COASTAL POST
(415)868 1600 FAX (415) 868 0502
P.O. Box 31
Bolinas CA 94924
http://www.coastalpost.com
email: [log in to unmask]
August,2001


Him, or Us?

"He is totally an asshole."

Japanese Foreign Minister, Mikako Tanaka, describing President Bush.

The above wisdom from the east entered our consciousness during the
media season of patriotism. While most Americans have the good sense to
simply picnic, watch fireworks and have a good time,  many pundits find
the Fourth of July a time to extol the virtues of our founding fathers
and our unique democracy,

They never mention the class interests of those “fathers”, nor the fact
that many of them, including Thomas Jefferson, were slave owners. But
why mix real history with a legend , or ask pointed questions about what

we call a democracy and why it might be  terribly flawed?

Thanks to our Japanese friend, we have publicly heard the  obvious. Bush

is, indeed, a total asshole. So?  He is not the first dunderhead we’ve
had in the White House.

It is the  political system that is the problem, not the dim-witted
assortment of functionaries for corporate capital  it produces. Coal
mines manufacture coal, auto factories manufacture cars, and American
political economics manufactures supporters of American political
economics. The regular change in personalities at the top is a bait and
switch game played between the two factions of our ruling party . The
miracle is its  continued tolerance by people who should, at last, know
better.

Every social, environmental and personal problem identified by groups
ranging from the extreme right to the extreme left originates,  directly

or indirectly,  from the economic and political foundation of life .
Past  advocates of change may have stressed that fact to the exclusion
of important issues like race and sex, but present generations have gone

to the other extreme. It is time to bring culture and political
economics together, if we would ever achieve social justice , a healthy
environment and a peaceful world  .

Democratic capitalism is an oxymoron, both of language and morality. For

every group that thrives under the present system, a larger group
suffers, and despite techno-modern trappings, the modern reality is no
different than that of the mills and mines of the nineteenth century,
when the system was first analyzed by Karl Marx.

What is presently called globalization,  the triumph of capital , the
era of  electronic marketing, or  other euphemistic drivel used to cover

the sounds of  misery and the smells of  pollution,  was then called the

bourgeois revolution.  It was seen as uniting the globe  with a single
rule of production and development. Then; boats, telegraphs and markets;

now, airplanes, computers and markets. But then as now, minority
domination of those markets,  exclusive pursuit of private profits at
public loss, and the  engulfing and devouring of most for the betterment

of some.

Recent cultural struggles  have brought about some material gains and a
growth in public awareness of the importance of human rights , but a
system  will not evolve simply by having a token handful of blacks, gays

and women in positions of authority or public acceptance. It is small
pleasure, indeed, to have an Albright or Powell at State, or a
transvestite openly marching in a Gay Freedom Day parade, when the death

tolls in Iraq, Palestine and Colombia continue to climb.

The rapacious pursuit of private profit that destroys people, land and
other natural life  is not going to stop until the political economics
of capital  are challenged, at and from the roots. That doesn't mean
putting blacks and gays on sitcoms to bring “diversity” to TV, but
rather to make TV a medium of information, instead of an advertising
tool for  mindless consumption. Nor does it mean sharing the fruits of
corruption with a more diverse group of crooks, but rather doing away
with that corruption .

As long as the  monotheistic market god religion, dominated by high
priests and rabbis of finance capital and their secular political
servants continues  despoiling for profit , the particular thief, liar
or numbskull  who serves as  CEO at the White House wont matter. It will

give one or another group of corporadoes their jollies at organizing to
replace him-her with one of their own, but if those replacements
continue to be supporters  of the problem, the label “asshole” must be
applied to those who vote them into office.

The majority’s disregard for voting in America is understandable, since
it is unrepresented by an alleged democracy which responds to money far
more than people. That majority  sees the replacement of President
Dickhead ,who spoke twisted English , with President Asshole, who speaks

broken English. Big difference.They both speak the language of corporate

capital and  global domination, which is why they were selected to
serve.
 And whichever  sector of wealthy interests they serve can only bring
benefits to those closest to that group, which always amounts to a
minority, never in the history of this country a majority.

A survey of those who  voted for one of the two candidates  of corporate

capital would find that they thought the other candidate an  imbecile, a

scoundrel or an enemy of the people . That the current resident at
corporate headquarters is dubbed “asshole”, privately by millions of
Americans, publicly by an outspoken foreigner, should give none of us
cause to feel  smug. How did our  system produce such a jerk? How could
the  opposition fail so miserably? Who are the bigger fools? The
candidates, or those who tolerate  them ?

Finance capital can make room in its corporate culture for all manner of

so-called minorities, while respecting only their market value and not
their humanity. it will continue its rapacious pursuit of  profit
without regard for human rights anywhere but among its minority investor

class. Until we learn that, and change it, we are no better than the
CEO. Thank you, Japan, and wake up, America.


Copyright (c) 2001 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.

             This text may be used and shared in accordance with the
             fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be
           archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that
            the author is notified and no fee is charged for access.
           Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on
          other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the author

.

frank scott
email: [log in to unmask]
225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
(415)457 2415   fax(415)457 4791