It often seem a daunting task to grapple with the ignorance that has seemingly been bred into our race by our slave masters. Frequently, we forget that the wealth of our masters is unimaginable. Yesterday, President Obama called the wealth divide the most important issue confronting our world today. The news presented this just once, but the White House dog tipping over a guest at the tree trimming party there was shown repeatedly. Not the climate change issue, not the woefully lacking educational system, not the unbalancing of our food system, the poisoning of our food, water, soil and air, not even the income disparity between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us. We have devolved to the point that a cute puppy incident outranks the most threatening and critical problem confronting the world today.
The wage gap between the ultra wealthy and the rest of us is the biggest threat to civil society. This message is finally gaining traction, partly because of the occupy movement, partly because of the worldwide unrest that it is fomenting. Today, we are having a series of strikes against fast food restaurants (sic) where purveyors of corporate non-food products are cleaning up, while simultaneously making us the sickest nation on earth, using wage slaves in the most exploitative fashion. More and more information is surfacing about the true costs of these fast-food and Wal-mart type stores that results from their low-wage leadership. The people working at these places are making such low wages that they still qualify for welfare payments. These "benefits" cost us all. Still, three of the wealthiest people in our country are the beneficiaries of the Wal-mart empire. Calling these folks slave masters is actually a misnomer, because actual slave owners had a vested interest in keeping their property healthy, sheltered and well-fed enough to be useful.
There are millions of people who are content to listen to the rhetoric of our slave masters. Billions of dollars each year flow into the lies they want us to believe. If we begin to understand the stranglehold on the economy that these people wield, or their infatuation with destroying the environment, how their spare change gets funneled into think tanks that produce official looking reports saying the exact opposite. We have proof positive that the behavior of oil barons has killed off a giant patch of the Gulf of Mexico, they can afford to pull just the right strings to get further research stopped, creating an exclusion zone for research vessels. If we don't look, it has never been proven that problems go away, but like a giant game of peek-a-boo, they use the media to tell the public that there is no problem, keep the truth from leaking out and fund their own "research" that implies their benevolence. If we could only get the industry to keep their oil from leaking out, as effectively as they can contain the truth, we would be okay. Time and time again actions prove that we are dealing with people without a conscience, but when their suits are more expensive than those of the elected representatives that they deal with routinely, it is no curiosity who the millionaires are trying to emulate. In the general population, millionaires are less than five percent of the population. In Congress, they are fifty percent. Long gone are the days that a senate seat or any position of power cost under one million dollars to secure. Even in remote and poverty stricken areas, there are billionaire dollars just itching to flow into filling the seats of power by buying the representatives of that district.
This week I had a long back and forth with a person who claimed, amongst other things, that our calendar was somehow based on Jesus' life. I suppose that the fact that it is called the Julian calendar confused him, but in fact, the Emperor Julius Cesare was indeed a pagan. How these lies are spawned will always remain a mystery, but it seems that the inherent state of human beings is to go along, even when they are being lied to, led down a primrose path and enslaved by those who would have them do their bidding for them. I choose a different route. My neighbor has both a t-shirt and a cover for his Bible that states that the "book within", the Bible is illegal in 160 countries. I asked him for a document that would support that claim and for over two years, I have waited in vain for a response. This is the same guy who told me definitively that his children were not, would never and should not be accused of throwing stones from along side my house into the street. I made sure to confront him and his children in the light of day, just as they were getting ready to go to church. In his son's defense, the child copped to the offense and for that I give him credit. The telling of lies is a learned behavior and so must be the believing in them. Finding and telling the truth liberated not only our souls, but frees us from exploitation as well.
Calling people out on their false beliefs and calling into question the lies that they have been fed is critical in our struggle toward a more humane and equitable culture. Whether we devolve into a planet of serfs, abusing one another whilst the wealthy play us like a fiddle, or we grow up and wrest power from those who care not one whit about us or our quality of life will determine whether or not our species survives. The time has come to make up our minds based on sound facts and share our research with others, not allowing others to feed us convenient lies, leaving us to rely on what others have been paid to tell us. I have been trained as an educator and had to walk away from my passion, because the training that I received was more about the three step process of: Telling the students what you were going to teach them; teach them; then, tell them what you taught them, and less about teaching them how to think for themselves. These two processes are at odds with one another. The first trains mindless automatons who will learn whatever lies you seek to teach them. This method is great for creating factory workers and wage slaves. The second method, the one I choose, trains people to develop a mind of their own and to value facts based on who is telling them to you, to seek out and find corroborating information or learn to deal with the fact that sometimes there is good reason that you are being lied to. developing the skills to know the difference. What the educational system fails miserably at is helping children and young adults to take the necessary steps of confronting ignorance, presenting evidence, being helpful to those who do not understand, being compassionate with them and demanding in a caring way, that the truth be told, understood and integrated. If we are to have hope for the future, we must all begin to learn these important steps, not just so we can confront ignorance, but so that we can tear down the lies that we are being told that seek to keep us from rebellion.
The wage gap between the ultra wealthy and the rest of us is the biggest threat to civil society. This message is finally gaining traction, partly because of the occupy movement, partly because of the worldwide unrest that it is fomenting. Today, we are having a series of strikes against fast food restaurants (sic) where purveyors of corporate non-food products are cleaning up, while simultaneously making us the sickest nation on earth, using wage slaves in the most exploitative fashion. More and more information is surfacing about the true costs of these fast-food and Wal-mart type stores that results from their low-wage leadership. The people working at these places are making such low wages that they still qualify for welfare payments. These "benefits" cost us all. Still, three of the wealthiest people in our country are the beneficiaries of the Wal-mart empire. Calling these folks slave masters is actually a misnomer, because actual slave owners had a vested interest in keeping their property healthy, sheltered and well-fed enough to be useful.
There are millions of people who are content to listen to the rhetoric of our slave masters. Billions of dollars each year flow into the lies they want us to believe. If we begin to understand the stranglehold on the economy that these people wield, or their infatuation with destroying the environment, how their spare change gets funneled into think tanks that produce official looking reports saying the exact opposite. We have proof positive that the behavior of oil barons has killed off a giant patch of the Gulf of Mexico, they can afford to pull just the right strings to get further research stopped, creating an exclusion zone for research vessels. If we don't look, it has never been proven that problems go away, but like a giant game of peek-a-boo, they use the media to tell the public that there is no problem, keep the truth from leaking out and fund their own "research" that implies their benevolence. If we could only get the industry to keep their oil from leaking out, as effectively as they can contain the truth, we would be okay. Time and time again actions prove that we are dealing with people without a conscience, but when their suits are more expensive than those of the elected representatives that they deal with routinely, it is no curiosity who the millionaires are trying to emulate. In the general population, millionaires are less than five percent of the population. In Congress, they are fifty percent. Long gone are the days that a senate seat or any position of power cost under one million dollars to secure. Even in remote and poverty stricken areas, there are billionaire dollars just itching to flow into filling the seats of power by buying the representatives of that district.
This week I had a long back and forth with a person who claimed, amongst other things, that our calendar was somehow based on Jesus' life. I suppose that the fact that it is called the Julian calendar confused him, but in fact, the Emperor Julius Cesare was indeed a pagan. How these lies are spawned will always remain a mystery, but it seems that the inherent state of human beings is to go along, even when they are being lied to, led down a primrose path and enslaved by those who would have them do their bidding for them. I choose a different route. My neighbor has both a t-shirt and a cover for his Bible that states that the "book within", the Bible is illegal in 160 countries. I asked him for a document that would support that claim and for over two years, I have waited in vain for a response. This is the same guy who told me definitively that his children were not, would never and should not be accused of throwing stones from along side my house into the street. I made sure to confront him and his children in the light of day, just as they were getting ready to go to church. In his son's defense, the child copped to the offense and for that I give him credit. The telling of lies is a learned behavior and so must be the believing in them. Finding and telling the truth liberated not only our souls, but frees us from exploitation as well.
Calling people out on their false beliefs and calling into question the lies that they have been fed is critical in our struggle toward a more humane and equitable culture. Whether we devolve into a planet of serfs, abusing one another whilst the wealthy play us like a fiddle, or we grow up and wrest power from those who care not one whit about us or our quality of life will determine whether or not our species survives. The time has come to make up our minds based on sound facts and share our research with others, not allowing others to feed us convenient lies, leaving us to rely on what others have been paid to tell us. I have been trained as an educator and had to walk away from my passion, because the training that I received was more about the three step process of: Telling the students what you were going to teach them; teach them; then, tell them what you taught them, and less about teaching them how to think for themselves. These two processes are at odds with one another. The first trains mindless automatons who will learn whatever lies you seek to teach them. This method is great for creating factory workers and wage slaves. The second method, the one I choose, trains people to develop a mind of their own and to value facts based on who is telling them to you, to seek out and find corroborating information or learn to deal with the fact that sometimes there is good reason that you are being lied to. developing the skills to know the difference. What the educational system fails miserably at is helping children and young adults to take the necessary steps of confronting ignorance, presenting evidence, being helpful to those who do not understand, being compassionate with them and demanding in a caring way, that the truth be told, understood and integrated. If we are to have hope for the future, we must all begin to learn these important steps, not just so we can confront ignorance, but so that we can tear down the lies that we are being told that seek to keep us from rebellion.
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