Not too long ago, at least in the annals of world history, there was a country that broke away from the tyranny of its oppressors and formed a new nation, one founded on a new notion, that every man, woman and child had inalienable rights, most notably those of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It was a bold experiment, yet an imperfect one. Still, visionary leaders through the generations have continued to refine it, to build upon it and to make their country, our country, a better place to live. We have overcome tremendous adversity, including a war that tore our nation in two, we have survived civil unrest, we have fought the injustice of desegregation, we have torn down the status quo and rebuilt it again many times.
We are not perfect and we never will be. We still commit crimes against one another. There are still the haves and the have nots. There is still an occasional injustice of the courts system. We still hate those who are different from us, even though we ourselves are all the descendants of immigrants. We are still swayed by the fearmongers who want us to live in their definition of a free country, one nation, under God, divisible, with only the liberty and justice they mete out to us.
We used to believe in a better tomorrow. But I don’t think we do now.
Why? Is it because of 9/11 or the recession we’re still battling our way out of?
No, I think it’s because a large part of our society has sunk into the sea of stupidity. I see it every day. Mindless drones who hear or read something that is so untrue as to be almost ludicrous, yet they post it and share it with reckless abandon as if it came chiseled on two stone tables. Those who read it don’t question it. They just pass it on to other mindless drones.
It reminds me of a beehive, where the Queen bee is the only bee that knows the score. The rest are all worker bees, the drones, who have no other purpose but to serve the queen and the hive.
Our society is littered with drones and they tune into MSNBC and FOX News for their daily dose of news and views from wily commentators, “news gatherers” and pundits. The want you to believe their nonsense because they all have something to sell us – their vision of our world.
I hear Rick Perry doing the same thing. He’s villifying the very foundations of a compassionate society which at one time lifted up the poor so that they could have hope in a better tomorrow. In his world, and the world of others of his ilk, the better tomorrow only exists for the wealthy. And yet, everyone chugs right along, mindless drones that they are, enjoying all this pablum being shoved down their throats and wanting more and more of it.
Now, I’m not saying I’m more intelligent than anyone else. But I do believe I am smarter. Why? Because I check facts. I don’t believe a single word any of these snake oil salesmen are selling.
For example, the debt ceiling. Did you know that the debt ceiling has been raised 87 times since WWII without even a second thought. This was by Republican as well as Democratic led Congresses. And now it’s a problem? Right in the middle of the worst economic times since the Great Depression the guys decide to make a stand? And in the process, bring us to the brink of default, refusing to pay the bills they, Congress ran up in the first place? Idiocy.
And now, Perry and his Tea Party crackpots are trying to convince us that Social Security is teetering on the brink of insolvency, and that it’s criminal to even have it. First folks, we have all been paying into it since we all started to work. It is not insolvent. At some point in the future, the premiums need to be raised. If you don’t believe me, do your own fact checking. Now, I’m not going to sell you my own snake oil on this. Just check out the facts. A great place to start is FactCheck.org. It’s non-partisan, so you don’t have to interpret what the real facts are. Another source is PolitiFact.com – check some of the claims out there. You’ll be amazed at the bullshit these guys are selling you in the name of the truth.
Case in point. The claim that the Stimulus Bill didn’t create any jobs. It did. It is estimated that it reduced the unemployment rate 0.7 to 1.8 percent (compared to what it could have been) and created 1.4 to 3.3 million jobs. Was the gain worth the cost? That’s another issue and that’s for you to decide, not me. The simple fact is, it did create jobs. Period. End of story.
Now, I know some of my readers will say that I have an agenda. And I do.
You see, we live in a world today where people are just shutting off. Their lives are being dictated by the latest episode of Jersey Shore and Keeping Up With the Kardashians while the world around them is collapsing. It’s like the powers that be stuck big shiny objects in front of everyone and they are hypnotized while their very freedoms are being taken away from them.
We have eavesdropping on ordinary citizens in the name of national security because we allow it. We have airport scanners that see us naked (another mistruth, but I couldn’t resist, because we allow it). We have a do-nothing Congress that is representing the wealthy instead of all of us because we allow it.
Sadly, we’re being sucked into a vacuum of inaction. Instead of doing something about the power barons who are robbing us blind of our money and rights, we bitch instead about the fact that our favorite show was cancelled. Our forefathers and our ancestors should be ashamed of us. We should not only be screaming at the top of our lungs about this, but we should be angry, revolution level angry.
If you want to share facts with me, great. I welcome them. But don’t get them from a site that is selling something. Some of these PACs and such can look pretty darned legitimate, but they are selling snake oil. Do your homework, increase your own intellectual capacity to think for yourself, hold the freedoms to do this near and dear to your heart and repel any borders who want to hijack our country, yes, our country.
I am still lucky enough to be able to voice my opinion here without fear that someone will soon knock on my door and take me in to be interrogated or worse, jailed without the right of representation or trial. But in our increasingly stupid society, I wonder sometimes how long this will be the case.
Out on the Treasure Coast, doing my homework and handing out F’s to those who don’t,
– Robb