AMERICA IS IN DECAY

A sign of the times

There have been books written about the decline of the America "empire."

Let's keep this closer to home and just focus on the internal decay that our faux capitalism, insane consumption, elitist political system, and widespread sense of hopelessness has got us into.

The Huffington Post website ran an important article today entitled "RENT OR FOOD." In short, the article looks at the fact that millions of American households have such meager budgets that they are forced to choose between the essentials of life: food and shelter.

Bear in mind that this kind of thing has been an issue for the poor for as long as anyone cares to remember.

So the Third World within America -- propagandized as luckiest/greatest country in the world -- is getting big. That should be no shock since the rich are getting richer (it's not hard when you dodge taxes and your best buddies are on Capitol Hill) and the poor, and everyone else, are getting poorer.

Yes, many of us do need to budget our spending better: We are a nation of consumption fools, after all. And most of the stuff we buy today is in the back of the closet or on a junk pile in a year or two, right? Compare that to people who have scarcely enough food and clothes. Who many not be able to afford heat in winter. Who never get to see a doctor. That's the reality of our country. Not the "luckiest/greatest" BS that the politicians sell to us as an opiate. Besides, our goal should be "kindest."

But our spending is just a few drops in the bucket. The real issue is the horrendously unfair distribution of wealth in this country (and around the world!). It seems to me that sooner or later things will get bad enough that people will be in the streets in their millions and there will be radical change. That's the belief I cling to -- and it is a genuine belief.

In the meantime:

1/ Protest stupid/unfair taxes as well as the tax breaks and exemptions enjoyed by the rich and by corporations.
2/ Vote at the checkout: Buy things you need, not what you merely want. Buy organic. Companies note what sells and tend to stock that, naturally enough. And any money you save can be used to bolster your household budget or, if you are able, be given in part or whole to those less fortunate.
3/ Recycle everything: Clothes, cars, oil, metals, housing materials... check the Web and see just how much can be reused.
4/ Keep the pressure on the politicians and corporations. Let them know what you think and what you won't tolerate.
5/ Push for cheaper, safer, cleaner power sources.
6/ Volunteer and donate.
7/ Get active. Join groups that push economic issues. There is strength -- and change -- in numbers! You can participate a little or a lot. Again, just check the Web for these groups.
8/ Sign up to get online petitions, then pass them on.
9/ We need to repair our own attitudes as well as help others.
10/ Spread the word and stir up action any way you can!

There are other things, of course. But that's a good start. We need to change the structure of our society: and that is underway with the massive growth of the socio-politically aware "class." Change is fermenting. In the meantime, do whatever you can, whenever you can. Even that sandwich to a person living on the streets (a person!) fills a stomach and sends a message. Viral networking.

We have to win a better world or there will be no world soon enough. And to win it, we must fight to get it back from the robber barons who hold the whip.

We can and we will!

Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might also like THE ECONOMY -- NOT SO HARD TO FIX, FDR's SECOND BILL OF RIGHTS, or TAXES: MICHAEL MOORE TELLING IT HOW IT IS.

THE FOOD WE EAT -- PART 1: GETTING INFORMATION

I have been a quasi student of the modern food supply for some years now.

I'd been planning to write on it sooner or later when, yesterday, I got this Washington Post bulletin in my email:

"The largest egg recall in U.S. history comes during recent consolidation in the industry, as a shrinking number of companies produce most of the eggs found on grocery shelves and a defect in one operation can jeopardize a significant segment of the marketplace. Now, just 192 large egg companies own about 95 percent of laying hens in this country. And as the mega producers have developed, they have gone largely unregulated by government agencies responsible for making sure food is safe."

I figured it was time to address the whole food and water thing: industrial farms, bottled water, hormones and antibiotics in our food, fast food, our diet, the effects on our health and our kids' health (including obesity and diabetes), food advertising, key corporations behind our food.

Obviously I won't be able to do anything exhaustive but it's such a fundamental thing to our well-being that it demands attention. And, as usual, the whole landscape of what we eat and drink has changed for one major reason: money.

Here are some interesting DVDs you might want to check out:

* "Supersize Me": This groundbreaking documentary features filmmaker Morgan Spurlock as he restricts himself to a "McDonald's Only" diet for 30 days. What happens is frightening and instructive. Spurlock interviews laypersons and experts along the way and includes some eye-opening bonus features. You'll never look at your McDonald's meal the same way again. NOTE: This film, though disturbing on a certain level, is highly entertaining and well made. You really ought to take a look!

* "King Corn": Another grassroots experiment in which two college pals grow their own patch of corn and follow its life beyond the field. Interspersed with plenty of interviews and observations, you'll be shocked at just how corn is used now and why that isn't such a good thing.

* "Food Inc.": Explains how our food supply is controlled by a handful of corporations (see passage above about eggs). It's all about profit ahead of health -- and our health is paying a big price. More great interviews in this one. Like "King Corn," it will have you reading the nutrition facts on the food you buy. It's time to go organic, folks.

* "Fast Food Nation": This is actually fiction based on fact. Starring Greg Kinnear and featuring lots of other familiar faces, it's a reasonable insight into the fast food world -- from the conditions on the slaughterhouse floor, to exploiting illegal immigrants, to corporate cover ups, to the kids who serve you over the counter for lousy wages.

* "Bad Seed": A serious and slightly more scientific doco on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Looks at all the dangerous pitfalls of genetically engineering plants. And, as you'll see, America's FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is about as helpful as the crash position when a plane hits the side of a mountain.

I'll mention others over the course of this string of blog entries.

There are plenty of books and websites too.

I always like to direct people to the website of Corporate Accountability International (based in Boston) because I used to work there and I know how fastidious they are about getting good information -- and getting results with it. Go to:
http://stopcorporateabuse.org/

They have excellent sections on food and water, which are two of their major campaigns. Take a few minutes to read them -- it will be time well spent. CAI is actually pressuring McDonald's to retire its idiot clown to end his Pied Piper luring of our kids as "consumers for life" of their unhealthy food.

I'll leave it there and add more references as we go.

I hope you will read these blogs with an open mind. Things we like are not always good for us. Information, good information, is your friend.

Take care and keep smiling,
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at THE FOOD WE EAT -- PART 2: SOME FOOD FACTS or CHILD HUNGER -- THE SCOURGE OF THE PLANET.

KNOWLEDGE AND EFFORT: THE WORLD'S TWO BEST FRIENDS -- PART 1

Things don't look to me, like they used to be. -- From the song "As the Days Go By" by Aussie rock star Daryl Braithwaite.

I've been reading about a variety of things lately (Wall Street, Blackwater, the new bionic age, and more) and watching a variety of documentaries (modern food, "democracy," the mass media, and more).

It's good to expand one's knowledge and keep the brain alert.

I could certainly read and research more, and I plan to. What is your confidence level in your knowledge about the world you live in?* I don't mean if you can point to Beijing on a map or name the prime minister of Britain. I mean your "hard" knowledge. (We'll discuss creative thinking at another juncture.)

To wit: Do you know what's in your food? Your water? Do you know who the people and corporations are that really run the planet and the implications of that for your everyday life? Do you know what's being done to the air you breathe? How many nuclear weapons there are in the world and what things could trigger nuclear Armageddon? Do you know that there are far more civilian casualties in the forays of American imperialism than there are military casualties?

Do you know who the CEO of Goldman Sachs is, what his motives are and why you should have at least a cursory understanding of this company? Do you know what the bailout of the banks really meant for us all and how it happened? Do you know why the employment rate is so high? And that it's actually considerably higher than the percentages you are told on the news?

Do you know how TV advertising affects the news you get -- and the news you DON'T get? Do you know that certain mega companies own many other companies and brands and media stations so that while you think you have many lifestyle and information choices you really don't?

Do you know the names of the companies that are profiteering in the BILLIONS, in illegal and undemocratic ways, from similarly illegal U.S. military invasions such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan?

You can find out these things, and much more, EASILY! You have no excuse in the Google age. You just have to be careful to select the most open, honest and verifiable information sources when Google spits back your list of options.

I mean, ideally, you'd also be reading books and articles on some of these things by people like Noam Chomsky, Norman Solomon, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Howard Zinn, Michael Moore, William Blum, Arundhati Roy, Michael Albert, George Orwell, etc etc. But if not, you can at least go to democracynow.org (watch their news online each day at a time that suits you!!) or Zcommunications or fair.org or commondreams.org or wikileaks or stopcorporateabuse.org (where you can learn about your food and drinking water) or ippnw.org (where you can learn about the nuclear threat) or dozens of other great sites. Or get your hands on some of the more objective DVD documentaries available.

If you want leads on information sources, just email me at adrianz59@yahoo.com

If someone came into your house and told you how to raise your kids, what you should eat, how you should look, what you should drive, what you should care about, how blindly patriotic you should be... you would throw them out. Because you have the right to think for yourself. But every time you flip on the tube, that is what's happening. Admittedly, you have to be alert to it because the messages you get are generally dressed up in entertainment. (The word "infotainment" is one of the great tricks of recent propaganda.) It is not healthy, objective, honest information. It is junk education and, at its worst, plain propaganda (political and commercial) and outright lies.

Don't believe me? Read a little about it (some source suggestions below). And PAY ATTENTION when you watch TV rather than just let it wash over you and think how cute that commercial with the kids/puppy/cartoon characters/talking car/idiot clown is. What is that advert really saying to you and about you? And why does the news look like such a skewed song and dance act?

And what stories and facts might the news you watch be leaving OUT?

Maybe we aren't as clever as we think.

Then there's our kids: How clever are they (all biases aside)? For that matter, how clever can we seriously expect them to be? They haven't chosen how they are educated; we have, by letting things slip to the levels they have.

If we need better education for our kids shouldn't we be attacking the root of these problems? Shouldn't we be hounding Washington about education funding and what our kids are taught? (Not to mention what nutrition -- or lack thereof -- schools feed them.) As far as I can tell, apart from a very thin layer of schools in the United States, the education here is poor and declining. And that's not an indictment of the industry of many of our teachers.

It's an indictment of a governmental and economic system that allows it to happen in the richest country in history. You can get all kinds of rankings from all kinds of sources. But nearly every one of them will tell you that, whatever the measure, America ranks poorly with semi-comparable nations when it comes to education. And that's only for the usual memory based things. The notion of free thought never comes into it. Sad.

Even if you send your kid to a "good school," what are they learning? Can they even spell? If you say "yes," I'll take that bet and I know I'll win nine times out of 10 or better. I taught college English and writing for seven years -- the literacy levels were appalling! I've worked in an elementary school. I pay attention to this stuff. Kids can't spell. And that's the very thinnest end of the wedge. I won't even bother asking if they are learning anything substantive about how the world works because I already know the answer to that question and it would be a shameless bet to make. (I'll return to this in the next day or two.) Suffice it to say that it is not in the interest of certain people to have a generation that is educated in this and starts asking questions.

Which brings us the full circle to the question: What do you, as an adult, really know? Do you know more about Lindsay Lohan or your favorite TV show than the mechanics of funding the education system and setting curricula? Do you get your "best" info from the tube? Have you ever really tried to get solid, well-documented information about the most important issues in life? (Isn't that part of parenting too??) Have you ever even considered requesting a government document under the Freedom of Information Act?

Have you ever gone online to look at the voting records of your congressmen/women on issues like education, pollution, war, bailouts, lobbyists, taxes, corporations, military spending, poverty, you name it? All matters that directly affect you and your loved ones. Yes, directly!!

Do you ever take 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour out of your day, your week, to just quietly reflect on these things and what you might do? Or do you jump to "unwind" in front of your flat screen? (If you don't sleep well, you might want to look into just how relaxing television really is, with its quick cutting, volume surges and mentally agitating content. Quote: "According to new research presented at Sleep 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, television watching may be an important determinant of bedtime, and may contribute to chronic sleep debt." -- Science Daily, June 8, 2009)

Have you ever taken significant time to act on the important things you've learned about much-needed changes in education and other important areas of our society and lifestyles?

This blog topic, "KNOWLEDGE AND EFFORT," will be in two or more parts. I will try to keep each installment bite sized. I've opened the can and I'll tip out the rest of the worms over the next few nights. It might not be comfortable: dealing with your conscience seldom is. Dealing with harsh external realities in the 21st century can be even worse.

I hope you'll stick with me and think this stuff through. And maybe make an effort to help positive changes happen. And share some of this with your friends.

That's my hope and that's why I take time out of my own day to write this blog.

Take care and mull it over,
Adrian Zupp
* I am not trying to imply my knowledge is superior by posing this and similar questions.

ADDENDUM: SOME RELEVANT QUOTES FROM ALBERT EINSTEIN... A PRETTY SMART BLOKE.


"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."

"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at KNOWLEDGE AND EFFORT: THE WORLD'S TWO BEST FRIENDS -- PART 2 and PART 3.

THINGS TO DO TODAY -- SUGGESTION #7

Engage in just one minor act of (email) protest.

(Click on any of the links below. It will all be done in 30-60 seconds!)


BP Oil Spill:

http://bpmakesmesick.com/


Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START):

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/436/029/495


Media Lies Relating to Climate Change:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/873/247/096


The Food You Eat --

1/ Stop Antibiotic Abuse on Factory Farms
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/205/866/247

2/ Safer Food
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/546/548/820

THINGS TO DO TODAY -- SUGGESTION #4

For one day, "investigate" what is in your food and where it came from.
(Warning: You may lose your appetite!)


Take care,
Adrian Zupp