And we’re lost in America” or is it “America is lost?” | Robert Heston
I was reading an article at another independent news site and someone commented by quoting the words of Ann Rand and in her time these words held a ring of truth:
"To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money--and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being--the self-made man--the American industrialist."
"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose--because it contains all the others--the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money'. No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity--to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality."
A person commenting had this to say beforehand:
"Here is why we are exceptional. We aren't, like all other nations, founded by a mere accident of history. We are founded on the ideas that men can rule themselves. That we can deal with each other by trade, instead of force! That we can create, not just take."
So, I had this to say in reply:
Yes, it WAS... now they make money out of thin air. Now 'they' are on the take! They need a hundred-billion bucks, they print some bonds over at the Treasury Department... the capitalist "Madonna" just got pregnant. But, she's no virgin. Immaculate Conception of the Billions-Dollar-Baby. So, they take the bonds over to the Federal Reserve and---'CONGRATULATIONS Mizz Madonna', it's a Hundred-Billion-Dollars-Baby! Let's just go down to the printing department and watch the birth. Now, let's grow up fast'.
Mr. Bank has all these clients that need all these expensive things. They have been and intend to work hard, but they really, really need to get that American Dream, so Mr. Bank is going to loan them a piece of that Billion-Dollar-Baby Pie.
Mr. Bank goes over to the Fed and says: "I need fifty-million bucks to loan my clients."
Mr. Fed says:
"Now that's what I'm talking about! Here ya' go Mr. Bank. Now just bring that fifty-million back soon, oh, and keep the change."
Billion-Dollar-Baby just got a job. Now our baby says, in the famous words of our fictional Mr. Forest Gump, "I'm somebody!" Except, in this case, that value of "somebody" is debt.
Now that use to be okay. It was like priming a great, economic engine that produced, and I mean PRODUCED, real, visible, physical, pick it up, wind it up, crank it up and go with it products. But things have changed. 60,000+ factories said:
"Thanks America! You have made us great so now it's time to dump you suckers and keep all the dollars for ourselves so screw you, good luck!"
Now the grand American dream is dying. The banks and producers have a whole new plan... and "making money" has a whole new meaning. Debt takes on a value of its own and spins in a vortex around a perpetual economic motion machine called Wall Street like billions of bats... feeding, haphazardly in a frenzy on all the little insects ...90% of the American population. BUT, there is one really, really, big problem on the horizon! It is rising from the East... Russia, China, Iran, that big "Mid" section, "others", and a growing loss of faith in the "Emperor God" [everywhere] and his immaculate babies. It is the light of reason that threatens to make the bats scurry for cover, perhaps in the comfort of their cave with a floor knee deep in dollars.
Like it says in Deuteronomy 4:24, "For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." ...and he's got the biggest military the world has ever seen... and he ain't afraid to use it, baby! And, he destroys our enemies, the terrorist infidels, with a vengeance and the people are proud. He creates saviors, every four years except with the Emperor God, the only thing that gets crucified is their words... oh, and a handful of dissenters over in His beloved Arabia.
Now, the priests are filthy rich and grow richer as they preach their propaganda to the peasants, the neo-slaves. They say:
"Look what God has made for you, reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement! Be proud and fight for your God and vote for your savior! ...Amen."
But, those dollars and that pride are hollow. Their value is an illusion. The barbarian hordes are growing strong. The great bread basket is losing ground, literally. (Russia is the largest grain producer in the world today and headed toward being that for oil and natural gas).
Anyway, the great America has been and is being hollowed out... as is Europe. The infidels will die and peasants will suffer, and the Emperor God just might shine his nuclear light all over the world. For the peasant-slaves, the American dream is just a dream and for the wealthy priests in the Church of Wall Street, it's "Business as Usual!"---Enjoy Don Henley as he sings two proverbs for our neoliberal, authoritarian, totalitarian America. I'm sure he would be happy to have me play them for you in this context.
As you continue reading elsewhere and (if you enjoyed it, please do) when Henley is finished, Edwin McCain has a ballad for all you folks who may be "Lost in America."