I Am Not a Piece of Plastic

About 40 years or so ago, while I was earning my Master of Science in Social Work degree at the University of Louisville’s Raymond A. Kent School of Social Work, one of the ongoing dialogues regarded the unjust nature of the “plastic society” that was and is the norm of the United States.

Plastic, as you know, is inexpensive and therefore disposable. So we dispose of all sorts of containers made of plastic, easily broken toys we give to our children, bags in which we carry our purchases, etc. American society has so bought it to the idea that things are disposable that we create even automobiles, appliances, houses, and much more that are made not to be permanent but to be used up and subsequently disposed of as trash. Sentient beings such as pets and even we ourselves have come to be seen as disposable once our society judges them (us) as no longer having intrinsic value.

We Americans have exported this concept that everything and everyone is disposable to the entire world—a world culture that is based on the monetary worth of things—all things—including human beings.

As I have grown older I have come to realize that I am seen as a plastic “thing.” For example, the United States Veterans Affairs bureaucracy has treated me as a commodity negating my humanity. I qualify this statement by emphasizing that, for the most part, this is not true of VA medical staff. It is quite true of those bureaucrats with whom veterans must deal in order to obtain the promised medical care. One of the ongoing “jokes” I have encountered since I began my association with Veterans Affairs goes:

Thank you for serving. Now, how can we fuck you today?

I have experiences of having my humanity denied, of being treated as a commodity by the Department of Veterans Affairs; I have heard many stories from and about other veterans who have experienced similar treatment.

Many of us have sought justice within the VA. The usual result is that our pleas to be recognized as human beings have been ignored. “Rules” are more important to the bureaucrats than justice, compassion, and humanity.

This injustice and dehumanization goes far beyond the federal bureaucracy of the United States. It is in the corporations of this world, using up their workers and then disposing of them like pieces of trash. It is intrinsic to capitalism and the class system of the United States that has been exported to the entire planet. It is a basic cause of poverty; of genocide and slavery; of the abuse of women, children, the elderly, the physically and emotionally ill; of people smuggling; of racism; of every form of human exploitation.  

My request—my plea—is simple: recognize that we are human beings, not things to be manipulated and disposed of like pieces of plastic. This plea is on behalf of all sentient creatures on the earth. We need a prophet to deliver us from injustice and slavery!

(YHWH) said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.  The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” ~ Exodus 3.6-10

Here am I, Lord. Send me.

Tomorrow Is the Day

The deadline is midnight...

Tomorrow:

• Will the United States default on its debts? 
• Will the United States became a deadbeat nation? 
• Will the United States international credit rating fall even further that it has already? 
• Will China, the United States' major foreign debt holder, size assents of the U.S., including the government? 
• Will this be the end of the "noble experiment" in democracy that is the United States of America

How long will the people of the United States continue to tolerate the shenanigans of the Tea Party and the billionaires who fund them? 

Among those known to date to have conspired against the United States government to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of a law of the United States by forcing the government to shut down are:

Edwin Meese III – Former Attorney General under Ronald Reagan
Charles Koch – Co–owner, Koch Industries
David H. Koch – Co–owner, Koch Industries
Michael A. Needham – CEO Heritage Action for America
Ted Cruz – United States Senator from Texas
Alfred S. Regnery – President, The Paul Revere Project
Andrea Lafferty – President, Traditional Values Coalition
Andresen Blom – Senior Strategist, Center for Civic Virtue
Angelo M. Codevilla – Professor Emeritus, Boston University
Becky Norton Dunlop – Former White House Advisor, President Ronald Reagan
Bob Reccord – Executive Director, Council for National Policy
Brent Bozell – President, ForAmerica
Brian Baker  – President, Ending Spending
Chris Chocola – President, Club for Growth
Cindy Chafian – President, The Mommy Lobby
Colin Hanna – President, Let Freedom Ring
Craig Shirley – Reagan Campaign Biographer
David Bossie – President, Citizens United
David Bozell – Executive Director, ForAmerica
David McIntosh – Former U.S. Representative, Indiana
David Williams – President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Don Devine – Senior Scholar, The Fund for American Studies
Duane Parde – President, National Taxpayers Union
Eric Cantor – House Minority Leader
Erick Erickson – Editor, RedState.com
Gary Aldrich – President, Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty 
Gary Bauer – President, American Values
Grace–Marie Turner – President, The Galen Institute
Heather Higgins – President, Independent Women's Forum
James Martin – Chairman, 60 Plus Association
Jenny Beth Martin – Co–Founder, Tea Party Patriots
Joe Gregory – CEO, Gregory Management Co.
Kay R. Daly – President, Coalition for a Fair Judiciary
Kenneth Blackwell – Conservative Action Project; President, Constitutional Congress, Inc. 
Kevin Gentry – Koch Public Sector
Lee Beaman – Businessman, Nashville, TN
Lewis Uhler – President, National Tax Limitation Committee
Marco Rubio – United States Senator from Florida
Marjorie Dannenfelser – President, Susan B. Anthony List
Mat Staver – Liberty Counsel
Mathew D. Staver – Chairman, Liberty Counsel Action
Matt Kibbe – President, FreedomWorks
Michael Grebe – leads the Bradley Foundation
Mike Lee – United States Senator from Utah
Mitch McConnell – Minority Leader, United States Senate, representing Kentucky
Myron Ebell – President, Freedom Action
Pat Toomey – United States Senator from Pennsylvania
Patrick Pizzella – Conservative Action Project
Penny Nance – President, Concerned Women for America
Phyllis Schlafly – Conservative Action Project
Ralph Benko – President, Center for Civic Virtue
Senator Rand Paul – United States Senator from Kentucky
Rebecca Hagelin – Activist and Right Wing journalist
Rev. Lou Sheldon – Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition
Richard Rahn – President, Inst. for Global Economic Growth
Stuart Epperson – President, Council for National Policy
Susan Carleson – President, American Civil Rights Union
T. Kenneth Cribb – Former Domestic Advisor, President Ronald Reagan
Tom Donelson – Chairman, America's PAC
Tony Perkins – Conservative Action Project
William Wilson – President, Americans for Limited Government








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Would Modern U.S. Right-Wingers Have Signed the Declaration of Independence?

Would Modern U.S. right-wingers have signed the Declaration of Independence? 


I doubt it. Without me taking time to write the details here, I refer you to these articles:


Declaration of Independence


compared with the following:

• Political Views of the Left-wing and Right-wing
• Right-wing politics
• Christian fundamentalism
• Social stratification
• Social Darwinism
• The International Monarchist League
• Patriarchy
• Social interventionism
• The consequences of the politics of selfishness
• Fascism
• Fascism U.S.A.

If you aren't into (serious) reading on this 4th of July holiday, please consider the following:

Enjoy this Independence Day!

If the Right-Wing has its way,

we may have very few left to celebrate.

For further reading on this subject, Sometimes Saintly Nick recommends: 

Gleanin' & Thunkin' on a Grand Saturday

D-Day

June 6, 1944: 

In Remembrance

of the dead and wounded of all nations.

D-Day Casualty, June 6, 1944

O God, our Father, endless source of life and peace, welcome into Your merciful embrace the fallen of the war that raged here, the fallen on all wars that have bloodied the earth. Grant that they may enjoy the light that does not fail, which in the reflection of Your splendour illumines the consciences of all men and women of good will. You, Who in Your Son Jesus Christ gave suffering humanity a glorious witness of Your love for us, You, Who in our Lord Christ gave us the sign of a suffering that is never in vain, but fruitful in Your redeeming power, grant those who yet suffer for the blind violence of fratricidal wars the strength of the hope that does not fade, the dream of a definitive civilisation of love, the courage of a real and daily activity of peace. Give us your Paraclete Spirit so that the men of our time may understand that the gift of peace is much more precious than any corruptible treasure, and that while awaiting the day that does not end we are all called to be builders of peace for the future of Your children. Make all Christians more convinced witnesses of life, the inestimable gift of Your love, You Who live and reign for ever and ever Amen. ~ His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI

When I awakened this morning, I knew that today was going to be a wonderful day!

Yep! I have air conditioning again!

The other day I was reading the blog, The Goat Walk, and encountered this link to a speculative article on altruism. Since I think I am quite altruistic, I followed the link and was quite surprised. 

The author, Brandon Keim, suggests that the roots of altruism are quite bloody:

“Altruism will be strongly favored if it leads groups to win wars,” said Sam Bowles, a Santa Fe Institute economist and institutional theorist, and author of the study, published Thursday in Science. “That would counteract the way that selfish individuals usually dominate the altruistic ones in their groups.”

That the ability to put others’ well-being ahead of one’s own could have such brutal origins seems counterintuitive. Then again, so is altruism. Genes are supposed to be selfish, not self-sacrificing.

Hmmmm... so that means that those who willingly (altruistically) die for the community in battle in effect make wars possible? I have to thunk about this a bit more.

I really thunk that Flaubert has something here:

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity already attained by the bourgeois. ~ Gustave Flaubert

Let's close with a few KATZ.