|
|
[Printer-friendly
version]
Mythical America, R.I.P.
Lorenzo Hagerty, January 2005
It seems to me that it's about
time to put an end to the mythical version of America that
so many people in this nation have been hanging onto. Growing
up during the 1940's and 1950's, just after the end of World
War II, gave me a terribly distorted view of this country.
My father and most of his friends had served in uniform during
that war, and their patriotism was even stronger than their
religious views. Needless to say, it also rubbed off on me.
Until I woke up one morning
and found myself on a destroyer (appropriately named!) off
the coast of Viet Nam, I too was fond of saying, "My
country, right or wrong." But something changed in me
during my time in that war zone, and I began what has become
a long struggle to learn how to think for myself and to question
authority. Now, after much consideration, I am convinced that
our mythical version of America is dead. Here is where I think
we stand today.
During the recent political
campaigns, one of the rich white men we were allowed to choose
between spoke about there being two America's, one rich and
one poor. Yet when you look at the way the alleged vote was
divided, it didn't track that way. A lot of poor people voted
for Bush and a lot of rich people voted for Kerry. The vote
split down the middle (or so we've been told) on non-economic
issues, like gay marriage and abortion. This divide we're
experiencing isn't so much an economic divide as it is a cultural
divide. But make no mistake about it, there are now
two Americas, Fascist America and Free America, but
Mythical America is no more, and in actuality it never existed
anyway.
Of course, no one wants to
admit that there is more than one version of America, because
, well, that would be un-American. And being a good American
means that you only subscribe to one version of the USA, Mythical
America. That is the America, we have been told, that always
puts the interests of the poor and downtrodden first. That
is the America that would never strike first, and is a good
world citizen, never polluting or using more than its share
of the world's resources. As far as countries go, Mythical
America is as good as it gets. Like they say in Texas, "It
ain't perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than what's
in second place." Wrong, bucko! Your version of America
is not only dead and gone, it never even existed.
When was the last time you
took a good look at the documents upon which this country
was founded? This "perfect" Constitution of ours
was designed from the very beginning to prevent majority
rule. Why do you think we are stuck with the electoral college?
Do you think that was an accident? Go back and re-read your
history, and you'll see that the plan was for only rich white
men to rule this land. That's the way this country was organized
from the very beginning, because that's what our precious
Founding Fathers intended. They never in their wildest dreams
would have agreed to let women vote, let alone run for public
office, and their views about people of color were chilling.
Now some may say, "That's
unfair. The world was quite different then. Things have changed
and so has the Constitution." That's right. Things were
very different back then, which is all the more reason to
shred that old thinking and begin again with a clean sheet
of paper. Only this time let's not just pay lip service to
"We the People" but actually pass control of our
government to the people who are consenting to being governed.
It is time for a new Constitutional
Convention. The procedure for this is already in place, should
we ever find the will to use it. Thomas Jefferson advised
us to re-write the Constitution every generation or two. Instead,
we've very grudgingly amended it a few times, but even that
has become almost impossible now. We weren't even able to
agree on an amendment that would codify the fact that women
have equal rights with men. Until we put aside the mythical
version of this country that our public schools have force-fed
us, we aren't going to see any significant change from the
original plan. Let's face it, if we don't start over, completely
from scratch, we are doomed to live in a nation divided in
half, part free, part fascist, and controlled by spreading
fear through the corporate-owned media. Once you wake up to
the fact that "America" is in the control of people
with fascist intentions, you will find that for you, too,
Mythical America is dead and gone.
I don't use the word "fascism"
loosely here. The dictionary defines fascism as, "A system
of government marked by centralization of authority under
a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression
of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically
a policy of belligerent nationalism." Benito Mussolini,
dubbed "the father of fascism," defined the word
in a far more pertinent fashion. "Fascism," he said,
"should more properly be called corporatism, since it
is the merger of state and corporate power." Does that
sound familiar? Now, you might disagree with the dictator
part of the definition of that word, but when the Supreme
Court appoints the president, and then four years later he
holds onto power by rigging the election, that seems pretty
close to a dictatorship to me. Our republic is done for, finished,
kaput. Phase One of the Great American Experiment is over,
and the good guys lost.
Rest
In Peace
- Free and
fair elections Soon,
all of our votes will be counted by machines from just two
private companies, both controlled by Bush insiders …
and there will be no paper trails or access to the inner
workings of these machines allowed.
- Your right
to privacy The (Anti-)Patriot
Act has decimated the Bill of Rights. Whether you realize
it or not, we are now living in a police state.
- Your right
to a trial Even
U.S. citizens can now be held indefinitely, without a trial,
and even without charges ever being brought against them.
- The image
of America as a beacon of hope As
one
frustrated Canadian wrote in an open letter to America,
"Yours is a sick nation … You have become a nation
of monsters, America. Hypocrites. Murders. Fools."
… that's what the world thinks about us today.
- America as
a nation of peace We
are a nation of WAR, not peace. Not only do we now declare
war on whomever we want, we declare war on anything that
seems to be a problem, like drugs, poverty, and even on
nouns like Bush's insane "War on Terror."
I could go on, but the list
is long, and time to act is getting short. Face the facts,
Mythical America is not only dead, it never actually existed.
What does exist, at least from the viewpoint of the rest of
the world, is America the Empire. The truth is, there has
never been a larger, richer, or more powerful empire than
the American Empire. But building an empire is not what Mythical
America was supposed to be about. Empires are for fascists.
Free Americans have no taste for empire. Unfortunately, Free
America is under the thumb of Fascist America. So what do
we Free Americans do now?
Thanks to the Internet, Free
Americans are now finding one another and making connections
at a rate unforeseen by the fascist control-freaks. Every
day, countless numbers of people are putting another piece
of the puzzle in place and are beginning to figure out what
is really going on. Every day, small groups of like-minded
Free Americans are meeting in every community in this land
to try and figure out what they can do to begin to take back
the reins of government that were stolen from them by the
looters in Washington.
Not since the days of England's
Mad King George has the populace of this land been so tightly
controlled. The permanent war footing the Bush junta has put
us on guarantees a continual cutting back on the freedoms
we thought were ours when we lived in Mythical America. Those
of us who declare ourselves to be citizens of Free America
realize that even though we reject Bush's fascist empire,
we are stuck here in a gulag owned and operated by his corporate
cronies. "We are prisoners here…", as the song
goes, "…prisoners of our own devise." The fascists
are in control, for the moment at least.
But guess what? You poor souls
who support Fascist America have been duped by those clever,
greedy families at the top of your food chain. Soon the joke
is going to be on you. Just as they have destroyed so many
other economies before, they are now about to dismantle the
American economy. You have to be a fool to think our national
debt will ever be repaid. The Treasury has been looted. We're
broke! Why do you still believe the myth of a strong dollar?
Can't you see that the wheels are already in motion to move
to a new money standard for the world? What did you expect
when they set up a private banking system to issue our currency?
Most people think that one of the most basic functions of
a democracy is to issue their own money. We outsourced that
function to private enterprise. Yet, even in the face of what
is obviously happening, you continue to support the Bush gang
because those lying fascists have convinced you that it's
the American Way of Life they stand for. They threaten that
if you don't go along with them the rest of the world is going
to take away all of your cool stuff; you might even have to
pay a fair price for your gasoline. The truth is, our "American
way of life" comes at great expense to the rest of the
world. You simply cannot expect them to let us live like this,
at their expense, forever.
No matter what your political
views, I hope you will spend some quiet time by yourself
and think about some of these things. Ask yourself, "Would
Mythical America be forcing 'democracy' on people through
the barrel of a gun? Would Mythical America even pretend an
'election', with unknown lists of candidates and polling places
whose locations are kept secret, is even remotely democratic."
Iraq is just another colony in Fascist America's Empire. If
you think we are helping to spread democracy to that part
of the world in any way, shape, or form, you are seriously
deluding yourself. You are still living in the myth, and not
the reality of America.
The rest of the world has already
discarded any and all ideas about Mythical America. It is
now time for the people of this land to do the same. If we
have anything of greatness left in us, then let us begin the
push to write a new constitution. Face it, the old one has
already been shredded by the Bush War Machine. We have nothing
left to lose, and that now makes us invincible. I for one
am tired of wasting my time in senseless political campaigns
that offer only Evil and his younger brother, Lesser. Putting
your energy into U.S. politics right now is like rearranging
the deck chairs on the Titanic. It will keep you occupied,
but you'll be too busy to notice the fact that you are about
to hit an ice berg. Only a radical change of course can save
us now. If the people of this land are to have any hope at
all of living in the United States of America
ever again, we must first accept the fact that fixing the
System will no longer work. We need a completely new System,
and soon.
These are dark days, indeed.
But I would like to end on a positive note. In fact, I am
very optimistic about the future. For one thing, I still have
an unbroken faith in people's ability to like one another.
Without governments or religions, I am sure we would all get
along just fine. Of course, some form of organization is required,
but all of the forms we've invented so far just aren't working.
However, evolution never stands still. While it may appear
that our nation has fallen into madness, perhaps something
else is going on. What if we are, in fact, in the middle of
a birthing process? Could it be that before long we will be
giving birth to some entirely new form of human organization
on this planet? Now keep in mind that births are often messy
affairs, accompanied by a lot of pain, blood, and tears. But
once the newborn has passed down the birth canal and taken
its first breath …. well …. for the parents, when
they hold it in their arms for the first time, life
just doesn't get any better than that. The
feeling of divine ecstasy experienced at that moment makes
everything that had come before worthwhile.
|
|
