Greed, Corruption, Cruelty and Stupidity

The empire of the United States has arrived at a dismal moment when about half of the American people live in delusion and denial, refusing to accept that global warming is human-caused or that evolution is the origin of species. About 40% of the citizenry believes we live in the Biblical end time, where Christ and Satan will engage in the final battle, resulting in the damnation of the majority and salvation for a select faction of unflinching zealots.

These irrational and faith-bound beliefs are encouraged by power-seeking politicians, who proclaim that the Empire is not only the greatest country in the world but the one special moral exception among nations, meant to challenge evil everywhere. Anyone who thinks otherwise has fallen into the grip of demonic darkness. Given such an eschatological foundation, it is easy to stoke fear, anger and hatred in a populace that wants to live in denial of the truth: that greed, corruption, cruelty, and stupidity are battering rams of karma which have struck the United States off its perch of greatness in a matter of decades.

An example of greed and corruption is Wall Street destroying not only the US economy but also the world economy in 2008, due to unethical and profit-grubbing dirty tricks. Not only that, the bankers and financiers got away with it: both Presidents Bush and Obama bailed them out and failed to insure more policing of WS's outrageous gambling (“investment” is a euphemism for roulette gone wild)

Stupidity requires two factors, both of which are in play: (a) contumacious belief on faith (or wildly irrational grounds, which is basically the same thing) in destructive theories or religious dogmas, (b) vulnerability to mass manipulation by narcissistic politicians because of such contumacy.

Cruelty is everywhere in the Empire’s leviathan military. Some classic and numerous examples are the overthrow of democratically elected leaders by the CIA (see the book, Killing Hope). Other examples involve supporting vicious dictators and tyrants when it serves the purposes of corporations and their politician minions.

We supported Saddam Hussein, giving him plenty of weapons, training, and intelligence, even when he gassed his own citizens (see the book, Spider’s Web). Here ya go:

http://www.amazon.com/Spiders-Web-Secret-History-Illegally/dp/0553096508

Wikileaks just reveals another case of US soldiers slaughtering an innocent family. These things are commonly hidden from the public through complicit and docile mass media, owned by billionaires. Here ya go:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-onthemedia-20110903,0,435906.column

There are only two major political parties in the Empire, and one of them, the GOP, is the party of denial, dysfunction and delusion. The other party, the Democrats, is also corrupt but struggles feebly to bring moral progress, things like providing affordable healthcare for everyone (currently, around 50 million people do not have access to a doctor without going into extreme debt).

Behind the scenes, billionaires and massive corporations, like Big Oil, Big Insurance and Big Pharma, puppet Congress with vast infusions of cash.

I can complain and protest all I want, but I am largely irrelevant. Long ago, the masters of the Empire figured out that granting the right to free speech is no threat to plutocracy, not when a large segment of the population is gullible and malleable.

This concludes my latest rant. I am now going to go out into the woods, where I can enjoy the ancient miracles of simple things--like trees and birds--the sorts of divine gifts that consumerism and materialism have blinded most people to seeing.

Owl