White House White Board #2

At present, the flow of the "mainstream media" has shifted to the right. Conservative voices tend to dictate the daily news narrative, with unabashed bias. The liberal punditry ─ possibly in an effort retain some air of neutrality ─ is critical of both the President and democrat-led congress, with the unfortunate consequence that the liberal/progressive agenda is weakened.

What's lost in the din of republican rage and democratic dismay, is that President Obama has been successful on several levels and multiple fronts, despite numerous Republican roadblocks and Democratic defections. The fact is we, liberals and progressives, should be jubilant and ready to double-down in support of our party and president: there ought not be an "enthusiasm gap" in this election.

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White House White Board #1

Yeah, I'm spreading liberal propaganda and I seem to be arguing for the status quo: except, I'm not. Within the US, the minimum wage is not a living wage. There is no maximum wage. Investors and leaders of industry bleed their own corporations dry, then place the blame on federal taxes & regulations or on unions hard-fought for health & retirement benefits. The entire corporate infrastructure is irrational, irresponsible and unsustainable.

And that's the crux of it, we need rational, progressive reforms, akin to what we saw from the beginning of the 20th century thru the WWII era. To eliminate federal debt, we need to raise taxes, at least in the short-term. It's not rational to raise taxes on those who barely scrape by. It's not rational to raise taxes on the middle class in general, thereby reducing spending power of the consumer base. It's entirely rational and logically consistent, to raise taxes on the small minority of Americans ─ whose unscrupulous actions can and have utterly devastated our economy and regularly threaten our environment and health, thereby forcing the creation of costly regulatory agencies ─ and while the [often hidden] cost of corporate welfare exceeds that which is spent on social welfare.

I feel, in this election cycle, the best candidates and ideas are generally found within the Democratic Party. A vote for conservatism ─ in any guise ─ for any reason ─ is not in the interest of the nation. Still, I firmly believe, in any election, the best vote that the disaffected can make, is for a 3rd party.

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Concise Manifesto

Image via Wikipedia

I've been living through an existential funk ─ we could call it depression ─ regardless, finding some purpose for myself has been a life-long struggle. I'm not so conceited, as to think I'm unique or special: i.e. I realize everyone deals with this.

I've reached the point in my life, where I need to do something. Anything? But, I can't bring myself to settle in some corporate hierarchy, with which I fundamentally disagree. Again, I'm neither unique nor special. So, why do I hold out? Why have I let myself sink into this rut?

I know that I can't live with myself if I feel I'm a cog in a machine. I realize my role, I understand life goes on without me, as it would without anyone else and even without our species. I fear, this is the fundamental issue.

To survive we need adequate food, drinkable water and security from destructive aspects of nature. As a whole, we have been marvelously successful in achieving all 3 essentials. Food exists in such abundance, that obesity has become a problem and anorexia a bizarre & twisted reaction to that unnatural abundance. Potable water exists in such quantity, that we create golf courses in deserts. Finally, throughout the developed world, we're essentially divorced from the natural world, living in cities of steel and concrete.

Basically, we've reached a plateau, where the human race has moved beyond barely eking out survival and is in fact thriving. This may not be the land, but this is assuredly the time of milk and honey. Each of us living today and that will be born in the foreseeable future, lucked into this abundance and relative security.

Yet, we are not born with equal access to the benefits of this era ─ wealth is largely inherited ─ many of us are (seemingly) systemically denied the bounty of the time ─ however we consistently yield to the standing corporation-centric economy, despite our personal interests being at odds with the current structure.

We do this (in part) out of fear: socialist and communist revolutions have ultimately yielded fascist states, so that any notion of socialism seems to be inexorably linked with totalitarian fascism. The capitalist system, as it stands, also offers a certain naïve hope, that we (or our heirs) might be able to bootstrap our way out of poverty into the middle-class, or from the middle-class to the rich-elite. Never-mind that the odds of this are approximately the same as our odds of winning the lottery ─ besides which, in a capitalist nation, one persons good fortune is nearly always dependent  upon another's bad fortune ─ the essence of capitalism being the uninhibited flow of wealth between individuals.

Trouble is, wealth doesn't flow without inhibition. In fact, wealth tends to pool amongst a small minority ─ controllers of industry and their families ─ while the common man works for a pittance.

Modern Western law and culture, is predicated upon beliefs in the innate equality of individuals, their right to self-determination, balanced by personal accountability. The current capitalist financial structure, seems to run contrary to these ideals. Inheritable wealth undermines individual equality, disparate pay negates individual liberty, while the poor and working classes are often held to higher standards of accountability.

I was born middle-class ─ I could embrace that lot ─ go to college ─ work my life away ─ generating wealth for others, while barely scraping by myself. Experience tells me, that way yields naught but frustration, personal anguish and a languishing of the spirit: while such complicity with the capitalist status quo, is in utter violation of my conscience, even if seeming inevitable.

Ultimately it seems unconscionable, that we allow such disparate divisions between economic classes, let alone hunger and homelessness, to persist. Imperatively: I retain some degree of self-determination, the freedom of expression, and the right to vote. So, I can choose for whom I work and from whom I buy. I can publish my blog. I can work and vote for change and shared prosperity. As we all do, can and ought.