The Flag of the Corporate States of America
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By Charles Sullivan
Information Clearing House
06/14/06
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This, I know, is bound to be an unpopular
essay that is likely to incite intense emotions and harsh
accusations against me. Yet I feel compelled to express my
thoughts on the matter in part because the commercial media does
not allow dissenting views to be heard. Also, the majority of my
fellow citizens have been drinking the mind altering kool-aide
that distorts reality into fabulous forms that bears little
resemblance to reality. Added to the formula is the fact that so
many of us choose to live in denial rather than face the
haunting specter of American history that might prove too
disturbing for us to acknowledge.
Far too many Americans are so thoroughly indoctrinated in
popular myths and propaganda that they are unable to recognize
reality when they see it. They desperately need to cling to the
absurd myths conjured by our rulers and deny the most criminal
and unethical behavior upon which this nation was founded. Aided
by a bogus educational system, we then contort them into virtue.
Thus, murderers and robber barons are celebrated as self made
industrialists who built America into a world class power. But
as Thoreau stated, "Any truth is better than make believe."
Unlike the majority of my fellow citizens, I do not take pride
in the American flag. I do not get choked up when I see 'old
glory' flapping in the breeze. My understanding of American
history does not permit such unfounded patriotic stirrings. Too
many atrocities have been committed under the flag for me to see
any beauty in it, especially under the Bush regime. Indeed,
seeing the flag often flushes me with shame and regret. I refuse
to pledge allegiance to any flag. However, I pledge to live by a
credo of social justice that does not recognize national
borders. We are all one big family.
Historian Howard Zinn wrote, "There is no flag large enough to
cover the shame of killing innocent people." I am inclined to
agree.
For most Americans the flag stirs elements of sentimentality and
reverence. It is celebrated as a symbol of freedom and
democracy, the triumph of justice over injustice; good over
evil. But symbols of noble ideals vanish into the mist when one
critically examines the historical evidence. Millions of
innocent people have died under the flag, including those who
have carried it into battle in the belief that they were
fighting for something nobler than corporate profits (see USMC
General Smedley Butler's 1933 essay "War
is a Racket)."
To me the flag symbolizes much that is wrong with America. The
flag is used as another clever marketing ploy against the people
to manipulate and to control them, selling them a fictionalized
version of history. The flag has been used, like the idea of
patriotism, to motivate men to commit horrible crimes against
earth and humankind. Rather than conjuring images of freedom and
peace in my mind, it portrays the darkest side of human nature
such as conquest, invasion and occupation. It reveals a litany
of crimes against nature and humanity that I cannot dismiss from
memory. Critical thinking demands that one weigh the evidence
and draw one's own conclusions based upon the facts, whether
they contradict our preconceived notions or not.
I keep another flag, one that more accurately portrays the truth
about America, in the trunk of my car, which I carry at anti-war
rallies and demonstrations. Like the American flag, this pennant
is red, white and blue. In place of the fifty stars there are
corporate symbols that depict the corporate states of America.
My flag portrays the reality of what the American flag really
stands for. It is all about corporate power, global conquest,
death, destruction and oppression. What do these have to do with
democracy and freedom? What do they have to do with social
justice?
Once again the people were sold a vision that is at odds with
reality. The truth is that America is the polar opposite of
everything we have been told she is. That is why so much of the
world is aligned against us. They see us as we are, not merely
as what we pretend to be. Most of the world's 192 nations have
been the recipients of our benevolence in the form of CIA
interventions, land mines and carpet bombs.
When I see old glory fluttering in a brisk breeze I hear the
lies of an imperialist dictator named George Bush and all the
horrors they have wrought for so many echoing across the tides
of time. I recall the brazen lies of Dick Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, and the entire neocon cabal that has
resulted in the criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq, Abu
Griab, and the inhumane horrors enacted daily at Guantonimo Bay,
the massacre of innocent civilians by U.S. marines and the
attendant cover up. I see the theft of Iraqi oil by U.S. forces
handed over to oil companies and defense contractors on a silver
platter. I see the entire civilized world held at gun point,
stripped of its dignity and its freedom by the largest crime
syndicate the world has ever known. It is hard to get all puffed
up and to take pride in that.
I recall the overthrow of democratically elected governments
around the world by an imperialist nation, particularly in Latin
America; the assassination of populist leaders who refused to be
puppets for U.S. corporations. Chile's Salvador Allende'
provides an example. Visions of Columbian death squads trained
at the School of the Americas move like ghosts in my mind. They
are not to be ignored. I perceive the threatening overtures
directed at true democratic socialist governments in Venezuela
and Bolivia that I know will probably result in the eventual
assassinations of Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. These threats and
violent overtures are part of a familiar historical pattern. It
is not difficult to imagine what will follow. Democracy is a
threat to corrupt power and it must be assassinated. Power in
the hands of the people will not be tolerated by the Plutocracy.
Under the red, white and blue profits matter more than people.
They always have.
The historical evidence demonstrates that populist movements and
true democracy are the avowed enemies of the corporate states of
America and the ruling Plutocracy. We have a long history of
destroying democratic, left wing governments. When has America
ever over-thrown an oppressive right wing government? Death
squads do not exist to celebrate democracy or to liberate the
oppressed.
We have troops stationed at permanent bases all over the world
and they are not fostering democracy, they are suppressing it.
These acts are committed under the banner of the stars and
stripes and given noble explanations in the commercial media.
Every day the madmen who are running the government are planning
new horrors, an endless litany of death and mayhem to be
committed in our name for corporate profits. So forgive me if I
do not pledge allegiance to the flag of the corporate states of
America. Pardon me if I do not get choked up with pride when I
see a bumper sticker that reads, "These colors don't run." Most
people, it seems to me, have no clue about the atrocities that
are being committed by their government. They do not want to
know.
Charles Sullivan is a photographer, free lance writer and
social activist residing in the hinterland of West Virginia. He
welcomes your comments at earthdog@highstream.net.
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