We are living in interesting times. Question is, have we been cursed, or blessed? Or both? The 1% have been quietly at work for decades bleeding the rest of us dry. One could say since the dawn of human kind, or since the first social contract. But let’s focus on the neocon cabal that has been at work since Reagan. The Thirty Year Itch. They have spun a web, slowly, patiently. We’ve been lulled to sleep, and have grown complacent and unquestioning to the point of tolerating daily slaughter of children of color by the police, tent cities of homeless people, school staff getting fired for feeding hungry children who cannot afford to buy food, bans on feeding homeless people as if they were some pest to be gotten rid of, daily shootings by deranged fanatics...What will it take to rouse us, one wonders?! We are working several jobs to make ends meet, don't have time or energy to invest in our personal growth or conjure an exit strategy, and thus succumb to the pull of the distraction industry. Beside the unlimited supply of mindless TV shows, the pharmaceutical industry is keeping us even further asleep with drugs that dampen our existential anxiety.
The masses start to stir a little, and BAM! the media find a powerful new spin to distract the stirring masses into one reaction or another. While the Paris attacks were horrid, by no means did they warrant mass hysteria. But hey, look who benefited from it: Weapons company stocks rally after Paris attacks. French President Hollande called for the extension of the original three days of state of emergency to three months! Hollande state of emergency. As citizens of ripe democracies, if we kept ourselves alert and awake, we would always ask when leaders call for these measures, what the hell is REALLY going on! Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (look at the most enlightening International arms transfers database)
Terrorism is a real threat, and we must deal with it, but fundamentally we must change our foreign policies so as to treat people who are recruited by terrorists in such a way that they are rendered unrecruitable through economic opportunity and joy. In order to change our foreign policies, we must radically change our energy policy, become 100% sustainable and independent of the Middle Eastern Oil. We can no longer afford to be BFFs with the Saudi Regime. We must kick money out of politics, first and foremost. But, instead, we are letting the weapons manufacturers, defense contractors, and oil companies write our foreign policy, thus perpetuating the madness. Nicolas Henin: The man who was held captive by Isis for 10 months says how they can be defeated. Our sons and daughters are fighting not for our freedom but for the profit of these interests. They are returning home in body bags, or maimed physically, and with their souls ripped apart. And to add insult to injury, the same politicians doing the bidding of the companies that sent them to war in the first place, refuse to honor their end of the bargain upon their heroes’ return. How can we possibly have veterans, people who have sacrificed everything there was to sacrifice for our safety, sleep on the streets and beg for food????? What have we turned into?!
The 1% have had a plethora of soporification instruments at their disposal, but none as powerful as the MEDIA. The role of the media in our democratic republic used to be referred to as the Fourth Estate, in addition to the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. However, the media have long ceased to provide that public service. These days they are running on steroids, pumping propaganda for the 1%, ranging from the blatantly obvious idiocy of Faux News and Hate Talk Show radio, the not so blatantly obvious but still obvious CNN, ABC, and NBC, and all the way to the subtle-and-therefore-more-pernicious PBS/NPR spin. Same goes for the print media. These days one has to go to the internet and comb through a host of sites in order to glean glimmers of the truth. The younger generations mostly rely on this method, thankfully, allowing for the possibility of a wake up call being heard.
WE MUST TURN OFF THE TV AND WAKE UP. (On that note, last night I stumbled upon this little jewel on Youtube. Well worth watching, more than once. Frighteningly beautiful, I think, as it fills me with hope. Anonymous - A Message to the Human Race)
Lucky for us, beside being cursed to live in interesting times, we also are very fortunate to have finally been blessed with a true leader, a man of the People, a once in a lifetime opportunity, who is shouting from the rooftops that the Emperor is stark naked! WAKE UP, AMERICA, AND FOLLOW THIS GREAT MAN INTO A TOUGH BUT ONLY POSSIBLE FUTURE IF WE ARE TO SURVIVE AS HUMANITY!!! Bernie has the entire system of SLEEP stacked against him; all the institutions put into place to keep us in place, keep us asleep: the Electoral College, the Superdelegates, the gerrymandered districts, the aforementioned MEDIA, and most importantly — campaign finance laws written by the very industries that seek to utterly destroy what’s left of our sacred democracy. We must wake up and do everything in our power and beyond to elect this man. It will take all of our efforts combined in most creative ways to overcome the massive corporate machine that has kept us asleep for far too long.
Wake up! Join the BernNation! FEEL THE BERN !!!