The Shiny Storefront on a Hill

While the Republicans have proven themselves to be an effective combination of arrogance, cowardice, ignorance and greed, a zealous tribe which adheres to arcane mythology, eschews moral responsibility and worships at the foot of the petrodollar, it is that golem of capitalism -- the corporation -- which seeks to strip everything we know to be right and true, wring it out, reconfigure it to fit its ignoble and insatiable needs and replant it in the porous American psyche.

Think about it: where, other than in prewar Germany or fictional dystopias does one find such extensive and complex corruption? The hardware might not be nearly as sexy as in effects-heavy movies. But the genius of the corrupted capitalist animal predator in its patience, trusting that the infrastructure which was already in place would be the perfect delivery system for the new marching orders.

Like Pope Ronnie's trickle down economy, where the wealth only trickled down as far as the sitting room adjacent to the wine cellar, the current incarnation of capitalism seems only to benefit the front row benefactors while the infantry does the dirty work and gets the scraps.

As communism was corrupted by people who never intended to share the spoils of ecumenical labor, so capitalism has become a means for greedy profiteers to bilk the country not only of its funds but of its essential decency.

As if that weren't enough, all the colorful language, all the "grassroots" demonstrators, all the division makes the country, ever distracted, as ripe a target for terrorism domestic or otherwise as there has ever been. And baby, the purveyors of that distraction and division will have the blood of a butchered democracy on their greedy hands.

So just what is wrong with the things we always depended on to lead a healthy existence in our democratic society? For instance, anything wrong with thrift? Anything wrong with accountability? Anything wrong with taking care of the sick? The elderly? The less fortunate? Anything wring with education? Public service? Humility? Peace?

Here's what's wrong: they're right. And money, as Shaw said, is not made in the light.

 

 

Comments

[simplysimon2]

A home run, once again.

[Jason Mundstuk]

Excellent. Thank you again.

[treetracker]

Many in government have forgotten the purpose of government. They have sold their souls to the corporations. Much of the media has failed to take on their responsibility to be the watchdogs of government and have become complicit with those whose agenda is a cross purposes to those of the citizens.

Until this changes or the people in government who are not in sync with the people are ousted, our Republic will continue to decompose from within.

"It is the main duty of government, if it is not the sole duty of government, to provide means of protection for all its citizens in the pursuit of happiness against all the obstacles, otherwise insurmountable, which the selfishness of individuals or combinations of individuals is liable to interpose to that pursuit."

Frederick Law Olmsted, 1865

[NoFactsJustTruth]

It seems particularly inherent to a 'blind faith' that the ability to understand hypocrisy anywhere is forsaken (pardon the biblical term).

It was in the news yesterday / today that a very conservative group of believers have decided the Bible is too 'liberal', and plan a Wikipedia type collaboration to eliminate the liberal passages from a new edition. All the progressively humane traits of compassion and grace you end this piece with, Steven, were the very power and truth behind all remembered words attributed to a being whose name is used for OUR country's major religion. Yet, in what self-righteous winger republican'ts perversely call worship of that being - they would re-write his existence into 'THEIR IMAGE', purely to allow themselves to be more bigoted, hateful, judgmental, and discriminating of anyone that offends that 'self-righ­teousness'­.

It's for this reason I've distinguished the last couple years between Christians, and 'biblicans'. People that largely believe and follow the spirit of the 'red-letter' words of Jesus, as reported by the court of King James, have ZERO relationship to the hypocritical conservative people that would seek to legislate religious bigotry into law, ever deny help for the sick and poor or choose to ignore the suffering of neighbors and friends.

It often appears there's more folks practicing HIS teachings that DON'T believe he was actually Divine, than ones closing their eyes tight and praying all day.

[propitiousmoment]

God was created by man in man's own image anyway, to fill some psychological need or another. Why is it so outrageous that some would try to alter the image to fit their image of themselves. We/They do it all the time anyway, just not so explicitly or blatantly.

[Social Construct]

AAACCHHH! I have absolutely no idea why I said Lord Byron in my previous comment. Of course I meant Lord Acton. My bad and my apologies for the sloppy missive.

[Social Construct]

Missive? Really? Mistake, I meant mistake. Sheesh .... one of those days , I guess.

[Social Construct]

I love the socio-political comparisons of the current US with national socialist Germany and, I assume, the communists, or rather labeled such, of the recent Soviet empire and the Chinese of the 1940's -1970's. This history does make one ponder that those attaining political power and, as Lord Byron alludes, affected by its inevitable corruption all find fascism as the preferred end of the spectrum of governance. They all have surely acted in that fashion, eh?

[jmpurser]

"it is that golem of capitalism---the corporation"

Dude, that is beautiful! You could do that professionally!

[TRYKER]

91% of radio is right wing. 90% of Americans listen to the radio every day! If only 8% of media comes across as Liberal/Pr­ogressive, when and where are Americans going to hear of real values and honesty?
We know from excessive puking, that right wing talk radio is only there to compound failures, misinform the masses and create dissent and division...and aim all anger at the least among us... the illegal immigrants are their whipping boys.
All of this designed to disguise our MIC, MSM, corporate elite rulers as a non-entity when it comes to blame and responsibility. Who them? Wha?
If the poor get "welfare" benefits of under $400 Billion a year, and the rich get 37 times that!!!...why are we not screaming at the " rich-welfa­re-corpora­tions" that are breaking our country?
Have you ever heard Hannity, Beck or Limbaugh talking about corporate welfare? The right wing thrives on corporate welfare, they never had to talk straight to make a living, they just had to lie.

[PlaceboStudman]

The ideas themselves are very incredibly perfectly right. The problem is humanity's attempt to define and deliver those ideas, which are mistakenly believed to be in short supply. He who defines the words controls how they are used. It is when one person or group tries to define those words for others that we see the problems.

Which is why I loathe and detest identity politics. What right does anyone, especially someone who does not know me, have to define me? No one. I define myself, for myself. And I should be allowed to choose how I practice those ideas for my own life

for example: why is a "senior citizen" universally considered such at 55? Why is the retirement age 70something? because others have tried to say that all people of that age should be given those rights and/or priveledge­s/entitlem­ents at that age, whether they see themself as needing it or not, despite growing sentiment that the elderly can and often do work into their 80s or 90's

[JJeter]

In a commencement address in 2005,Wendell Berry spoke the following.I have not found it said more clearly or more simply:

"It (A political party worthy of our respect and our votes) will tell the truth about the human economy.Co­mpetetiven­ess,coveto­usness,rut­hlessness and greed are not economic virtues.The economic virtues are neighborli­ness,gener­osity,trus­t,good workmanship,thrift and care."

W.Berry / Commencement address,Lindsey Wilson College,2005

How is it something so obviously true sounds so radical?And is so completely unacknowledged among us? We are not even capable anymore of asking ourselves the right questions.

[hartss]

Great post, as always, Steven. Since when did altruism become un-American? Or socialistic in nature? This is getting ridiculous!

[ChrisDWard]

Yet another brilliant, but truly frightening observation, Steven.

[WellTickleMeWillie]

Wow, two today. Excellent blog..