Reference tweet:
In longer form – socialism preys upon the many to benefit the few; in similar manner, corporatism preys upon business to benefit the few.
This is quite, quite different from executives and shareholders making a profit while supporting the health and well-being of the business, its resources, and its related networks and environs.
It’s as if the concept of memetics has, at last, mutated in the depths of our minds and distilled into a viral, vicious thing, a hungry ghost that cannot be satiated so long as there is a crumb yet to possess.
This is how I know I’m getting old.
I know that the times I grew up in were no less horrifying to those who witnesses the dramatic changes of the industrial revolution.
I know that every generation, as it ages, turns to this almost angsty nostalgia that is conveniently (not to mention selectively) amnesiac.
For the record, this actually is NOT a “Trump Protest” item. I voted “None of the Above”, myself:
https://twitter.com/blb_highgeekery/status/791791250701553664
This is a much more fundamental feeling of regret and resignation because I believe, feel, and think that we’re losing important common ground as a culture, a society, an economy, and a country. And yes, as a people.
I remember learning that skin color was supposed to matter. I didn’t know it did. (It didn’t. It doesn’t. And yet… somehow, here, in the amazing today, it clearly does. A national failure and shame we have yet to overcome.)
I remember learning the difference between what we, as human beings, say we hold important… and what our thoughts, words, and deeds reveal clearly is not. (These memories are my own, flawed in places, pristine in others… cognito ergo cognito…cognito… I think therefore I think… I think.)
I remember thinking (genuinely) that people were deliberately choosing all this insanity… and how angry I was over it. (Not even that long ago, really.)
And, as I’ve aged, I have begun to realize that the biggest fault in all of this rests in our respective mirrors.
We are, each and all of us, so very much better than this corrosive, corrupted, divided, derisive tribe of tribes.
Isn’t it time we just stopped trying to keep a ledger of “who is most justified” and, instead, drop all pretense that fighting over who is to blame is no more than a distraction from the great terror of truth that stands in elephantine ivory:
If we cannot, with all conviction of mind, emotion, and body, agree that all humans are created equal,
If we cannot, with all conviction of mind, emotion, and body, agree that all humans are, merely by virtue of being human, entitled to human consideration, dignity, justice, inclusion, and protections in these,
If we cannot, with all conviction of mind, emotion, and body, agree that it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to exemplify this conviction, especially when we fundamentally disagree with another human,
Then I ask you, how great are we as a nation, truly?
More importantly, how can any one human among us possibly be “the solution” to a culture, a society, an economy, and a country that, in under 300 years, has all but dropped any semblance of understanding the ethics and ideals our very flawed, but equally hopeful and visionary forefathers and founders drafted in our charter and sovereign artifacts?
Trump cannot hope to fare better or worse than Obama or any who came before when the entire system of government is as much a tool of corporatism as it ever was “Of the people, by the people, for the people”.
It’s down to US; you and I. The thing is, we’re in far better straits to make a difference than were our ancestors; class mobility is not yet dead, nor the middle class (not for lack of trying, to be sure). The social commitment of community, charity, and compassion is not dead, either… though it has fallen into somewhat unenviable straits itself.
Nothing is truly lost so long as it’s remembered and all things that are remembered can be reconstructed. We don’t lose possibility until we give up on it. This is, I think, the kernel that sets the USA apart. We haven’t lost it. Not yet.
So let’s not stop trying. Let’s not lose hope. Humans must advance and becoming organized and activated around the most positive aspects of our beliefs, feelings, and thoughts can birth the actions that We, The People require to regain our nobility of being and of purpose.
I don’t want America to “be great again”. I want America to be great as it has never yet been.
We CAN do this, but damn it’s gonna require patience that is hard to come by… conscious will power is required.
We, the well off, the comfortable, the benefactors of this nation, we are obligated to shoulder the weight of personal accountability for the impact of our choices upon others. Personally, I believe, feel, and think it should be a matter of personal integrity and pride to uphold a conviction of mutual self-determination free from duress.
This is a foundational tenet that should never, ever be allowed to die. It is the backbone of a healthy society.
So say I, at any rate. (I freely admit that the only one who has to give a damn about any of this is the one who chooses to do so. I so choose.)