| By
John Hicks
The United States is the best country in the
world. If you don’t believe it, just listen
to the fantastic amounts of propaganda being
pumped out every day. Oil companies are putting
television ads on prime time like they are really
interested in the environment. It’s called trying
to protect your ass from clean energy. No one
seems interested in saving the country. Profits
are king.
Millions are poor in this country, many are
hungry. The rich could not care less. They are
getting richer and the poor poorer. The middle
class is disintegrating. We have so many bridges
needing repair we can’t count them. Social programs
are being decapitated, and fire departments,
police departments and education, at all levels,
are being shortchanged and downgraded. College
students have so much debt that paying it back
is almost hopeless. Women’s rights are being
taken away, state by state. Costs of health
care continue to get out of sight. No one seems
to care. We continue to spend more money on
the military. Military propaganda is getting
thicker than it has been in years — three aircraft
carriers with a new aircraft aboard is making
waves for more money — terrific propaganda for
more war. Reminds me of Ronald Reagan. He would
have loved it.
And nothing is being done. Republican politicians
are not in favor of doing anything to save the
country, but they are more than willing to give
the military more cash. They are in love with
One-Percenters, corporations, the National Rifle
Association and the hoards of lobbyists paying
out bribes like they are going out of style.
Bribes will never go out of style. You can understand
why legislators love all that attention — money,
money and more money, if they can just get reelected.
And with all that money coming in, they will
get reelected.
We need a revolution, but there are no British
soldiers to fight. So no revolution. The minimal
efforts to change the country by the Tea Partiers
and the Occupiers waste away, fade away, evaporate,
you name it away. No interest in change.
No interest in a revolution, either. There are
many reasons why we don’t have a revolution.
Let me count the ways:
1. The ultra-rich and rich love being rich.
They don’t want to change anything, and they
are spending bundles of money not to change
a thing.
2. The upper-middle class has too much apathy
and is having too much fun to change anything,
especially their lifestyles. Neither the rich
nor the upper-middle class ever think about
the poor and the hungry.
3. The middle class is busy trying just to stay
in the middle class. It’s tough these days because
everything seems to be taken away from them.
4. The lower class representatives are too busy
trying to put food on the table, if there is
a table, and staying warm in the winter. Keep
in mind that their voting rights are being taken
away from them. Why, I don’t know. They don’t
vote anyway.
5. Poverty types don’t have enough food and
energy to revolutionize anything. They don’t
have enough energy to vote.
6. Business owners are interested in maintaining
a profit. They don’t have time to think about
others.
7. Retirees are being nomads or are just busy,
busy and more busy, so one would not expect
them to be revolutionaries. Too busy.
8. Doctors are too busy to be involved with
a revolution because of our
inefficient and costly health care system.
9. The police have been cut back but are not
interested in being revolutionaries. Actually,
they are commanded to be anti-revolutionary,
but they have to make a living.
Well, there you have it. No revolution. No British
soldiers to fight. Never a revolution? Probably
not, but this November election might be interesting
anyway. Can racists and rednecks really win
an election? Man, you have to give them credit.
They are trying like hell. And Republicans love
them.
America the beautiful? We’ll see. CV
John Hicks is resident of Des Moines and
a professor emeritus at Drake University. |
