The "Occupation of Wall Street," Corporate Socialism, Idolatry of Greed, and American Despair

With the coming of autumn and the corresponding drop in temperature, new energy is found. Deep within ancient instincts, the end of summer triggers an awareness of impending scarcity, and those of us who feel it get moving. If there is work to be done, money to be made, repairs to the home (if you're lucky enough to have one) necessary, now is the time.

Money is hard to come by, a chance to make even a little bit is something to jump on, yet the laws of supply and demand don't seem to be kicking in just yet; receiving one hundred dollars for a day of hard physical labor, in some cases even for just three or four hours worth is normal, yet that same hundred dollars feels like less in one's pocket than forty dollars did back in 1983, when the realities of "Reaganomics" and the "trickle-down" theory were beginning to kick in.

Minimum wage has roughly doubled since then, yet the cost of rental housing in economically active urban areas has quadrupled. If your are considering vegetarianism, whether for health or ethical reasons, now is a good time to give it a try, the price of a pound of ground beef gives pause to any working class shopper. It's OK though; beans and brown rice make a complete protein. Get a little creative with the spices and try your hand at some vegetarian burritos, you can make a week's worth of good ones, with cheese, for under twenty bucks.

A genuine, impromptu populist uprising targets "Wall Street" as the culprit for the feeling in the air. The "Occupation of Wall Street" germinated from the understanding that something is really wrong, above and beyond anything my own generation has seen, although people old enough to remember the Great Depression know just how bad things can get.

Older Americans, even those with substantial savings and decent pensions have been observed returning to depression era survival tactics. The refusal to waste any amount of food is one I've personally observed, a common-sense concept that is as honorable as it is impressive, even if seeing different versions of the same leftovers night after night can be disturbing to the spoiled palates of Boomer/Generation X adults now sitting down for dinner with mom 'n dad again after years of hedonism, waste and self-indulgence.

Yet, as an increasingly homogenous group of alienated Americans cries "foul!" and joins in the Occupation of Wall Street, those who profit from the misery sit on balconies drinking champagne and laughing at the foolish peasants below. From somewhere in the distant past, the metal-on-metal song of a falling blade rings in the background.

This nation, a republic in name, and an empire in practice, is in decline. It seems that the angriest among those who now turn the spotlight on the idolaters of Wall Street are those who thought they had a chance; kids who did everything expected of them, got good grades and graduated from the right schools, only to find that there was nothing waiting for them. Some might call it a "sense of entitlement," however can one really fault the young and naive for believing the sincerely served up fairy tales of parents, teachers, politicians and preachers?

This is "class warfare" alright, and it doesn't have to do with trifling adjustments to rates of taxation, which even when they come to pass, as they must, under a Republican administration, will not interfere with the business at hand; perpetual warfare and the establishment of the global-corporatist totalitarian state.

This is the elite's worst nightmare. The "marks" have figured out that the game is rigged, that the market is not free, and that "corporate socialism" (as Ron Paul and Ralph Nader recently pointed out) has arrived. There is still some confusion in the air; people are again blaming the ill-defined and at this point mostly theoretical idea of "capitalism" for the misery; in fact tyranny and starvation can flourish in any situation, under any system of government and economic exchange; all that's needed is the willing acquiescence of the masses, taught practically from birth that authority and subordination are unchangeable facts of life. The real problem is that people just aren't buying it anymore.

The Bull, the symbol of the Merrill Lynch brokerage, is now a central icon in the real-life class-warfare taking place across the nation. The Takers, the idolaters, in their worship of this ancient symbol of power, now are confronted with the logical result of their unfeeling arrogance towards the decent, productive and compassionate citizenry, upon whose backs they built their monuments to greed.

The Bull symbolizes Mithra, a favorite of the Roman legions; certainly an appropriate symbol for the "movers and shakers," the "masters of the universe," and their empire, which much like Babylon, Egypt and Rome of old, must expand, divide, conquer and rule, or fall. Make no mistake; it is falling; that's the good news. The bad news is that sometimes these things take a really long time.

In context, I blame no one for where I stand now, the details are unimportant, things could have turned out differently but now I harvest the garden of my choices. When I work I pay taxes, and I don't like it any more than anyone else does, but if I knew that my tax dollars were used to improve the lives of other ordinary Americans, including people collecting welfare, food stamps, SSI/SSDI and various other entitlements, paying for real education, even for other people's children, and all the other useful things that liberals point to, I don't think it would bother me anywhere nearly as much.

Instead, I feel the weight of the machinery of death bearing down on me. It's not just what the government takes to make sure that bombs keep falling; it's every cent that has to be pumped right back into this wretched economy just to give me what I need to keep doing more of the same. And it would be so easy to blame the governmental/corporate stranglehold on necessities, and take comfort in the belief that somewhere there is a "they" or a "them" at whose feet this misery and despair can be dropped.

But when I look in the mirror, I see the culprit, just one of millions who gave up, 30 years ago, when the Hollywood Antichrist, the great beast 666, Ronald Wilson Reagan, began the butchering and wholesale slaughtering of the American Dream. And I did nothing. After watching this gang of international weapons dealers, drug traffickers and financiers of terrorism for 12 years, I decided that maybe I should vote; I voted for Bill Clinton, and got more of the same. But I've been over this territory before http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/843343/things_are_better_now_than_they_were.html

"I will live my live in peace, and work at whatever work I am given," I told those who sat in judgment on me, and I meant it. Perhaps cursed, defective, deranged, or simply antisocial, I find in the horrific present that I have no "station in life," and while I still work, peacefully and honorably, somehow I know that this too cannot last.

After much convincing and cajoling from people very close to me, I voted for Obama. Even as I voted, I knew I would come to regret this. Obama is now crying about how he's the "underdog" due the ongoing economic decline and the unrest it has spawned. How the hell is Obama the "underdog" in any of this? while it's true that his chances of reelection have been severely damaged, however you look at it he's got it made for life, Nobel Peace Prize and all.

The only underdogs in this struggle are those of us living without any choice but to accept whatever we're offered, and to be grateful for it. In all of this, the offer stands; conform, obey, produce, spend, pay tribute, interest and taxes, and maybe if you're lucky you will have somewhere warm to crawl off to when it's time to die

For my unknown friends occupying Wall Street, all I can do for the time being is to offer up prayers to an angrier God, who, if the mythology is to be believed, will punish the idolaters, and protect those who stand against them. Coming from an agnostic, I doubt that these prayers count for much.

They will need it; the Great Depression was way before my time, but My Lai and Kent State forever marred my childhood. If this keeps up, it's just a matter of time before the global corporate elite commands the US Government to use lethal force on its own citizens. Don't think for a minute that what has transpired in Tehran or Tienanmen Square cannot happen here.

The concept that the US Government may execute, with or without trial, innocent and guilty alike has gained favor and legal standing. What today's protesters are demanding, not merely money or jobs, but control of their own lives, is perhaps the most dangerous "terrorist threat" conceivable to the elite.

Where will I be when the time comes, sitting in front of a computer screen or standing in the line of fire? Somewhere, is there a bullet with my name on it? That is one thing I'm not worried about; no need to make reservations, I'm sure there are plenty to go around.