by

John Wright

The Democrats recently completed their 2004 national convention in Boston. I paid some attention to the speakers, especially Al Sharpton, and to the general commentary by CNN® reporters. Typically I watch very little television but within that week I also watched Bill Maher’s HBO® show, Real Time©, and Larry King’s talk show with former president Bill Clinton as his guest. The CNN® reporting was so transparently negative I wondered who paid them off? The other shows were more relevant and interesting. To be blunt, Al Sharpton gave a great speech, which I found surprising as I have never been a fan of Sharpton. I find myself caught in a misanthropic mood of distrust of all that is controlled by the wealthy today and of our general ignorance and inability to reason as common citizens. Were I to state directly my primary concern it would be this: Will we ever grow up?

The short answer is no, not within my lifetime. I did my best trying to explain our chronic idiocies in my book, Destiny. I also tried to identify a rational path for our growth beyond our current and pathetic limitations. Alas, each time I immerse myself in the reality of our society and how it actually operates I want to cry. But, as a man, macho of course, I do not cry … I just get angry and then depressed, and then turn my attention elsewhere to areas in which my labors bear useful fruit.

I have a severe case of lack of respect for our displayed behaviors in politics, government, business and organized religion. I suppose that pretty well covers the main areas of life in the fast lanes of power and wealth. We are a bad joke. Every time I watch our public displays of opinions and analysis on the news I go through meltdown. Of course, behind the meltdown is the realization that pap for the public has little connection with the reality of exercised power behind closed doors. It is far more brutal and self-serving than any commoner would realize.

There is, of course, a good reason for that reality. The bulk of Humanity is so dismally ignorant, indeed stupid (terminally ignorant), that those in power waste no time speaking with candor. That reality is an abomination. Yes, I mean the reality of terminal ignorance is an abomination. A second abomination is the association of the powerful and their actions with the will of something they call God. Somehow they make the clearly invalid assumption that their financial and political dominance is proof of the rightness of their decision-making processes, conclusions and actions. They are led by their greed and power lust, not by any kind of God by traditional religious definitions. They do, however, like to steal the name.

Is the world at peace? Have we solved excess reproduction, human diseases, gross global ignorance, and provided good and sufficient food for all? Is climbing to dominance over the backs of near idiots a valid claim to knowledge and rightness? Give me a break. The ignorance of the wealthy and powerful is appalling too. Their incremental advantage looks large to them but is in fact miniscule. How many of them could, as individuals, even design a toaster?

The proof of pathetic reasoning on the part of the powerful conservative right wing is seen in their fear of science, particularly genetic engineering, stem cell research, etc. Any scientific discovery that appears might undermine the comparative genetic advantages of the wealthy/existing power structure is looked upon as evil. Another proof is seen in the development of excessive governmental control systems that gradually but surely remove freedoms from the general population. Do you or do you not have far less freedoms than your grandparents enjoyed when they were young?

A third proof is the belief of the wealthy that there should be no limits in their acquisition and holding of wealth … it appears to be okay to them to create poverty by amassing wealth personally and especially within corporations. Then much capital gets moved offshore to avoid taxes and local USA business costs related to employment and benefits for USA citizens, while the newly employed citizens elsewhere earn only a pittance. How does the job picture look now? Can any of the offshore proponents demonstrate how we have benefited as a nation by losing jobs?

Now let’s come full circle and ask in all candor what will change as a result of the coming elections? Will anything both useful and timely happen on behalf of the ordinary citizens, regardless of which party assumes the presidency or control of the Congress? Have we not evolved to the point where wealth and individual power cannot be recovered from the corporations and the independently wealthy? I fear globalization has ended our chance as a nation to correct the excesses of the corporations. And I fear our gross citizen ignorance will cause nothing useful to happen … our fools will continue to be led by their noses and believe whatever their "leaders" tell them. But the stupid must be forgiven, or at least not hated, for truly they know not what they do, and they never will until Destiny changes that reality.

If you were ignorant enough to vote for Bush in the last election, bless you for your appalling innocence. I hope you have learned something useful since that election. If you are stupid enough to vote for him again, damn you for your refusal to face reality. And ask yourself the following questions: 1) Where is the real war, in Iraq or in the USA? 2) What is the war about, democracy or money and power? 3) How many pink elephants and terrorist attacks have we seen in the USA since 9/11? 4) Will our good friends in China and India continue to sell us low cost goods when we can no longer manufacture what we need, and will we earn enough to buy those goods? How?