Our society should've collapsed by now. You know that, right?
No society should function with this level of inequality (with the possible exception of one of those prison planets in a
"Star Wars" movie). Sixty-three percent of Americans
can't afford a $500 emergency. Yet Amazon head Jeff Bezos is now worth a record
$141 billion. He could literally end world hunger for multiple years and still have more money left over than he could ever spend on himself.
Worldwide,
one in 10 people only make $2 a day. Do you know how long it would take one of those people to make the same amount as Jeff Bezos has? 193
million years. (If they only buy single-ply toilet paper.) Put simply, you cannot comprehend the level of inequality in our current world or even just our nation.
So...shouldn't there be riots in the streets every day? Shouldn't it all be collapsing? Look outside. The streets aren't on fire. No one is running naked and screaming (usually). Does it look like everyone's going to work at gunpoint? No. We're all
choosing to continue on like this.
Why?
Well, it comes down to the myths we've been sold. Myths that are ingrained in our social programming from birth, deeply entrenched, like an impacted wisdom tooth. These myths are accepted and basically never questioned.
I'm going to cover eight of them. There are more than eight. There are probably hundreds. But I'm going to cover eight because (A) no one reads a column titled
"Hundreds of Myths of American Society," (B) these are the most important ones and (C) we all have other shit to do.
Myth No. 8 - We have a democracyRead more
'Rulers need myth that US is a democracy to give Americans illusion of control' - Lee CampIf you think we still have a democracy or a democratic republic, ask yourself this: When was the last time Congress did something that the people of America supported that did
not align with corporate interests?...You probably can't do it. It's like trying to think of something that rhymes with
"orange." You feel like an answer exists but then slowly realize it doesn't. Even the Carter Center and former President Jimmy Carter believe that America has been transformed
into an oligarchy: A small, corrupt elite control the country with almost no input from the people. The rulers need the
myth that we're a democracy to give us the illusion of control.
Myth No. 7 - We have an accountable and legitimate voting systemGerrymandering, voter purging, data mining, broken exit polling, push polling, superdelegates, electoral votes, black-box machines, voter ID suppression, provisional ballots, super PACs, dark money, third parties banished from the debates and two corporate parties that stand for the same goddamn pile of fetid crap!
What part of this sounds like a legitimate election system?
No, we have what a large Harvard study called the
worst election system in the Western world. Have you ever seen where a parent has a toddler in a car seat, and the toddler has a tiny, brightly colored toy steering wheel so he can feel like he's driving the car? That's what our election system is-a toy steering wheel. Not connected to anything. We all sit here like infants, excitedly shouting, "I'm
steeeeering!"
And I know it's counterintuitive, but that's why you have to vote. We have to vote in such numbers that we beat out what's stolen through our ridiculous rigged system.
Myth No. 6 - We have an independent media that keeps the rulers accountableOur media outlets are funded by weapons contractors, big pharma, big banks, big oil and big, fat hard-on pills. (Sorry to go hard on hard-on pills, but we can't get anything resembling hard news because it's funded by d*cks.) The corporate media's
jobs are to rally for war, cheer for Wall Street and froth at the mouth for consumerism. It's their mission to actually fortify belief in the myths I'm telling you about right now. Anybody who steps outside that paradigm is treated like they're standing on a playground wearing nothing but a trench coat.
Myth No. 5 - We have an independent judiciaryRead more
'It's open season on Americans by US police forces' - Lee CampThe criminal justice system has become a weapon wielded by the corporate state. This is how bankers can foreclose on millions of homes illegally and see no jail time, but activists often serve jail time for nonviolent civil disobedience. Chris Hedges recently
noted,
"The most basic constitutional rights... have been erased for many... Our judicial system, as Ralph Nader has pointed out, has legalized secret law, secret courts, secret evidence, secret budgets and secret prisons in the name of national security."If you're not part of the moneyed class, you're pressured into releasing what few rights you have left. According to
The New York Times,
"97 percent of federal cases and 94 percent of state cases end in plea bargains, with defendants pleading guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence."That's the name of the game. Pressure people of color and poor people to just take the plea deal because they don't have a million dollars to spend on a lawyer. (At least not one who doesn't advertise on beer coasters.)
Myth No. 4 - The police are here to protect you. They're your friendsThat's funny. I don't recall my friend pressuring me into sex to get out of a speeding ticket. (Which is essentially still
legal in 32 states.)
The police in our country are primarily designed to do two things: protect the property of the rich and perpetrate the completely immoral war on drugs-which by definition is a war on
our own people.
We lock up more people than
any other country on earth. Meaning the land of the free is the largest prison state in the world. So all these droopy-faced politicians and rabid-talking heads telling you how awful China is on human rights or Iran or North Korea-
none of them match the numbers of people locked up right here under Lady Liberty's skirt.
Myth No. 3 - Buying will make you happyThis myth is put forward mainly by the floods of advertising we take in but also by our social engineering. Most of us feel a tenacious emptiness, an alienation deep down behind our surface emotions (for a while I thought it was gas). That uneasiness is because most of us are flushing away our lives at jobs we hate before going home to seclusion boxes called houses or apartments. We then flip on the TV to watch reality shows about people who have it worse than we do (which we all find hilarious).
If we're lucky, we'll make enough money during the week to afford enough beer on the weekend to help it all make sense. (I find it takes at least four beers for everything to add up.) But that doesn't truly bring us fulfillment. So what now? Well, the ads say buying will do it. Try to smother the depression and desperation under a blanket of flat-screen TVs, purses and Jet Skis. Nowdoes your life have meaning? No? Well, maybe you have to drive that Jet Ski a little faster! Crank it up until your bathing suit flies off and you'll feel alive!
The dark truth is that we have to believe the myth that consuming is the answer or else we won't keep running around the wheel. And if we aren't running around the wheel, then we start thinking, start asking questions. Those questions are
not good for the ruling elite, who enjoy a society based on the daily exploitation of 99 percent of us.
Myth No. 2 - If you work hard, things will get betterRead more
$21 trillion lost: Largest theft in history buried under guise of US national security - Lee CampAccording to Deloitte's Shift Index
survey:
"80% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs" and
"the average person spends 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime." That's about one-seventh of your life-and most of it is during your most productive years.
Ask yourself what we're working for. To make money? For what? Almost none of us are doing jobs for survival anymore. Once upon a time, jobs boiled down to:
I plant the food->I eat the food->If I don't plant food = I die.
But nowadays, if you work at a café-will someone
die if they don't get their super-caf-mocha-frap-almond-piss-latte? I kinda doubt they'll
keel over from a blueberry scone deficiency.
If you work at Macy's, will customers
perish if they don't get those boxer briefs with the sweat-absorbent-ass fabric? I doubt it. And if they do die from that, then their problems were far greater than you could've known. So that means we're all working to make other people rich because we have a society in which we
have to work. Technological advancements can do most everything that truly must get done.
So if we wanted to, we could get rid of most work and have tens of thousands of more hours to enjoy our lives. But we're not doing that at all. And no one's allowed to ask these questions-not on your mainstream airwaves at least. Even a half-step like universal basic income is barely discussed because it doesn't compute with our cultural programming.
Scientists say it's quite possible artificial intelligence will take away all human jobs in
120 years. I think they know that will happen because bots will take the jobs and then realize that 80 percent of them don't need to be done! The bots will take over and then say,
"Stop it...Stop spending a seventh of your life folding shirts at Banana Republic."One day, we will build monuments to the bot that told us to enjoy our lives and...leave the shirts wrinkly.
And this leads me to the largest myth of our American society.
Myth No. 1 - You are free.Read more
I know which country the US will invade nextAnd I'm not talking about the millions locked up in our prisons. I'm talking about you and me. If you think you're free, try running around with your nipples out, ladies. Guys, take a dump on the street and see how free you are.
I understand there are certain restrictions on freedom we actually desire to have in our society-maybe you're not crazy about everyone leaving a Stanley Steemer in the middle of your walk to work. But a lot of our lack of freedom is not something you would vote for if given the chance.
Try building a fire in a parking lot to keep warm in the winter.
Try sleeping in your car for more than a few hours without being harassed by police.
Try maintaining your privacy for a week without a single email, web search or location data set collected by the NSA and the telecoms.
Try signing up for the military because you need college money and then one day just walking off the base, going,
"Yeah, I was bored. Thought I would just not do this anymore."Try explaining to Kentucky Fried Chicken that while you don't have the green pieces of paper they want in exchange for the mashed potatoes, you do have some pictures you've drawn on a napkin to give them instead.
Try running for president as a third-party candidate. (Jill Stein was
shackled and chained to a chair by police during one of the debates.)
Try using the restroom at Starbucks without buying something... while black.
We are less free than a dog on a leash. We live in one of the hardest-working, most unequal societies on the planet with more billionaires than
ever.
Meanwhile, Americans supply
94 percent of the paid blood used worldwide. And it's almost exclusively coming from very poor people. This abusive vampire system is
literally sucking the blood from the poor. Does that sound like a
free decision they made? Or does that sound like something people do after immense economic force crushes down around them? (One could argue that sperm donation takes a little less convincing.)
Point is, in order to enforce this illogical, immoral system, the corrupt rulers-most of the time-don't need guns and tear gas to keep the exploitation mechanisms humming along. All they need are some good, solid bullshit myths for us all to buy into, hook, line and sinker. Some fairy tales for adults.
It's time to wake up.
Reader Comments
It’s not that everyone will necessarily get it, and some do. Those that do get what’s going on will understand the bigger picture.
Myths are a powerful adjunct to transformation. The key is to discover how myths are able to formulate pathways for change.
When human spiritual stagnation peeks we notice how prominent negative control over others becomes paramount.
While experiencing these increasingly intense moments of control over our collective imaginations three core elements are at play.
They are folded into three questions.
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What do I want to do about it?
Most intelligent people would answer the last question with the all too familiar response of “fuck all"
That then, about sums it up.
When word gets out that the world's foremost (yet least recognized) inventors & trendsetters were indeed exported, not imported, to many countries around the world as concubines & HONORED b/c of their intelligence & beauty, traded by their own male counterparts in exchange for trinkets & jewels...well let's just say the revolution may quite possibly bee televised after all.
Copper - colored Indigenous Americans/Indians/Coloreds/Negroes/blacks/& the *NEW* brand name to complete the ethnic cleanse in its final phase...AFRICAN-AMERICAN...It's time to awaken!
www.fiaah.org 🔥 🐝
P.S. There's no such human bloodline called AFRICAN. It's a Roman title bestowed upon generals who successfully conquered Carthaginian territories. Thus if you're labeled an AFRICAN by your hegemonic oligarchy, you are obviously being called PROPERTY of ROME, aka a slave. Calling the Amerindians AFRICAN is a cunning way of erasing their true origin (the Americas) from history books.
[Link]
Stop using the Roman alphabet then, dumb ass.
As per your links, it's well known (apart from in the vegetarian CO2-o-phobe-o-sphere) that The Amazon rainforests were in part human created...[Link]
Aside from that, it seems to me that fiaah.org is yet an another excuse for darkie breddahs to tie their own hands with fabulous fabulations and ensure the continuance of any AFU-with-nowhere-to-go status they may have already signed up for.
"It's time to awaken!"
Good luck with that.
Bad luck with that.
I know there is corruption in the US government.... I blame the voters who allow it and the politicians who propagate it.
I know there is an inequity in wealth... as well as an inequity in talent and work ethic. There's a group who support, "Participation Awards". This is OK for kids but not in real world. No one should be allowed to do nothing and be rewarded. Welfare has been used by one political party to keep people dependent upon government assistance to secure their votes. Welfare is slavery.... People should be rewarded for their work, ideas and efforts not for their votes. Majority of people in this country are responsible and law abiding. Those who are not should not be protected. Criminals (whether they be illegal immigrants or murderers) need to be held responsible for their crimes ... and not have excuses made for them. It's offensive to those of us who follow the laws.
You want a better country? Demand better citizens... and stop excusing bad behavior.
No matter what there will be people in this lifetime would choose not to work, maybe due to not wanting to be a wage slave, drug addictions, health status, etc. But that's what social security is there for.
We will all be pushed outta jobs soon or later based on automation and with that the richest will find it best to put us all on a global scale basic income which I find to be global basic welfare system. Think about this. As a species how are we gonna survive we can't by ourselves
Really? Lee Camp should read Anthony de Jasay's essays.