COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY ROBERT PARRY IN RUSSIA INSIDER
‘if I could change one
thing about America and Western journalism, it would be that we all repudiate
“information warfare” in favor of an old-fashioned respect for facts and
fairness — and do whatever we can to achieve a truly informed electorate’
Well said from a conscientious American.
Sadly though, Robert Parry, may not be aware of how few
there are now fitting that description, conscientious American.
James Traub recently wrote the following, and I believe it
captures the essence of the American dilemma:
"The United
States of America Is Decadent and Depraved
The problem isn’t
Donald Trump – it’s the Donald Trump in all of us..."
My way of saying something similar in my essays has been to
compare today's America with France in, say, the mid-18th century before the
Revolution.
As we know from the infamous Talleyrand, it was a “very
sweet time to be alive” (if you were among the wealthy and privileged, of
course). This brilliant, but exceedingly corrupt, Catholic Bishop and statesman
managed to survive and thrive through many twists and turns, even the
Revolution and Napoleon.
He was perhaps a close parallel to some of the leading figures
we see today in Washington. And the set of great land-owning lords and
churchmen, who were never willing to budge in the slightest in their vast
privileges to help save a financially-floundering monarchy, parallel quite
closely America’s super-wealthy set, the people who keep looking for tax cuts
and legal privileges and never offer anything of their substance to better the
country.
But apart from being a time “sweet to be alive,” it was
equally a time when a great duke's carriage wouldn't even stop if it struck a
peasant who happened to be in his way on the road. The body was taken no more account
of than people today note "roadkill" of small animals on the highway.
It was that brutally divided and unequal a society,
absolutely extreme, and of course I do not just mean in terms of wealth, but
when wealth becomes too extremely unequal, it generates many other inequalities
such as treatment before the law or fair opportunities or even health. And we
do see those very things in America. France, of course, eventually self-destructed.
I don’t carry that last as a necessary parallel for America, but it is not
beyond the realm of possibilities.
America has reached a place not too different from the
France of Louis Quinze or Seize. The government in Washington takes no care or
concern for ordinary Americans. None.
The ruling establishment in Washington, too, is not all that
different from a ruling aristocracy. Money rules elections and policy. The
plutocracy with the big money calls the shots. Taxes and other policies are
structured for the rich.
Offices, such as the powerful Senate, are virtually lifetime
sinecures, few of the incumbents ever losing a future election. And, in a
number of cases, the offices are handed down to children or other favored
successors. There are many examples of this, a sure sign of corruption and
decadence.
So, we have a plutocracy with its loyal representatives in
Washington, supported by a Frankenstein-size military and security establishment
with 17 agencies in total, including the well-known CIA, NSA, and FBI.
These vast support agencies of course are paid for through
the taxes of millions of ordinary citizens, but their purpose and employment are
in the service of the plutocracy and special interests.
America’s “Defense Department” has not fought a single war
or conflict having anything to do with defense in three-quarters of a century.
It is all aggressive, much like the great wars of France, and all to serve
special interests and the privileged, imposing their will on others.
Does that sound like a democratic government? Or even a
decent government concerned with the people it governs? Of course, it does not.
Does that sound like a modern version of what France had in,
say, 1760, with its great lords and bishops, huge army, and a government which
did little more than make war and scramble for advantages at court? Yes, of
course, it does.
No election or candidate under the existing circumstances
can hope to change this, and it difficult to imagine any other mechanism which
might restore some semblance of decency.
