Published in Intrepid Report on August 17, 2011
Republished in pfpc5.org (Contra Costa County Chapter Peace & Freedom Party) on August 22, 2011
By Larry Pinkney
“The theme you describe, ‘independence from the military-corporation’ is one that all sorts of people and groups can unite around. I believe millions, probably tens of millions of people are ready for this because there is little left of the early euphoria that greeted Obama’s election.”
—Howard Zinn [January, 2010]“Just as the slavemaster of that day used Tom, the house Negro, to keep the field Negroes in check, the same old slavemaster today has Negroes who are nothing but modern Uncle Toms, to keep you and me in check, keep us under control, keep us passive and peaceful and nonviolent . . . It’s like when you go to the dentist, and the man’s going to take your tooth. You’re going to fight him when he starts pulling. So he squirts some stuff in your jaw called novocaine, to make you think they’re not doing anything to you. So you sit there and ‘cause you’ve got all that novocaine in your jaw, you suffer peacefully. Blood running all down your jaw, and you don’t know what’s happening. ‘Cause someone has taught you to suffer peacefully.”
—Malcolm X (el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) [February, 1965]
The time has arrived to recognize that everyday, ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people are all, in varying degrees, de facto slaves on the U.S. Empire’s corporate/military plantation of economic austerity, manipulation, subterfuge, and the shredding of the U.S. Constitution. The “novocaine” utilized by the systemic corporate/military puppet masters on this plantation is none other than Barack Obama and his nauseating contingent of Democrat and Republican Party actors.
Moreover, on this 21st century U.S. plantation, economic austerity for the masses and never-ending corporate blood-sucking by the few are defined as being a necessary “sacrifice,” while bloody self-perpetuating U.S. foreign wars are euphemistically defined as ensuring the peace. The corporate-stream media, which incorrectly and hideously propagates itself as the so-called “mainstream” media, is the primary purveyor of this corporate political system’s novocaine of disinformation, obfuscation, and egregious omission.
Then of course there are those systemic gatekeepers who attempt to distract everyday people by narrowly prattling on and on about the obvious need for decent paying jobs, while meticulously ignoring the fact that the most effective way to bring about decent jobs, etc., in this sinking economy is to immediately, forthrightly, and systemically [i.e., fundamentally and structurally] change the direction of the political ‘ship of state.’ Anything short of this, for everyday people, amounts to rearranging the deck chairs on the ill-fated RMS Titanic just prior to slamming into a jagged, protruding iceberg and slipping below the ocean’s cold waves of increased austerity and despair. These gatekeepers know full well, that notwithstanding Barack Obama’s incessant double-speak rhetoric, he will do nothing of substance to force his corporate-backers and puppet masters to provide massive jobs, and to give back to everyday people what has been taken from them in the name of “free” market profit (for the already bloated rich).
Among the bitter ironies of this Obama presidency is the fact that it has reinforced and provided a cover for racism, war, and greed in this society under the guise of having a nominally black person as head of state. Indeed, this presidency has provided political cover for the emaciation of the poor, and what remains of the middle class, of all colors. It has been, and continues to be, a disaster of gigantic proportions.
This president counts on the misdirected, blind color/pigmentation loyalty from many Black and other ‘people of color.’ He also counts on what has now become the increasingly obvious misplaced hope of many White persons. Racism blinds and harms both its victims and perpetrators alike, and sadly, this president cynically counts on continued corporate-backing, and on a convoluted and systemically manipulated form of racism (as it affects people of all colors) to keep him in office. Nevertheless, Obama’s personal political fortunes are utterly irrelevant. What is both relevant and important are the lives and livelihoods of everyday, ordinary people, and it is this that we must concentrate on.
No more corporate blood sucking. And these corporate vultures must return to the people what they have stolen! No more damn U.S. wars abroad. They do not make us safer and they wreak havoc upon the social and economic fabric of this society, this nation, and this world! No more plantation politics. Scrap the plantation!
It is time to build third parties, outside of the corporate Democrat and Republican Parties. We must create a collective vision that looks well beyond the 2012 corporately controlled ‘elections.’ Everyday people must, out of necessity, reject the political novocaine, and see the pain for what it is, and then do something about it—collectively! Make no mistake about it: Both the Democrats and Republicans, as they have done in the past, will continue to do their utmost to sabotage and/or discredit the rise of genuine third parties—not connected with them. This is to be expected. However, our task is to hold these corporate Democrat and Republican Party scoundrels politically accountable, even as we lay the foundation for their ultimate demise and the relegating of them to the dustbin of history where they belong!
The late Howard Zinn was correct about the “tens of millions of people” who are “ready.” But it will not occur by osmosis. It will take vision, organizing, creativity, and hard work. Being “ready” is only one part of it, and it is the aforementioned vision, organizing, creativity, and hard work that can move those “tens of millions of people” from merely being “ready,” to being willing to visualize and struggle for a different, new, and more equitable nation and world!
Onward then, my sisters and brothers! Onward . . . !
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