Fusion of Ignorance and Malice in Perspective
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 20 Aug 2012
Charles Mercieca, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service
In scholastic philosophy we often find the phrase: quidquid contingens est causam habet – whatever comes into existence must have a cause. This means that in anything human beings do there must be a source, a motive or motivation behind it. In this regard, we may classify human beings into two distinct groups: those who are not aware of what their actions would be leading to and those who are fully aware of the results of their actions, which they deliberately plan.
Two Categories of Politicians
Let us take into consideration and analyze carefully these two categories beginning with the first one, which may enable us to realize and understand properly such statements as look before you leap and you will catch more flies with honey, in addition to many others. In this presentation, we will focus on the members of the United States government, that is, the senators and congressmen since they are thoroughly responsible for anything that is viewed as fully beneficial or as utterly disastrous.
When such government officials run for office, they all share one thing in common. They all insist that they want to help the American people by making their life better. To this end, they promise to provide a better standard of living, adequate home facilities, improved health care system, and a more competitive educational system as to enable our students to become more productive in their work. Since the United States has emerged to become the greatest debtor on earth, the “balancing of the budget” soon became a political mantra.
It is a historical fact that when President Bill Clinton left office he left $800 million dollars surplus. On the other hand, when President George W. Bush left office he left $2 trillion dollars deficit. Over a period of merely eight years, Bush blew away the $800 million dollars surplus. Besides, he went even much further in expenditure by leaving to his successor President Barack Obama the stated $2 trillion dollars deficit! This was due to having waged two unnecessary wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which were viewed as immoral and illegal.
The phenomenally bloated military budget in the USA has now gone out of control. This is due to the fact that at this stage of history, this American nation has emerged to become irreversibly the policeman of the world. As a result, this has forced the nation to build over 900 US foreign military bases some of which are costing billions of dollars monthly. To make things worse, US government officials took away countless billions of dollars from the American people’s Social Security Fund to spend it on weapons, military equipment and wars. As a result, the financial security of the Americans has now been fully jeopardized.
Disastrous Political Priorities
It is somewhat curious of how the minds of the US government officials function. The majority do not mind it at all to advocate drastic cuts from the vital needs of the people’s lives to “balance” the national budget. We may refer here to such items as indispensable health care needs, improved good education, and vital home facilities. However, the majority of the US government officials still refuse to make cuts from the bloated military budget. To turn an insult into injury, they even speak of increasing the military expenses indefinitely.
We may refer to those in the government that sincerely have their priorities mixed up as ignorant for all practical purposes. However, we may refer to those in the government that base their decision on what would be of greater financial benefit to big industries and corporations as malicious, as vicious and evil. Hence, with the exception of very few, we may begin to fully realize and understand with crystal clarity the corruption we have in the US government when it comes to the setting up of priorities in money expenditures.
We are all familiar with the traditional saying: history repeats itself! A careful study of the history of the past 6,000 years of recorded civilization enables us to find out that every super power that eventually collapsed and disappeared from the surface of the planet all happened through the collapse of the national economy which always came fast and smooth at a time least expected. The last witnessed example of this was revealed in the collapse of Soviet Union during the decade of the eighties.
The Soviet Union believed that in having a huge and strong military it could eventually, by the process of time, control the entire world. In one of my numerous visits to the Soviet Union I was told nicely by several Russians that they believed “world peace would eventually come when the whole world would become communist!” A few years later the Soviet Union collapsed and the era of communism was over. We were then left over with capitalism, which was determined then to dominate the whole world by all means.
American politicians then embarked upon the largest military build-up in history. Instead of providing the American people with a good health care system, with an excellent educational system, and adequate home facilities, they began to spend billions of dollars in building foreign military bases around the world, in manufacturing all kinds of devastating weapons, and in promoting as many conflicts and wars as possible. Slowly but surely, the nation’s economy began to weaken considerably. The two needless wars waged in Afghanistan and Iraq cost the United States $2 trillion dollars, which was a total waste!
Phenomenal Abuse of Corporations
Since in recent times the US Supreme Court declared that corporations are officially and legally to be viewed as people, the entire nation was plunged into a deep chaos. Corporations began to spend billions of dollars on the election of their own candidates, that is, those that would promote their products. The news media – radio, press, and television – would promote the candidacies of those that were ready to pay billions of dollars in advertisements. Thus, political abuse and corruption soon became rampant and went out of control.
Those in the government that tried to talk loud and clear about the abuse of the American political system were fully ignored by the US press, which was owned on the whole by big corporations. The traditional saying: power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, was fully vindicated to this very day. It did not take a long time for many Americans to begin to realize that their de facto greatest enemy is found in many members of the United States Congress whose primary concern was to remain in office indefinitely.
We need here to keep in mind that members of the US government quite often make the wrong decision for different reasons. One group consists of those who are sincerely trying to do their best, while making the wrong decisions in good faith. The other group consists of those who are making the wrong decision that is pleasing to corporations, even though they are fully aware that it is not in the best interest of the American people. While the first group reveals ignorance, the second group is characterized by malice.
The American people should view all US corporations who are in the business of weapons and war machineries as their number one vicious enemies. Many US government officials have developed the habit to tell Americans that such weapons and war ammunitions are needed for national security and self defense. This is a blatant lie because the security and defense they have in mind refers to the financial profits of US big corporations whose lethal products have destroyed many cities and massacred millions of innocent people.
Over the last few years, tens of thousands of young Americans have died, been injured or became deformed. In addition, hundreds committed suicide! To avoid the risk of Americans rising eventually against their government in protesting the US further involvement in wars, the US government is now spending billions of dollars to create a new army set up of programmed robots. As far as young Americans are concerned, they will surely expect less causality. However, as far as other nations are concerned, their cities will be equally destroyed and their people will continue to be brutally massacred.
Making People’s Welfare Top Priority
As far as the life of your friend is concerned, what difference does it make if such a friend is killed in an accident or happens to be killed by being targeted and shot while walking in the street? Your friend’s life is finished just the same! As far as the US Congress members are concerned, when it comes to vital needs it would not matter if such US senators and congressmen are viewed as ignorant or malicious. When their actions are not conducive to the good of all Americans, especially needy ones, they are bound to have negative and destructive results.
Let us bring to mind as often as needed the words of the saintly Pope John Paul II. He assured us during the decade of the eighties that world peace would eventually come only after two of the greatest evils of the 20th century were gone. He singled them out to be communism and capitalism because both of them advance their causes through the exploitation of people. Communism is gone and we hope and pray to this saintly Pope to let us now witness the collapse of capitalism, the sooner the better.
We are all familiar with the saying that charity begins at home. When so many of our fellow citizens are suffering from a variety of social and health needs, our first obligation is to provide them with all needed help. As long as the United States continues to function under the ruthless thumb of capitalism, millions of Americans will continue to suffer from a variety of crucial problems that mostly relate to their health care, education, and social needs. In capitalism, people are not the end but merely a means to a further end.
The billions of dollars the US government spends in numerous countries under the guise of “national defense and security” amounts, in essence, to theft from the hungry, the poor and millions of helpless Americans. This tangible evidence was brought up by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell speech to the US Congress when he stated loud and clear: Remember that every dollar you spend on weapons and wars is a theft from the hungry and the poor. Unfortunately, he was fully ignored!
If we were to analyze carefully what US government officials mean in practice by national defense and security, they do not mean, in any way whatsoever, the national defense and security of the USA. Far from it! They mean by all means the national defense and security of the pockets of big American industries headed by the weapons and the military industrial complex. Their primary job is to sell the product of such industries fast and smooth. And the shortest cut to this end is to stir turmoil as to create conflicts and wars. As long as capitalism rules, conflicts and wars will remain indefinitely.
Bringing Corporations Under Control
The war industry is the only business in the world where money is made fast and smooth. This is often done with no accountability to anyone. There seems to be a mafia type of plot at a high governmental level where what really counts is the making of big money and not the saving of human lives. Former US official, General Colin Powell, who worked under President George W. Bush, was asked by the press: How many Iraqi civilians were killed? He was quick to say: We do not keep a count of that; we view that merely as collateral damage!
In capitalism, everything is run by big corporations for their exclusive financial benefit. Here is an example of a mafia type of plot that was never held accountable for the injustices and atrocities that were committed against innocent civilians, even though the American government is fully responsible. The war industries use the US military to invade a nation to destroy entire cities, massacre numerous innocent people, that would include mostly, women, children the elderly and the sick, and inflict a lot of suffering.
Then the US construction companies enter the same nation to re-build it from scratch. In the case of Iraq, the oil enterprises sneaked in to confiscate Iraqi oil to sell it later and make big money. It is obvious that such policies are criminal and should be condemned. To go back to where we started, all these crimes were committed with the consent of US government officials, who were either naïve and ignorant if they had good intentions, or malicious and vicious if they were aware that the actions taken were unjustified, immoral and illegal.
We may begin to see with crystal clarity that the USA is faced with many serious challenges. The members of the US Congress are torn asunder between helping either the American people who voted for them or the big corporations that financed their campaign. Although some are behind the people, the majority are behind the products of big corporations, which include weapons and all military equipment. The welfare of people is more important than that of corporations. When this is realized, all US problems are bound to disappear.
_______________________
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 20 Aug 2012.
Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: Fusion of Ignorance and Malice in Perspective, is included. Thank you.
If you enjoyed this article, please donate to TMS to join the growing list of TMS Supporters.
This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.