“Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.”—Erich Fromm
“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that would be extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.”—Frantz Fanon
It took the ardently “anti-communist” Richard M. Nixon to officially recognize the political existence of the People’s Republic of China. But it took the nominally “black” and supposedly “progressive” Barack H. Obama to cleverly facilitate, and greatly enhance, the growth of de factocorporate/military fascism (i.e. unbridled corporate hegemony) right here in the United States.
The absurdity of it taking decades for the United States to officially and diplomatically recognize the political existence of a nation with over a fifth of the earth’s population (namely the People’s Republic of China, or so-called mainland China), was to many, correctly viewed as the height of irrationality. Yet, irrationality has long been a cornerstone of U.S. systemic politics, and it has been systemically and systematically ingrained into the psyche of a large segment of the U.S. populace who have been mentally dumbed-down from cradle to grave.
The tardy official U.S. recognition of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was in fact a maneuver by the U.S. to score a geopolitical advantage against the then Soviet Union with the additional objective of procuring cheaper economic markets on behalf of the U.S. corporate elite. This would not have been accepted, much less applauded, by a sizable portion of the U.S. populace had it not been Richard Nixon (versus a perceived so-called liberal) who carried out that strategy on behalf of the corporate elite. Seemingly irrational? Yes. Fiendishly clever? Absolutely.
Likewise, the corporately manufacturedbrand or image of then U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama as being a supposed “progressive,” was fiendishly clever on the part of the blood-sucking U.S. corporate/military elite. The corporate-stream media played, and continues to play, its insidious role of forming opinion rather than informing public opinion, and pertaining to Obama, what better way to further entrench a corporate plutocracy in this nation than to install the ever so articulate, corporate-backed Barack Obama as the first nominally “black” U.S. president?! Who could have possibly doubted that this was a step forward for ordinary everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people—when, in fact, it was just the opposite? For the record, there were indeed some who did sound the alarm about the scheme that the corporate/ military elite were hatching in the person of then candidate Barack Obama, but the minds of so many non-critically thinking people had been overwhelmingly disarmed by the corporate-stream media.
It is utterly irrational to believe that the corporate elite, whose bottom line is profit (i.e. legalized thievery), would equitably share their wealth with the everyday people from whom that wealth emanated. In this same vein, there is a ridiculous and baseless theory of economics referred to as the so-called ‘trickle-down’ theory which was devised to serve the interests of the corporate elite. This irrational, economically unsound, and baseless ‘trickle-down’ theory essentially says that if the avaricious corporate elite are financially allowed unbridled access to, and control of, the economic markets, the entire national economy will somehow mysteriously thrive due to the (nonexistent) good graces and good fortunes of said elite. Of course it does not take a Harvard trained economist to know that theory is nonsense. It is yet another example of a rationale of irrationality. The fact is that the more profit the corporate elite receives, the more it wants.The greed of this elite can never be satisfied. Thus, instead of providing decent paying jobs, etc., to the masses of everyday people in this nation, this corporate elite simply takes the jobs elsewhere (outside of this nation) to cheaper ‘markets’ where the economic blood-sucking of everyday people is much easier and the profit margins for the corporate elite are even more astronomical. The everyday people here and abroad be damned!
So it is that we now have Barack Obama (and his Democrat and Republican Party accomplices) who have given trillions of dollars to Wall Street, pharmaceutical, insurance, utility and banking corporations. We also have the constant barrage of ping-pong political double-speak,incessant corporate-stream media infusions of disinformation, distractions, false “hope,” and of course no genuine “change” (except of the worse kind) for everyday people.
On the irrational rationale for perpetual war
In the third year of the Obama presidency in this 21st century, the irrational rationale for war is none other than that war brings about peace and security. This, of course, is precisely what Obama’s predecessors also pontificated.
We are told that we must sacrifice constitutional freedoms at home for the peace and security of perpetual war. What rubbish! The greatest casualties of war are civil liberties and our own humanity.
The only ones who benefit from war are the corporate/military elite who oversee, and profit from, the manufacturing of bombs, missiles, warplanes, tanks, war ships, bullets, and other war-related materials. Indeed, these corporate elite make a killing financially and quite literally.
In addition to the enormous human carnage brought about by war, racism and concomitant injustices, are also fanned and reinforced by the flames and horrors of war. The rationale for war is utterly irrational for everyday people everywhere who are always its primary victims.
We are well into the second decade of the 21st century, and it is time to stop the wars, stop the economic blood-sucking, stop the greed and find creative and revolutionary methods to usher in a new human worthy of the collective human family.
It is time for real change—change that will only be brought about by we everyday people like ourselves. Each one, teach one. Let us organize for the good of this nation and of Mother Earth collectively. Things do not have to continue as they are. Our rallying call is: We can do this because we must do this!
Onward then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!
Intrepid Report Associate Editor, 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, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator,Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). 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.)
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The rationale of irrationality
Posted on September 30, 2011 by Larry Pinkney
It took the ardently “anti-communist” Richard M. Nixon to officially recognize the political existence of the People’s Republic of China. But it took the nominally “black” and supposedly “progressive” Barack H. Obama to cleverly facilitate, and greatly enhance, the growth of de facto corporate/military fascism (i.e. unbridled corporate hegemony) right here in the United States.
The absurdity of it taking decades for the United States to officially and diplomatically recognize the political existence of a nation with over a fifth of the earth’s population (namely the People’s Republic of China, or so-called mainland China), was to many, correctly viewed as the height of irrationality. Yet, irrationality has long been a cornerstone of U.S. systemic politics, and it has been systemically and systematically ingrained into the psyche of a large segment of the U.S. populace who have been mentally dumbed-down from cradle to grave.
The tardy official U.S. recognition of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was in fact a maneuver by the U.S. to score a geopolitical advantage against the then Soviet Union with the additional objective of procuring cheaper economic markets on behalf of the U.S. corporate elite. This would not have been accepted, much less applauded, by a sizable portion of the U.S. populace had it not been Richard Nixon (versus a perceived so-called liberal) who carried out that strategy on behalf of the corporate elite. Seemingly irrational? Yes. Fiendishly clever? Absolutely.
Likewise, the corporately manufactured brand or image of then U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama as being a supposed “progressive,” was fiendishly clever on the part of the blood-sucking U.S. corporate/military elite. The corporate-stream media played, and continues to play, its insidious role of forming opinion rather than informing public opinion, and pertaining to Obama, what better way to further entrench a corporate plutocracy in this nation than to install the ever so articulate, corporate-backed Barack Obama as the first nominally “black” U.S. president?! Who could have possibly doubted that this was a step forward for ordinary everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people—when, in fact, it was just the opposite? For the record, there were indeed some who did sound the alarm about the scheme that the corporate/ military elite were hatching in the person of then candidate Barack Obama, but the minds of so many non-critically thinking people had been overwhelmingly disarmed by the corporate-stream media.
It is utterly irrational to believe that the corporate elite, whose bottom line is profit (i.e. legalized thievery), would equitably share their wealth with the everyday people from whom that wealth emanated. In this same vein, there is a ridiculous and baseless theory of economics referred to as the so-called ‘trickle-down’ theory which was devised to serve the interests of the corporate elite. This irrational, economically unsound, and baseless ‘trickle-down’ theory essentially says that if the avaricious corporate elite are financially allowed unbridled access to, and control of, the economic markets, the entire national economy will somehow mysteriously thrive due to the (nonexistent) good graces and good fortunes of said elite. Of course it does not take a Harvard trained economist to know that theory is nonsense. It is yet another example of a rationale of irrationality. The fact is that the more profit the corporate elite receives, the more it wants. The greed of this elite can never be satisfied. Thus, instead of providing decent paying jobs, etc., to the masses of everyday people in this nation, this corporate elite simply takes the jobs elsewhere (outside of this nation) to cheaper ‘markets’ where the economic blood-sucking of everyday people is much easier and the profit margins for the corporate elite are even more astronomical. The everyday people here and abroad be damned!
So it is that we now have Barack Obama (and his Democrat and Republican Party accomplices) who have given trillions of dollars to Wall Street, pharmaceutical, insurance, utility and banking corporations. We also have the constant barrage of ping-pong political double-speak, incessant corporate-stream media infusions of disinformation, distractions, false “hope,” and of course no genuine “change” (except of the worse kind) for everyday people.
On the irrational rationale for perpetual war
In the third year of the Obama presidency in this 21st century, the irrational rationale for war is none other than that war brings about peace and security. This, of course, is precisely what Obama’s predecessors also pontificated.
We are told that we must sacrifice constitutional freedoms at home for the peace and security of perpetual war. What rubbish! The greatest casualties of war are civil liberties and our own humanity.
The only ones who benefit from war are the corporate/military elite who oversee, and profit from, the manufacturing of bombs, missiles, warplanes, tanks, war ships, bullets, and other war-related materials. Indeed, these corporate elite make a killing financially and quite literally.
In addition to the enormous human carnage brought about by war, racism and concomitant injustices, are also fanned and reinforced by the flames and horrors of war. The rationale for war is utterly irrational for everyday people everywhere who are always its primary victims.
We are well into the second decade of the 21st century, and it is time to stop the wars, stop the economic blood-sucking, stop the greed and find creative and revolutionary methods to usher in a new human worthy of the collective human family.
It is time for real change—change that will only be brought about by we everyday people like ourselves. Each one, teach one. Let us organize for the good of this nation and of Mother Earth collectively. Things do not have to continue as they are. Our rallying call is: We can do this because we must do this!
Onward then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!
Intrepid Report Associate Editor, 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, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). 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.)