Political parasites pimping the people

“When the African people say, in their plain language, that ‘no matter how hot the water from the well, it will not cook your rice,’ they express with staggering simplicity a basic principle not only of physics but also of political science . . . We also know that on the political level—however fine and attractive the reality of others may be—we can only truly transform our own reality, on the basis of detailed knowledge of it and our own efforts and sacrifices.”—Amilcar Cabral

“The masses are in reality their own leaders, dialectically creating their own development process.”—Rosa Luxemburg

In 21st century ‘America,’ the political pimping [i.e. the intellectual dumbing-down and economic exploitation] of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people has reached systemic epidemic proportions. The result of this is that corporate-government lying, obfuscation, subterfuge, political repression, and perpetual U.S. wars abroad have become the norm rather than the exception.

Biologically black systemic gatekeepers, including Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and a host of others—in conjunction with their white counterparts, et al—have sought (and are seeking) to distort, thwart, disfigure, and minimize the Black liberation struggle and its concomitant narrative in this nation and of oppressed people of all colors in an effort to distract and strangle the legitimate needs and aspirations of ordinary everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and around the world.

With joblessness, home foreclosures, homelessness, and incarceration rates at an all time high, directly impacting all economically disenfranchised communities (and most particularly Black, Brown, and Red communities), these systemic gatekeepers shamelessly engage in the cynical and manipulative ping-pong politics of distraction, omission, and disinformation. They understand all too well that if they can keep everyday people substantively uninformed and misinformed—they can maintain political, economic, and social control. This strategy is utilized by both the corporate Democratic Party foxes and the corporate Republican Party wolves. Like symbiotic political parasites, these corporate parties exploit the hopes and the fears of everyday people. These political parasites combine with one another to keep the mentality and awareness of the U.S. populace at its lowest possible level [via phoney, non-substantive debates, etc.]. The strategy of these political parasites is quite old and very simple. Indeed, its insidiousness is in its simplicity. This parasitic strategy serves to keep the U.S. populace in a constant desultory state, unable to focus on how they are being systemically and systematically manipulated, remaining perpetually at the mercy of the systemic parasitic political pimps.

In addition to legitimate acts of political dissent, the single most ‘subversive’ threat to the hegemonic interests of the corporate/military elite of this nation is the possibility that a substantial portion of the populace might actually engage in critical thinking. This is precisely why the corporate-stream media studiously and substantively avoid presenting everyday people with hard-hitting critical analysis of national and international importance. An overwhelmingly uninformed or misinformed populace is essentially a controlled one.

The ‘lesser of the evils’ trap

At the heart of perpetuating this hypocritical, unjust, corrupt, and fundamentally undemocratic corporate-dominated and controlled U.S. political system is the deliberately ingrained ‘lesser of the evils’ mythology. In other words, so the argument goes, if we do not support the corporate-Democratic Party we’ll get the nasty corporate-Republican Party, or vice-versa. The very premise of this kind of reasoning is an insurance policy for the maintenance of the same despicable corporate system. It is fundamentally flawed. Such reasoning serves to strengthen (not weaken) the cyclical, symbiotic death-grip of both corporate parties upon the populace of this allegedly ‘democratic’ nation.

In the words of the late revolutionary African activist, writer, and poet, Amilcar Cabral, “Only” we, everyday people, “can truly transform our own reality on the basis of detailed knowledge of it and our own efforts and sacrifices.” Transforming our own reality necessitates real systemic change, not reform or window-dressing [non]change, but real systemic change. And in the words of the late noted thinker, activist, and author, Rosa Luxemburg, It is we “the masses” [i.e. everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people] who are, and must increasingly become “in reality our own leaders . . . creating our own development process.”

Too many persons, for far too long, have bought into the fallacious ‘lesser of the evils’ myth. The political struggle to bring about much-needed real systemic change is not some kind of a Hollywood movie production. It is arduous, protracted, and dialectical. It is not some kind of sanitized computer game. It “will not be televised.” And it should not be romanticized. If we understand this then it becomes ever more difficult for the political parasites, irrespective of their color or gender, to dupe us with so-called ‘populist rhetoric,’ because everyday people will be paying close attention to whose economic, political, and social interests these political parasites really serve—not to their cynical and misleading ‘populist rhetoric.’ In this vein, the referenced words of Amilcar Cabral must be remembered, that “‘no matter how hot the water from the well, it will not cook your rice.’” It is everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people who must metaphorically cook our own rice by bringing about real systemic change. Systemic change will not come into being by osmosis. It requires work, a re-gaining of our own everyday people’s narrative, and individual and collective determination.

An obligation to ourselves and the whole of humanity

The obligation to bring about real systemic change at home and put a stop to the insane cycle of perpetual U.S. wars of state-sponsored “terrorism” abroad is perhaps the most important human calling we have at this juncture in history. The combined avaricious scourge of corporate plutocracy and militarism is ravaging our Mother Earth and literally killing our sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers at home and abroad. Common sense tells us that corporate plutocracy and genuine democracy cannot exist simultaneously. It is everyday people, who in the final analysis, must decide in this nation and around the world, which it will be—corporate plutocracy or a genuine everyday people’s democracy.

Time for humanity and Mother Earth is running out! Will we cook our own rice or will we ourselves be cooked by the scalding water of this system’s greed, subterfuge, lies, hypocrisy, and endless wars? The time is here and now for everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people to put aside our petty differences, and for the sake of ourselves, the rest of humanity, and this precious planet that we call Earth, organize and unite to ensure that the fulfillment of our collective human needs triumphs over elitist corporate/military greed. There’s no time now to mourn, or in the immortal words of Joe Hill: “Don’t Mourn. Organize!”

Onward then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.) Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.