When I boarded the bus in Concepcion, Chile I was looking forward to riding the next 17 hours of this journey to Bariloche, Argentina in comfort. Growing up in the US I was not exposed to this mode of transportation until somewhat later in life. At 28 I boarded a Greyhound from the Ohio Valley to La Grande Oregon to visit one of my brothers. After spending a month there I returned to the Ohio Valley but only long enough to collect my stuff and set off to southwest Texas, again by bus.
Before this while in Oregon I had found a summer job in Texas at Big Bend National Park. On these many thousands of miles traveling my eyes were beginning to open to a different reality. I was later asked about any observations from my travels and the one thing that stood out. I remembered as I changed buses in Texas to begin the long drive into the desert of SW Texas that I immediately noticed how much nicer the bus was.
Maybe the first thing I actually noticed, being from the Ohio Valley was I was the minority here. Every passenger on this bus was Latino except for me. That and like I said, the bus was so much more deluxe than any bus I had ridden in that summer. As I settled into the soft padded seat I was happy to notice movie screens hanging from the roof of the bus. Later there was food and drinks served as well. It seems obvious in retrospect, and with many more kilometers under my belt traveling by bus in south America that Latinos expect more from bus companies than gringos from the US. We rely on the auto industry there for our transportation.
As I mentioned, this was just the first clue of a different reality from my experience in the US. I grew up in the 80's and the Reagan Administration. While at the time I thought the 80's sucked and I recall Reagan was viewed as a bumbling old man, an out of touch President who didn't realize the significant corruption of his administration. Corruption that was happening right before his dozing eyes. Now though he is held up as a hero of a conservative movement representing a party, who like him is long since dead. In retrospect also, I suppose my youth was relatively carefree.
I was an adult by the time the Columbine shooting occurred. In the 20 some years since this shooting American society, alone in the world has been plagued with mass shootings. Shootings on a level unfathomable during the 70's and 80's. Recently by random chance I came across an ancient term "saeculum". This term has taken on significant importance with the advent of social media. The simple explanation of this word is it describes the period of living memory or how it felt to be there.
Being born in 1972. I see I have lived through some major changes in society. In fact every aspect of life has dramatically changed in the nearly 5 decades I have been alive. For instance, In 5th grade we were introduced to something called an Apple computer. I wonder if the saeculum of my generation is at a crossroads of time and we are the last generation that can bridge a gap between the way life was and the way life is. After my generation die off there'll be no living memory of life before computers and social media. The latest generations have lived their entire lives informed by social media, without having the wisdom to know that it is only a facilitated avenue for shaping their view of the world, conditioning it was once called.
I was born during the final days of the Vietnam War. A war, history may acknowledge was the last American war to truly end. A war initiated in part by a debunked lie about an event that occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin. When I think about this I can't help but remember the slogan, "Remember The Maine!" from the Spanish-American War. It was also based upon a debunked lie about the sinking of a ship called "The Maine." Americas invasion of Iraq was also based on the lie of WMD. Now the US Government is lobbying to invade Iran and Venezuela. Iran significant in that it is the sworn enemy of a US satélite country and the only stable Middle Eastern country left independence of American influence. And Venezuela because of its vast oil reserves.
How many have given their lives supporting these lies? The real question is why were they lied to? Who in there right mind wants to go to war? Quickly glancing at the history of American expansionism in the southern and pacific regions one can quickly recognize the hand of American industry tipping the balance toward military intervention to secure their interests of opening areas for exploitation.
From the Dole fruit company lobbying to annex pacific Islands like Hawaii and "banana republics" of South America, to American mining interests in Chile lobbying the Nixon administration to facilitate a coup to over through the government, it is clear the motivation. You can pick almost any conflict the US is angling to engage in and there is a corresponding industrial lobby group pushing this angle. The real reasons shrouded by false humanitarian claims put forth by the American government. This is what I call Industrialized politics.
American politics have become an arm of American Industry. We witnessed the early days of this process at the start of the 20th century with the American tobacco industry, and continuing at the start of the 21st century when the US Supreme Court gave Industrial Interests 1st Amendment protection.
In the early 20th century this resulted in everyone smoking everywhere. In schools in hospitals, in churches, on trains, in restaurants, on airplanes. Why? because not only was this an industry selling a drug whose addictive properties were magnified and enhanced by additives, but also because the Tobacco industry wrote the rules and supplied them to our elected officials to implement, much like "Big Pharma" of today being protected by the 1st amendment.
So back in the day a doctor taking a drag during an operation was not viewed as unusual. A teacher smoking while in the classroom with pupils, perfectly normal. Not until about 1990 when an ex-tobacco industry insider helped publish "The Cigarette Papers" did anyone have any idea the depths of depravity the Tobacco industry engaged in to sell more tobacco. Marketing to children and adding countless compounds to cigarettes to increase addiction while also lessening the offensive odor to non-smokers just to name a few examples. I suppose some thought this industry was an outlier in its corrupt and soulless pursuit of profits.
Knowing what we know are the facts supplied by this industries own leaked classified information why wouldn't we, as a more enlightened generation, question the motives of all industries? Some forces in American government, since this Golden Age of Industry, have managed to institute Consumer Protection to oppose industry and act in the interests of the citizen.
Viewed through the lens of anti-socialism consumer protection has been constantly attacked by industrial interests in the US. But while industry attacks this institution as socialism few workers will complain about the 8 hour work day, social security or public education. But thanks to the propaganda of Industrial interests most workers will voice their opinion about socialism being "Un-American".
The American laborer has grown complacent by the very things, namely the 40 hour work week and a living wage, that laborers a couple generations before were being murdered for demanding. Murdered by the American Government at the request of industry.
My Mother was born of this generation whose eyes were open to the forces of industry trying to claim a person's labor as their own resource to exploit. She grew up during the age of "Big Tobacco" also. She died of lung cancer fully convinced that it was her God given right to do so. In her childhood she was exposed to industrial propaganda that convinced people the forces opposed to industrial interests sprang from an ungodly place, a place called communism.
Today after the fall of communism, this bogeyman has been repackaged as socialism. And as another election approaches this bogeyman will be brought out and dusted off to defend industrial interests, conditioning future generations as past generations were conditioned about the dangers of communism. As something Un-American.
When miners were mowed down fighting for the right to a more humane life it was argued in the papers as a fight against communist infiltration of the American way of life. A way of life that industrial interests would lead you to believe is, that if you worked hard you could get ahead. But like Upton Sinclair explained in "The Jungle" in the 19th century exposing the meat packing industry in Chicago, it is a rigged game.
Just like the miners in WV in the early 20th century, the labor pool was completely controlled by industrial interests. By using human nature, one of xenophobia, both the meat packing industry and the mining industry propagated the belief in most Americans that these employees, these foriegnors were somehow sub human and that in fact, enjoyed these conditions of slavery to their previous lives. Mimicking the propaganda that the slave states spread in the north in the mid 19th century.
No creature prefers bondage, whether it's a sled dog or draft horse or human. It's an unnatural state, but as you can condition a dog or horse to enjoy pulling as a team so can you condition a miner too, if not to enjoy at least be proud of grubbing in the earth like a mole. It is an unnatural state but as Ivan Pavlov discovered in the Soviet Union you can train an animal or man to accept an unnatural condition and even take pride in it.
In Eleanor Roosevelt's autobiography she wrote of her tours of the Soviet Union before the Cold War. She wrote how she witnessed the Soviet education system based in part on the work of Pavlov. A system that in her descriptions, described conditioning the young communist to accept indoctrination into the Soviet system. After indoctrination was complete, the government could expect a certain reaction to specific stimuli.
Stalin, later after Lenin died, literally erased Leon Trotsky, the number 2 leader of the revolution from the history books and had him assassinated while in exile in Mexico. Stalin took the conditioning to a more modern level and had the entire USSR covered in movie theaters. They showed movies that explained the "real" history of the USSR, one that did not show Trotsky, while showing Stalin as Lenin's right hand man and only legitimate person in line of succession.
A more easily observable conditioning is seen in our adversaries in World War 2. The Nazis fighting for their Fatherland and the modern samurai of Japan fighting for the divine emperor. Kamikazes flying planes into Navy ships is the result of conditioning at it best. These are all unnatural states that are only accomplished threw generational conditioning. War in general is an unnatural condition forced upon the soldier through conditioning. Remove conditioning and it would be impossible to conduct war.
It doesn't require extensive investigations to see the effects of conditioning in the US educational system. Think of George Washington never telling a lie or Thomas Jefferson not being a serial rapist. Or any slave owning male not being a serial rapists!? Any educational system is only a system of indoctrination, whether it's Sunday School or Boot Camp. It's used as a way to control your responses to any given stimulus.
This was fictionally explained to great effect in the the book "1984". One of the most important fictional books ever written in my opinion and was coincidentally, written by a communist. Another important book that you will not read is "The Communist Manifesto". Everyone's heard of this book mainly because it was the basis for the cold War. In it the authors explained for communism to work it must be universal, you have to spread it, if not the capitalist countries will take advantage of the communist countries. Hence Che Guevara going from Cuba to South America to continue the struggle of the working class against Capitalism.
Of course America is the best known capitalist country. Originally the founding of the American government wasn't the Democracy that we have been conditioned to believe it is, and thanks to the electoral college, it still isn't. It was modeled after ancient Greece that had a government lead by a special class of people eligible to lead. Now in the US, this original class of wealthy white land owners, Capitalist of the 18th century have been replaced by Industrialized Capitalists of the 21st century. This is the class that the American leadership is drawn from to lead this representative democracy, this leadership pool represents you but is not of you.
A person not of this leadership pool has no real chance of nomination, think of Berney Sanders or Ralph Nader. Sanders got more delegates than Clinton but not the nomination. You have to prove there is enough separation between you and the masses to ever have a legitimate chance, think of a Kennedy or Trump. That's why I refer to Congress as the "Farm League." It is your best chance to prove you are cut out for the big leagues. Berney Sanders proved he was not.
Trump is a completely exposed capitalist yet people have been tricked by his simple vocabulary that he is one of us. From years of conditioning from watching him on TV they think he is a regular guy with regular everyday impulses. If I am correct, as I am sure I am, he will slit his own son's throat to save his fortunes. Woodie Guthrie compared thieves and capitalists perfectly, "Some people rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen."
Capitalism is NOT necessarily the problem. Like any system it is only as strong as the weakest part. Like communism under Stalin or capitalism under Trump, it's misguided leadership that is the weakest part. Capitalism is as legitimate form of governing as any. True it appeals to base human urges and is in that way, one would assume, more prone to abuse compared to socialism or communism. These other two alternatives on the same base level seem to appeal to a higher more altruistic understanding. But what separates American Capitalism from other capitalist countries is the wanton unchecked capitalism that has taken hold in American society. Capitalism on steroids. An Industrialized Capitalist system assuming human rights. A system one could argue is based on more than one of the 7 deadly sins.
I hear the argument Jesus was a socialist, i don't disagree but I would argue that a better description of him is that he violently opposed industrialized spirituality. But in his absence his ideas have been high-jacked by the industrialists. Once the human aspect of Jesus was successfully removed and capitalism industrialized his ideas, it became in some examples, just a cult of pedophilia. All industrialized religions usurp the pre-existing kinder aspects of human nature and hold them up as proof of their own godliness.
To separate American Capitalism from regular textbook capitalism I refer to it as Industrialized Capitalism. Industrialization of anything is most profitable when the human element is removed or disregarded. A production line of robots building cars is a much better industrial system than Henry Ford could've ever dreamt up. Likewise a coal mine or a meat packing plant manned by subhuman immigrants is preferable to middle class, enlightened union workers.
A potato field in south Texas or a Vineyard in northern California is a more effective industry when manned by unrepresented immigrants. Industrial propaganda tells you it is the only way because Americans are too lazy. I don't know any working class person who would agree to that being said to their face one on one, if not for being conditioned to accept that as truth.
One question I had as a youth was why does America celebrate "Labor Day" and the rest of the world celebrates "May Day" also known as, and this is the answer to the question, International Workers Day. Imagine a United Workers Front to combat exploitation by industry that transcends government imposed boundaries. That is the largest threat to industry possible.
International Workers Day is viewed as a socialist holiday and the US government can't have there working class identifying with socialism. Look at what happened to the mining and meat packing industries once word got out that through unity is strength. A people united can never be defeated or as it is chanted throughout the south, "El Pueblo unidos, hamas sera vencido"
How many Labor Unions are acknowledge as socialism? They were labeled as communism by industry back in the 30's when workers started to unite. This was a time noted by the hardships brought on by the Great Depression, a product of Industrialized banking and finance, and also the hardships created in "The Dust Bowl", a product of industrialized farming. So to stop the idea of an International Workers Holiday, and to cull their laborers from the United Workers Front, the US Government at the direction of industrial interests created "Labor Day."
If you study the early coal strikes of the 19th century in the US, or England or Chile you will see the exact same scenario. One where the vast majority fight the government for representing Industrial interests ahead of the interest of the people. In Chile today this fight is being led by the artisan fishermen of every little coastal town against the government supported fishing industries.
Look at the "Yellow Jacket Protests" in France, the fisherman in Chile dawned yellow jackets to show solidarity in this universal protests against Industrial influence in government. As "Mom and Pop" businesses the world over struggle against Industrialization of their livelihoods, and resist further dependence on industry to survive, what have you got left in the US to defend besides Walmart or some other "God given" industry?
You live the lives they are fighting against in every other part of the world. While at the same time because of conditioning of your Pop culture, their ignorant youth are ever increasingly jealous of how easy life appears in the US. A life completely consumed by Industry. While the entire world fight the good fight for the working class, you in the US fight with each other along self imposed divisions based on the color of your tie.
You fight to prop up the health industry from collapse. You fight to prop up the auto industry. You fight to defend an industrialized freedom that costs the lives of your sons. You fight to allow your daughters the honor to sacrifice themselves to this freedom industry. A life that only affords a multitude of distractions. Distractions from the harmful effects that total industrialization has brought into your life. From Flint Michigan in the 70's to Flint Michigan of today it is the poster child of exploited Industrialized life in the US.
A life subject to the whims of industry. Policed by an industry, educated by an industry, incarcerated by an industry all whose number one concern is increasing profits by removing any trace of the human element. No industry represents the people, not the Health care industry, pharmaceutical industry, political industry and absolutely not the Police or Military Industry. They only represent and defend the Industrial interests of the Capitalists and if not for billions you have fought to spend on the work of Ivan Pavlov you would see this. Like Bob Marley said, "Babylon ain't got no fruits."