�It is impossible for capitalism to
survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck.
Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it�s more like a vulture. It used
to be strong enough to go and suck anybody�s blood whether they were strong or
not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only
suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves,
the capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and
weaker. It�s only a matter of time, in my opinion, before
it will collapse completely.� -�Malcolm X
Striving with the unwavering dedication of true believers
and slaves to the grind, those of us who exist within the geographic, social,
cultural, economic, and political boundaries of the United States are
collectively destroying the Earth.
With dutiful efforts, heavily sedated consciences, and sweet
obliviousness to the depth of our depravity, we toil away at our chosen or
assigned tasks. After all, predatory plutocrats like �Mitt� Romney would be
impotent without his minions -- the hundreds of millions of wage slaves
exercising their �right to work� (for as small a wage as the plutocrats desire
to pay), while obediently manning the bulwarks of a system so putrid that were
it possible to feed it to a pig, our porcine friend would wretch his guts out.
Capitalism, as Malcolm X suggested, is in its twilight.
Under this egregiously malevolent and brutal system of economic organization,
we have �evolved� to a point where corruption is so pervasive, the divide
between the �haves� and the �have nots� is so vast, and the imperial wars for
resources are so frequent and destructive that as it is imploding, capitalism
may take most of us with it.
Despite the fact that he mixed his metaphors a bit, Malcolm
drew an astute conclusion. With the United States as its nexus, the complex
array of components and dynamics known as capitalism sustains itself in much
the same way as did Bram Stoker�s Dracula and the vampires of Slavic folklore.
Like the bloodthirsty undead of Transylvania, capitalism is
essentially parasitic. Contrary to the inane mythology that anyone who dreams,
comes up with a novel idea, follows Oprah �wisdom,� and works hard will
eventually sport a net worth north of seven figures, there is very little true
upward mobility in the United States. High regressive taxes, low progressive
taxes, de facto monopolies, nepotism, cronyism, bribery, a legal system blind
to economic crimes of the highest order, and a host of other factors ensure
that the rich stay rich and that those in the working class have just enough to
ensure their continued existence as hosts for their parasitic masters.
Most capitalists -- those who rest comfortably at the apex
of humanity�s pyramid of wealth and power AND reside in the penthouses of the
Park Avenues of the world -- do not engage in the activity which is the staple
of existence for most of us. Capitalists do not work. They may engage in taxing
activities for long hours, but even then they are not working as most of us
understand the concept. Capitalists are not compelled to expend their labor to
provide for a family or to survive. They simply administer their vast fiduciary
empires. They have �fuck all of you� money and have the choice of hiring armies
of highly competent individuals to manage their affairs. Don�t look for Richard
Mellon Scaife, John Franklyn Mars, Henry Kravis or the rest of their nauseating
ilk to start punching a time clock anytime soon. While we �house negroes� in
the United States and the �field hands� in the horribly exploited developing
nations on the periphery of the Empire scratch and claw in quiet desperation,
our lords and masters feast upon the blood, sweat and tears of our labor.
Yet the US moneyed elite�s malignity doesn�t end there. In
fact, their direct actions are merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The
greatest testament to their indefatigable efforts to maintain their immense
wealth and power is the ridiculously effective hologram their media assets
relentlessly project. Ponder for a moment the inanity of the holographic
illusion burnished into our consciousness that portrays our wealthy elites as
�mere citizens� of a constitutional republic that acts on the will of its
people and characterizes our nation as mankind�s benefactor, selflessly and
thanklessly spreading freedom and democracy. Three million slaughtered
Vietnamese, millions butchered in South and Central America, over a million
liquidated Iraqis, and countless others around the globe are thanking us from
heaven as you read these words.
Culturally programmed from birth to reflexively participate
in such idiocies as CNN�s Nancy Grace�s recent �call to arms� against those
evil �ravers,� we become our own worst enemies and the principal allies of the
privileged scum who hubristically strut about the corridors of power in DC and
on Wall Street. Persecuting and prosecuting �ravers� is simply one of many
examples of our grossly distorted value system. To ensure the perpetuation of a
�just� and �safe� society, we criminalize �dangerous� behaviors like drug
abuse, thus increasing our world-leading prison population of 2 million plus --
many of whom are non-violent offenders. Meanwhile, members of our ruling elite
get away with the same infinitely reprehensible acts for which the Nazi
architects swung from the gallows. Electrocution for stealing a loaf of bread,
victor�s justice, and the criminalization of poverty are the foundations of our
legal system.
Yet the media�s inculcated working stiffs (some of whom
apparently still think they report �news�) and cynical opportunistic careerists
like Lou Dobbs, Bill O�Reilly, and Glenn Beck don�t get all the �credit� for
crafting and maintaining the false consciousness that keeps a majority of us
aiding and abetting our filthy capitalist �betters� in their abject crimes
against humanity.
Intellectually nursed at the teat of lying whores, most of
us spend our lives truly believing the asinine mythology about our nation.
Awash in a perpetual stream of endorphins triggered by the constant mind fuck
that we are exceptional, blessed, and saintly, we pursue �life, liberty and
happiness� (Jefferson meant property when he penned the word happiness) with a
child-like abandon as our capitalistic endeavors savagely rape the planet.
Despite their nearly endless glorification as the gold
standard to which all humanity should aspire, our national heritage,
government, society, and culture are rife with deep imperfections, meaning that
the �frightening� reality is that the United States has no monopoly on virtue.
In fact, intellectually tethered by manufactured ignorance, imbued with a
pathological sense of hubris, exhibiting knee-jerk denial in the face of our
flaws and wrong-doings, and, in exchange for our service to the Empire,
insulated from much of the misery our nation inflicts upon the world, we stand
with both feet firmly planted on the bottom rung of humanity.
Yet before we dismiss ourselves as miscreant aberrations who
inherited a proud tradition and besmirched it, consider a brief perusal of a
few strands of our cultural DNA that coalesced to make us the collectively
despicable lot we are today:
The �New World� was settled by significant numbers of
religious fanatics who subscribed to the principles of Calvinism, which
included the exultation of the wealthy, a belief in humanity�s inherent
wickedness, and a sadistic desire to severely punish those who had
�transgressed.� Hence our worship of monetary success and our maleficent Prison
Industrial Complex.
Once the Ulster-Scotts arrived in the �New World,� they
ensured that our culture would be infused with heavy doses of
mean-spiritedness, belligerence, and locust mentality. Following their lead, we
did a �hell of a job� of eradicating most of the Native American population and
stealing as much of Turtle Island as we could. To this day we continue to
ravage the Earth like a swarm of locusts unleashed by a wrathful Jehovah.
Royalists settling in Virginia established the aristocracy
that allegedly doesn�t exist in our �classless� society. As an added bonus,
they �graced� us with the plantation system that proliferated like noxious
weeds throughout southern states. Chattel slavery, the backbone of the economy
fostered by Virginia�s �Cavaliers,� represents one of the most shameful
elements of our history and obliterates the notion that America is an
exceptional nation.
Sadly, we didn�t even live up to our hype coming out of the
starting gate. While many of our deeply revered Founding Fathers were rather
enlightened individuals for the times in which they lived, the government they
forged was ultimately of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. While the
monstrosity of industrial capitalism had yet to be birthed, remember that most
of those who drafted our Constitution were affluent individuals primarily
interested in grabbing the power the American Revolution had wrested from
England. This white land-owning patriarchy only represented about 13 percent of
the population. If anything, that percentage has declined precipitously
throughout our history. How else does one explain a president who is hated by
the vast majority of Americans yet remains immune from impeachment or a
�do-nothing� Democratic Congress which is ignoring our mandate for them to end
the brutal war crimes in Iraq?
Certainly we have compelling reasons for blindly supporting
and participating in the depravities of consumerism, militarism, neocolonialism,
speciesism, Zionism, and a host of other diseased �isms� we inflict upon the
world. However, the fact that we have been severely hobbled by our ancestral
roots, by capitalism�s exploitation of our tendencies to act on our greed and
selfishness, and by deeply insidious psychological conditioning does not
alleviate us of our share of the responsibility.
Revisiting the vampire metaphor, like the immortal undead of
lore, we Americans are spiritually vacuous. Ignoring our spiritual needs to
invest nearly all of our time in the narcissistic, hollow pursuits our
inculcation demands, at the collective level we contribute to capitalism�s
vampiric feast on the Earth and its sentient inhabitants, and at the individual
level we drain the life force from nearly all with whom we come in contact in a
desperate attempt to fill our inner void.
Yet there is hope.
Despite the nearly overwhelming odds against it, increasing
numbers of Americans are seeking and finding the truth, refusing the system�s
myriad tantalizing bribes, engaging in introspection, feeling a sense of moral
outrage, acting with a sense of justice and compassion, abandoning what passes
for thinking in the mainstream, and rejecting the notion that the disease of
capitalism is incurable because it is natural (and even admirable) to
consistently act on our greed and selfishness.
It is only a matter of time before decent human beings who
are no longer willing to silence their consciences drive a stake through the
heart of the vampiric moral abomination known as capitalism.
Jason Miller is a wage
slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He is Cyrano's Journal Online's associate editor and publishes Thomas Paine's Corner within Cyrano's.
You can reach him at JMiller@bestcyrano.com.