Where our money really goes…

It is time for us to take personal, individual responsibility as free citizens of this republic.

The great revolutions of the last 2 1/2 centuries, beginning with ours, had a common theme: the rejection of the divine right of kings in favor of the idea that political power originates in the people. That means we run the place. While we’re dealing with that, get over the notion that we fulfill our duties by voting. Economic power equals political power, so every dollar we spend imposes responsibility on us for where that money goes and how it is used.

If we own cars, our money goes to the most undemocratic outfits possible. Auto and oil companies form concentrations of wealth that exert undue influence on government.

For the advantage of oil companies (among others), we have, for 50 years or more, overthrown popular governments and supported the brutal oppression of the people in those places. Since we give money to these practices, and reap the benefits, we are ourselves mass murderers, torturers, destroyers of other people’s homelands, and enemies of government by the people.

If we buy plastic junk from the big chain stores, we are participating in what amounts to slavery for our own immediate profit, and helping to wreck our own economy. The more jobs we send abroad, the fewer there are here, regardless of BS about a bigger GNP being good for the nation.

We hear hokum about economic competition. If we are competing for the largest number of degraded slaves, we’re headed in the right direction. If we want the best educated, most responsible, most self-reliant body of free citizens, maybe not.

Violence against people is complemented by violence against the land. Among the rituals in our worship of The Machine is the dumping of huge amounts of poison downstream every year. As many as 300 million lead-acid batteries are in service in this country. Approximately 500,000 tires are discarded in the United States every day. Pesticides and household chemicals go downstream by the thousands of tons. This is not acceptable.

By the words of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, it is time for a revolution. We can only have a true, worthwhile revolution through nonviolent means. The goal is to change the way things are done, and we can’t do that by acting like the violent, perverted criminals who run this country.

If we refuse to give our money to businesses associated with violence against people or the land, we may then give it to those we personally know to be careful, kind, and responsible. If that’s too difficult, if all we can do is masturbate with our shiny toys, what good are we?