We’ve all always been ‘boxed in.’ Our rents and mortgages, higher than they should be, our too high cable and power bills, car payments . . . really a myriad of debts that box us into this empire. You see, it has all been orchestrated by not even the so called ‘one percent.’
No , it becomes much more finer than that with perhaps 1/10th of the 1% that rules us all. As with the announcer on the 1960s Sci Fi show The Outer Limits: “We are controlling transmission . . .” so the very rich and powerful own our political system, our corporate world, our media and even, sadly, our revisionist history. They created the phony left vs. right paradigm, morphing it into this Red State vs. Blue State hogwash of Republican vs. Democrat claptrap. They needed a compliant media to go along so they only give credence (duh, air and print time ) to journalists and pundits who play ball with the empire.
Big Oil and Big Gas ply us with propaganda that we need higher prices to sustain our economy. They sell us the lie that fracking is safe. Big Pharma owns most of the mainstream medical profession, so it is easy to push drugs into our mouths over more natural and homeopathic treatments. The food we eat is not properly regulated by our government because, well, profit trumps public health and safety. In addition to forbidding cigarette smoking in restaurants, they should outlaw deep frying and saturated fats! You know they won’t, just like the empire will never voluntarily withdraw from our military presence worldwide, along with the phony so called ‘wars’ we engage in. Not good for business!
So, we are all, whether we like it or not, boxed in. There is a way out if you dare to attempt it. No, not through violent revolution at all. Rather, the first step is through rejection or as Gandhi preached ‘peaceful non cooperation.’ Stop voting for anyone who runs under the banner of the Two Party system . . . period! Stop watching all the crap thrown our way on the mainstream and even alternative media. Begin to slowly (because it does take time) pick and choose away from the corporations that really suck. Open bank accounts with credit unions and not major banks. Shop at farmers markets and local stores or at least local chains and not just at Walmart and the big boxes. Not easy to do, but can be done. And most of all, get out with other kindred spirits and stand in regular peaceful protest against what Eisenhower himself labeled a Military Industrial Complex which bankrupts us fiscally and spiritually. Forget about the labels of left vs. right. Seek out common ground with others who reject the current political system, focusing on pulling back this empire . . . before it closes up that box even further.
Philip A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He is a free lance columnist (found on Nation of Change Blog, Truthout.org, TheSleuthJournal.com, Worldnewstrust.com, Intrepid Report , The Peoples Voice, Information Clearing house, Dandelion Salad, Activist Post, Dissident Voice and many other sites worldwide). Philip works as an environmental products sales rep and has been an activist leader since 2000. In 2010 he became a local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending 25%. Philip can be reached at PAF1222@bellsouth.net.
Good description of how more of the population is becoming “boxed in” and ripped off by the rapacious pigs on Wall St and their puppet politicians. The growth of the police state fits with the view that the bottom of the economy is “surplus” people who must be controlled, imprisoned, and murdered with impunity because there will be no jobs for them. Yes, stop supporting banks and corporations; but organized resistance must be mounted. Dropping out was tried in the 60s to no avail. Resistance must be non-violent (because the Empire controls the weapons), and it must offer a coherent program to replace the current system with one that serves humanity and eliminates greed and selfish individualism.
Turning off the rectangular screen is not all that difficult! Toxic people yearn for toxic “news”We are populated by a country of victims and complainers.These same individuals would never advocate public banking,a parliamentary system of government,vote for a third party candidate nor read classic literature.The police are inundated with surplus military gadgets,the”affordable”care act will do nothing but cause layoffs-increase costs to consumers and pad big pharma and insurance company profits! I have never heard a politician discuss our food supply,investing in local communities nor term limits. We don’t have to exist in a box-just open the lid!
Yes, turn off and away from that which keeps you small. We do not have the words for it yet, the sixties started but we now are in the dark as to where we are, the words don’t come as its new. But they will.
You pretty much captured the fix we’re all in, Phil. I’m glad that you offered actions that we can all take to begin to detach and free ourselves from this “box” we’re in. Let’s see more of our fellows wake up to and free themselves of the biggest trap there is to neutralize the power of we the people … that being their allegiance to one side or the other of the false left-right, democrat-repulbican, liberal-conservative paradigm. Reclaim your own self identities people and begin to think for yourselves!