Most of us were still very young when we first began seeing
that the world is not run according to how our parents & schools insist it is.
The process is called becoming aware, and it heralds one's
approaching entrance into adult society, and the matrix. Just as we eventually had to forgive & forget childhood lies such as Santa, and
the tooth fairy; every day in adult society we are silently expected to act as
if society is everything it isn't.
When I was a teen, a pal and I had gotten pinched in some harmless
mayhem we conjured up. When mom was just
too exasperated to continue berating me she rested her case with the
all-American classic, "Just you wait till your father gets home!" Actually I was rather looking forward to that
particular confrontation on the merits of right &
wrong. Dad was well employed by a
national corporation as a fleet representative; meaning that he sold all
manner of heavy trucks and equipment to city &
state governments across a six state region.
Dad was on the road a lot, sometimes three weeks of every month; and in
that week he was home he and Jack Daniels would go on for hours about how
filthy dirty and corrupt his industry was.
Payoffs, kickbacks, bribes, sometimes even intimidation; not to mention
the wild drunken weekend parties field reps were expected to host for their
prospective clients. Yeah, great role
model for integrity!
Corruption. It is everywhere we look, in every level of
society from dog catcher to top dog.
Whether it's price gouging on the goods you sell, or selling wars of
conquest with a pack of transparent lies; corruption has not only assimilated
human culture, it has indeed become the very foundation on which all else is
built. The system isn't broken, it was intentionally
designed to function as it does. The fix
is in, you really can't fight city hall; and you as a citizen cannot sue the
government of the united states ,
unless it grants you permission to do so. And still, we just silently accept this
dystopian nightmare generation after generation. We're not being so complacent because we
think it will all some day go away, no...we're mostly just holding out long
enough to get our own share of the pie, because everyone knows that the merits
of fair play are for fools.
Why in the hell should a kid stay in school, study and fight
uphill to make something for himself on minimum wage (if lucky); when he
can sell drugs on any street corner in America and make hundreds if not
thousands of dollars a week?? This is
the mindset that undermines the illusion at every level. Those are real, tangible
dollars - and it's so blessed easy!
Whether on the street corner, or in the executive boardrooms high above;
the promise of quick riches and a shortcut to success is all the temptation
most people need to forsake any claim on integrity, and follow the siren song
of corruption. Some people resist the
temptation longer; until some unexpected emergency arrives along with the
opportunity, and their "little voice" inside is telling them
that everyone else is doing it so why not?
Where the psychopathic executives & politicians never spend a moment reflecting on how their
corruption affects people; the average person with a basically good heart gets
consumed with such thinking. Why not
cook the books a little, or hide assets, or push thru a deal that turns your
stomach - if it's the difference of whether your family eats or not, or even
has a home? The very pervasiveness of
corruption constantly seeks to suck in all within reach just like a black hole.
There are of course
many who never succumb to the allure of corruption at all, but instead are
screaming their lungs out in the fight against it. We never actually see these folks though,
being as the system routes them to the psychiatric ward straight away. They're still chasing after Michael Moore. Along with you can't fight city hall, we
hear other mantras of conformity such as Don't rock the boat, and of
course the old standard, Go along to get along. Standard programming for the masses from the
great shining lie. Subconsciously we use
these mantras to ease our conscience each time we are tempted & tainted by corruption. We know that lying is wrong and that we
should never do it; yet the average person cannot get thru the week without at
least a couple of little white lies tossed into the mix for whatever
motivation. When our politicians and
corporations are never held accountable for the world class lying they do every
day the average person has a hard time drawing the line. It has become part of our society to lie and deceive:
so much so in fact that at any given time the average person is just two
decisions away from benefiting from corruption.
Of course corruption is nothing new, I for one suspect it
has always been a part of human nature. Mozi
(470 BC - 391 BC)
was a Chinese philosopher during the hundred years school of thought
period, in the era of warring states.
Founding the school of Mohism
As a modern day example take the city of San
Francisco ; which sprang up from nowhere as gold fever
gripped the world 165 years ago. The man
who started the gold rush was a fellow named Sam Brannon, who was the consummate
entrepreneur of his day. Before
spreading the word about the discovery of gold in California ,
Sam Brannon arrived in the camp that would become San
Francisco and set up a mercantile hardware store
specializing in the tools needed for gold digging &
panning. Brannon built a monopoly,
ensuring his was the only store where miners could get supplies. He would even row out to meet arriving ships;
and if the cargo contained mining supplies he'd purchase the entire lot for himself. In time of course his greed grew even more,
so he began expanding his business holdings until he owned every major business
in the San Francisco of 1849.
You see it is the very nature of corruption that it cannot
permit any opposing voices; because those who corrupt know full well that if
fair play & honesty were invoked they
would never stand a chance. Power
corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!! Take Monsanto for example; if GMO's are healthy and harmless
as they claim, then why is everything they do shrouded in secrecy and
corruption? Why did they seek & receive immunity from prosecution or
lawsuits? Why is Monsanto so heavily
entwined into our federal government?
If they gave prizes for corruption, without a doubt the Veterans
Administration in Arizona
would be near the top of the list for their recently discovered habit of
keeping two sets of waiting lists for those needing medical
help. They had the original waiting list
of Vets, backlogged many months waiting for help, which was embarrassing for
sheer incompetence alone - then they had the "magic" waiting
list to show publicly that they were seeing sick &
dying Veterans in a timely manner!
Corruption has infected &
gridlocked political administrations around the world, as well as the
corporations who seek to control them. We
all know this, but we also know we're powerless to stop it (as individuals),
and that corruption tends to fight very dirty when called out, so we remain,
the silent majority - keeping our heads low and just trying to have as good a
life as possible under the prevailing conditions. That's a little like pitching camp on
quicksand. You might be alright for a
while but sooner or later it's gonna suck you in, then it's too late.
Yes as individuals we may be powerless; yet in unity there
is strength - and power. Case in point: India
and the Gulabi ~ "The Pink Gang." In a society where women are considered to be inferior to men the crime of rape is a daily common place event in many
areas. This has been the status quo, so
there is literally zero recognition by police and government officials. Those who seek justice are ignored because
those in power consider rape as a privilege; not a crime.
Outrage & frustration brought
the local women together as a street level political action committee they
named Gulabi, The Pink Gang. With
their membership growing astronomically these women take to the streets to
protect women and persecute rapists; and they are becoming a growing social
force in India .
Then there are those 200 kidnapped girls in Africa ;
taken for the sex slave market. Hogtied
by corruption and guilt, the government of Nigeria is moving at truly glacial
speeds to find and free these 200 girls, as all their families can do is plead
for their children to be returned. Of
course they won't be returned because they weren't taken for ransom but rather
retail. Sad to say that buying & selling human beings still exists in 2014
- even sadder to realize how huge that marketplace really is. Money that big is nothing but motive with a
universal adapter on it.
Corruption is getting away with shooting your lawyer in the
face when you disagree with him, and as such Dick Cheney is undoubtedly the
king of corruption; at least in this country, but he can't ease up because
there are some in the shadows who by comparison make him look like a
beginner. Corruption is being a member
of congress or senate making untold millions annually who consistently votes
against raising the minimum wage so the defense budget gets all the funding it
wants. Corruption is silencing all
voices of dissent & opposition,
killing those who will not be intimidated.
Corruption is shooting a president out of office instead of voting him
out.
What if corruption was a real, living thing of some sort;
perhaps a tiny spore in the air that feeds on broken souls & tarnished integrity, with an ever
increasing appetite for more? What if
this virus thrives with a human body as host, invading the brain where it can
influence motivation and snack all day on those tasty hopes & dreams?
What if corruption is something like that, something not our fault, but
some kind of illness without a cure?
It's a stretch I know, but anything seems better than admitting that
greed & corruption are part of basic
human nature. We're always so good at
obscuring the traits of humanity we find distasteful.
In the end I suppose it makes sense to join the silent
majority, don't rock the boat by trying to unite people against a soul killer
like corruption. A big waste of time
really; because first of all when you call it out - corruption fights nasty,
and if you try too hard to awaken your slumbering friends you'll soon be about
as popular as a snake in a sleeping bag.
Bad way to wake up, so it's a lose/lose kinda situation all around.
Corruption appeals to a great many because it exploits
another basic human nature; that of feeling better or more special than other
folks. Those who feel so superior also
usually feel exempt from having to achieve great things in the traditional way
of working hard. Being so obviously
special negates the need to play by "fools rules" anyway, so
why not jump to the head of the line any way you can? Maybe we're all mad here!
For the rest of us who haven't yet caught the disease there
isn't much good news, our side looses folks to the other side every day as
corruption has become the defacto currency of the entire planet. Don't expect it to change, it never
will. If we are still looking for some
kind of salvation it might help to remember two things:
Prayers are not
always answered in the order received,
and
They can kill us but
they can't eat us ~ That's Illegal!
May the Source be with You!
Related Augureye Posts:
Other Voices:
http://talk2momz.com/2014/04/28/no-hidin-place/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq6s11pmaaI&feature=em-subs_digest
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/gulabi-gang-indias-women-warrriors-201422610320612382.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/02/26/meet-the-woman-behind-indias-pink-vigilantes.html
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pink-Saris-Gulabi-Gang/176206812401759
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/gulabi-gang-indias-women-warrriors-201422610320612382.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/02/26/meet-the-woman-behind-indias-pink-vigilantes.html
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pink-Saris-Gulabi-Gang/176206812401759
No comments:
Post a Comment