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The great American misunderstanding
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by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
Dec. 23, 2005
Such an amazing misunderstanding. One group, the vast majority
actually, thinks that the social arrangement is one of law and order,
based on the principals of constitutional democracy. The other
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group,
which controls the most of the money, is convinced that our social
arrangement is based on the power of money, particularly inherited
money, and that the laws, such as they are and authored as they are by
the wealthy, are meant to control the ambitions of the aforementioned
mass of people to gain a larger share of the wealth.
The thinking of
the latter group, especially in light of continuing exposures of
massive degrees of corruption
This is a Greek tragedy writ very, very large.
The imperial ambitions of the ruling classes of Rome served up desolation to the then-known world.
Great areas were depopulated by war.
Resources were stripped from the vassal states of Rome causing a periphery of destitution devoted to maintaining a grotesque glory for the center.
Rome fell.
The United States will fall for the same reasons.
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| that go unpunished, seems to be more reality-based. The mass of
people seem to be insistent on believing the
fictions of the Constitution, particularly the now-obviously
meaningless Bill of Rights.
This exact misunderstanding characterized the politics of late
Republican Rome. People exposed to sources like the recent HBO series
Rome, the novels of Colleen McCullough, or any of the academically
respectable books on the period such as Michael Parenti's The
Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome,
will be struck by the historical parallels.
So we live in a house divided that will not stand. The mass of the
people, unlikely to overcome the defenses erected by wealth,
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are nevertheless so conditioned to the concept of the inalienability of those
rights that they will continue to struggle, at some level,
indefinitely. The guardians of the monetary wealth are
unlikely to see the wisdom of guaranteeing the rights and dignity of
the mass of the people whose exploitation is central to the continued
accumulation of fortune.
So, just as in late Republican Rome, we have a
cultural and sociological stalemate that promises nothing but ruin and
continued self destructive violence.
This is a Greek tragedy writ very, very large. The imperial ambitions
of the ruling classes of Rome served up desolation to the then-known
world. Great areas were depopulated by war. Resources were stripped
from the vassal states of Rome causing a periphery of destitution
devoted to maintaining a grotesque glory for the center. Rome fell.
The United States will fall for the same reasons.
Unfortunately, whereas the fall of Rome brought ruin to the "known
world," that world was merely a small sliver of the planet. Our new
Rome is in the process of sacrificing the entire globe on the alter of
greed. We are facing the last act of the species this time around.
The lessons of history are there, plain to see. Will people on both
sides of the misunderstanding listen?
© by the author.
What do you think?
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Dr. Herb Ruhs & grandson
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Previous articles by this author:
The great American misunderstanding
by Herb Ruhs, MD
When death is the proper penalty
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The revolution this time
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The good tidings and the bad
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Health care in America: An ongoing, massive con game
by Paul Krugman, The New York Times
with comments by Herb Ruhs, MD
Competition: Destroyer of character
by Herb Ruhs, MD
America without the myths
by Herb Ruhs, MD,
To dream the impossible dream
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Refusing to see the obvious
by Maureen Dowd, The New York Times
with comments by Herb Ruhs, MD
What can we do? Rhetorically speaking, that is.
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Banned in Cloverdale, by Herb Ruhs, MD
All of us are being fatally poisoned
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Daubert is the most influential Supreme Court ruling you've never heard of
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Enough already
by Herb Ruhs, MD
War is sometimes justified, often not, but always insane
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The bad news is the same as the good news
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Trying to control your emotions "can make you pretty stupid"
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The gangsters' mentality
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Nietzsche, New Orleans, and 'Nam
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Four decades in five minutes
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The masquerade of "civilization"
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Habits of successful modern cannibals
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Face these horrors with acceptance, equanimity, humor
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Yet another, higher dose of pain
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The war of one against all:
The roots of our enslavement
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Doctors, medicine, hospitals, and the rest of the story
by Herb Ruhs, MD
System of privilege expands in scope and overall power
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Highway robbery turns out to be legal after all
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Class warfare, anyone?
Why class war is not a fiction but a fixture of our lives
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Why the little-known news is the most important
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Why "Free Speech" does not matter
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Big pharma
by Herb Ruhs, MD
The genius fish and other comments
by Herb Ruhs, MD
When all else fails, try the truth
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Childhood abuse and the role it plays in maintaining coercive power
by Herb Ruhs, MD
Murder by medical device
by Herb Ruhs, MD
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