"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." -Lord Acton, 1887
Society runs on greed, envy, and fear - at no time has this shown to be more true than in the current financial turmoil in the U.S., which has rippled throughout the world. Even if the issue is ostensibly resolved with a taxpayer bailout, the underlying psychological problems remain, principally self-interest.
Capitalism itself, founded on the principle of private gain and private profit, is under threat as the ruling global ideology. It is based primarily on debt, the illusory notion that borrowed money will always create more money in the long run. This debt, however, is masked in other terms, such as leveraging, and risk management. All major corporations and financial institutions run on it, as the accumulation of debt is favored by the tax systems in various countries. In other words, corporations have a tax incentive in acquiring more debt. And debt itself is the essence of greed, as it is a demand for something now rather than prudently saving for it in the future. This greed is the essence of the self. Even a financial crash - recession, depression - does not stop the cycle, it only dampens it. -The imminent debt-tax revolution, by Edmund Conway, The Telegraph, London, March 22, 2010
Hence, the total U.S. National Debt alone has been described as a time bomb yet to explode. (This accumulated debt is a simple result of national spending exceeding revenue, which is personal debt on a national scale.) The debt-laden bailouts occurring on a global basis are a demonstration yet again of that old capitalist principle: 'Privatize the profits and socialize the losses.' This stark division of wealth perpetuates inequality and injustice, thus promoting underlying tensions that undermine the stability of the world economic system in the long run.
If ever the global society has been threatened it is now. America is facing future bankruptcy. All the current and former leaders in economics, banking and politics have directly brought this situation about - along with the public and their insistent demands for credit to fund their avaricious consumer lifestyles - yet people will still not examine the nature of greed and the makeup of the self that is the first cause of the problem.
Instead, they put total reliance on authority to correct the problem, rather than accepting personal responsibility.
The financial problems of the world - like all societal issues - are a two-way street. You cannot sheet home the blame only to the authorities, as mentioned, as the public as a whole supports and sanctions these authorities and their public policies. If the public did not, they would demand change to the system, and beyond the occasional failed revolution (which simply replaced one inequitable social system for another) the public as a whole has never demanded wholesale changes to the current system, as they have a vested interest in it.
Thus, history shows that no deep change ever takes place, only a continuous process of minor reform - which changes nothing in the end as the primary causes of social ills are never tackled.. The primary public demand is for security, which is the continuation of the status quo. This is the mindset that says that deep change in society - in the social order and political authority - is a dangerous thing, which would bring on public insecurity. It is the self that is always seeking security, in one form or another.
This entire social system that seeks national security (of the nation-state, not of the world itself) is the self writ large.
"Is the problem not one of refusing to accept a leader? This alone brings equality in social and economic relationships. When thrown on his own responsibility, man will inevitably question. ... The follower is the greatest curse." - Pupul Jayakar Biography: pp. 146-7
There are no leaders who can help us. History proves it. If you examine closely all the U.S. and world leaders and their personalities, from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to Richard Nixon and Winston Churchill, they are all just like us - deeply flawed, power-seeking and self-centered. They act through great conflicts of interest, although this is always officially denied. And they get into power solely because of others, the compliant, docile voters. Remove their positional authority and titles and no leaders are either needed or required.
We are our own leaders.
It is remarkable how people see the foibles and corruption of their past and present leaders but are eternally hopeful that the next batch will somehow be different; that they will in some way solve all the problems inherent in society. This is especially so when the next possible leader is perceived to embrace social change, or reform, which is no more than minor change at the margins - as in the case of the new U.S. president, Barack Obama. It is because of the public's strong desire for their new leaders to exert authority, leadership and drive for change that they lose the capacity of detached reason and discernment, the ability to see the actual person before them, instead of a projected and idealized image.
Perhaps the greatest attraction of the public towards political leaders is their power of oratory, which is a major factor now with the U.S. president. He deliberately panders to the audience, giving them what they want to hear, as in the tradition of the great charismatic leaders of the past. If you look closely, however, you will observe that these are only empty words - mere rhetoric - and there is nothing substantial behind them. Indeed, the political leader will lie and distort with abandon, and without remorse - justifying everything under the rubric of National Security. The carefully polished phrases they have rehearsed are in fact used as a mask to disguise the fact that there is no creativity/originality in the speaker. He or she is only dressing up for new audiences stale ideas and regurgitated reforms that have all been tried - and failed - in the past. When this dawns on the public, there is a shift to the opposing party, and the whole process thus repeats itself.
Nothing of eternal value has been learned from this past - a notorious and powerful orator of the 20th century in Germany was a tyrant and a megalomaniac. When these lessons are not learned the problems at the core of them repeat themselves in new crises - the current major loss of confidence in the financial system is a case in point. This is because the underlying issues of greed, fear and self-absorption are not faced and resolved. This endemic selfishness blinds people to rational behaviour. They then ignore both the past lessons and all the warnings that are issued before the crisis actually occurs, which is the case in this current situation. And the entire mainstream media in all its forms is complicit in this wilful ignorance, as all the media barons go along for the profitable ride. The herd mentality is a very powerful one - the self is basically an imitator.
So, the public then looks to other leaders to lead them out of the morass, only to have the whole cycle repeat itself again and again, down the road. This desire for leaders to lead, this insistent demand for authority figures, has produced this corrupt, deceitful, superficial and threatened society. [source]
Speak up, speak out, speak openly, speak forcefully, speak loudly, and speak proudly with courage and strength. Speak decently, with good manners, respecting other people. If we want people to listen, and respond well to us, then we must not be disruptive or inappropriate when communicating. It is in our constitutional right of free speech that we have the power to save America.
This is an evolution of solidarity for a new era, protecting people and planet from the selfish corruption of Greed and Evil.
The workers are burdened by carrying the weight of the useless, excessively rich, on our shoulders. Those who can must do and that which needs to be done we must do.
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References:
Beyond the mind
A startling and cogent glimpse of a long line of official lies, deceit and insidious propaganda of the two world powers, the US and Britain, behind the creation of a battleground of the Cold War, in Afghanistan, against the so-called arch-enemy and "Evil Empire," the Soviet Union, which had its initial beginnings in 1973 - with the inevitable divisive consequences that are only too apparent today:
Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story, by Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, Reviewed by Anthony Fenton; Asia Times Online, May 2, 2009; The apparent breakdown of democracy at the highest level of Congress and the White House, during the Bush/Cheney Presidency: Cheney is linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project, by Scott Shane, The New York Times, July 11, 2009.
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