Keeping it Real
By Larry Pinkney
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board
“You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.”
-Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz]
“I’m worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin around them as it wants without taking a look at what they’re doing. I’m concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that’s handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers.”
-Howard Zinn
The corporate-controlled sham of national elections in this year of 2012 is once more upon everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in the United States.
Yes, the corporate-stream “news” media is feverishly playing its fiddle of diversion and disinformation as the raging fires of corporate hegemony, economic austerity, legalized indefinite detention of U.S. citizens, and perpetual war burn to a cinder the hopes and dreams of everyday people. Buttressed by the U.S. corporate-stream media, the political vultures of both the Democrat and Republican parties are fanning the flames with a deafening crescendo of lies, obfuscation, and more lies. The economy of this nation, for ordinary everyday people, is in a shambles, as the corporate elite continues to rake in billions upon billions of blood-drenched profit.
As the politicians lie, the everyday people of this nation and world continue to die. Contrary to government propaganda, the war in Iraq is not over; well-paid U.S. corporate mercenaries have, in large measure, simply replaced certain U.S. troops in that nation. Moreover, U.S. sponsored wars rage on in Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Africa, and elsewhere on this planet. These wars are, of course, great for the tiny bloodsucking avaricious U.S. corporate elite but horrible for the everyday people of Mother Earth. Yet, like Barack Obama’s deadly predator-drone missiles, U.S. politicians (of both parties) and the corporate-stream media drone on, spewing forth their unending poisonous, thinly veiled and self-serving repackaged vomit of war mongering propaganda.
Meanwhile, the so-called “war on terror,” which is itself a contradiction in terms, continues to enflame hatred and death around the world - all in the name of misguided, manipulated “patriotism” - under the guise of attaining some kind of always illusive, alleged “security.” The corporate-owned United States government sustains itself by active wars, the threat of wars and internal and external subterfuge.
For example, in the very name of striving for peace and security, the U.S. government is pursuing precisely the opposite in the case of Iran. The U.S. is attempting to isolate Iran’s monetary and oil revenue assets, etc., an extremely dangerous game that could lead to war, as the corporate-U.S. government well knows. This, however, is not merely about Iran, but also directly affects China and Russia, both of which are nuclear powers. For the U.S. government to demand that Iran not become a nuclear power while ignoring the fact that the nation of Israel is a nuclear power with stockpiled nuclear capability is hypocritical and insane.
It has nothing whatever to do with averting war and everything to do with corporate greed and U.S. geopolitical designs to control this planet’s natural resources. It is also a deliberate attempt to goad, bully, and provoke Iran, and by extension China and/or Russia, into a conflict with the U.S. and its puppet allies. It is a political conflict that could quickly lead to nuclear war and the concomitant annihilation of humanity on this planet.
In view of the United States’ own internal de facto corporate dictatorship, its numerous political prisoners, and its laws which provide for the indefinite detention of its own citizens without charge, trial, jury, or legal defense [i.e. the so-called National Defense Authorization Act-NDAA], etc., the United States government has absolutely no moral, ethical, or legal authority to demand Iran or any other government do anything! Only the ordinary everyday people of this nation have that right, but certainly not a U.S. corporate-government that does not even legitimately represent its people.
The actual message of the U.S. corporate-government to the world is, “do as I say, not as I do!” Ironically, it is the U.S. government itself who first unleashed the terrible nuclear genie upon humankind, and who remains a foremost nuclear power to this very day - which fact is not missed by other nations of the world. Clearly, if the U.S. government truly desired nuclear disarmament - it would lead by example. Political saber rattling and war mongering is not the example, and though it may make for effective internal U.S. political propaganda, it is a sure recipe for war. To reiterate: The corporate-owned United States government sustains itself (not its people) by active wars, the threat of wars, and internal and external subterfuge.
As millions upon millions of people in this nation become, and increasingly remain, without jobs, and home foreclosures continue unabated , corporate executives of the corporate elite lavish themselves with six and seven figure, undeserved “salaries.” Young people, unable to pay for their student loans, etc., are offered the odious “opportunity” of becoming cannon fodder in the U.S. corporate-military machine , even as giant multi-national Wall Street corporations funnel much needed U.S. jobs to so-called “Third World” nations, where the skills of the people in those nations are economically pimped, as profits abound for the U.S. multi-national corporate elite. Life sustaining pensions of seniors in this nation have been made a thing of the past by the greedy vampires of the corporate elite, and the poor and dispossessed of this nation are in increasing agony.
The farce of “democracy” and elections in this corporate owned nation has, in 2012, become self-evident. The questions remain however: What further subterfuge against everyday people will the corporate-controlled U.S. government utilize? Moreover, how much more can or will the people tolerate? Indeed, in the words of Langston Hughes, “What happens to a dream deferred?” Only the actions of and by everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people collectively can and will decisively answer these questions.
There is an enormous amount of work, political education, and organizing ahead. For this nation, for humanity everywhere, and for Mother Earth herself we cannot shirk in our tasks. Each one, teach one as we carry on in this people’s struggle.
Onward, then, my sisters and brothers. Onward!
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil / political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.) Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.
