Clear-eyed resolve and hard work equal hope

So it’s finally been explained in a way I understand that the fight isn’t right vs. left, but top vs. bottom. In other words, the rules of the game are being slanted so the 900 billionaires win, and win big against the 175-ish million working Americans just trying to eek out a living, buy a house, put their kids through college and have something left over for retirement (which is now nearly impossible for the younger generations of working adults). 

Top versus bottom. Their agenda and investment in the political system are working fantastically for the ultra-rich. The number of billionaires have increased ten-fold since 1990, from fewer than 80 billionaires to 900 billionaires today. The U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986 chopped taxes nearly in half for the upper income bracket. Well-heeled people gleaned this windfall, which, in part, led to the exponential growth of the wealthy elite. Corruption of power did the rest.

I find myself wondering about the end-game of the oligarchies. Sooooooo … Let’s suppose these 900-some billionaires succeed in plundering the U.S. coffers and forcing the 270-plus million adults and their families in the U.S. into poverty and into the lowest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where the focus of individuals is simply survival. How is the billionaire class enriched by the previous labor force’s economic deprivation? Let’s continue. 

Now billionaires have control of the masses, but the masses aren’t buying anything. They are scavenging what they need from garbage heaps and living off the land – clandestinely as we no longer own any of it. The oligarchs have bought up, foreclosed on or stolen all the land, private and public. So, there’s no revenue stream to generate profits for anything beyond food and shelter. Maybe. Some people might hold menial labor jobs, working in the playgrounds of the rich. They would be paid in food, clothing, housing, likely perpetually indebted to their employers (i.e. masters) as was the case with the “company store” of old. 

Robots would do most of the manufacturing and other sorts of work. AI, right?  People would be fleeing to other countries if they could. But an impoverished American civilization would not be a “fun” place for those 900 billionaires to reside. They would likely either go to other countries to live or build fortified compounds here. Captives in their own little empires. So, is that their end game? Are they myopic visionaries with no concept of where a repressed, struggling-to-survive serfdom would lead them?  The U.S. would be rife for a takeover by China. I think China is already cozying up to Putin and working to absorb Russia. China, like a slow gelatinous amoeba crawling over those stagnated countries, melds failing dictatorships into its body as a matter of course with little struggle. 

Just something I ponder: What happens if the mega-rich, clutching the levers of power, succeed in their path of brutality and apathy to crush the lower classes of U.S. citizens? Is there any hope that our masses will be able to turn this around? Yes. 

Consider this quote: “Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,” by filmmaker Ken Burns, paraphrasing the words originally written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Burns uses this joke to illustrate:  How many grandmothers does it take to put in a lightbulb? None. They’ll sit in the dark.

When the dark becomes insufferable, Burns explains, our history shows Americans step up. They exhibit courage and individual sacrifice. One-by-one, and then that drive catches fire, building into a mighty force. We can do this by using our voices (like I am right here), by letting our representatives know we won’t accept the yoke they are attempting to place on our necks. We need to speak out against the squandering of monies we’ve paid into the U.S. purse. We vote. Better yet, we step into the light to run for office, local, state or federal, and help reclaim our government meant to serve the interest of all its people. 

We push forward for humanitarian causes and educate ourselves, not at the trough of mainstream media, but by examining historical and expert sources. And, we listen. Train yourselves to step back from an emotional response to what you hear. Weigh the facts and varied opinions with logic and reason. Remember this:  “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”  – Winston Churchill.

When the dark, the evil becomes insufferable for you, sitting on your hands and shaking your head will not sustain you. Seek out like-minded souls, link arms and march forward. Gather up others as you go. The survival of our nation, the continuance of this American experiment in democracy depends on all of us. We all have a part we can play. Find yours.

One last quote supplied by Ken Burns from his PBS film “The American Revolution.” It originates from Johann Ewald, a disdainful Hessian officer who fought for the British, upon his surrender to George Washington’s Continental Army: “Who would have thought a hundred years ago that out of this multitude of rabble would arise a people who could defy kings.”