In bars across America, troubled souls uneasily perch on synthetic-leather swiveling stools, vacuously staring at the nothingness between near and far focus, while big-screen digital televisions with the volume muted show SportsCenter.
The ESPN hosts laugh about something, but it’s as disconnected and unknown as whatever might be happening, unseen, on the street outside.
Sips are sadly drawn from glasses filled with mixtures futilely bought under the bankrupt hope that this elixir or that can make the shared unease go away.
It doesn’t.
It lingers—it builds—becoming a steady discomfort in the pits of many thousand stomachs, as the patrons ultimately leave, heading home to spouses and children with growing anxieties of their own.
There was a time in this country when its people could be genuinely happy about their lives, particularly their family lives.
Now we’re mostly faking it, occasionally smiling and laughing, but muted as to heartfelt purpose.
A wholly different emotion percolates within.
We’re fearfully uncertain about our future, not just individually, but as a collective, stressed-out mass increasingly feeling that the great and glorious USA of formerly comforting certitude is losing its hold on societal viability itself.
There may be a strong and prosperous China in twenty years, we think, but probably not a similarly positioned United States.
Making everything much worse is the haziness surrounding what’s actually causing us all to be so bummed out.
There’s vague perception regarding general cultural decay, economic inequities that always reward Wall Street while Main Street suffers, and an amorphous sense that our previously much-vaunted system just doesn’t function anymore.
But why?
And what can be done about it?
Those are the unanswered questions that gnaw at our souls, from dawn till dusk, and even in the throes of fitful sleep.
Brutally honest assessments by keen analysts lead us to this conclusion: Capitalism in systemic, global crisis is so beset by limiting contradictions that it can’t simultaneously satisfy the avarice of corporate and financial high rollers and the basic needs of ordinary citizens.
Consequently, tons of profit fill upper-crust coffers, where it’s held in unproductive abeyance.
Since that money was chiefly derived by exploiting abused workers left in dreadful shape as a result of being ripped off for extended periods, they desperately now require the safety-net relief programs that access to those essentially stolen funds could easily provide.
But political conservatives make sure it stays securely put.
If it goes anywhere at all, it’s invested overseas, in places where sweatshop realities cruelly prevail and even more wealth can narrowly be accumulated by human parasites totally devoid of conscience.
That fundamental lack of morality defining our rapacious ruling class also manifests itself in a perfect willingness to completely corrupt overall culture, for profit of course, and thereby degrade our entire national environment.
Small wonder, then, that Joe and Jill Average are brimming with angst, forced to live unhappy, unrewarding lives in the midst of endlessly manipulative scammers and hucksters, where no amount of looking can find redemptive outposts of sustainable decency.
Capitalism has become humanity’s worst, most fraudulent bane.
It can’t be made good again—it never actually was—and its replacement by authentically democratic socialism is imperative.
Majority wage-earners need to take direct ownership not only of their job sites, where profits would be fairly shared, but of government and all other institutions presently used strictly for the gain of those who can best afford the worst lobbyists that tainted dollars can buy.
Public welfare and the common good must be relentlessly served, through the most direct and truly free votes of typical folks, not betrayed by professional politicians beholden to the plundering few.
Once all this is accomplished and we become our own bosses, we can go out for a few drinks within an entirely different context.
Everyone seated will have a clear commitment to everyone else’s advancement and prosperity.
Issues of justice and mutual betterment will be earnestly discussed.
Bonds of solidarity will be forged.
And, when we choose to go home, it’ll be to families that enjoy the profound liberty of always having the freedom to never know want, or pervasive degradation rotting their societal surroundings.
Looking forward to eventually toasting that achieved, bright status should definitely boost our spirits today.
See you at the People’s Pub, after justice triumphs and workers take control . . . as they inevitably will!
Dennis Rahkonen, from Superior, Wisconsin, has been writing progressive commentary with a Heartland perspective for various outlets since the sixties.
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Let’s gather for a round of drinks down at the People’s Pub
Posted on August 6, 2013 by Dennis Rahkonen
In bars across America, troubled souls uneasily perch on synthetic-leather swiveling stools, vacuously staring at the nothingness between near and far focus, while big-screen digital televisions with the volume muted show SportsCenter.
The ESPN hosts laugh about something, but it’s as disconnected and unknown as whatever might be happening, unseen, on the street outside.
Sips are sadly drawn from glasses filled with mixtures futilely bought under the bankrupt hope that this elixir or that can make the shared unease go away.
It doesn’t.
It lingers—it builds—becoming a steady discomfort in the pits of many thousand stomachs, as the patrons ultimately leave, heading home to spouses and children with growing anxieties of their own.
There was a time in this country when its people could be genuinely happy about their lives, particularly their family lives.
Now we’re mostly faking it, occasionally smiling and laughing, but muted as to heartfelt purpose.
A wholly different emotion percolates within.
We’re fearfully uncertain about our future, not just individually, but as a collective, stressed-out mass increasingly feeling that the great and glorious USA of formerly comforting certitude is losing its hold on societal viability itself.
There may be a strong and prosperous China in twenty years, we think, but probably not a similarly positioned United States.
Making everything much worse is the haziness surrounding what’s actually causing us all to be so bummed out.
There’s vague perception regarding general cultural decay, economic inequities that always reward Wall Street while Main Street suffers, and an amorphous sense that our previously much-vaunted system just doesn’t function anymore.
But why?
And what can be done about it?
Those are the unanswered questions that gnaw at our souls, from dawn till dusk, and even in the throes of fitful sleep.
Brutally honest assessments by keen analysts lead us to this conclusion: Capitalism in systemic, global crisis is so beset by limiting contradictions that it can’t simultaneously satisfy the avarice of corporate and financial high rollers and the basic needs of ordinary citizens.
Consequently, tons of profit fill upper-crust coffers, where it’s held in unproductive abeyance.
Since that money was chiefly derived by exploiting abused workers left in dreadful shape as a result of being ripped off for extended periods, they desperately now require the safety-net relief programs that access to those essentially stolen funds could easily provide.
But political conservatives make sure it stays securely put.
If it goes anywhere at all, it’s invested overseas, in places where sweatshop realities cruelly prevail and even more wealth can narrowly be accumulated by human parasites totally devoid of conscience.
That fundamental lack of morality defining our rapacious ruling class also manifests itself in a perfect willingness to completely corrupt overall culture, for profit of course, and thereby degrade our entire national environment.
Small wonder, then, that Joe and Jill Average are brimming with angst, forced to live unhappy, unrewarding lives in the midst of endlessly manipulative scammers and hucksters, where no amount of looking can find redemptive outposts of sustainable decency.
Capitalism has become humanity’s worst, most fraudulent bane.
It can’t be made good again—it never actually was—and its replacement by authentically democratic socialism is imperative.
Majority wage-earners need to take direct ownership not only of their job sites, where profits would be fairly shared, but of government and all other institutions presently used strictly for the gain of those who can best afford the worst lobbyists that tainted dollars can buy.
Public welfare and the common good must be relentlessly served, through the most direct and truly free votes of typical folks, not betrayed by professional politicians beholden to the plundering few.
Once all this is accomplished and we become our own bosses, we can go out for a few drinks within an entirely different context.
Everyone seated will have a clear commitment to everyone else’s advancement and prosperity.
Issues of justice and mutual betterment will be earnestly discussed.
Bonds of solidarity will be forged.
And, when we choose to go home, it’ll be to families that enjoy the profound liberty of always having the freedom to never know want, or pervasive degradation rotting their societal surroundings.
Looking forward to eventually toasting that achieved, bright status should definitely boost our spirits today.
See you at the People’s Pub, after justice triumphs and workers take control . . . as they inevitably will!
Dennis Rahkonen, from Superior, Wisconsin, has been writing progressive commentary with a Heartland perspective for various outlets since the sixties.