NixLuver's Journal: Cultural and Societal Priorities in a Changing World

This may come as a surprise to some of you reading this, and others may say, "Oh, yeah, I knew that all along". As a society, our priorities are all fucked up. I don't mean everyone else's priorities. I mean 'ours'.

We live in a society where one can be sentenced to life without parole for embezzling money from the US Government, and the guy down the street can get 7 years for shooting someone in the head - and be out in 3 for good behavior or the need to put one more dope smoker behind bars. We live in a society where prime time movies can show graphic violence, but the FCC 'wants answers' about how a certain lovely pop star happened to get her nipple ring on TV. We live in a society that condones unilateral, pre-emptive invasion of another country in violation of international law, and cite that same international law as justification for invasion. We live in a society that will give children back to a crack addicted mother over and over and over until she or one of her boyfriends kills those children, while taking children from a loving foster family hoping to adopt because one bumped his head (slightly - no blood, dizziness, or confusion, just a tiny bruise) and wasn't rushed to the hospital immediately.

We live in a society that spent millions of dollars debating about whether or not a president should be impeached for getting a blowjob in the oval office without even noticing that the same man was a criminal... "If he didn't make any money, it must not have been illegal". Trust me, people, if it had been you or me, we'd still be in jail today. We have an attourney general that feels comfortable violating campaign finance laws while he preaches about righteousness. We've got a Presidential Administration that's comfortable praying to God and pressuring the intelligence community to confirm suspicions in order to justify war.

I watch movies on 'regular tv' and they bleep out words like 'shit' and 'fuck', but they will show the brains on the wall. They cut out scenes that show the smooth, beautiful flesh of young women, but are more than happy to present us with views of burnt and blodied Iraqi citizens. They cut out scenes of loving embrace, and show us scenes of brutality, abuse, and rape. Is this the way to make a better, happier society?

We live in a society where special interests purchased the government years ago and everybody tries not to talk about it except rude, crazy people like me that just don't realize that the way to make everything better is to just shut the hell up and let the big boys run the place the way they want to.

Sooner or later, we're going to have to get our priorities in line. If we don't, we're just circling the drain waiting for the final HUGE SUCKING SOUND that will signify our demise as a world power and our initiation into the Third World economy. We're building a national debt that will make our children indentured servants, where the so-called liberal media censored an ad by a group of citizens concerned about the future of those children. My Social Security statement came in the mail the other day, and printed in black and white at the bottom was the statement explaining that current projections clearly indicated that by 2042, Social Security reciepts would fall to less than 75% of the payout. No, people, there is no "Social Security Account"; SS was the scam of the century - every generation was always intended to pay for the previous generation's retirement. The surplus right now? (more people are paying into SS than are recieving payments) It's invested in treasury bonds and becomes part of the budget... wait... Isn't that like writing oneself an IOU, spending the money, and then using the IOU for collateral on a loan?

Our government has been held hostage by corporate interests since the inception of mass media. Before the advent of news and television, a candidate could actually promote himself by traveling around and talking to people. The news might actually mention him if he got enough people together to listen. Then the mass media networks formed, and advertising budgets went sky high, and now you have to be able to spend millions on advertising just to get a mention. So a bunch of guys give media outlets millions of dollars for campaign ads and coverage, and only one of them can actually go to the big dance. It's throwaway money, but absolutely essential to a candidate. Thus they depend on contributions. But who can contribute millions? Companies and corporations.

Is anybody who they claim to be? Are the GOP really industry's bitch boy, and Democrats the champions of the common dude-in-the-streets? I doubt it. The parties are a smoke screen to keep us fighting amongst ourselves, to keep us from noticing that 1% of our population controls 90% of the wealth, and that the situation has been subsidized by the government. To keep us from realizing that there is a reason that the recent prescription drug benefit has a clause in it that prohibits the government and administrators from negotiating a better price for prescription drugs. They are both members of the new aristocracy of corporate clients that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

The short answer is this, people. Reform campaign finance in a way that eliminates the corporate power to fund a candidate's campaign and then collect on what's due. Shoot all the corporate and industry lobbyists that pressure our legislative process to meet their needs.

In the end, the Dems don't need to "Take back the White house", and the GOP doesn't need to "Stand Firm in the face of Liberalism"; We, The People of the United States Of America need to take back government of the people, by the people, FOR the people!