Imagine for a moment that our primary national goal at this point in history is to position population and resources, b
oth global and domestic to be cultivated by our for-profit corporations exactly like ants cultivate aphids, and that, therefore, the only two current barometers of our success as a nation are: 1) The efficiency with which the economic nectar of the citizenry is being harvested by these large entities to benefit their shareholders and executives and finance their political agendas and 2) The sheer number of us aphids they've got wired into the system.Seems like we're doing pretty well now, right?
Two dollars to get cash out of the bank machine, two dollars a day to watch television, ten dollars a day for health care, seventy-five cents per day for internet access, ten cents per minute to receive a call on your cell phone, these are all cases where the actual cost of the item to the corporation providing it is a minuscule percentage of what they charge the consumer for it because the price reflects what the "market" will bear.
I guess my question is, will the American middle class ever reach a point where Adam Smith's invisible hand, forearm, and elbow are wedged so far up our collective ass that we say, "That's it. Fuck you. I'm going off he grid"?
Does that sound like an aphid to you?
No, it's going to continue as long as we keep giving up the nectar and voting for more of the same. It'll continue as long as the simultaneous reporting of record prices at the pump and record profits for the oil companies fails to wrench the guts of the meek to the extent that they climb back on their bikes, reconsider public transit or start double-teaming their trips to town.
The most poignant part of this giant corporate suck-fest we call America is that it's completely a victim-complicit operation. We all choose to pay four dollars for a gallon of gas and still drive everywhere alone in our cars, and the Standard Oil shareholders say "KA-Ching". Banks show fictitious balances on their ATMs to drum up overdraft fees, we pay them, and BofA shareholders' kids spend another spring break in Cabo. Cell phone companies take "unused" minutes from us every month and keep our money, and we still re-charge our accounts. African American voters consistently no-show election days, and the neocon soldier ants smile their lipless smiles...
Just how stupid are we, people? At what price point do we actually start to organize our transportation a little better than one vehicle mile per passenger mile? Six dollars? Eight? Ten?
When do we stop paying two dollars for bank computers to move fifty electronic bits half a micron at the speed of light?
When do we make it illegal for the multi-nationals to buy votes with our hard earned cash?
Right after Idol, that's when.
Some of us daydream about jacking in to a more humane matrix. For me, it's moving to France, where there's excellent health care provided free by the government and non-profit insurance companies, and five weeks of paid vacation your first year on the job. Sounds kinda civilized, doesn't it? Also, they have an affinity for moderately talented American musicians and filmmakers such as myself. I think I might be able to pursue some serious happiness in that setup.
So what's keeping me? Three things: The sound of forty thousand people murmuring at Pac Bell Park, the trout streams of the Western Sierras, and my ex-wife. We are dear friends, and we talk about this move all the time, but we never seem to get to the point of pulling the trigger. Our daughter is in high school, and the realty considerations and blah, blah blah...
Our current plan is to do a family rock n' roll tour next summer and suss it out. I really hope we do because through all the sarcasm, my heart really is broken for America and what it's become, and I'm having difficulty imagining things changing very much any time soon.
It is an election year, and there might be an new opportunity to shift the paradigm beginning, but as the months tick by in the campaigns, and candidates who started off selling radical change start sounding more and more like Republicans (neither Democrat supports single-payer health care - are you kidding me?), my hope for transformation dims.
That's a little depressing, isn't it? Sorry.
Here's an idea. What if, when corporations reach a certain level - say billions per quarter in profits, what if they had to operate as a non-profit for one quarter every other year? Then banks, utilities and oil companies, for example, would have to let us all look up their skirts every 21 months and see what they'd charge for stuff if they were aphids like us.
Wouldn't it be nice it we were older...
Groove Invaders gig tonight - nap time.
laters,
db
