The gist of this diary was on my mind when I woke up this morning. And since Democracy is suppose to be about "freedom," I thought I'd be my usual stubborn self and post it. Enjoy!
The Illusion of Freedom
I was born in 1952 and throughout my public school years, I heard it proudly proclaimed that our country, America, is the land of the free & the home of the brave. And I accepted it unquestionably as a truth or a "reality" as absolute as the law of gravity. Still to this day, I choke-up when I’m at a parade & a band plays The Star Spangled Banner or America the Beautiful. And that feeling of true patriotism is what moved me to write this essay. We have been sold a phony, bill of goods, which has been designed to give us the illusion of freedom so we’ll continue to play our role as suckers in this rigged-game known as the free market. Bush & the other repulsive reptilians tell us ad nauseam that our soldiers are fighting to protect our freedom. But, in fact, our soldiers are fighting to protect the interests of the super-rich.
In the same way that the disloyal & greedy corporations sell us everything from toothpaste to telephones, they, the "corporatocracy" sell us on going to war. It’s absolutely incredible that we, as a nation, have allowed the oil cabal cabinet of Dubya, the Bushwhacker, get away with lying us into a war in Iraq when they---especially Cheney, who profits from Haliburton’s gains via the lion’s share of contracts to "rebuild" Iraq. The "mainstream" media is a handful of conglomerates & the most blatant & egregious example of corporate greed & lies amongst the media moguls is Rupert Murdoch. Rupert’s most pernicious purveyor of lies, distortions, & misrepresentations is his Fox "news" network.
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans have been so dumbed-down by our public educational system & a steady diet of "infotainment," that they don’t even realize that the Fox channel is merely opinion & editorial and has little, if any, resemblance to objective reporting. And this is why the majority of regular Fox News viewers, believe that Saddam Hussein & Osama bin Laden worked together in attacking us on Sept. 11th.
Bush’s diabolical, political strategist, Karl Rove, issues daily "talking points," to Fox News, and Fox News, like an obedient lap-dog, dutifully repeats these "talking points" around the clock as if they were the gospel truth. And the other corporate media channels pretty much follow suit so they won’t lose out in the ratings game or be accused of "not supporting our troops."
It has been known for decades that advertising is just another word for propaganda or brainwashing. The father of this modern method of mass manipulation was Edward Bernays. Look him up on the Internet & you’ll be amazed at how cold, calculating, & sinister this modern phenomenon actually is. The corporate cockroaches don’t spend millions on advertising for nothing. Moreover, these amoral swine have even appropriated the music of the 1960s, to dupe people into buying their crap! If you are old enough to remember the 1960s, you’ll recall that our music, our clothes, our hairstyles, our way of life was all about rebelling against the commercialism of life in America. The 60s was a defiant & enraged generation telling the "establishment" to fuck off! We marched & protested about the way Blacks & women were discriminated against. We demanded the end of America’s invasion & destruction of Vietnam. But to watch television commercials today, you’d think the music of the 60s was a celebration of greed & materialism.
The cunning & craven corporate crocodiles have totally perverted the ideals of the flower children. Today’s youth are seduced into believing that buying a fast & expensive sports car, music system, set of clothes, laptop computer, etc., is a sign of rebellion and they will become free by doing so.
Yeah, right! They & we are "free" to become wage slaves. Don’t worry about tomorrow or how you’re going to pay for your new toys on your minimum wage, service job with no benefits. Credit card companies are the new drug dealers. They bombard young people with offers of credit cards at low interest rates to hook them on the credit drug & the young and many of the working & middle class slowly sink into the pit of despair because they can’t keep up with their payments. Ignore the ugly reality of the almost complete castration of unions in America. Note the "success" of Wal Mart! Never mind the statistic that 25% of America’s workers make less than $9 an hour & our decent paying jobs are being "outsourced" by the millions. Don’t let it cross your mind that the corporate pirates are making hundreds of millions of dollars as C.E.O.s, even as they "downsize" tens of thousands of their hard-working employees. And that "compassionate conservative," Bush, rewards these corporations that have fired their American workers & moved overseas so they can hire the destitute of other countries, sometimes as little as $2 per day, by giving them tax breaks. Remember, we’re "free" to go work at McDonalds or the local gas station. Never mind the inconvenience of not being able to pay your rent or go to a doctor when you’re sick or hurt.
After all, we’re "free" to elect a political representative or a president who will change all this & fight for us against the corporate robber barons. King Georgie’s brother, as governor of Florida, had nothing to do with the alleged disqualifying of tens of thousands of black voters in Florida. And the fact that nearly every one of the precincts in Ohio where the election counts were disputed in the 2004 presidential election, have recently just disappeared or have been destroyed, shouldn’t concern us any. Just keep reminding yourself that this is America, the land of the free & the home of the brave. And we are all just as free to leave, as the members of Jonestown were free to leave if they didn’t like it. But first you have to drink the Kool-Aid!