Purchasing ourselves away from democracy
I gotta have that! Oh, those shoes are so me! Last year's computer is so passe! Oh, a Hummer! Have you tried Kobe beef? I finally could afford a $300 bottle of wine!
What
are we doing to ourselves? And when another nation doesn't bend
to our self-spoiled demands or needs, invade, boycott, or shock and
awe! I want that! And the U.S. economy is totally dependent
now on our perpetual spending spree. What a group of
unenlightened, bourgeois boors we have become! How we kneel
to corporate advertising!
What about the poor, needy, disabled, homeless, mentally ill, people in need of health care?
"The same people who can deny others everything are famous for refusing themselves nothing." -Leigh Hunt
How about all the self-righteous, pure, self-congratulating Christians, Jews, Moslems, Buddhists, Hindus, etc.?
"When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion." -Voltaire
"When a fellow says, 'It ain't the money but the principle of the thing,' it's the money." -Frank McKinney Hubbard
As poor people worldwide beg for help, appeal for life's minimums, and obediently ask their God for mercy, the rest of comfortable society complains about taxes, buys every self-indulgent trinket in sight, and passes judgment on minorities, immigrants, or those ungrateful poor people.
Meanwhile I hold out hope for an America to arrive that matches the America we delude ourselves into thinking we already have.
