New Brand of Slavery Surfaces in America
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 28 Nov 2011
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service
We are all familiar with the proverb: Not all that glitters is gold. The Romans had a saying which ran as follows: Aliud est theoria, aliud est practica – On thing is theory, another thing is practice. On the other hand, the Italians are very familiar with the statement: Parole si, fatti no – Words yes, facts no. This refers to those who do not mean what they say. These elements are very useful to keep in mind in order to understand well the contents of this presentation.
Real Images of America
In the United States, you often hear individuals expressing their love for their country. However, the word “America” means different things to different people. Unless we are aware of this, we may experience needless frustrations unnecessarily. For example, when the vast majority of politicians, especially Republicans, express their concern and love for America they mean something different from what the people in general mean. Our goal in this presentation is to bring such a reality into the open with crystal clarity.
In the New Testament we are exhorted to judge a tree by the fruit it gives. This means that if the tree looks like an orange tree but bears lemons, then we should call it lemon tree. For a variety of reasons, most Americans and a large number of nations around the world view the United States as a nation of democracy and freedom. If we were to analyze the concept of democracy and freedom, it would not take us much time to realize that in this nation both of these two elements may exist in theory but surely not in practice.
The word democracy originates from Greece, which means government of the people. Hence, in a democracy people have equality of opportunity to run for any public office of their choice and they are all given equality of opportunity to carry out their message to all the people involved. In a genuine democracy, this would be one of the major responsibilities of the news media. This way, all the natives are given the opportunity to know well those who are trying to represent them. Needless to say, this would be the pride of the nation’s news media.
In the United States, things are different. Everything is controlled by big corporations and that would include not only the people at large but also the entire government. So, in order to reach the people prospective government officials have to pay tens of thousands and even millions of dollars to advertize themselves in the various news media: radio, press and television. This will immediately exclude more than 95% of the population from even dreaming of ever running for a public office. To do so they have to be rich or volunteer to be subservient to big corporations who would finance their campaign.
Power of Big Corporations
This explains why in the United States, those that are elected to a public office in general always seek to work with full determination in the best interests of big corporations. Ironically, we often hear politicians saying that they love America and that America occupies their mind first and foremost. Besides, they claim to put the interest of America above party politics, that is, above the needs and welfare of their political party, being Republican or Democrat. In practice things turn out to be very different as we shall see.
As we may know, the manufacture of weapons and the promotion of wars emerged to become a major lucrative business where money is generated with no virtual limits. We may fully understand why the US government decided to wage two useless wars that could have been avoided. We are referring here to Afghanistan and Iraq. We may easily understand the very source of the current financial crisis that the United States is going through that plunged it into four trillion dollars debt.
This debt was accumulated by the excessive expenditure on the military industrial complex, which has 746 US military bases in foreign countries to date. Besides, we may get a very clear picture of why, Republicans in particular will not allow the nation to balance the budget by cutting off excessive military expenditure. On most of these foreign military bases the United States spends billions of dollars weekly! Although Democrats showed willingness to balance the budget by cutting the bloated military budget, the Republicans refused.
To turn an insult into injury, the Republicans especially, said that they want to balance the budget that was caused by the said two wars. To this end, they want to cut off social security, education and medical assistance that are so vital to American lives. In other words, this country’s primary concern is definitely not the welfare of Americans. The government’s primary concern lies with making sure to keep alive the products of the weapons industry and the military industrial complex through the waging of more and more wars.
A careful analysis of US foreign policies demonstrates that for the promotion of the lethal products of big corporations that financed their political campaign, they are ready to put the American lives at risk and to continue to make people’s lives very miserable. This explains why now in so many American cities, people are demonstrating against the politicians on a 24 hour basis already for two consecutive months. In according to the US Constitution, people have the freedom to assemble and to express their concerns loud and clear in the open.
Police Brutalities
In spite of this, directed by political leaders the US police exercised great brutality with such peaceful demonstrators. They put barricades, used tear gas, carried sticks and guns, and ending up putting hundreds in jail. These acts were not different from those the police in Syria, Egypt, Libya and other countries that are dominated by brutalities. The world will never know the United States unless they form a picture of its double-faced façade. For the government, America refers merely to big corporations. On the other hand, for the people, America refers to the ordinary people who are the backbone of the nation.
In view of what has been stated we may see clearly that the American people do not have genuine democracy and they do not enjoy real freedom of free movement both within the country and outside of it as well. For example, Americans are prohibited by their government to travel to Cuba, North Korea and few other countries, something that Canada and several other countries never thought of doing for their own people. We may now begin to see clearly the meaning of the title of this presentation.
What is a slave? According to the New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, a slave is described as a person who is wholly subject to the will of another; a human being who is the property of another. In this presentation we have seen with crystal clarity how virtually the entire members of the US government are fully controlled by big corporations, above all, the weapons industry and the military industrial complex. Traditionally, the United States has always felt proud in declaring that it is a capitalistic nation.
The current US Republican presidential candidates, who are running against President Obama in November 2012, stated that they are capitalists and that they want to keep capitalism alive. When the saintly Pope John Paul II was in Mexico during the decade of the eighties, he was asked: Do you think that world peace will ever come? Without hesitation he replied: Yes, world peace will come only after two greatest evils of the 20th century are gone: communism and capitalism; they both advance their causes through the exploitation of people.
Three years later communism collapsed and the world took a sigh of relief. People everywhere thought then that peace was around the corner. But the saintly Pope John Paul II proved to be right when the USA, instead of developing a program of disarmament and arms control, it embarked upon the greatest military build-up in history. This nation, which is the seat of capitalism, began to furnish many nations with weapons and all kinds of military equipment. As a result, many wars were waged across every continent to this very day.
Seeking World Control
The United States took the initiative to literally police the whole world. This policy has made many nations feel threatened and uncomfortable. Once more, there should be no surprise here since one of the characteristics of capitalism is to control the entire world through political and financial means in particular. It is not enough for US big corporations to enslave the American people by making them depended on them by all means. Such corporations are determined to enslave the entire world to the best of their ability.
In the political sphere, every nation that submits itself to the will of the United States is viewed as friend and ally. On the other hand, every nation that refuses to let US big corporations control their national economy is viewed as unfriendly and dangerous, as it was with the case of Cuba and Venezuela, to quote a couple of instances. Anything in the world that falls in line with the interests of big corporations is referred to by the US government as American interests, even though they may prove detrimental to the American people.
These negative capitalistic trends in the world that have threatened the lives and security of millions of the civilians may eventually come to an end should capitalism end up following the footsteps of communism. We can all work together to hasten the total collapse of capitalism. We recall what the Master Teacher of Nazareth said: With prayer you can move the mountain. And His Blessed Mother said in Medjugorje to six little children during the decade of the eighties: With prayer you can suspend the laws of nature.
To this end, we may pray to the saintly Pope John Paul II who did predict not only the collapse of communism but also the collapse of capitalism as well. Such a prayer may run as follows: Oh Blessed Pope John Paul II, when in Mexico you assured us that world peace will eventually come only after the collapse of communism and capitalism, which you described as two of the greatest evils of the 20th century. Since communism has collapsed, we seek your intercession for the eventual collapse of capitalism so that the peace that you so fervently sought may be given the opportunity to reign in the world. Amen.
The collapse of capitalism through the intercession of Blessed Pope John Paul II could be viewed as a great miracle, which may lead to the proclamation of his sainthood. Shortly after Pope John Paul II passed away, tens of thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome shouting repeatedly: Santo subito – Saint right now. Since then he is said to have cured many from their maladies. The collapse of capitalism is of great importance since it uses systematic violence through constant struggles and wars to get what it wants by all means.
Addiction to War in Perspective
Throughout history, the USA showed its addiction to war periodically. In this regard many books were written. One of the best books published with illustrations is entitled: Addicted to War: Why the U.S. Can’t Kick Militarism by Joel Andreas, who completed his doctoral degree in sociology at the University of California in Los Angeles. Later he went to teach at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Copies of this book may be secured from Frank Dorrel, P. O. Box 3261, Culver City, CA 90231-3261, USA, E-Mail: fdorrel@addictedtowar.com Web: www.addictedtowar.com Phone: 310-838-813.
Also, copies may be secured from AK Press, 674-A 23rd Street. Oakland, CA 94612-1163, USA, E-Mail: akpress@akpress.org Web: www.akpress.org More than 95% of the world’s population wants to witness a permanent peace by all means. This is feasible and it could be eventually achieved. The shortest cut is for all people to become involved in the process. The Occupy Movement, which started recently in the United States and it has since then spread in many countries, is a gigantic step in the right direction.
After all, nations are owned by people. The governments exist to protect the rights of people, one of which is permanent peace. All people in all nations should get out of their hibernation and talk loudly against the use of violence, that is, the use of the military and war, to solve human differences. Anyone in the government who proves to be incapable of solving problems through healthy dialogues and good diplomacy should be removed from office. In this regard, people everywhere should never tolerate the presence of foreign military bases.
The presence of the military always creates animosity and it tends to instigate struggles and wars. And we know the rest of the story: violence begets violence and more violence begets more violence. The US addiction to wars has prevented Americans from having a good health care system, free education from the cradle to the grave, as well as adequate home facilities for the poor. In conclusion, this new brand of slavery that has surfaced in the United States is depriving people needlessly from their vital necessities of life.
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Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – President, International Association of Educators for World Peace, Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education, Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament.
-Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University.
-Hon President & Professor, SBS Swiss Business School, Zurich.
-Member, TRANSCEND-A Network for Peace, Development and Environment.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 28 Nov 2011.
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Thank you, Charles Mercieca, for revealing the truth so many people ignore. Ever since I started to be interested in the state of the world, I have called the USA – to the annoyance of many – “the best disguised Military Dictatorship in the world”. Although having lived for nearly 7 years in Switzerland, I’m not 100% sure as to which of the two countries is “the better disguised” !!!!!
As for Slavery, I have also met with great opposition from many “democratic” and “free” individuals who claim Slavery has not existed since its abolition, nearly 180 years ago.
I say “rubbish”!!!! Slavery still exists, as you well know, in many countries and in various different forms.
The world is in the mess it is because people chose to live by “wishful thinking”. They see only what they want to see. Bad news.
Alberto
[…] *Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – President, International Association of Educators for World Peace, Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education, Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament. Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University. Hon President & Professor, SBS Swiss Business School, Zurich. Member, TRANSCEND – A Network for Peace, Development and Environment. Go to Original. […]