"Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!" and "Take care to guard against all greed ... for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions."
The phrases from this Sunday’s reading are a prophetic voice addressing the 1% of people who own the world’s wealth. It is no secret that money has power, and power is gained through money. Some of the wealthiest oligarchs reside in the world’s wealthiest empire nation, the United States. These oligarchs, together with the techno feudal lords, are reshaping the global economy and the future of the planet.
In an article by Elizabeth Dwoskin in The Washington Post, she outlines the plans of billionaire investor Peter Thiel, longest-serving board member of Facebook, who stepped down from the social media giant, dissolving one of Silicon Valley's most powerful partnerships. Why? Because he seeks to create a parallel economy fueled by the far-right and their political candidates to whom he has contributed millions of dollars to secure successful campaigns and winning elections, past and present. Beneficiaries include politicians Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, Blake Masters, J.D. Vance and Ted Cruz, among others.
Thiel aims to transform American culture through "anti-woke" business ventures that pressure CEOs to avoid environmental, social and political causes. He does not support socially responsible investing, the reduction of oil production to meet environmental goals, or anything that will hurt "the bottom line." He does favor the controversial cryptocurrency.
Added to this situation is the judicial politics of Knights of Malta member Leonard Leo, former executive vice president of the Federalist Society and board of trustee member of the Catholic University of America. In an article by Coral Davenport at The New York Times, she discusses how Leo's influence, along with powerful donors like the Koch brothers, helped secure the nomination and confirmation of five Supreme Court justices: John Roberts, Samuel Alito Jr., Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
In line with my post in the Government by Judiciary series, I will note that the major lever of power that the vile Mr. Thiel and his colleagues depend on is mass media propaganda, which includes the use of the social disease of social media and that that power is a product of the Supreme Court rulings permitting the media, including the "social media" to lie without having to risk being sued into the flames of hell, especially when it's lying about policy and about Democratic politicians. Lies told with that impunity in the mass media, echoed in the NYC-DC-Atlanta echo chamber are what they buy with their billions. Lies that get them what they want, the kind of Senators and others they want. Their servants.
That "right" is one which will be changed in the future or we will have no future, it will either be changed by a fascist oligarchy or other gangster ruled nation, such as billioniares around the world are working in concert to spread - when only lies against those without power and on behalf of those with power will be permitted AND HARD TRUTH ABOUT THOSE WITH POWER WILL BE ABOLISHED - or it will be changed by egalitarian democrats as a proven necessity to prevent despotism which gains power through malicious lying and preying on the worst character flaws and weakness of an effective margin of the population. Though having an 18th century Constitution that didn't understand that and the daffiest rulings of the most benevolent Supreme Court "justices" dictating to us in the 21st century is certainly on their side, too.
I had a discussion with a family member who wondered what "woke" meant, as our discussion developed, it became clear that it means whatever the person using it wanted it to mean, whether hating Black People demanding equality or just "fuck the libs." Like so many of the instantly introduced, no doubt oligarchy audience tested slogans instantly picked up and pushed by the corporate media, they don't really mean much except vote for the Republican-fascists. Peter Thiel is one of the worst, he is a perfect example of the total amorality of secularism on technological Ayn Randian steroids even as apparently he proclaims one of the most heretical versions of "christianity" there is. A "christianity" without Jesus and his core teachings but replaces it with the tech-important commandment "don't copy our neighbor" or as they used to say on a PBS show in the early years of personal computing, "don't copy that floppy." Though I doubt anyone in that business has ever not copied a neighbor's code. He personifies my contention that anything which opposes doing unto others what you would have them do unto you is deadly for egalitarian democracy or, really, even non-egalitarian representative democracy. To ratfuck that you will need, in the end, to corrupt an effective margin of the voters and our Supreme Court mandated protection for liars is their greatest tool. You will only be free if you know the truth, the mass media is largely in the business of keeping you from knowing enough of it do be free. That's what they call "journalistic ethics."
The decision on Roe v. Wade, the decision to severely limit the federal government's authority to reduce carbon dioxide from power plants, and Thiel's successful "investments" attest to the statement that money has power and power is gained through money.
This Sunday's readings are a clarion call to realize that all efforts rooted in self-aggrandizement and enrichment are nothing more than "vanity of vanities," steeped in political and economic greed that has funded people into powerful positions who create and support new forms of ideology and idolatry, often sustained by untruths.
For a country professing "one nation under God" in its Pledge of Allegiance, how far away many of the nation's oligarchs and leaders are from the spirit, the Divine, instead embodying a belief in an imperial, hegemonic deity as portrayed by male biblical writers and now embraced by many Christian and Catholic evangelical fundamentalists.
In that interview of Walter Brueggemann I'm thinking of transcribing, he talks about being invited to speak at an Episcopal Church and it happened the date of his talk was the eleventh of September. He said he might have refused the job if he'd realized the date when he spoke. He talked about the line from Jeremiah 4 that was in the liturgy for the day, the one that talked about the hot wind coming from the desert, one which will destroy and not cleanse, which, in the context of Jeremiah certainly referred to either the Assyrians or Babylonians who, then, were repeatedly attacking the Jerusalem establishment and the country. Brueggemann noted that in contemporary terms in the United States, with our injustice which was cited in the beginning of this article at The National Catholic Reporter, what they might consider is that God sent the hot wind because God will not be mocked without consequences. And what has changed in the United States that doesn't continue to mock God? Certainly the "white evangelicals" who carry the Trump-Republican-fascist line with lies of religion is even more of a mockery than it was during the Bush II regime. Though
This week's article commenting on the Sunday readings by Carol J. Dempsey is so good, I'm just going to recommend you read the whole thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment