class warfare

i’m reading a really interesting book; a people’s history of the united states. it’s said that history is written by the victors so what howard zinn did in writing this book is he rewrote the history of the united states from the perspective of the masses, based on any reliable documents and sources he could find.

it is completely fascinating stuff. i’m only so far into it but it is amazing to see the same thing was happening then that is happening today. class divisions were the same. the white middle class was involved in politics etcetra but in reality was controlled by the upper classes. The masses of people of color were used as slave labor and such in order to increase the wealth of those above them. this is all happening today.

so from columbus landing on haiti and in the course of a few years destroying the indigenous arawak population completely in the name of stealing their gold and spices and whatever other natural resources they could take from the island to sell back in europe, to the slave trade in which ships were stocked with africans taken against their will and brought to north america, (a trip that often killed up to 2/3 of the slaves aboard the vessel, who were made to endure the trip in coffin-like conditions,) essentially because capitalizing on slave labor was the only way people could get ahead in the new world. . .to the indian wars and all the efforts and tactics used to suppress slave uprisings and rebellions like bacon’s or shay's, to the doctrine of manifest destiny when our government copied the old european catholic church and their divine right of kings in declaring that it was our obvious, god-directed destiny to push on to the other coast and rule/own the land, (in the name of manifest destiny we killed the indians and mexicans of california and arizona and took their land adding them to a long list of populations leveraged to the advantage of the few, the white, the wealthy,) the uppermost class can be seen in their fullest, most pronounced, powerful glory.

the book does a great job of outlining the policies that were put into place to protect the minority ruling class and this phenomenon happens today but the truth is, the masses are simply too ignorant to address it despite the power inherent in their numbers. in fact, it is often a combination of ignorance and a feeling or desire to be one of the wealthy, which keeps people in the dark as to the nature of the big picture and what their role or place in society really is.

many republicans today are on the short end of the stick, being taken advantage of regularly, but they have a belief that they, too, can and will be rich one day, (which is so unlikely they have to be viewed as buffoons to some degree.) we the people can talk about campaign finance reform until the cows come home but in fact, it is unlikely to happen and if it did, the rich would find other ways to make their money influence power. we sometimes talk about discarding the electoral college, a device ridiculously outdated and unnecessary, but likely to stay in place for a long time still because it is a tool which may or may not be used [by the wealthy] to take advantage.

did bush win in 2000? no. we are even privy to this information that he lost the popular vote but it is said that the rules are in place and we value fair play above all else, which is of course a joke, but the fooled do not like to admit they’ve been snookered.

did he win in 2004? unlikely. more likely true is the side that won cheated. i won't go into issues in ohio and elsewhere, related to the counting of votes and who was allowed to vote, etc., that make me think it is at the very least, plausible that these guys cozened their way into power that time, too. we were told bush won the popular vote this time, and while i have my suspicions i hate the idea of being marginalized by someone who would throw around the word "conspiracy."

i have to admit, it is strange to me we [the people] cannot see and evaluate these things in time’s big picture and simply get together on the idea that we will not be oppressed any longer.

marx predicted the ruling class would need to go overseas for cheap labor and that is happening today. wealth is being concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer individuals every day, though those who are wealthy are wealthier than ever. In the u.s., we manufacture less and less. labor is cheaper elsewhere and that is where industries go in order to prosper. our economy is becoming one based on consumerism. how long do you think that can last?

so far, we’ve been, (or rather, the wealthy class has been,) especially clever at keeping the masses basically satisfied and at bay. but think about it. in the ‘50s one man provided for a family of (let’s say,) five. that family likely had a nice big cadillac and a house in the suburbs and everything the joneses from next door had.

to maintain that very same lifestyle today, both man and woman have to work. and even then, it's just a lifestyle. how far are they from poverty? two months? if a stock market crash occurs, who will weather the storm with grace? not 99% of the people who live basically check to check and have outstanding debts.

(as for me, i've been thinking of taking an extra, part-time job. i am not making ends meet.)

we still make some cars and some other stuff but not much. jobs are going overseas in record numbers. and speaking of overseas, china has a very interesting experiment underway. they are allowing for a wealthy class within their otherwise socialist structure. the difference from us is they do not let that minority class of people set their policies and ultimately rule them.

(we do. one good example would be the way we can pass legislation like legalized medicinal marijuana then stand idly by as the ruling class uses the federal government to intercede and maintain the prohibition.)

speaking of how clever our ruling class has been at keeping us basically happy and at bay, they have turned incarceration into an industry unto itself. in our capitalistic society, one either works or they end up in the hospital or the prison or on the street. that is basically true.

laws like three strikes (and you’re out!) have created a booming industry. prison guard unions have become some of the most powerful unions in the country and as you might imagine, having so many peers right on the other side of the fence has legitimized the entire process and policy. (we incarcerate at a higher rate than any country on the planet. why do we put up w/ this?)

people are good at seeing black and white and apt to see things that way. in the future, when people look back on us, they will see the creative ruling class pitting us against one another, by criminalizing consensual crimes, by emphasizing differences in belief systems so that people in the lower classes would feel superior to one another and fight with one another rather than turn their attention onto those who oppress them, in order to occupy us and keep us from questioning them and their tactics.

this stuff sounds like the vitriol of class warfare but I promise you, I am not interested in that, (per se,) however, it may just naturally follow that what I would change would look like class warfare.

what i have learned from zinn's book is that we americans have been taking advantage of others for a long time. and of course, this is what capitalism is all about. we arrived as european emmisaries and we took advantage of the indigenous populations and the land. we took advantage of a race of people by enslaving them.

now we are the mightiest nation on the planet and we are running out of groups to take advantage of. those we took advantage of based on their skin color have revolted and gained their freedom. those we took advantageof based on their gender have pulled themselves up to equal status and protections under the law.

today we take advantage of peoples from other, (less affluent,) states, (namely mexico.) we yell and scream about how they are in our country illegally and how important it is for us to make stricter immigration laws while failing to recognize the blow our economy would suffer if they were suddenly all gone. food first, a group intent on eliminating malnutrition, considers migrant farmworkers the modern plantation worker. (i suppose they find use of the word 'slave," unseemly.) http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2004/sp04v10n2.html

i say we are running out of people to take advantage of but in as much as that is true, there is an entire globe of people and places out there.

it is (not so) funny to see how the various presidents placed themselves in the role of "father," to the various groups we mistreated, telling creek and seminoles their "father," cared about them deeply and would protect them if they would just move west, only to pillage and plunder and indirectly abuse them at every turn. when voices like lincoln and thoreau and emerson can be heard speaking out against our tyrrany, they were marginalized in much the same manner the voices of today are. (how shocked i was to hear no less than walt whitman urge us on in our conquests.)

but here is this book of zinn's presenting the facts, and the heroes, those whose words will ring true forever, are these men of justice, while the names of presidents like jackson and van buren and polk fade into obscurity. history truly is a great judge.

i am anxious for the second half of this book and all that i will learn. and maybe one day i can write about what we can do today to hasten our own evolution, stop repeating the crimes of the past and move toward a more balanced view of our lives and our species.

yahoo indeed

a friend of mine hooked me up with the yahoo unlimited music service for my birthday. i think he paid $50 or $60 and i get access to all the songs yahoo has, which is considerable but not everything. for instance i've noticed they must not have given michael jackson any cash because there are virtually no beatles songs. similiarly, radiohead must have failed to sign on with yahoo. (and hey, sometimes the computer is a more convenient vehicle to play music, compared to fishing through a rack of cd's to find a desired song.)

in short, i really like the service. i seem to be reconnecting with my inner-80s man. (stranger still, i must have been more effeminate in the '80s than i recall because abc and talk talk and soft cell and many of the bands i sort of left behind, were tragically unhip and teetering on the brink of quentin crisp, if you know what i mean.)

all this browsing and rediscovering reminded me of where music was a few years ago as an industry. napster was seemingly banishing music exec after music exec to a life on skid row and metallica was sueing and mtv hosted round tables and legislation was introduced all in the name of the struggling business of selling music.

let me approach the point i am struggling to make from a different perspective. reading a new yorker article on brent scowcroft the other day i was reminded the main reason for the first gulf war was because saddam hussein had invaded kuwait and american oil interests were jeopardized. where vietnam seemed more an idealogical war, (we feared the soviet union and in light of the cold war made a high priority of fomenting democracy, [capitalism,] abroad,) george h w bush took us to the gulf to protect american business interests. and while lives were not lost protecting the music industry, the government did step in with similiar goals; protect an industry's interests. instead of oil supplies, the music industry required the protection of intellectual property.

something about this doesn't sit well with me. i know we've bailed out other industries in the past. i know we've loaned money to chrysler and a couple of our aircraft builders and none of these sit well with me.

it has been said that insider trading does the stock market a favor. it nudges prices in the direction they are going to go anyway thereby abating sudden, more cataclysmic shifts that could initiate the harm of panic. i think that's crap too. when you are constantly propping up systems to avert challenges (problems,) you are essentially just hiding problems with the system. if the market needed the pre-movement spurred by insider trading, (which it does not,) the viability of the market as a system would have to be questioned and a systemic change would need to be implemented as opposed to relying on a group of cheaters to make it right.

when chrysler had it's trouble in the '80s, the federal government should not have intervened. if our economy took a hit, it would only have caused us as a nation and a society to work harder to right the ship.

books are free at libraries, (as they should be.) the intellectual property rights are not protected in the manner of a recording artist, nor should the recording artist's rights ever been protected in the way they were/are.

by constantly propping up various industries within our economy, we do it a disservice. it is no longer organic. the economy no longer takes on a life of its own as capitalism suggests it should. instead of growing into areas as demand deems, it tends to stay within a fenced area and in effect, eat it's own ad nauseum.

i believe had congress left napster to its bidding those years ago, we would have arrived at this current state of bliss known as yahoo music engine much sooner. the consumer has known the album was a lousy way to purchase music for a long time. the industry sold us this idea that the album somehow represented a larger work. it could cover a period of time or even a concept but the idea was, it was better than the single, which was so limited by its accepted format. well this was a slimy way to sell us poor u2 songs like 4th of july, when i look at the world and bass trap. (in fairness, u2 has been the kosher hot dog of bands over the years, very little filler, compared to others.) the idea was that we were all collectors interested in the arc of the life of the band blah blah blah and it was just so serious. right. . .

well, the single is making its return and not in its old form. with the yahoo music engine, (and yahoo is just one of many companies, likely not even the best at it, offering similiar service,) the consumer can pick and choose songs to listen to or purchase. the price i've seen seems to be between 79 and 99 cents per song. as an example, (and sticking with u2,) at 99-cents per song, i could have paid about $8 for the songs off of how to dismantle an atomic bomb that i like and ignored the last three songs. that is a more consumer friendly business by light years than the old model.

is it unfair in some way to the artists? hell no. in fact, it merely rights previous wrongs, (selling us filler we nver asked for.)

did you ever hear a song called birds fly (whisper to a scream,) by icicle works? i liked that song back when it came out so at some point in time, i went out and bought the whole record. every second of the record outside of that song sucked. it was horrible.

how about tell that girl to shut up by transvision vamp? digging your scene by blow monkeys? what was that song by robbie neville? how about interpol or the spin doctors? (in their cases, since every song sounds just like the one i liked, all the rest of the songs are filler.) collective soul? that evan dando got a lot of mileage out of one good song because the record company sold an album full of filler and had the good fortune of some media critics proclaiming the emperor to be exquisitely attired but now we can admit the truth, the lemonheads sucked.

so i am ecstatic about the emergence of this form that is the yahoo music engine. there are about three jet songs i really like and one by the darkness and one by remy zero and several songs from the past i need to pick up for a cd i'm compiling to give out as a favor at my wedding and i can do this for the cost of one album.

had legislation never passed to beat down napster, it is likely the music industry would be weaker today as people would still be freely sharing, (something we were all taught to do in kindergarten,) their music with one another but it would have evolved more quickly, in search of the avenues of revenue recently discovered. these devices such as the mini ipod and the nano would have come along sooner.