantly
gut the democratic process and the alleged constitutional
rights of the residents of these regions. However, the
most obvious, though often ignored example of the subversion
of democracy and corporate fascism at work, is
the obscene amount of financial contributions that corporations
pump into the campaigns of political candidates and/or
elected officials. Now that corporations in this nation
have been granted legal "personhood" (despite
their not being people), only illusionaries could
refer to the United States as a genuine or real democracy.
The people are told that they have the right to vote for
a Democrat or Republican Party tow-legged fox or wolf,
but the odds are hideously and systemically stacked against
everyday people; proving yet again that the United States
of America has the best form of de facto fascism that
money can buy.
The
only way to bring about real change is to first recognize
that the United States of America, whether controlled
by Democrats or Republicans, has a corporate/military
government--a genteel version of 21st century fascism
functioning under an ever thinning veil of disingenuous
'democracy.' There are those who pretend that they
care about the everyday people, but who in reality, are
nothing more than systemic gate-keepers for the
Democrat or Republican Parties. No matter what their
rhetoric might be, their objective is to confuse,
control, and pimp the pain of everyday people. We must
recognize them and the system that they represent
for what they are!
It's
time for systemic change. No more two-legged
foxes or wolves. No more Democrats or Republicans. It's
time for everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and
Yellow people to reject this system in favor of organizing
for real change. We must insist upon an end to political
repression at home and U.S. wars abroad. We want jobs,
justice, education, universal health care, and peace.
We the everyday people must bring an end to this 21st
century fascism that masquerades as a 'democracy.'
What
time is it? It's time to organize, organize, and organize
some more!!! It's time to actively join the global human
family and stand up for ourselves and for our Mother Earth.
'Each one teach one!' Aluta Continua! The struggle continues!
Onward then my sisters and brothers! Onward!
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney,
is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister
of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political
prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored
his civil/political rights case to the United Nations
under the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities
in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was
interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book,Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and
Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard
Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.