Rant #2: What Democracy is left?
So, I wasn't going to post this until I'd had some time to think about it. After all, the decision was just handed down today. Certainly I will need more time to consider all the ramifications of such a monumental decision. Certainly I will need more time to decide exactly how this will impact the democracy we have grown up with and think that we understand.
Mr. Smith can indeed get to Washington, but he will only do so on Wal-Mart's dime.
I am of course responding to the decision handed down by the Supreme Court that enables corporations to give an unlimited amount to political campaigns, effectively "buying" candidates. And what changed my mind? Keith Olbermann's Special Comment tonight. I cried. Several times. I haven't done that since his comment on health care. Because all the fears and all the worries that I've had for so long have now been crystallized and presented to me on a platter. What will I do, Keith? I'll do this.
My capstone, which originally was to be about drug and alcohol abuse among suburbanites during the 1950s and early 1960s, is now about revolution. Not just any revolution, because it's easy to write about something that occurred hundreds of years ago. No, I will be writing about this revolution. The populist revolution that I want to join and start and shape. I will lay out the historical precedent for such ideas, the reasons why this absolutely must take place, and why I would lay down my life to protect the freedoms we pretend to hold so dear.
This kind of judgment could not occur in a country that truly holds the precepts of freedom dear. It could only happen in a country so blinded by its own bloat, its own willful ignorance, its own preoccupation with "reality" television and video games and any other diversion it can create to distract itself from the horrors that are occurring around us every day -- that it is willing to sacrifice all common sense and decency to the highest bidder.
I have read a great deal about the changes that are taking place, some slow and insidious, some quicker than we can perceive, but always, always heading in a slow downward spiral as though we as a country are circling some great moral drain. Now more than ever, we need to be involved. Not just in the election of anti-corporate individuals, but in real, physical protests. Not worthless online petitions -- those don't make headlines. We need marching in the streets. We need activism like never before, because this doesn't just affect Democrats, it affects Republicans. To save our country from being the Land of Free, Inc., we need an uprising. Mass protests not seen since the Johnson administration. We need our civil rights movement, our war protest, our monumental upheaval that isn't just liberals or conservatives, but both united as one in a fist to bust these corporations who have swelled from the repealing of years of anti-trust acts and monopoly restrictions.
In the coming weeks and months, I will try to post ways that you can make a difference, and how we can shape this coming populist movement. I will try to post the research I do as a part of my capstone, now exclusively about populist rebellion and how to incite it, because I am more passionate about this than any other part of my life right now. And if I can make a difference, if I can let my and other voices be heard, so be it.
My uncle died protesting the war in Iraq. He would want to see protests in the streets over a decision such as this. I can only hope I do his memory justice.
I Heard You, Malachi.
Mr. Smith can indeed get to Washington, but he will only do so on Wal-Mart's dime.
I am of course responding to the decision handed down by the Supreme Court that enables corporations to give an unlimited amount to political campaigns, effectively "buying" candidates. And what changed my mind? Keith Olbermann's Special Comment tonight. I cried. Several times. I haven't done that since his comment on health care. Because all the fears and all the worries that I've had for so long have now been crystallized and presented to me on a platter. What will I do, Keith? I'll do this.
My capstone, which originally was to be about drug and alcohol abuse among suburbanites during the 1950s and early 1960s, is now about revolution. Not just any revolution, because it's easy to write about something that occurred hundreds of years ago. No, I will be writing about this revolution. The populist revolution that I want to join and start and shape. I will lay out the historical precedent for such ideas, the reasons why this absolutely must take place, and why I would lay down my life to protect the freedoms we pretend to hold so dear.
This kind of judgment could not occur in a country that truly holds the precepts of freedom dear. It could only happen in a country so blinded by its own bloat, its own willful ignorance, its own preoccupation with "reality" television and video games and any other diversion it can create to distract itself from the horrors that are occurring around us every day -- that it is willing to sacrifice all common sense and decency to the highest bidder.
I have read a great deal about the changes that are taking place, some slow and insidious, some quicker than we can perceive, but always, always heading in a slow downward spiral as though we as a country are circling some great moral drain. Now more than ever, we need to be involved. Not just in the election of anti-corporate individuals, but in real, physical protests. Not worthless online petitions -- those don't make headlines. We need marching in the streets. We need activism like never before, because this doesn't just affect Democrats, it affects Republicans. To save our country from being the Land of Free, Inc., we need an uprising. Mass protests not seen since the Johnson administration. We need our civil rights movement, our war protest, our monumental upheaval that isn't just liberals or conservatives, but both united as one in a fist to bust these corporations who have swelled from the repealing of years of anti-trust acts and monopoly restrictions.
In the coming weeks and months, I will try to post ways that you can make a difference, and how we can shape this coming populist movement. I will try to post the research I do as a part of my capstone, now exclusively about populist rebellion and how to incite it, because I am more passionate about this than any other part of my life right now. And if I can make a difference, if I can let my and other voices be heard, so be it.
My uncle died protesting the war in Iraq. He would want to see protests in the streets over a decision such as this. I can only hope I do his memory justice.
I Heard You, Malachi.