A left-leaning look at the stories and people that build, shape, manipulate, encourage, and/or contribute to the downfall of the United States.

Friday, September 02, 2005

The Red Death

President Prospero has failed us, once again.

His cohorts in this calamitous display of callousness are the bourgeioisie who comprise the bloated, overfed plutocracy that is our United States government. They stood by and all but welcomed Lady Katrina to do her worst to the city of New Orleans.
Bush even learned to play the gee-tar! He summoned to his presence his hale and lighthearted friends, and strummed a song of apathy the whole country could hear.

But sadly, it's not quite that simple. This isn't just a Republican screw-up. It's the whole goddamned system that's at fault.

We focus too much on expanding our empire, so we have no national guard.

We focus too much on the rich, so impoverished New Orleans didn't get the help it needed.

We focus too much on meaningless issues like banning flag-burning and preventing video game violence, so we don't have time to focus on preventing real-life violence.

What we are witnessing is twofold. One part, the wrath of Mother Nature, which we can all agree on.

The other part is the byproduct of a system where the officials are participants in a cutthroat competition for power, one that consumes all the time they should be spending on ensuring the safety and wellbeing of their subjects. A system where the politicians don't care about the people and the people themselves are so numb to this fact that they no longer care who they have representing them.
Oh, and don't be surprised if some of our wonderful corporations decide to do a little price gouging in the weeks and months to come. Afterall, this sure would be a nice excuse to raise gas prices a bit. Our system is almost absolutely capitalist, and we not only allow our aristocrats who control the natural resources to predatorily take advantage of citizens in their time of need, we encourage it!

I'd like to say I think that reform within this existing system would solve the problem, but I just don't know.
I suppose we'll never know if we don't try. posted by SwiftyLeZar at 7:24 PM