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January, 2006





Capital s Punishment

by Frank Scott


We begin the year with war , its death and financial tolls soaring, and
whispers of Democratic disagreement rising to a crescendo of murmurs.
When one called for immediate troop withdrawal , party leaders explained
why we must continue the bloodbath , but in a more liberal way. And
that s the good news.


A massive power surge couldn t help brighten the dim bulbs in our
administration. The only thing protecting a disgraced president from
impeachment is an equally disgraced opposition . The increasing paranoia
of leadership and its weakening grip on reality are causing serious
problems for collective sanity.


During the holiday shopping orgy, some complained that the real meaning
of Christmas was forgotten, whatever it is. Parishioners of faith
celebrate the birth of a divine savior for humanity, while ministers of
mammon celebrate the birth of massive profits for capital. These two
groups usually agree , since they evolve from similar messianic myths of
the market ; they stash their cash in the same cathedrals of the faith:
banks . But with secular and religious cults adrift on capital s
precarious sea of debt, social conflicts are increasing. If our loony
leader claims he s saving the Titanic , shouldn't we be cheering as it
sinks? Can we expect less than idiocy, given an opposition that sees
neither a ship nor an iceberg?


The belated call for an exit strategy from Iraq - weasel words for get
the hell out - has revived Viet Nam era language ; if we cut and run ,
as draft dodging politicians say, our troops will have died for nothing.
So we must stay and have more troops die for, um, something. Many
Americans and most Iraqis want us out, but that means little to the
petro-zionist cabal enjoying this biblical blood bath. They advocate
another Viet Nam era strategy; changing the color of the bodies with an
air war, so our troops can return while we continue murdering from the
skies .

That's what Christmas really meant , and what the new year will mean,
under the control of forces that punish reason as the practice of
terrorist traitors and holocaust  deniers  , so labeled by zealots who
have made that bloody event holier than Christmas, and less subject to
criticism .

Opposition to the Iraq slaughter grows among the previously comatose in
our media , but a global majority has long known this was even worse
than ordinary wars. While picking on helpless nations is nothing new ,
this particular savagery is America s most horrifically stupid, in an
area where we were already intensely disliked. Now, we have increased
the size of an international volunteer army, united in hatred for the
USA. Brilliant.

Our regime denies that it torture its victims; it only kills them. It
claims bringing democracy to iraq, as its blundering stupidity creates a
theocracy . And it tries an alleged war criminal in a court that would
make a lynch mob blush, and will more likely raise Saddam to heroic
stature . Can we believe anything these people tell us? No.

The American political scene is approaching the conditions of a mental
health crisis center, its subjects babbling in tongues and communicating
with imaginary beings . Disregarding reality can seem a sensible
defensive response on the part of the citizenry , but there s no
escaping a situation edging closer to mass lunacy.

The criminally treacherous war policies relied on the word of hustlers
and psychotics, whose tales of terror moved a cowardly congress to
support this crusade for God, Petroleum and Israel, not necessarily in
that order . Anyone offering nightmarish nonsense about Saddam s schemes
was believed, and why not? These people accept biblical prophesies that
should terrify us if we think about them, which is probably why we
don't. But we d better.

The intense contempt and disrespect shown among believers in equally
irrational explanations for reality is part of the growing paranoia of
established power in its newly threatened position. Spying on domestic
activists is accompanied by an international assault on speech or
thought which contradicts established belief systems about the natural,
or more often, super natural world. It s no wonder that so many people
behave erratically, given an environment that defies reason .

To counter the rule of these fanatic thought police, people who respect
others whatever their spiritual faith might be, and who believe in
freedom for all viewpoints,urgently need to assert themselves. Belief in
a market, controlled by an invisible hand which frees individuals to
compete equally despite their material inequality, is no more based on
science than is faith in a universe created and controlled by an
invisible man who benefits only some, at the expense of all others.

There is a serious problem when verifiable facts about the origins of
our social problems and their affect on humanity are disregarded, while
unverifiable fiction about the origins of the universe and its allegedly
most important people are regarded as divine truth. We should respect
belief systems that preach human equality , but reject fanatic faiths
that teach divisive doctrines of superiority that turn us against one
another.

The sincerely deviate who maintain control by employing the cynically
devout are only part of the problem. It is the system which breeds them
that is inflicting capital s punishment on the earth and all its people.
Whether in Iraq, Palestine or New Orleans , we suffer under individual
fanatics because we allow their irrational system to govern our
societies. Under the global domain of capital, we share the same
material fate, no matter what immaterial faith we may embrace. And it
will be disastrous, unless we create a material expression of our
beliefs that is respectful to all humanity. That is impossible under the
present system , no matter which fundamentalist or fanatic occupies its
highest offices .

Copyright (c) 2006 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.

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frank scott
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