US : LAND OF SLAVERY

"government". ?

in modern day america, the word government should be re-written as "corpo-government". the government and corporations are serious lovers at this point.

it would be a mistake to believe that the government is "king" and corprations are somehow "small and powerless", as many on the right would like everyone to believe. they are becoming one and the same. they have the "same interests." they want each others' special powers. they want to get in bed with each other, 24-7:

- the F.C.C. and the media giants.

- oracle corp. walking hand in hand with the computer geeks at the F.B.I. and N.S.A.

- oil cartels needing "protected assets" and "secure supply lines" can look to the u.s. military and american taxpayers. after all, there's no such thing as other energy sources to power automobiles on planet earth, except oil, right? no sunshine, no fuel cells, no batteries. none. only oil, right? and for that matter, public transporatation is just too expensive, and will never work, right? so oil and cars forever. or at least until 2040, when oil reserves are supposed to bottom out....

- corporate welfare, and the payouts to politicians at election time to ensure "coporations get something back".

- glorious, thundering "free market" speeches from the chicago school about "no relationship, no help, no regulations, between the government and any private business", but when times get hard, look to the gov. for a bail out... pure hypocrisy.

- public money used to fund research by private corporations. not all bad research, but not all good either... (biowarfare? surveillance technologies?...

the divisions between the government and big business are tiny... they are essentially the same.

Is there any country in the world that would please you people? move there, why don't you... geez

Is china is better to your liking? was the USSR? Cuba? Iraq?

why is it assumed that because me or someone else attacks america, or the powerful in america, or the corporations in america, or harshly criticizes how life in america today is lived, why is it assumed that we hate america, and are secretly working to overthrow everything good about america?

is this how it works here? that the only thing america ever needed was yes men and yes women? a blindly positive attitude from its citizens? wrap yourself so tightly in the flag until you suffocate? has anyone tried to run a small business (or a massive society for that matter...) surrounded by those who only say what you want to hear? IT WONT WORK. IT WONT FUNCTION.

the fact is, if i were drafted in some war, i wouldn't be fighting for the goddamed rich and powerful, i wouldn't be fighting for the goddamed malls and s.u.v.'s and traffic jams and pills for depression and 37 inch television screens, i would be fighting for the fact that i live in a place where i can speak my mind and say "fuck you" to the powerful. freedom is more imporatant to me than the money in my pocket or the system called capital-ism, one more in long line of economic "ways of going about things".

break apart the American Way of Life. is it democracy that makes it special? or capital-ism? they are not the same thing. being able to choose between jiffy and peter pan, or ford and nissan, is not the same thing as being able to stand outside the plant and protest labor practices. it's not even close.

so no i'm not packing up to leave anytime soon. i like it here, where i was born.

and sad to say it, but almost everywhere in the world may soon look and function just like america, anyways. capital-ism must expand to sustain itself. america is too small for it.

globalization: the expansion of capital-ist markets first and foremost. the expansion of democracy? well, that can wait...

NOTE: NO ONE IS OBLIGATED TO AGREE WITH ANYTHING I HAVE WRITTEN. THIS BEING AMERICA, AFTER ALL.

"if you hate the u.s. so much, then leave"

the fact that this pretty much sums up the gist of the reactionary arguments on sf indymedia is really just sad. i mean, we have the right to struggle against injustice, we have the right to take to the streets even if it inconveniences people, we have the right to not have to "leave" a place because we don't like every aspect of it, or because we don't like the policies that "our" government and corporations hand down, but instead we are fully permitted to stay right here and work to change/abolish it/them, blah blah blah blah blah.

OOOOOOOOH..... YES, there are....

and I'll satisfy you and me even more by staying home.

Please get a job. Not only are you incessantly whining, but you are probably doing it on welfare with my tax dollars.

Yes, you have a right to complain, you have a right to whine, but that doesn't mean we want to hear it. Go DO something about it. You want to help Palestinians. Go there. You want to stop hunger. Go feed the people. Just don't sit there hypocritically in your ivory tower up in the city and placate your guilt at doing so by going on protests on the weekend. It ain't doing anyone any good, and it doesn't do your cause celebre any good either. You just end up being perceived as a political animal with a hateful agenda. In this case, hating the culture and environment of this country.

The reason I say leave is that you and your ilk hate what this country stands for, and until you've undone all the good things our founding fathers have done to create this relatively stable system, you won't rest. Well, go to that place which you want to use as the standard? Oh, gosh, there isn't any better place?

Well then stop whining, and GET A JOB AND PAY TAXES like everyone else. And stop taking resources away from those that really deserve it. I know you can get a job at least pumping up hot air balloons.

>> Please get a job. Not only are you incessantly whining, but you are probably doing it on welfare with my tax dollars.

i have one. thanks. and i get no welfare from the government. i received food stamps for about a year though, but never GA.

>> Yes, you have a right to complain, you have a right to whine, but that doesn't mean we want to hear it.

umm, ok. first, if you think i and others are "whining," we really have little to talk about. it's called criticism. often it's constructive, but not often enough really. and whether you want to hear it or not is irrelevant. you could just turn up the music, couldn't you?

>> Go DO something about it.

again, thanks for the advice. what i do is try to figure out what works, then give it a shot.

>> You want to help Palestinians. Go there. You want to stop hunger. Go feed the people.

are you suggesting that there isn't a single thing i and others can do here in the good ol' us of a that won't "help palestinians" or "stop hunger?" that's just wrong.

>> Just don't sit there hypocritically in your ivory tower up in the city and placate your guilt at doing so by going on protests on the weekend. It ain't doing anyone any good, and it doesn't do your cause celebre any good either. You just end up being perceived as a political animal with a hateful agenda. In this case, hating the culture and environment of this country.

<sarcasm>you guessed it. that's the way it is.</sarcasm> what makes you think i sit in some "ivory tower?" because i criticize without having some elaborate, pre-fab plan to replace that which i criticize?

and yes, the "left" needs some better PR. really, it just needs to get its shit together and get past the liberal fear and insanity. there certainly is a perception that criticism w/o more than just generic "free this" or "down with that" solutions is pointless. this needs to be combatted without so much rhetoric, but with clear and direct action. so again, thanks for your thoughts.

>> The reason I say leave is that you and your ilk hate what this country stands for, and until you've undone all the good things our founding fathers have done to create this relatively stable system, you won't rest. Well, go to that place which you want to use as the standard? Oh, gosh, there isn't any better place?

hmmm. you'd have to be completely ignorant, or benefitting a lot, to notice that what this country "stands for," at least in writing, is *beyond* different from how it functions and is set up. democracy is generally a sham. you aren't encouraged to think, to come together with your neighbors and create feelings of mutual aid and cooperation. representative democracy as we know it is without real meaning, as those who get represented are, and again, i'm stating the obvious, those with money and who control much wealth and resources.

but there are solutions. some are just budding ideas, others have been tested on a small scale, and yet more on a larger one. some are purely stopgap, reformist measures, others are radical shifts in the dominant paradigms.

>> Well then stop whining, and GET A JOB AND PAY TAXES like everyone else. And stop taking resources away from those that really deserve it. I know you can get a job at least pumping up hot air balloons.

what resources now? there is no way to not at least be somewhat reliant on capitalism when the whole world is capitalist. but living contradictorily (sp?) is not such a horrible thing really. it encourages learning and thinking and progression to find what works the best. so i have a job, i pay taxes, yet i struggle against the structures imposed from the top. i'm fine with that.

... so what does this country stand for?

is it so certain? is it so concrete? is it one thing, and only one thing, and if you disagree, you're an enemy?

if its so easy to get a job, why doesn't everybody have one? ever been laid off? ever faced a tight job market? ever dreamed of a good job at a good company, but didn't have the "family connections" and an ivy league school on your resume? is working at mcdonalds a good job, something to build on? so are people out of work lazy, and enjoy laying around watching television all day? you think you're in control of your destiny, but you got 996 on the SAT instead 1532, and so this determined where you went to school? all these fucking tests to put people in their pigeon holes? is this whining, these questions?

"only some can have the good life. its called competition. only the smartest. only the best educated. equal opportunity? no way. the best opportunity for the best people."

"i went to harvard. i went to berkeley. i went to yale. why the hell can't you? are you lazy or something?"

so are conditions in america in such a state of everlasting peaceful stability that criticism can be dismissed as whining?

"we've reached the end of history. the point of stasis and peaceful balance. we are perfect. competing forces have been eliminated. ends are nothing, expansion is all. everything is fine. stop asking questions. stop whining."

is everything oh so simple as the "fortunate people" believe it is.

hell no.

so keep on "whining" until they listen.