Me vs Us

“What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.”
Mahatma Gandhi

I find it difficult to think small.

Context, broad and deep, is my habit of mind.

The woes of a Raw Milk Producer fits into a larger Context…and makes more sense if thought of so comprehensively. We let our Civilisation, currently, be run by the worst among us…in the service, almost exclusively, of Greed.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12429-the-antidote-to-ayn-rand

The Randians, like Paul Ryan, would have us at each other’s throats over relatively small , personal issues, while the Big Boys run away with what’s left of Our Common Interests. Here is the Speech, by their Hero, John Galt:

http://amberandchaos.com/?page_id=106

Given Ms. Rand’s well known wordiness, let me sum it up:”I am an Island. I need no one. Fuck Everybody, I got mine.”

Run such a sentiment out to it’s logical end, and you will arrive in Somalia…the “Producer’s Paradise”…the Heaven on Earth for Self Made Men.

I routinely make that assertion, and just as routinely, get called hyperbolic for it…but there is never any substantial refutation. Currently, in our country, there is a lot of rhetoric about “Makers and Takers”…but I reckon this is simplistic and silly, and distorts the Reality….who, exactly, are the “Makers and Takers”?

Are the Makers the Ceo’s or the Shareholders and Boardmembers…or, rather, the Workers…the ones who actually Make things, Perform Services, and turn Capital into Surplus Capital?
I’ll warrant that the latter are the Makers…the former, while having a function in the process, are Takers; they Take the Surplus Value, created by the Workers, and run away with it….to the Caymans, or to Switzerland…anywhere they can find, where that Surplus can be hidden from the Tax Man…anywhere that they can avoid paying their Fair Share in the Maintenance of Our Common Civilisation. There’s a word for such people:” Freeloaders.”
This seems upside down, because for more than a hundred years We, as a Nation of Workers, have been trained to think the Opposite.

It is the reason for Red Scares, and “Anticommunist “Hysteria…the Real reason for the Cold War….not because the USSR was such a shining example of “Socialism”, but precisely because it was such a Poor Example. Under this assessment, Stalin could be held out as the Face of Marxism…no matter that he was anything but.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandhian_Socialism

It’s the Real Reason for the “War on Drugs”…all those Hippies on the White House Lawn, refusing to play the Game….what to do?!

“Socialist Europe” is often trotted out as a bogey-man, intended to scare us into handing over the rest of Our Power, as Citizens and Workers…as if Europe’s status as Hell Hole was self-evident…and irrefutable.
What a happy circumstance for the Takers, that so many American Workers have never been to Europe!
Over there, Social Democracy is the order of the day…and they manage to outperform Us in almost all measures of Civilisation, even the Economic ones. Folks are happier, healthier, and much less worried about having to eat cat food when they get old.
Terrible, right?

The recent Economic Woes in Europe can be laid at the feet of those who have brought Our Brand of Neoliberalism there…and injected the same Randian Avarice into the halls of Power. “Lower Taxes”…”Austerity”…the Greedy Few are trying to make Europe into Texas…and the People are having none of it. This illuminates another , fundamental difference between the American People,  and the European People….when Government listens overmuch to the Avaricious CEO and “Investor” Class, the People….the Workers…the Citizens!...go out, into the street, and Burn Shit!

The Class Lines are bright and shiny , there…and Our Plutocrats are well aware of this fact…
So We are trained, from birth, that America is “Classless”…that Working Folks agitating for a Fair Shake is, somehow, “Class Warfare”.

We are harried and harassed and kept so busy that We cannot lift our heads from the Grindstone for long enough to Think about Our situation….nor are We provided, in Our horrible excuse for “Public Education”, the Tools of Mind, let alone the Factual Information, necessary to engage in such Thought.
At the same time, myriad, largely artificial Divisions are fomented among We, the People…in order to keep us fighting amongst Ourselves…Racial and Class Resentment (this, in a “Classless Society”,lol)…Mythological Political Divisions(Dems are “Big Gov Liberals”; Reps are all about “Freedom” and Small Government)

 Where I live, the folks who holler the loudest about the “threat” of Socialism are elderly, and receiving Social Security and Medicare…and, often, various and sundry Veteran’s Benefits.

We are so befuddled and miseducated, uneducated, that even those at the very Bottom of Our Society are often to be found loudly supporting the very same Parasitical Elites who keep them in Poverty.

Here’s Albert Einstein’s take on the matter:

http://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism

The Focus of Our Collective Conversation has, for far too long, been about Me, Me Me…which only benefits those who already Have.
It has become an anathema to think about We, about Us…about Our Collective  Commonalities…
Anything that would help We…Us…the People, as a Whole…is routinely eviscerated(illogically) as “Socialism”!...
Totally disregarding Our History, Our Common Interests and the Economic Realities We find  Ourselves in.

I want to talk about Us.
If this makes me a Socialist, so be it…as FDR said, "I welcome their Hatred."