Dividing America
In the photograph above I stand to my father’s immediate left (I’m the one blending into the background). My paternal grandmother and aunt are to my left and my paternal cousin is standing behind my oldest child.
In the second picture my mother is shown while on vacation in a sun-drenched location. These two photos, in a meaningful way, reflect my reality as a person of mixed ethnicity. I grew up proud of both my Irish and Mexican ancestry yet that reality has always left me wondering why, as a nation, do we SEEM so focused on the color of one’s skin. The answer is actually quite simple - because it’s easiest to identify. Ultimately however I expect that to change while the true source of the polarity that besets our people will, hopefully, become common knowledge. That source is - economic class.
Today, an all but literal handful of humans control the planet’s wealth to the exclusion AND detriment of over 90% of all humans. Material wealth, while sometimes inherited, is ultimately driven by an insatiable appetite for MORE. It is those consumed by greed who, in virtually every way, are the source of our divisions as a nation. Let me be as clear as possible - it isn’t material wealth, in and of itself, that drives division it is, as Jesus of Nazareth told his followers, the LOVE of material things that darkens the souls of the uber wealthy. Despite the astonishing wealth they have they are simply never satisfied. Above all else, they fear LOSING what they consider most valuable. It is from this dark pit of greed they try to control every aspect of their lives and the world itself.
In the quest for preserving AND gaining wealth their fears force them to view those who are not among their spiritual kin as real or potential enemies. Out of their fears they seek to sow division among the “have nots” and their level of success to date has been horrifyingly high. These are the true descendants of slave owners and any who would reduce other humans to a form of property are the enemies of our species. Their quest for more is never-ending and towards that end they have found they are best served by dividing others. One of the easiest ways they can do this is by pointing out obvious differences and letting human nature take its course.
I believe that in our clan focused early history those who were not a part of our ancestors’ clans were viewed not merely as competitors for limited resources, but as actual enemies who put our continued existence at risk simply by having the same basic needs as all other humans. Indeed, I believe this is the spring from which all fear and hatred among us arose. In theory, our growing mental skills helped mitigate this among most people but certainly not in all. The list of those who have dedicated their lives to MORE (and to hell with our species) is ultimately not very long and the most obvious among them are folks like Bloomberg, Musk, Gates, Bezos, Soros, Rothschild and their many sycophants (Jamie Dimon is a perfect example). Drug cartels throughout the world were not spawned based on race, religion, national origin, skin color or ethnicity, they were born of greed and nothing else. Indeed, the “modern” banking industry was and is no different.
Today, via groups such as the World Economic Forum, the wealthy try to sate their fears and hunger for ever more by injecting their “wisdom” into our world at the highest levels. Their focus is always on ensuring the overwhelming majority of humans are forced to live with the fear of having nothing in order to keep them doing the bidding of the rich. The working class, which is the source of ALL wealth in the modern world, is viewed as an enemy of the rich to be tamed if possible and contained at a minimum. The question in the depraved minds of the ultra-wealthy is “how to best control the great unwashed masses of humanity?” These members of the “elite” are not particularly wise else they’d understand the best way to care for the few is to first care about the many. Even so their almost palpable fear of losing what they have forces them to find ways to keep the vast majority of humans pitted against one another.
Some of their tools are fairly simple - convince those without to blame those who are plentiful for their own poverty. “Libtards,” “rednecks,” “welfare queens,” “white supremacists” are all terms that have gained not merely common usage but common beliefs about who fits which category. In the 21st Century I believe few documents do more to illustrate the plans of the rich than the Powell Memo (Powell Memo) In that document the oligarchy declared war on the poor and working class. While “Justice” Powell no doubt will spend eternity in whatever Hell might actually be, his words are Gospel for the rich -
”The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism, come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement against the system is participated in only by minorities.”
While Powell’s memo became a blueprint for the ultra-wealthy, encouraging them to use corporations and lobbying to control government, it did not specifically reference what we have today - an ever growing list of “minorities.” Powell demonized minorities and the fruit born of his vision is almost everywhere. Today, the list of “minorities” grows almost daily. Putative “issues” such as gender, reproductive rights, affirmative action, labor unions, religion, sexual orientation, etc. are used to manufacture siloed groups who view those with whom they disagree on a single matter as the enemy. In the end, the wealthy and their sycophants don’t actually care about ANY of these issues but they want YOU to believe otherwise.
So long as Americans are indoctrinated to believe that almost anyone who isn’t a member of their “minority” is an enemy, we will continue to be hopelessly divided. The more the average American comes to believe that material wealth is its own reward the easier it is to convince them that those who are “different” endanger them. In the meantime, every actual ill from which we suffer today is further entrenched in a system meant to reward only the most obedient. Not so long ago the provision of medical services was NOT the province of for-profit companies but today that has grossly changed. Add in pharmaceutical companies, banks, agricultural monopolies, real estate “moguls,” auto manufacturers even the entertainment industry and you’ll find that NONE of those who control such entities provide any service of value to the average American yet too many aspire to be like them as they’ve been lured away from their fellow humans by the bright, shiny objects considered a sign of wealth.
IF we are to not only fight back, but help ensure the overwhelming majority of Americans can have all they need to not merely survive but flourish, we MUST learn to set aside our apparent differences and instead focus on what unites us. Years before Powell authored and shared his memo, Abraham Maslow asserted that human fulfillment requires much more than having only our most basic needs met. While his Hierarchy of Needs became regular reading in numerous psychology and philosophy courses I suspect it is rarely a focus of discussion in our schools today. Yet what he suggested remains as true today as ever, that there is much more to life than having only our most basic needs met. That reality is not something intended by the Universe as only being for the wealthy, it is the birthright of every human to flourish. We will not, however, do so as long as we continue to focus on obvious differences rather than our human sameness. In the end there can be no worthwhile struggle other than class struggle, The success of the many is paramount and the success of the few is but a gross symptom of what ails our nation today.