This morning, I was thinking about the systems of our society. I work for a marketing company, have for many years. I've gotten a peak behind the curtain, the vast oceans of money that get poured by companies into trying to figure out how to get inside your head. I think about this side... the politics of governments, the politics of companies. And then I think about the people I know. So many are struggling to get by. My friend posted a terribly sad article about Wal-Mart suing an employee who was devestatingly injured in a car accident -- trying to recover the insurance settlement she won for themselves.
Been watching the HBO series John Adams. Our founding fathers said...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
So it get's me thinking... are we still governed by government? Or are we governed now, instead, by Corporations? It seems to me we are secretly governed by Corporations... and established government has simply become the big dog in the yard. If government is established by the people FOR the people... what is a corporation established for? It's own interests and profit. It seduces the population, brainwashes us into believing we "must" have this that and the other thing... extends us "credit" and then "taxes" us in the form of fees and APR's in a cycle of control that has infiltrated to the core of culture in an intricate web. It has become the feudal lord of the land... it gives most of us our paychecks, determines what those are, then tells us how to spend it. Government, for the most part, is it's mistress, set up in a condo and promoted to a position of power as long as they keep their mouth shut and don't tell the wife. Except the wife knows. She's just powerless to do much about it. Corporate America has become the vampire, sucking us dry, the snake eating it's own tail.
Stories of Corporate greed and abuse have become so rampant as to not even shock us anymore. Stories of morally bereft polititians has become the cliche. Once we lived in tribes. And the tribes, for the most part, took care of their own. Are we a tribe anymore? Are we taking care of our own? Or are the architects of power simply raiding the silver and trying to hijack a ride out of town? If government derives it's power from the consent of the governed, when did I consent to this? Or have they seduced our consent... with lies and false promises and subtle, intricate brainwashing... weaving a web so complex as for it to be near impossible to uncover whom is responsible or what. I feel, somewhere along the line, that we have been robbed of our consent ... without ever realizing it. As that classic line from "The Usual Suspects"...
"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing us he didn't exist".
Of course, our society's citizens live better than other citizens in other societies. The Congo is a dark example. I won't go into that in detail. But when I go to 20,000 feet... it gets me thinking. Is this how human beings govern themselves? We don't seem to be doing a terribly good job of it. But if the society is the macrocosm... what about the microcosm? Am I any better at governing myself? Do I conduct myself in a way that is "for the good of the people"... the people being me? What society am I? Is it perhaps, an ambitious goal to believe that humans are capable of governing themselves in a healthy, harmonious, sustainable way? Am I a product of my society... or is society a product of people just like me?
