A: Pg 5 - OPINION SECTION - IGNORANCE AS IT AFFECTS HUMANITY AND SOCIETIES

                                       I YAM



WHY IS IT...

that when you get a large group of people together,

sooner or later...all too often, their actions and attitudes will begin to revert to the BASEST LEVEL of the human condition.

If the most outspoken amongst them seems to be a racist, eventually that will be at least one of the core beliefs of the group. The same holds true with the tendency that group-attitudes have toward selfishness...self-serving and self-indulgence. Also, sooner or later one can see a definite evolution into lesser intelligence as the pack or herd 
mentality takes over.

'THE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA' has accelerated as the HERD MENTALITY of the loudest voices has drowned out the more reasoned, the ideologically centrist, the brighter minds and the 'thinkers' until we have tended to become a run-of-the-mill hack culture...lacking vision and mutual purpose...
totally without a sense of commonality and community, or as the Republicans and the Liberatarians amongst us like to put it,

"IT'S EVERY MAN WOMAN CHILD FOR THEMSELVES!"

'Every man for himself' does NOT work well in foxholes OR in countries for this very simple reason:  it means that without question the most vulnerable amongst us will get trampled to death in the stampede of the stronger towards a place of safety that they will then afford ONLY to themselves.

One of the saddest ironies in all of this is that we have the

advantage of having our entire collective history staring us

in the face...AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE, as it has never been available before in previous generations. 

We have the internet for example which contains a  WEALTH 
of knowledge about NOT ONLY what is happening now, 
but what happened in all of the previous great civilizations 
that as we now know ultimately went down in a blaze of 
elitist greed and populist dis-engagement.

Over and over and over, it is the SAME old sad story. 
You would think we would learn. We're supposedly bright munchkins, but...we just never seem to. It is once more all about
the matter of ignorance and apathy. (I don't know and I don't care), and mind over matter. (If I don't mind, then it don't matter).

YET, OH YES IT DOES MATTER. It matters to
the future of this country and everyone in it. It matters
to this world and this PLANET. What also matters NOW is that for the FIRST TIME in ALL OF HISTORY,. we have the ability like never before to destroy ourselves...
AS PEOPLE, AS A COUNTRY, AS A WORLD, AND YES...AS A PLANET...and in pretty short order, too. Actually, truth be told, we've been doing a pretty good BANG-UP job of it so far.

The water we use for drinking and recreation, the very air we breathe, the rich abundance of natural resources we found but are depleting at a brisk pace. Depleting entire species of our fellow planetary inhabitants. HOW IS THAT for love and caring, huh?

And, at least some of us seem HELL-BENT on wiping out
the HUMAN SPECIES, too.

THE QUESTION IS...if WE do not look out for each other and 
everything else on this planet of ours, WHO WILL?

Well, you better not be counting on this new crop of Republicans 
to do it. They've pretty much made it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR they won't. A lot of the sold-out democrats won't either. They are just as corrupt as the T-Party type Republicans. So what is the answer?

WE ARE, of course. AS ALWAYS, it is up to us. THOSE OF US WHO WILL BESTIR OURSELVES, SEE THERE IS A PROBLEM AND THEN...get up off our lazy dead asses and DO something.

WE THE PEOPLE used to be not just a catch phrase. It used to 
MEAN something and often it was interpreted as a CALL TO ACTION.

It STILL SHOULD, but does it?

We've become like individual pebbles in a large quarry...
dumb dead lifeless rocks, and only spurred when some 
smooth-talking earth mover comes to dislodge us from 

our static life-less status and move us 

somewhere else where we will once more 

SIT and watch as the world of the life-filled affluent
elitist BOULDERS go by.

I sit sometimes, often actually, in STUNNED DISBELIEF as I see the most ignorant, the most intellectually lazy,

and the most dis-engaged among us set the tone 

for the entire country, because they are being mobilized and used by the GREEDIEST and LEAST MORAL in the country. 

USED. YES, and used usually without even being aware they 
ARE being used. Now THAT is ignorant.

SHEER FACELESS MINDLESS NUMBERS =

OF HUMANOID ROBOTS...fulfilling their assigned task to destroy  

at the hands of the masters they serve. BUT, that is IMPOSSIBLE...
you say.

Those elites like Exxon-Mobil and the Koch's 

and the Walton's. 

They would never try to...

DON'T KID YOURSELF.

#1. They no longer derive the majority or at least a major portion  of their annual income/revenues FROM the United States.  Nope. They look to the emerging markets like China and India. They outsource the jobs, off-shore the profits, and then boast of their American presence. Their presence is questionable, their presents and benefits to this country are almost virtually non-existent.

#2.  They also DO want to take advantage of cheap service labor while they also take full advantage of the tax loopholes and havens and other like benefits the U.S. seems more than willing to afford them.

                          They get the IMAGE of being an 

AMERICAN company while they contribute 

LITTLE OR NOTHING TO America.

#3. The best way to take FULL advantage

OF THIS COUNTRY is to make sure there are 

NO dissonant voices. So, they are moving full speed ahead trying to ruin our American education system...

heretofore the best in the world,  
so we are dumber as a people. 

That also contributes to 
keeping us as a nation in poverty for 
the vast majority of us...

That also works to their benefit not ours.
But a ton of us, mostly but not exclusively Republicans, seem perfectly content to be 
going right along with all this...

to 'HAVE IT AS THEY WANT IT', to the detriment 

of the rest of us and the country as a whole.

AGAIN...

WE HAVE THE ADVANTAGE OF INFORMATION
LIKE NEVER BEFORE, but in our ignorance and 
our apathy and our laziness, we tend to make 
very poor use of what is available to enlighten 
and inform ALL of us and so, ultimately?  
WE WILL PAY A HUGE PRICE FOR THAT.

 AS I keep saying, the ignorance of people in large groups is both stunning and dangerous...and if it continues at this pace unchecked? It WILL destroy this once great nation JUST AS IT HAS DONE to so many that have come before it. 

Is that what you WANT?

Maybe not, but is it too late?
Maybe not, but I fear it is getting close to the point when it will be.

ONE MORE THING.

I mentioned before about selfishness, self-serving, and self-indulgence.

THERE IS ONE MORE ASPECT TO THAT.

SELF-DESTRUCTION. 

YOU be the judge. 

Fortunately, the above does not apply to a 

significant number of people...

primarily progressives, who ARE trying to stop 

the momentum of the elitists to destroy what 

it has taken several hundred years and enormous sacrifice to build. BUT...it is ALSO up to them 

to DO.  To NOT merely whine and complain about the present state of affairs, but DO what and however much it takes to derail the plutocrat 

TRAIN TO HELL. But, WILL THEY?

THAT NOW IS THE CRUCIAL QUESTION FACING ALL OF US.

WE THE PEOPLE...
ROAD TO THE FUTURE OR
 THE BROKEN-DOWN PATH TO HELL.

03032014
A FOLLOW-UP

Let us not forget one strategically important point.
It is NOT corporations doing us in...those faceless blobs, entities 
in name but devoid of any humanity...UNLESS the people running them and/or who created them CARED about WE THE PEOPLE.

There ARE good companies out here BECAUSE the people RUNNING THEM ARE. But the rest? The greed of corporations is only the corporate manifestation of the greedy nature of the people running them. 

STRIKE AT THE CORPORATION, AND YOU ARE PROBABLY DOOMED TO FAIL. STRIKE AT THE ROOT, meaning the people behind them and making all the decisions and setting the agendas, and you maybe have a chance. Expose corporate greed and everyone goes ho hum and yawns.  Like Koch Industries. OH WELL, JUST ANOTHER CORPORATION RUN AMUCK.
BUT TARGET THE OWNERS, DAVID & CHARLES KOCH, and you put a very real face on that blob. NOW you got something you can expose as corrupt, or even worse.

DO THAT, & WE MAY JUST WIN IN THE END AFTER ALL.

_____________________________________________________________________________

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2012

BUT IT IS STILL RELEVANT, UNFORTUNATELY

COPYRIGHT 2014 by DUSTYBEAR

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

that when you get a large group of people together, sooner or later, 

their actions and attitudes will revert to the BASEST level of the human condition, all too often. 

If the most outspoken amongst them seems to be a racist, eventually that will be the core belief of the group. The same holds true with the tendency towards selfishness...self-serving and self -indulgence. 

ALSO sooner or later, one can see a definite evolution into lesser intelligence as the pack or herd mentality takes over. 

'THE DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA' has accelerated as the HERD MENTALITY of the loudest voices has drowned out the more reasoned, the ideologically centrist, the brighter minds and the 'thinkers' until we have tended to become a run-0f-the-mill hack culture...lacking vision and mutual purpose. Without a sense of commonality and community.

EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF...

does NOT work well in a foxhole OR a country BECAUSE it means that without question the most vulnerable will be trampled to death in the stampede of the stronger towards a place of safety they will afford ONLY to themselves.

One of the saddest ironies in all of this is that 

we have the advantage of history staring us in the face...

AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE, as it has never been in previous generations. 

We have the internet for example. 

A WEALTH of knowledge about NOT ONLY 

what is happening now, but what happened 

in previous great civilizations that ultimately 

went down in a blaze of elitist greed and 

populist dis-engagement.

Over and over and over it's the same old sad story. You'd think we would learn, but we never seem to.

It's once more all about the matter of ignorance and apathy. (I don't know and I don't care), and mind over matter (IF I don't mind then it don't matter).

YET, yes it does. It matters to the future of 

this country and to the world. The PLANET.

What also matters now is that for the FIRST TIME 

in all of history, we have the abilty to 

DESTROY THE PLANET...

like never before, and in pretty short order too. 

We've been doing a pretty good job of it so far. 

Water, air, you name it. Wiping out entire species...

and at least some of us seem HELL-BENT on wiping out the HUMAN species. 

If WE don't look out for each other, WHO WILL? 

You better not be counting on this new crop 

of Republicans to do it. They've made it 

ABUNDANTLY CLEAR they won't. A lot of the sold-out democrats won't either. They are just as corrupt as the republicans. So what is the answer?

WE ARE...of course, as always. 

WE THE PEOPLE used to MEAN something. 

It STILL SHOULD, but does it?

We've become like individual pebbles in a 

large quarry...dumb dead lifeless rocks, and 

only spurred when some smooth-talking 

earth mover comes to dislodge us from 

our static life-less status and move us 

somewhere else where we will once more 

SIT and watch 

as the world of the life-filled affluent elitist BOULDERS go by. 

I sit sometimes in STUNNED DISBELIEF as I see 

the most ignorant, the most intellectually lazy, 

and the most dis-engaged among us set the tone 

for the entire country, because they are being mobilized by the 

GREEDIEST and LEAST MORAL in the country. 

USED...Yes. Used without even being aware 

that they ARE being used.  Now THAT is ignorant.

SHEER FACELESS MINDLESS NUMBERS 

OF HUMANOID ROBOTS...

fulfilling their assigned task to destroy 

at the hands of the masters they serve.

BUT, that's impossible you assert. 

Those elites like Exxon and the Koch's 

and the Walton's. 

They would never try to...

DON'T KID YOURSELF. 

#1) They mostly no longer depend on the majority 

or at least a major portion of their annual income/reveues FROM the United States. 

They look to the emerging markets like 

China and India. They outsource the jobs, off-shore the profits, and then boast of their American presence. Their presence is questionable, their presents and benefits to this country are almost virtually non-existent.

#2) They also DO want to take advantage of cheap service labor WHILE they ALSO take full advantage of the tax loopholes and havens and other like benefits they get here. 

They get the IMAGE of being an 

AMERICAN company while they contribute 

LITTLE OR NOTHING TO America.

#3) The best way to take FULL advantage 

OF THIS COUNTRY is to make sure there are 

NO dissonant voices. 

SO, they are going full tilt trying to ruin 

American education so we are dumber as a people.

That contributes also to keeping us in poverty...

which also works to THEIR advantage, NOT ours. 

BUT WE seem to be going along with THEIR PLAN 

to 'HAVE IT AS THEY WANT IT', to the detriment 

of the rest of us and the country as a whole.

AGAIN...

WE HAVE THE ADVANTAGE OF INFORMATION LIKE NEVER BEFORE, but in our ignorance, our apathy AND our laziness, we don't make use of all that we have available and ultimately? 

WE WILL pay a HUGE price for that.

Like I said, the ignorance of people in large groups 

is both STUNNING...AND DANGEROUS, 

and IF UNCHECKED WILL...DESTROY THIS ONCE GREAT NATION JUST AS IT HAS SO MANY THAT HAVE COME BEFORE IT.

Is that what...YOU WANT?

Maybe it's STILL NOT too late, but I fear...

it may just be.

ONE MORE THING...

I mentioned about that selfishness, self-serving 

and self-indulgence? 

THERE IS ONE MORE ASPECT TO THAT.

SELF-DESTRUCTION. 

YOU be the judge. 

Fortunately, the above does not apply to a significant number of people...primarily progressives, who ARE trying to stop the momentum of the elitists to destroy what it has taken several hundred years and enormous sacrifice to build. BUT...it is ALSO up to them to DO. Not merely whine and complain about the present state of affairs, but DO what and however much it takes to derail the plutocrat 

TRAIN TO HELL. Will they? 

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 2012

BUT IT IS STILL RELEVANT, UNFORTUNATELY

COPYRIGHT 2012 by DUSTYBEAR

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED