Poll Results: The United States Is The Most Significant Threat to Humanity, page 28

For years now I’ve seen international polls showing results very much in agreement with this one done by ATS. I can’t imagine how anyone would find it surprising. I’ve seen polls that spell it out much more blatantly than this one; polls indicating that a significant % of the world’s population now considers the U.S. as the world’s greatest “terrorist threat”. How does that stick in your red, white & blue craw? It’s not the days of Ol’ Glory and defeating the Nazi’s anymore. The world has changed, and the U.S. has changed. The U.S. is no longer conducting the “Great Experiment in Democracy”; we blew that one. We also no longer enjoy the respect and envy of the rest of the world. We blew that, too. We lost our greatness when we lost our vision. And a nation without vision cannot lead the Free World.

In a way it’s funny. The very thing the founders of this country fought hard against is the thing that has taken root in our nation today, and it’s corrupting our system and threatening to bring it down. All right under our noses. Our Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves right now in disbelief that we’ve allowed it to happen. They could quite rightly say to us, “I told you so...”. What I’m getting at here is the rise of Corporate Rule in America. For whatever reasons, we’ve allowed it to happen. And it’s not a good thing.

Our founding fathers were very distrustful, even hateful, of the “evil corporate machine” and regulated the hell out of it. They knew the danger inherent in corporations when left to their own devices. It had a lot to do with why we revolted against England. The power wielded by the East India Company and it’s dominance over trade pissed off the colonists and led to the Boston Tea Party. Back in Britain large corporations were funding elections, and their stock was owned by most of the parliament. In other words, corporations owned the government and ran the show. Our founding fathers took a very dim view of this, which resulted in heavy regulations on corporations after the government was established and the Constitution was written. For instance, corporations were allowed to exist for 20-30 years max, could produce only a single commodity, and their property holdings were limited to what they needed to accomplish their business goals. And, unlike today, political contributions by corporations was considered a criminal offense in most states. Banks were also distrusted and looked upon like corporations. In an 1802 letter to Secretary of State Albert Gallatin, Thomas Jefferson wrote,

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Jefferson went a little further in 1816, when he said,

“I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

Of course this is not the early 1800’s, and it’s not at all the same world our ancestors lived in, but the basic principles are very similar. Corporate ambition and governance of a nation are a volatile mix. A corporation’s prime objective is to make money and stifle competition, while the aim of a nation (at least a free, democratic republic, or reasonable facsimile) is to promote the welfare of it’s people. Greed and unbridled ambition have no place in the legislative process. Our Founding Fathers had the wisdom to understand this, but it seems that wisdom has been lost along the way, and, well, here we are.

The world has become a very complicated place, and managing it is starting to slip out of our control. I guess we’re counting on technology to come to the rescue, but it’s a pipe-dream and a longshot, and may even one day be the end of us.

So, getting back to our bad rep here in the States,

I just don’t know where, or who, or what to point my finger at exactly. I often tend to blame politicians for their ruthless, self-serving agendas, but then I always come back to who put them in a position to “lead” us in the first place and find myself staring blankly into the mirror. So, I guess I share the blame with all the other scoundrels and misfits in the world. Instead of sharing in the making of our destiny and walking the walk, more and more it seems to me I’m hanging on by my finger nails, screaming through life like a bat outta Hell with my hair on fire. I just don’t see the happy ending here.

At any rate, I often think the U.S. should get our noses out of everyone else’s business. Viva La Difference, and all that. Besides, what sense does it make invading, mudering and destroying other sovereign nations, only to then spend years and trillions of dollars rebuilding what we just tore down? How many “friends” do we expect to make while we cruise around the globe bombing everyone who disagrees with us? Let’s face it, turning the entire world into one big American amusement park just ain’t gonna happen, and it was a dumb idea in the first place. Is this really what it’s like being the most “intelligent” creature on the planet?

You know, though, it’s not like the U.S. can claim the sole rights to the title of “DUMBASS”. Yes, we may have brought it a long, long way, but there’s still enough left to go around some. We have plenty of DUMBASS allies who’d give anything to take our title of Lord of the DUMBASSES away from us. For now, though, it seems we’ve got a lock on it, and we aim to keep it for awhile.

Oh well, I ramble on, offering nothing in the way of insight or an answer to the astonishing results of the ATS Poll. Well, we (the U.S.) may not place near the top anymore with international scholastic test results, but when it comes to being hated we’ve got it in the bag. We are the undisputed Champs of Repugnance and Disdain. And proud of it!

It is what it is...