No voluminously resounding response followed my last commentary, the one in which I essentially blamed America’s middle class for the USA’s political & social situation. I proposed that our well-paid complacent support of our wealthy controlling Oligarchy is the source of the poverty of 20% of our citizens.

My commentary produced neither a massive hurrah nor an enthusiastic rejection by my small middleclass audience. It primarily produced silence, which I also accused our middle class of too frequently exhibiting.

One friend did respond. He wrote that my thinking is too shallow. His counter to my comments were that America needs a more spiritual God-sourced approach to our poor. His supporting argument contained one oblique mention of our need to counter the influence of Lucifer.

Was his Lucifer reference a metaphor or a faith based belief in an actual Devil? I am not sure. Another follow up message was the question should we all form a committee and spend a fortune establishing the middleclass political activism I proposed? Was this a satirical poke in the nose of my argument. Again, I am not sure.

However, I believe a citizens’ committee of middleclass activists is actually a good idea. Organizing to confront the organized Oligarchy is point on. Our Oligarchy keeps on its self-serving strategic course by meeting annually in Davos, Switzerland to plan its ever-developing tactics. Why should not we the middle class do the same?

Might not such a committee eventually produce a far more focused philosophical agreement among ordinary Americans than presently exists in our drastically divided population? After all, such a committee did eventually produce our Constitution.I believe most all Americans know what would constitute a smarter strategy than the military based one that prevails among all nations. Obviously, it would be some form of international collaborative with a highly-active peace-based initiative.

That would be an entirely rational, economic planning process that is now totally missing from the thinking of America’s and the rest of the world’s national leaders. The United Nations does not accomplish this with all its talk and votes and white papers.

A collaborative organizing process among all nations, diverting the $$ Trillions spent annually on “defense” to an international financial plan economically empowering the U.S.’ s and the world’s poor would be clearly preferable to annually killing tens of thousands in wars.

Although people worldwide say they want peace on Earth, a few thousand years’ human acceptance of war keeps us on our incoherent war trajectory year-by-year. Our self-imposed intellectual paralysis blocks us from behaving rationally.

By the way, do you know which country is literally so peaceful that small children walk the streets of its major cities alone at night without the need for protection?  It is Japan. Our atomic bomb taught the Japanese that their acceptance of their leaders’ warlike aggression in World War II had to be replaced with a new perspective.

Japan motivates its citizens philosophically to support the entire population of Japan rather than obsess on personal wealth. Japan has Capitalism, but a collective version of Capitalism. Could America’s and most countries’ leaders be more short-sighted, than continuing to promote personal wealth and regional wars?

They would have to work incredibly hard to lead us farther astray from common sense than they already have.  And we, the international super-rich and the fumbling wealth-seeking middle class, would have to work incredibly hard to intensify our compliance with the Oligarchy’s concept of keeping 20% and more of our and the world’s people in poverty.

Hal

PS: To accomplish full disclosure, permit me to report that Japan’s police are infamous for abusing accused criminals into confessing to crimes they did not commit. Ours are famous for shooting suspects in public. Therefore, I suppose we must decide if we’d like to try Japan’s more collective version of Capitalism, protecting our children; more equitably share national riches with the poor; and encourage all nations to bring their police forces under control. This striving for a truly civilized planetary society is hard work. What do you think?  Shall we give up or keep trying?