Democricide

Brian SearsStaff Writer

George Carlin once said the only real choice in America is between paper and plastic. I may be paraphrasing a bit but I don’t think George would mind all that much. I could tell you what would did mind and if he were still around he’d be much more vocal about it than I have managed to be.

Carlin saw the freedom of choice in America as nothing more than an illusion, equipped with flashing lights and loud sounds.

I know you’re probably wondering, “Brian, you’re starting off with some pretty bold statements. How can you say that we are not people who righteously bathe in freedom every single day?”

Let’s start locally. If you’re reading this, you probably go to school here. So how are those student loans doing? That good, huh?

Well if the debt required to become “educated” wasn’t enough, take a look at what’s going on overall for the good ol’ US of A.

At the moment I’m writing this, the national debt is just shy of $16 trillion. The breakdown of debt that is passed on to each tax payer is about $51,000. My generation did nothing to deserve this besides being fortunate enough to have been born into the “Free World.”

So who is responsible? Without getting into the very deceiving and complicated math of it, I have been able to do enough research to comfortably say that several trillion dollars has been committed to save the giant corporations that recklessly got the whole situation started since the first bailout in 2008. They’ve obviously shown the love back to us, right?

Wrong. There are many people who still finagle around with numbers to try to get richer whilst robbing those who pay them. I speak of course about these huge financial institutions like banks of all kinds, insurance firms, pharmaceutical companies and the like. So where’s all this representation that I was taught went on around this country?

If you take a look at your bank account, you’ll find that answer. There are about 250 members of the 112th Congress (or roughly 47%) who are millionaires, and some of them have an estimated personal wealth of well over the $100 million dollar mark. Darrell Issa, who serves for the 49th Congressional District in California, takes the cake with a net worth estimated around $450 million. I’m sure he understands and can connect with his constituents who earn on average $46,445 a year.

We are given a choice every few years between two parties that are hardly any different. In the past decade, candidates have spent over $25 billion to get themselves elected. Don’t believe that they’re all the same?

The American people have said overwhelmingly that they didn’t want to bail out failed industries, but our representatives voted that we should.

The American people did not want a clause within the National Defense Authorization Act that allows for anyone suspected under the vastly broad classification of ‘terrorist’ to be detained indefinitely at anytime, anywhere in the world, but they voted for that and the president signed it.

The American people have said they want free and open internet as well as freedom of information, yet, every couple of months for the last year or so, a new bill designed to take that freedom away comes dangerously close to becoming law. Take a look at the Trans Pacific Partnership when you get a chance.

And for those who think it’s OK for the government to spy on the American people under the guise of protection from terrorism, take a look at Trapwire and tell me you don’t feel uneasy about such surveillance.

None of these modern day super villains are really responsible for all of this, although it would be nice to blame them. Truth be told, and to quote a very important fictional character, if you’re looking for the guilty you need only look into a mirror.

We are apathetic people with no desire to live lives of greater meaning anymore. We are choosing to be dumb and choosing to give away our rights.

Who am I to say all of these things? I’m Don Quixote and I’m on a mission to civilize.

To contact The Ionian’s Brian Sears, e-mail him at [email protected]