As a left-wing columnist I was warned many times not to speak of things from a spiritual or religious perspective. Yet, why must we who care about the morality of this our beloved nation have to ‘tread lightly’ in that arena?
The title of this newest column was taken from one of the truly beautiful moments in a Catholic mass. How many Roman Catholics actually understand it? All religions have similar wonderful prayers or sayings, yet how many of their members assess the connotation? We know what the word earth means, and the word peace, and of course the phrase ‘good will.’ Look at how this planet is imploding with violent acts and overwhelming tensions, along with similar types of weather changes. As an aside, those who study metaphysics know inherently that the mass consciousness of human beings can and does affect the weather, with either positive or negative outcomes. The great novel by Hilton, Lost Horizon, captured how a mass consciousness of positive thinking (good vibes) transformed Shangri-La into a paradise within the frigid and snowy Himalayas. Alas, our weather here in La La Land becomes more violent and irrational every day.
How do many of our fellows out there continue to overlook the continuous behavior of ‘bad will’? Our Amerikan empire, for example, has stuck our noses and our muskets into countless nations around the globe, disregarding the plight of the downtrodden. We have supported and installed corrupt and malevolent dictators across the globe for decades! Our corporations, to paraphrase the late and great Gen. Smedley Butler, use our military as gangsters.
The combination of the Pentagon’s armaments industry friends and the Wall Street Fat Cats (read Gen. Butler’s War Is a Racket) incited and profited from WW1. They followed this path once again, a scant 15 years later, and made fortunes being in bed with Hitler’s Nazi regime in the 1930s. Some of these scoundrels even continued trading with Germany during WW2 (read Hingham’s Trading with the Enemy). Companies like ITT & the Rockefeller family’s Standard Oil of New Jersey made fortunes selling ball bearings and oil to the German war machine (covertly, through their foreign subsidiaries). Of course, the Nazis could never have succeeded in keeping files on the Jews of Germany and Poland if not for the technical support of none other than IBM! Men of good will my foot!
The Vietnam debacle once again proved just how much can be profited from phony wars. Each time a Huey helicopter was shot down by the VC, Bell Helicopter (whose CEO was buddies with LBJ ) got another one million dollars for its replacement. In our recent generation of phony wars, look how much was gained in profits by the political donors to the Bush gang? These corporations first made fortunes by destroying the infrastructure of Iraq, and then made more fortunes in rebuilding it. Each time a drone missile is exploded, killing through collateral damage, how much of our tax dollars is spent? We know that to keep one GI in Afghanistan for a year costs us over one million dollars! One million!
Just about every major industrialized nation out there, due to this ‘Capitalism on steroids’ shits on its working stiffs to some extent. When 1 or 2% of a nation’s population controls more wealth than the bottom 50%, something is amiss . . . and these Fat Cats have the nerve to go to their churches or temples or mosques to worship God?
Worldwide, for it seems forever, we have the landlord. The term comes from feudal societies whereupon the rich owned the land and were thought of as ‘lords of the land.’ They allowed the serfs to live on their estates and pay a rent, either in work or plain cash. No matter what nation, it was and IS the same now. The whole concept of the absentee landlord is against any sort of religious or spiritual thinking. The local community should own the housing and rent it out to the tenant at reduced rates, with the added caveat of the tenant being able, in future, to purchase the place. Imagine that?
Then imagine the concept of having nonprofit community owned and run banking institutions, with mortgages secured for only overhead costs? So, going by today’s current mortgage rates of 4 to 6%, a homeowner could buy a home and pay around 1% for the mortgage. This would transform renters into homeowners, which would increase more homes being built, cabinets and other accessories being needed . . . in a nutshell real and viable economic stimulus! This could never happen in an empire where there are few leaders we could call ‘men (and women) of good will.’
When you strip away all the illusions and delusions of actions against others, the crux of it all has always been GREED. Most wars are created out of greed: for another’s resources, land or cheap (even slave) labor.
To all those Christians out there who think of Jesus as the ‘Son of God’ and worship his every moment on earth, remember this: In Matthew, a rich young man asks Jesus what actions bring eternal life. First Jesus advises the man to obey the commandments. When the man responds that he already observes them, and asks what else he can do, Jesus adds: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Philip A Farruggio is a semi retired baby boomer born and bred in blue collar Brooklyn NYC. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn longshoremen, and educated at ‘ free tuition ‘ Brooklyn College, class of ‘ 74. Philip has written over 300 columns since 2001 and his work is found on many fine progressive sites like World News Trust, Nation of Change, Information Clearinghouse, Intrepid Report, Sleuth Journal, Dandelion Salad, Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. He can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.
RSS
‘ . . . And on earth peace to men of good will’
Posted on February 25, 2016 by Philip A Farruggio
As a left-wing columnist I was warned many times not to speak of things from a spiritual or religious perspective. Yet, why must we who care about the morality of this our beloved nation have to ‘tread lightly’ in that arena?
The title of this newest column was taken from one of the truly beautiful moments in a Catholic mass. How many Roman Catholics actually understand it? All religions have similar wonderful prayers or sayings, yet how many of their members assess the connotation? We know what the word earth means, and the word peace, and of course the phrase ‘good will.’ Look at how this planet is imploding with violent acts and overwhelming tensions, along with similar types of weather changes. As an aside, those who study metaphysics know inherently that the mass consciousness of human beings can and does affect the weather, with either positive or negative outcomes. The great novel by Hilton, Lost Horizon, captured how a mass consciousness of positive thinking (good vibes) transformed Shangri-La into a paradise within the frigid and snowy Himalayas. Alas, our weather here in La La Land becomes more violent and irrational every day.
How do many of our fellows out there continue to overlook the continuous behavior of ‘bad will’? Our Amerikan empire, for example, has stuck our noses and our muskets into countless nations around the globe, disregarding the plight of the downtrodden. We have supported and installed corrupt and malevolent dictators across the globe for decades! Our corporations, to paraphrase the late and great Gen. Smedley Butler, use our military as gangsters.
The combination of the Pentagon’s armaments industry friends and the Wall Street Fat Cats (read Gen. Butler’s War Is a Racket) incited and profited from WW1. They followed this path once again, a scant 15 years later, and made fortunes being in bed with Hitler’s Nazi regime in the 1930s. Some of these scoundrels even continued trading with Germany during WW2 (read Hingham’s Trading with the Enemy). Companies like ITT & the Rockefeller family’s Standard Oil of New Jersey made fortunes selling ball bearings and oil to the German war machine (covertly, through their foreign subsidiaries). Of course, the Nazis could never have succeeded in keeping files on the Jews of Germany and Poland if not for the technical support of none other than IBM! Men of good will my foot!
The Vietnam debacle once again proved just how much can be profited from phony wars. Each time a Huey helicopter was shot down by the VC, Bell Helicopter (whose CEO was buddies with LBJ ) got another one million dollars for its replacement. In our recent generation of phony wars, look how much was gained in profits by the political donors to the Bush gang? These corporations first made fortunes by destroying the infrastructure of Iraq, and then made more fortunes in rebuilding it. Each time a drone missile is exploded, killing through collateral damage, how much of our tax dollars is spent? We know that to keep one GI in Afghanistan for a year costs us over one million dollars! One million!
Just about every major industrialized nation out there, due to this ‘Capitalism on steroids’ shits on its working stiffs to some extent. When 1 or 2% of a nation’s population controls more wealth than the bottom 50%, something is amiss . . . and these Fat Cats have the nerve to go to their churches or temples or mosques to worship God?
Worldwide, for it seems forever, we have the landlord. The term comes from feudal societies whereupon the rich owned the land and were thought of as ‘lords of the land.’ They allowed the serfs to live on their estates and pay a rent, either in work or plain cash. No matter what nation, it was and IS the same now. The whole concept of the absentee landlord is against any sort of religious or spiritual thinking. The local community should own the housing and rent it out to the tenant at reduced rates, with the added caveat of the tenant being able, in future, to purchase the place. Imagine that?
Then imagine the concept of having nonprofit community owned and run banking institutions, with mortgages secured for only overhead costs? So, going by today’s current mortgage rates of 4 to 6%, a homeowner could buy a home and pay around 1% for the mortgage. This would transform renters into homeowners, which would increase more homes being built, cabinets and other accessories being needed . . . in a nutshell real and viable economic stimulus! This could never happen in an empire where there are few leaders we could call ‘men (and women) of good will.’
When you strip away all the illusions and delusions of actions against others, the crux of it all has always been GREED. Most wars are created out of greed: for another’s resources, land or cheap (even slave) labor.
To all those Christians out there who think of Jesus as the ‘Son of God’ and worship his every moment on earth, remember this: In Matthew, a rich young man asks Jesus what actions bring eternal life. First Jesus advises the man to obey the commandments. When the man responds that he already observes them, and asks what else he can do, Jesus adds: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Philip A Farruggio is a semi retired baby boomer born and bred in blue collar Brooklyn NYC. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn longshoremen, and educated at ‘ free tuition ‘ Brooklyn College, class of ‘ 74. Philip has written over 300 columns since 2001 and his work is found on many fine progressive sites like World News Trust, Nation of Change, Information Clearinghouse, Intrepid Report, Sleuth Journal, Dandelion Salad, Counterpunch and Dissident Voice. He can be reached at paf1222@bellsouth.net.