No Going Back!
No New Taxes? How About No New Social Cuts?
Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation
Republicans have three things going for them - hatefulness, lying to the American people, and unbridled ambition for wealth. If you believe what they say, all of our deficit problems are a result of lazy entitlement and welfare slugs. No mention of artificially low corporate and upper tier taxes compared to the rest of the industrialized world who somehow find ways to provide free health care for their people as a trade off for higher taxes. One of many reasons why America’s satisfaction index for the common people is plummeting compared to Europe.
Hatefulness, lying to the American people, and unbridled ambition for wealth just aren’t in Democrat’s DNA. Democrats are laid back, easy going, none combative and basically nice people looking out for each other, not their stockholders. So who is going to win? It’s like a bar brawl where one guy is quiet, passive and meek, just minding his own business, and another is loud, aggressive and mean, wanting to make people knuckle under to him - a control thing. No contest. The mean one will usually intimidate and beat the tar out of the quiet one. “Give me your money little man! Bash!” That’s just the way life is.
So this means that Republicans, regardless of how they have screwed over the poor and middle class for the last thirty years, and even though they have gotten everything they asked for (‘asked for’ is a misnomer - everything they forcefully grabbed ie., massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy), what have the results been? More jobs? No. More equality of income? No. Lower deficits? No. Only Wall Street gambling and the Great Recession.
So when a Republican says “No New Taxes” it’s as if a six foot eight, 300 lb. bully is looking down on a five foot six, 150 lb. Mr. Nice Guy. If Mr. Nice Guy squeamishly whispers “No New Social Cuts,” he’s bashed over the head.
So what’s going to happen to America? Republicans and Democrats aren’t going to change. If Democrats fight back by becoming hateful and ambitious themselves, they will forget about common folks too and just see dollar signs. So it’s going to play out in favor of the hateful and ambitious Republicans. Face it, as badly as they screwed up, with the last election they were able to influence the American people into believing the recession was Obama’s fault. As I say, democrats just don’t have that killer instinct thank goodness. Even if that means President Palin, the Paris Hilton of politics.
So What’s the bottom line? The bottom line is that unregulated oil drilling and shale fracking will destroy large tracts of the dwindling natural beauty of our country, as if more and more oil will solve our problems. Just another strategy to kick the can down the road and make gobs of money for people who already have so much they hardly know what to do with it. And the cans being kicked down the road are accumulating, getting to be the size of 55 gallon drums - harder and harder to kick. Why not just pave over everything? That would bring in more money than hugging useless trees. Who needs nature anyway. Money is more important. We can look at old nature shots on our computers.
It means the EPA will have all its teeth pulled, as they are doing in Texas to make more and more money.
It means that wages for teachers. police, and firefighters will drop to minimum wage levels with no benefits as bargaining power is squashed by powerful state Republican legislatures shifting the money from hard working people into corporations.
It means the end of health care of any kind for men ,women and children of all ages.
It means that 90% of Americans will be making $8.00 and hour with no benefits so that 10% of Americans can party.
It means that every congressman and woman will be paid off and legislate for the highest bidder. Ah, how the rich get richer.
It means that the American dream is finally over. It has been over for a long time, but with Lindsay Lohan, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber, who noticed?
When it comes to this kind of inequality, historically there is violence. There has to be. The people who are well off will let go of less and less and become more and more powerful until they will not let go of a penny for those little, groveling, inept, stupid people on Poor Street. And the people on Poor Street won’t get mad until they stop being distracted by pop culture and the promises, as far fetched as they are of bling. But then watch out. Suddenly the masses wake up one morning and it’s like a match thrown into a calm pool of gasoline. And things get quickly out of hand ala Mubarak, who had to leave town fast.
Nothing happens until there is a crises, and the crisis is coming. The more the upper class gets, the more powerful they become until the class itself, with it’s money influence in congress, becomes a dictator. No social safety nets, no health care, no jobs, no homes, no nothing. That is the beginning of the end. That’s when the down and out realize that force is the only answer, and they have the numbers.
It doesn’t have to come to this, but usually does. Normal greed is a human failing, intense greed is a human disaster. Unless we even things out with legislation before everyone in congress gets paid off by the Koch brothers, society will be left to it’s own devices, quickly becoming a dog eat dog world where it’s survival of the fittest.
The illusion of the wealthy and powerful is that they are the fittest. I hope they acquire some wisdom before it’s too late.
No New Taxes? Kill all the social programs? Okay. Enjoy your wealth, enjoy your power. Party while you can.
E. Raymond Rock (anagarika eddie) is a meditation teacher at the DhammaRocksprings Theravada Buddhist Hermitage: dhammarocksprings.org and author of “A Year to Enlightenment: http://www.amazon.com/Year-Enlightenment-Steps-Enriching-Living/dp/1564148912 His 33 years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk.
He lived at Wat Pah Nanachat under Ajahn Chah, at Wat Pah Baan Taad under Ajahn Maha Boowa, and at Wat Pah Daan Wi Weg under Ajahn Tui. He had been a postulant at Shasta Abbey, a Zen Buddhist monastery in northern California under Roshi Kennett; and a Theravada Buddhist anagarika at both Amaravati Monastery in the UK and Bodhinyanarama Monastery in New Zealand, both under Ajahn Sumedho. The author has meditated with the Korean Master Sueng Sahn Sunim; with Bhante Gunaratana at the Bhavana Society in West Virginia; and with the Tibetan Master Trungpa Rinpoche in Boulder, Colorado. He has also practiced at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and the Zen Center in San Francisco.
Article submitted Monday, June 06, 2011 & read 1379 times.
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» left by david from magnolia, texas (1 year 349 days ago.)
Same thing that has kept man from evolving out of our primeval instincts since we crawled up on the shores of the Kalamazoo River, greed. It's what drives us, it's what we do, it's who we are. When people would rather eat the whole pie and risk the repercussion of their own death rather than share the pie and live in a reasonably peaceful coexistence, which is what we do, I have to conclude that greed is an even more powerful instinct than survival itself. No we are by far still a dog eat dog species, but you must remember we are basically babes in the woods in time/historical perspective,so if we're fortunate enough not to annihilate ourselves we may yet evolve beyond this emotion. Some sooner than others obviously.Respond to this comment
» left by e (1 year 349 days ago.)
Hey David, words of wisdom. It's a tough slog workng all of this out, even in just ourselves!
Best.....e
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» left by Anonymous (1 year 346 days ago.)
Isn't it amazing E how their always talking about cutting social programs, but never do they talk about cutting military spending or cutting the space program?Respond to this comment
» left by Anonymous (1 year 339 days ago.)
It's a political thing. "They" are usually politicians looking toward the next election and go with the concensus of the public who are 90% uninformed except for wha tis happening to Lady Ga Ga and Brad Pitts. You don't have to be a profit to know that gay marriage, the end of WOD (war on drugs), strict environmental controls, alternate energy - will all come about in time. But it will take decades for the average American back in the rural areas to catch on. Forty years ago i was into jogging, yoga, meditation, healthy eating, small effiecint vehicles, and all the things that are just now becoming mainstream. I iknew theywould comje aboutl. It takes a lot of patience, kind of like watching a child grow.
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