The haves in Western society have gotten used to being able to have their
cake and eat it, and to not have to pay for the consequences of their actions,
and even for their freedom. Somebody else pays, but that doesn’t trouble us too
much.
In times of recession the have-less slip down the ladder dangerously
close to the have-nots, but in boom times so far enough have recovered enough
to keep the system going, despite that they’re paying too high a price. Working
for wages that don’t reflect their contribution so that corporations and their
shareholders can profit. Spending beyond their means so that banks can make a
profit.
And then everybody kind of becomes unaccountable. The have-nots of course
pay for everything and over time that group gets bigger and bigger. But a lot
of people look the other way. It won’t
happen to me. Even if it did happen once, it won’t happen again. It seems
to be human nature. Until you’re down and you just can’t get up again. Then you
realize, I have the power to change this.
And then the whole world changes for you.
But those people are in the minority. Just as it happens at an individual
level, it does with societies. The majority believe that what they do in their
lives from moment to moment and the choices they make have nothing to do with
the trouble that their country gets into. Of course they’re right in some ways.
Leaders fabricate wars to oust inconvenient rulers or parties or squander
budgets. Politicians steal the money and/or do what the wealthy and powerful want
them to do. Bankers bankrupt entire economies and get away with it: correction,
are rewarded for it.
But none of it could happen if every citizen actively participated in elections, which means finding out everything
there is to find about candidates before they’re elected. Then
communicating with them on everything they do. Protesting
every single time they step out of line.
Some do it more than others, but the majority of us wait until something
really disastrous happens then we wait for the next election and we vote
differently, unless we allow ourselves to get seduced by bland election
promises or we’re blinded by our prejudices. We’d rather hold onto them than
properly inform ourselves.
And when an unjust war is started on the pretext of protecting our
freedom, we accept it and look away from the fact that somebody else is paying
for that real or imagined freedom. The soldiers, for one. Innocent civilians for another, just wanting to live
their lives in peace, learn their own lessons in their own way, being smashed to pieces.
Maybe dying, maybe surviving to live the rest of their lives in hell, their family,
town and country destroyed.
Americans are being given the choice of actually paying the price
themselves for their own security now, with the Obama Administration’s
intelligence gathering. Isn’t it better than making others pay? Creating a fake
war on a false pretext and bombing the hell out of a country? Conning US
soldiers who get physically and mentally maimed or destroyed into believing
they did something noble? Conning parents into believing they're
sacrificing their children for something great, so that they'll
encourage the rest of the children to give themselves up like so much fodder?
Illegally holding 'suspects' and illegally torturing them, treating them like
animals?
For the war in Iraq the US military sent its missionaries into poor urban
areas and targeted young men who had no jobs, no resources, no opportunities.
Congressmen and Senators didn't send their own sons to fight. In fact they made
sure their sons didn't fight. That’s not the worst kind of intrusion into
privacy?
With this latest intelligence gathering story, the real intrusion on
privacy would be if content were being mined which it isn't. And a much greater
threat to individuals is when violent response, most of it inappropriate,
fosters more hatred and more terrorism. When the superwealthy and giant
corporations get away with not contributing adequately to society. When wages
are too low so profits can be high and shareholders and CEOs can make a fortune.
When a Republican governor squanders $24 million to further his personal agenda
and says he didn't know what it cost and he didn't care. Shortly after he had
cut $10 million from after-care programs in poor schools, $12 million from
hospital charity, and refused to spend $25 million on early voting.
In comparison to the alternatives, intelligence gathering is a peaceful
and non-violent method of dealing with the terrorist threat. It would be great
if there was no threat. But there is one and something has to be done. The
question is simply, who’s going to pay for the security? The people who receive it, or those who don't?
