There is no real mystery here from my point of view. History is repleat with examples of this scenario having been played out many times now. The only thing that is new is the technology that ramps up, or magnifies, the effects. If memory serves (my statistics may be somewhat dated), the United States currently comprises approximately 3% of the population, globally, but consumes over 25 % of the worlds resources at any given time by some estimates. This is not because everyone loves democracy and freedom and just wants to hand everything over, it is because if they do not, we will march, fly, and sail in from any of a number of military bases we have around the world, and take what we want. Iraq is a good example. It has the second largest reserve of oil in the world, but not a word has been mentioned (to my knowledge) as to what is being done with all this oil, or where it is going.
In order to get what it wants, our Dear Leader (OOPS!), I meant to say our democratically elected public officials generally, and the Federal Government specifically, will bribe, discredit, steal, lie, cajole, bargain, conspire, invade, threaten, undermine, torture, kill, destabilize, bomb, instigate... need I continue? Reminds me of a game (scaled up a bit) we used to play when I was a child called “King of the hill”.
Think your vote makes a difference when it comes to things like “policy”? Think again. Though many laudable goals may be achieved by voting (school levies, hiring more police/fire personnel, building that bridge across town, etc.), politicians occupying the upper echelons of government are always coming and going in an endless game very similar to “musical chairs”, and it seems to me that they generally just take the social heat for those who are actually in control, namely, global concerns like British Petroleum, Haliburton (and the good friends of George Dub’ya, the Bin Laden family) along with a host of others, who (I believe) work very closely with the Pentagon and the worlds banks to keep power right where they think it belongs, with them. Unfortunately, almost none of these people can be voted out, nor in many cases are their names ever made known, so wresting power from their hands is all but impossible from the point of view of the so called “common man”.
We gave changing things a shot back in the sixties, but it did not take. The stakes are much higher now, and I can not even begin to imagine how to tackle this situation, with the ever burgeoning population (7 billion, soon to be 10 billion), and rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions (pollution and climate change) combined with quickly diminishing resources (peak oil production, clean drinking water and disintegrating infrastructure). You do not have to be a psychic to see where this is going! I hope this generation, now empowered somewhat more than we were back then by the internet, which has at least destroyed the ability of these “regimes” to hide what is actually happening (environmentally, socially and economically) has better luck....
I do not know if the title of this forum topic was meant to be humorous, but the only planes in the sky that day (9/11) over the entire United States were those which were hurriedly flying the Bin Laden family out of the country. What would one call that, “hiding in plain sight”?
Wishing all well! Guenn
