Democracy. Is it Dead in the U.S.?

I've lifted much of this comment from a blog site. I've left out the specific references to a column written for the Washington Post. The Blog can be found at "Comments From Left Field" consistently ranked in the top 10 most influential blogs in Pennsylvania.

Moon.
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The Concert of Democracies? What Democracies?

The core of the current sales strategy for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan seems to be that wars of intervention will be perfectly fine with everyone - “legitimate” - if Western democracies agree they’re fine.

A key element missing from all discussions about US military imperialism in the pursuit of oil, is Democracy. The world, indeed the U.S., is in need of democracy now more than ever: Exactly which countries can be considered democratic at this point in time?

An almost untalked-about trend toward fascism is taking place in a number of the usual suspects. The US is arguably in the final stage of transforming American society into outright fascism, Australia is coming up to being about half-way through the process, France is on the cusp right now, having recently elected a fascist as President who has installed an overtly fascist Cabinet, and even the usually reliable Canada has a Prime Minister who’s flirting with corporatizing his government, restraining civil liberties, and spying on Canadian citizens without their knowledge or permission.

So far, of the old “major Western democracies” only two, Britain and Germany, seem not to have been infected by this contagion of movement to the far right. Britain waves at it and smiles a friendly, toothy smile but does nothing substantial despite Thatcher’s hot-handed love affair with it 20 years ago, and while Germany is suffering yet another rise of fascist influence in the hinterlands, the German govt has managed to keep it at a safe (?) distance. For now.

But this recent paucity of full-fledged democracies in the West raises an important question no one is addressing: what happens to the very concept of democracy - rule by the people rather than by aristocrats and oligarchs - if its sturdiest historical champions are busily dumping it for autocracies run by corporate managers and heavily authoritarian demagogues ruling through stolen elections?

In fact, if the US can
o shred its Constitution,
o allow rigged elections to be certified by the highest legal authority,
o use mercenaries to fight its wars,
o turn govt agencies over to corporate executives who run them as if they were branch offices,
o allow laws to be written by corporate lobbyists to serve corporate interests,
o design foreign policies, economic policies, domestic policies and all other policies based on corporate agendas,
o give law enforcement and intelligence agencies virtually the same unchecked powers to spy on American citizens as the KGB or Stasi used to have,
o strip habeus corpus from military prisoners,
o arrest people for wearing t-shirts critical of the current leader,
o and allow high govt officials to escape any accountability whatever for blatantly illegal acts

- if the US can do all this and still call itself a “democracy”, does the word have any meaning any more? Or has it become the equivalent of the word “Fresh” on a box of laundry soap?

Can fascist western pseudo-democracies be allowed to conference with each other to decide which theft of national resources is acceptable? Is the only issue how they’re going to divvy up the spoils - without bothering to acknowledge, let alone obey, the wishes of the citizens who “elected” them. You know, like the dictators and emperors of the Axis Powers got together in the 30’s and divvied up the planet between them.

At that point, can “democracy” even be said to exist?

Henry, Dorothy, Benedict, and Anthony

Henry Who?

Henri J.M Nouwen was born in 1932, and ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1957. A teacher and a psychologist from 1964 to 1982 at Notre Dame, Harvard, and Yale. He spent time as a missionary to Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras. In his last years of life, he was a pastor at L'Arche Daybreak, a community for handicapped adults in Canada. He wrote over 30 books.
He started working with intellectuals and progressed to a life with disabled adults. He evolved from a college professor of psychology to a man living with the disabled and loving it. What is the value of the disabled? According to Henry he got and received Mercy. With the disabled. "What makes us human is not our mind, but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love."

The inspiration to me: The importance of Mercy. My daughter Michelle is developmentally disabled. That quote on ‘what makes us human’ has a specific and real meaning for me. Michelle has a great ability to love. I depend on the mercy of others everyday Michelle goes out into the world.

Dorothy Day (November 8, 1897 - November 29, 1980), initially Marxist, became Catholic in 1927. She was the cofounder in 1933 of the Catholic Worker Movement, which espouses nonviolent action, and hospitality for the homeless, hungry and forsaken.
The movement started with the Catholic Worker newspaper she and a fellow social activist founded. This paper took a neutral, pacifist position in the war-torn 1930s. She opened a "house of hospitality" in the slums of New York City. The movement quickly spread to other cities in the US, and to Canada England and seven other countries. Well over 100 communities exist today.

“We don't happen to believe that Washington, D.C., is the moral capital of America.... If you want to know the kind of politics we seek, you can go to your history books and read about the early years of this country. We would like to see more small communities organizing themselves, people talking with people, people caring for people ... we believe we are doing what our Founding Fathers came here to do, to worship God in the communities they settled. They were farmers. They were crafts-people. They took care of each other. They prayed to God, and they thanked Him for showing them the way--to America!

The inspiration to me: The effect of Action – with a capital A – on the world around us. Dorothy Day did what she could and made a difference. It encouraged me to do the same. You’ve seen me in the cafeteria raising funds for Ability First. My wife and I actually helped Ability First get a building, find a staff, find families that needed a place that would provide After School care for their developmentally disabled child. Until they opened their doors five years ago. Action – and not just any action but a right action. That’s what I’m talking about.

Benedict 480 – 547 The founder of the Order of Saint Benedict. Do you know of the black robed monks called Benedictines? Do you know of the abbey in Italy named Monte Cassino? That is the site where he built the abbey on the ruins of a temple of Apollo. He wrote the Rule of Benedict – the rule book referred to and used in some way by most Chrisitian monasteries.

Benedict promotes a balanced pattern of living and praying. According to a Gregory, one of his biographers, Benedict told him about a vision received toward the end of his life: In the dead of night he suddenly beheld a flood of light shining down from above more brilliant than the sun, and with it every trace of darkness cleared away. The whole world was gathered up before his eyes "in what appeared to be a single ray of light".

I’m an Oblate. Oblates are men and women living in the world according to the spirit of Saint Benedict and are always affiliated with a particular monastery. I am affiliated with Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside.

The effect on me: It’s a hard practice. The black robed monks of Prince of Peace gather together to read psalms, sermons, and prayers five times a day. I consistently find other things to do with my time. Occasionally I remember to trust God and pray. That abbey and those monks remind me that the focus and pace of life can be measured. That one can have the time to sit quietly and feel the grace of God. That one can listen and sing along with a group of monks and know that same psalm has been sung in this manner for many centuries. Timeless. At peace. Loved.

I’m not claiming sainthood – as any one who knows me could prove otherwise. I’m sharing an inspiration

Anthony Caciagli. My wifes father. My father in law. When Denise and I were trying to buy our first house he let us move in (with a baby) for a month to save money. He modeled this thing he called ‘dining’. To dine is to go to a fine restaurant with family or friends and enjoy several wines, several courses, and good conversation. I was raised on fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas & carrots. Before Anthony wine was something the vacuum cleaner did. A few Anthonyisms:

‘Never go to bed Angry’

A couple should sleep in the same bed

Is it free? Take two!

If you can’t pay for it cash, don’t buy it.

Didjaeat?

Gimme a Hug.

Charity Begins at Home

The effect on me: My father in law models a joy and wisdom on married life. I come from a family that exploded. Parents divorced, fought, moved around the country. Brothers scattered to the four corners of the U.S. Anthony showed me another way. ‘Gimee a Hug and how about a glass of wine’?

Mercy: Henry Nouwen
You get it when you give it. It is a disposition to be kind and forgiving. It is the alleviation of distress. It beats Judgement every time. Which would you rather have: Judgement or Mercy?

Action: Dorothy Day
There can be no action without prayer and no prayer without action.
We are called to liberation and may only achieve it by conferring to others the freedom we seek for ourselves.

Balance: Benedict
Work and Prayer. Action and Silence. Routine and Change. All in balance.

Commitment: Anthony

‘Never go to bed Angry’ and my favorite 'A couple should sleep in the same bed

Anthony is married over 50 years. Commitment.

Turn off the TV

Turn off The TV. Permanently.· Credit Card Balance, Level of Anxiety, Personal Relationships, Health…and TV. They’re all connected. And not in a good way. When you go home this evening pickup your TV remote and ask it “Who’s in Charge Here?”.

TV Can Not Relax You
When you turn the TV on, in effect, you turn the world off.
The viewer has absolutely no control over the images. You can change the channel, and get to watch more of the same.

A key point I want to make: There is a difference between your own thoughts and those poured into you. The medium of television is controlled by the sender, not the viewer. Images just flow, one after the next.

"The television is the easiest, quickest and cheapest way to distract yourself from how you already feel that's ever been invented." Quote from a psychologist

TV Watching doesn’t produce an "empty mind." Images are pouring into it. Your mind is not quiet or calm or empty. What's worse, your mind is filled with someone else's obsessive thoughts and images."

Television offers neither rest nor stimulation. You may experience a time out from obsessive thought patterns, but that's as far as television goes

· Television inhibits your ability to think, does not lead to freedom of mind, relaxation, or renewal.

The function of TV is to create, maintain and constantly reinforce could be called "monkey-mind." What is the good of a jumpy, volatile, scattered and hyper monkey-mind? Any connection to anxiety? We’ll get to that a bit later.

TV Exists to Sell

To watch TV is to be lifeless and unresisting. This is the state that allows the commercials to take full effect and operate our minds for us.
Why do you think they call it programming?
Television is advertising. It is a medium whose purpose is to sell, to promote
The images come at you at the pace of the advertiser; the viewer watches passively.
"When you really think about it, it isn’t a free country -- everything is bought and sold and owned."

Sales, by definition, is the process of convincing someone to purchase what they don't need. Advertising tries to convince someone that the solution to a problem or the fulfillment of a desire can only be achieved through the purchase of a product.
Commercials are the reason for TV: If your head hurts: buy Motrin (or some other pain relieving drug). Is your stomach empty? Drive your Vibe to Jack in the Box or Wendys. Is your furniture dusty? Get some Lemon Fresh Pledge. Every guy wants a fast Mustang and every girl wants to look like Brittany Spears.

How much of what you bought with that credit card ‘balance’ money do you really need and use? See any connection between credit card balances and TV?

TV is Very Big Business – and Nothing but Business

Ten companies in this country control 90 percent of what ordinary people are able to read and watch on their television

Government does not deregulate, but re-regulates and changes the rules to serve the corporate interests. "The U.S. media system -- even its most 'free market' sectors -- is the direct result of explicitly government policies and in fact would not exist without those policies

The Big 10
AOL/Time/Warner 36
AT&T 66
General Electric 130
News Corporation 12
Viacom 20
Bertelsman 16
Walt Disney Co 25
Vivendi Universal 37
Liberty Media 42
Sony 53
Total 437 Billion think they have any influence?

The number of television sets in U.S. households in 2001: 248 million
The percentage of households with at least one TV in 2001: 98.2%
The average number of TVs per home in 2001: 2.4
The estimated average annual rate for cable TV in 2002: $ 416.52
The number of stores that primarily sold televisions and other electronic equipment in 2001: 21,724
245,000 employees work at 6,692 cable TV networks and program distribution firms with revenue of $11.7 billion

"The TV business ... is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs." -- Hunter S. Thompson

What is TV Watching Physically?

Herbert Krugman of the Advertising Research Foundation found TV induces a type of "sleeping awake" activity. TV watching will cause the watcher to lose touch with the body - and the brain begins to play." You're not asleep and not awake.

It's midnight and you are staring at the TV and can't turn it off. You sit watching commercials blankly and unthinking.

People choose a position for viewing that allows the maximum comfort and least motion ... thinking processes also dim.

While watching TV our bodies are in a quieter condition over a longer period of time than in any other of life's nonsleeping experiences. This is true even for the eyes ... the eyes move less while watching television than in any other experience of daily life.

We don’t leave that darkly lit TV room and go up into the sunlight, we merely watch an image of ourselves doing this, we fantasize about doing it, and think it's the same.

See any connection between obesity and TV?

It is easier to shorten attention spans and increase distraction than to lengthen attention spans, increase concentration, and calm, quiet and still the mind.

A worker at a TV station says, she thinks "TV is like a drug. . . Sure, just try taking it away from them." One can say it’s the opium of the people.

Where Does the Time Go?

The projected number of hours that adults (age 18 and older) will watch television in 2004: 1,669 (This is the equivalent of about 70 days.)

The percentage of people age 18 that watch television: 94.3%

Americans age 65 and over are more likely to be glued to the tube (97%) than any other age group.

Children in the U.S. will spend more time in front of the television (1,023 hours) than in school this year (900 hours).”

"American children and adolescents more time watching TV than any other activity except sleeping. By the age of 70 they will have spent 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV." -- The Kaiser Family Foundation

Turn if Off

Many a living room is arranged around the television set rather than for communication or interaction. The interior design of the average American living room is very similar an average American church with its ranscendent altar, lines of homage and gestures of genuflection. Except in the home the altar is a TV.

· Do you watch TV? Are you an expert. Admit it – we’re all "experts,"

· Do this over the next week or so: Watch television for one half hour without turning it on. "I wasted 30 minutes of my time." Is it possible that this is a very valuable waste of time? The truth is we’ve all wasted a lot more than a half hour in front of the TV set.

· The only way to escape the images is to turn the machine off.

· Are you ready to get off the couch, out of the recliner, out of the easy chair and Turn off the TV and set down the remote? It’s a big world out there and it isn’t virtual. It’s real.