Timothy Kline: Thoughts and Reflections

All that's left to do is flush...

There’s a line from one of the most popular movies of recent years that goes like this: “Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?” (The Matrix, Warner Bros.)

These past couple weeks have been, if anything, a waking nightmare from which I keep hoping I’ll awaken. But the odds of that happening diminish with every passing day, every passing hour, every passing moment. And what’s even worse is that nobody really seems to care–assuming that they even notice.

I mean, I hate expending blog space to such idiocy when there are more dire situations going on. But last night, my mind was made up. I had to vent…  or, in this case, vomit from the poison that we’re being fed by the bucketfuls on a daily basis.

Not all that long ago, we saw the American taxpayers forced to bail out the richest corporations and financial institutions in the world, under the boastful delusion that they were simply “too big to be allowed to fail.” If these CEOs, and other elite from Wall Street and across the nation were actually allowed to experience the results of their indiscretionary greed and speculative stock marketing, it would hurt every Tom, Dick, and Harry on “Main Street.” By helping them, it would help “Main Street.” Or so we were spoon-fed and eagerly sucked down like infants at the breasts of a nursemaid. It took some coaxing and some carefully chosen words issued in an enthusiastic spiel from the latest President, of course, but we sucked it down, nonetheless. The coffers of the richest of the rich who have entitled themselves to earnings in the millions, multi-home estates, private jets and exotic cars, were suddenly flooded by American taxpayers, with little to no oversight and certainly no accountability or prerequisites on how the money would be spent. It was given unconditionally, while publicly we were assured that we would see a return on our wise investment that would prove that this was just the right thing to do at this precarious moment in our history.

Well, the months since then have passed and allowed these financial institutions to take the money we gave them, and they swiftly bolstered up their bank accounts. It wasn’t long before it became evident that the money that we had lent them was not making its way down the food chain. Only the cream of the crop were being found worthy to refinance to better mortgages. At the same time, employment skyrocketed to startling new levels, businesses closed, layoffs commenced, and the marketplace found itself in dire straits as money slowed. People were starting to notice that instead of feeding the money through to Main Street, things were continuing just like they were before—the difference now being that the banks were being even more tight-fisted with the money we gave them. Unless you had top-grade credit scores, you were out of luck and on your own. People began to get grumpy.

Once again, Obama assured the American people that everything was going as planned. That it was going to take a while. That there would be some discomfort during this period, but that everyone was feeling the pain and that we would get through this process if we stuck together and were patient.

Almost as soon as those words were issued, reports from the Associated Press and other news outlets started announcing that some of the companies that taxpayers had bailed out were already preparing to pay out significant bonuses to their employees and executives. A few were even reporting a sudden profit.

Even more ironic, there are now some 37 states that are on the verge of economic disaster, foremost being California. California has decided to start issuing IOUs for the meantime. The banks’ response: No way are we going to accept IOUs! You pay or you go without! This from the same financial instutions that were handed billions of American taxpayers’ dollars to head off “failure.” To add insult to injury, on the heels of that announcment of refusal to accept IOUs until money could start flowing again, AIG announced another series of bonus payments to itself, and according to reports, the Federal government will be given its blessing so as to stave off any public backlash that might occur.

Did I miss the punchline somewhere along the way? What is there about this that makes sense to the American public? Where is the level of public indignation that this travesty deserves in response? How is this even possible? The rising bile in my throat and mouth leaves me gagging every single moment that I expend my brain’s caloric burn in trying to wrap my head around this. And still things are allowed to perpetuate and continue.

Oh, sure, people whinge, p*ss and moan. In their coffee shops, in the break rooms, at the bus stops. But that’s all they seem to be willing to do. God forbid that people should band together and say enough’s enough. Revolting against injustice is something best left to Iraqi folk who risk their lives out in the streets, crying out for justice and to be heard. Taking back control of one’s nation is best left to Hondurans in the poorer third world. We continue to believe that we’ll just solve our problems at the next election, where we’ll once again fasten ourselves to the bloated nipple of some full-of-empty-promises, smooth talking politician who comes along swearing up and down that he or she will nurture this nation back to its former greatness, when hard work really paid off and corporations and financial oligarchies were kept in check by a people who had endured through the Awakening of a Renaissance and Industrial Age and the freedom of the Press.

Our inaction is proof that we don’t care one bit. Not really. We hide behind the delusions of “democracy” but fail to live by it: a government by the people for the people. We are a pathetic nation that deserves not even a modicum of pity as we plummet over the edge into oblivion and self-destruction. And, hey, if you get a little indignant at my selection of derogatory words in regards to the so-called “greatest nation on earth,” then prove me wrong. Show me where you and your friends and coworkers are getting ready to march on Washington and demand real change, and demand a stop to idiocy and nonsense, and I’ll sign on. I’ll march with you.

Why don’t you let me know when enough really is enough.

Obama institutes double-standards as part of his recovery plan

In what is clearly becoming more of the same old song and dance from Washington D.C., early morning television shows across the nation excitedly announced that the White House had forced GM CEO, Rick Wagoner, to resign from his position at the head of one of the financially troubled Big Three U.S. automakers. What would it mean? And what about Chrysler and Ford automakers? The news wires were abuzz with rumors and anticipation and, as has been the case for quite some time now, Wall Street, too, let their anxiety become known as the stock market reeled from the possibilities.

Even more interesting, amidst all of the hullaboo surrounding the Obama administration’s intention to set matters straight in the auto industry, is the absence of outcry over the patently obvious. Somewhere in the whispers going around the workplaces, coffeeshops, and offices, everyone admitted that Rick Wagoner drew the short straw, and was immediately served up as the sacrificial lamb in an attempt to make it look as though embattled President Obama was actively trying to fix things.

Still, there doesn’t seem to any end in sight to the outrageous policy of double-standards at work here, even in the new administration. Why was Wagoner removed from his position as CEO and yet CEOs and other culprits in the financial sector continue in their positions, unscathed—at least those who haven’t been handpicked to have roles in the new administration? Where is the demand for a plan from the Wall Street moguls in the same vein as that demanded from the Big Three automakers?

The answer, of course, has already been given to us: we are to look to the financial sector as our way out of this financial debacle—even though they are the very ones who brought it upon the American people—and the rest of the world, by extension! As for the “worker bees” of this country, they are expendable. Should the Federal Government force GM into bankruptcy (which now seems more likely than ever), union contracts are null and void—essentially, breaking the unions’ backs and any bargaining power that they have had up until now (their own greed notwithstanding). With the unions gone and the oligarchy retaining their comfortable seat at the table of the ruling class in Washington, we stand to see a change in so-called “democracy” that most will have never seen coming. After all, we Americans are now on the hook for trillions of dollars that we don’t have—and never will. You can be certain, however, that the government and its financial constituents will get what’s owed to them, by whatever means are necessary.

It’s truly disappointing to realize that Obama’s talked a good game up to this point, but his actions are getting to the point now where they speak louder than his words: One set of rules for the Wall Street moguls and another set of rules for working-class-based corporations. And why not? After all, some of the elected officials biggest contributors going into the 2008 elections were the very ones who have been romancing Congress for bailouts on a scale never before seen in the history of any nation up until now. And we haven’t even seen the end of those bailouts yet.

But if there’s been any consistency apart from the reaffirmation that Washington D.C. has been bought and sold to the rich and well-placed, and the working class American has been told to remember their place if he/she knows what’s good for them, it’s this: the vast majority of disgruntled Americans will heed the warning and bite their tongue, for fear that they, too, might lose what little they have—even though it doesn’t even belong to them in the first place. The United States of Sheep will continue to put up and shut up. It’s what we do, and we’re proud of it, too.

Who ARE "We The People"?

Democracy is defined as “a government by the people, for the people.” But given the events of late, it may be necessary to take a sobering, candid look at things and see whether that’s really the case any longer. By now, “AIG” has become a household word associated with greed and delusions of entitlement. Public outrage is at an all-time high, foisted upon recipients of contractually-obligated bonuses. Yesterday, Congress swiftly passed a retroactive taxation law that will retake all but 10 percent of individual bonuses. And that’s not even to mention all the whooping and hollering that has been taking place in Washington D.C. as fingers get pointed and denials of responsibility rise to never-before-seen heights.

At the center of the drama is this: EVERYONE is to blame. You, me…  the government officials… corporate executives… and yes, even the new U.S. President.

But what really hit the point home for me, personally, was when this statement appeared in a Reuters News article yesterday: Telecom companies vying for $7.2 billion in broadband funds included in President Obama’s economic stimulus plan urged regulators not to mandate a super-fast Internet speed as a criterion for winning the money. That’s when I really started to question just what happened to the so-called “government by the people, for the people” that I was taught in school, preached about from news outlets, novels, movies, books, television shows, internet sites, and neighbors around me.

In this particular case with the broadband stimulus plan, the telecom companies want the money, but not the strings that go with the money. They are under the delusion that THEY are in a position to set policy when they “urge” regulators NOT “to mandate a super-fast Internet speed as a criterion for winning the money.” But THEY are NOT “the people” for whom Democracy is in place. Their customers are “the people.” This stimulus plan is to benefit the customers, not the companies who reap their profits from those customers. The U.S. Government doesn’t work in passing legislation for the companies: it works for the people who work for those companies. Yet the companies are campaigning hard to ensure that they get the American taxpayers’ money AND set the rules THEMSELVES on what those taxpayers will get with that money. And if they succeed, then we no longer have Democracy—we have Oligarchy, because instead of the government making the rules by which the money will be doled out at taxpayers’ expense, the money-hungry telecom companies will be making the rules.

It seems to me that common sense dictates that if you go looking for a handout in money, that the person WITH the money is the one that sets the conditions by which you will get that handout. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here, nor in the case of the ongoing massive financial bailouts that have been taking place.

Take, for another example, AIG, which was declared as “too big to fail” and thus moved to the top of the handout list. As more and more details come out about how they engineered festive vacation parties, multimillion dollar bonuses, and more—at the taxpayers’ expense—the public outrage is building. At the same time, they are still considered “too big to fail,” so taxpayers are going to have to go even MORE on the hook financially to cover the business. And we haven’t even scratched the surface here. In another blatant example of fiscal irresponsibility, CitiGroup was reported as making multimillion dollar office renovations from the bailout money they received. Unfortunately, it getting nearly no real press coverage due to all eyes being on AIG.

To make matters worse, the U.S. Government has announced that it will be printing upwards of $1.5 trillion more in paper money in order to feed the economy that is already failed. Some of the more conservative estimates have American taxpayers on-the-hook now, when this is all said and done, for a whopping $8 trillion in debt. Foreign nations are already talking urgently amongst themselves on dropping the American dollar as a currency because the U.S.A. seems hellbent on devaluing it to the point of worthlessness (if it isn’t already to that point right now).

Meanwhile, everyone’s just angry. That’s all: just angry. Nobody’s doing anything. They’re just mad.

Oh, Congress passed the retroactive taxation policy, of course. That’s reactionary, if anything, to a problem that they themselves should have been proactive in tackling. It’s a move intended to make themselves feel better for their lack of taking the steps necessary to prevent this from happening in the first place, and protecting the American taxpayer right from the start—after all, they’re supposed to be working for us. At least that’s what they tell us during their campaigns and speeches. The interesting thing about the retroactive taxation policy, too, that is getting a passing mention currently, is that it isn’t even legal anyhow. Odds are that this will just get tied up in the legal system for years now—further bleeding the American public’s finances dry.

The President is at fault because he appointed the individuals in his cabinet that are supposed to be qualified enough to be on top of this debacle. Many of them even came directly from Wall Street and Big Business.

Congress is at fault, because nobody raised an eyebrow UNTIL things hit the fan. They chose to operate under the notion that it’s someone else’s responsibility, but that they are squeaky clean in this matter. And I’m not even going to go into the whole financial earmarks patheticism that is going on! Oh, but now that things have hit the fan, everyone is trying to sound indignant and angry and surprised. If they’re surprised, then they are NOT qualified to hold a seat in Congress because it’s an inarguable fact that they clearly don’t know what is going on around them. And that’s precisely why they are there: to know and keep track of what the rest of us can’t because we have to work our minimum wage jobs in order to finance this mess we’ve landed ourselves in. Thus the term “representative.” They are our representative in Congress. Our stand-in. They are supposed to be doing the job that we, if we ourselves were there, would be doing. Asking the tough questions. And operating from a common-sense vantage point: if someone comes asking for money, then *WE* set the conditions, not the person looking for the handout.

If, perchance, these Congressional members didn’t really, truly know what was going on, then it happened illegally—in which case, there had better be a solid, unswervable prosecution happening and soon, bringing the guilty parties up on charges of treason against the American people, not to mention dereliction of duty to the American people, whom they swore they represent when they took office.

Big Business is of course at fault for not only their culture of entitlement and greed, but for their blatant work at undermining Democracy at every turn. For their belief that they set the rules and conditions, and not the so-called “little man,” namely, Average Joe on Main Street. They have betrayed Democracy and they’ve betrayed the American people—and every other human being across the world that is being affected or will ever be affected by this debacle.

Which brings me to our own culpability in all of this. We’re at fault, too. We’re at fault because we let it happen in the very government that we chose to be governed by: Democracy. We forfeited our right to Democracy the moment we failed to take action and instead relied on our government representatives to act in our behalf when it was clear that they were NOT acting in our behalf. We can’t idly stand by and complain about things while blaming our Senator or Representative for the “crappy” job they’re doing, yet that is precisely what we are content to do. Where are the marches on Washington? Where are the townhall meetings organizing mass recalls of these public officials? Where are the DEMANDS that this ENDS. NOW!

Because I’m not seeing it. And I’m certain that you aren’t either. Because action is just too much work, and feeling angry, well that’s easy.

We are NOT the People. And maybe We never were.

The Rising Fall of Democracy

As the 2008 race for the presidency of the United States of America enters its final days before the actual election on November 4, the media covering the events have picked up on various catchwords such as “socialism” and “class warfare” from one campaign, and an appeal to appreciate the need to shoulder some of the financial burden when one has the means to do so. If anything, we are seeing a revisiting of the dilemma brought on by the Great Depression. During that stretch in American history, Franklin Delano Roosevelt instituted several governmental programs to try to salvage the economy and the social system of the country, and was accused by many as trying to introduce socialism into the American democracy.

Whatever it will be classified under by the historians, the result was that the people of the United States were pulled through a difficult time. Capitalism once again flourished, the economy rebounded nicely, as did patriotism and the drive for “the American dream.”

Now, some 70 years later, everyone is talking again. About a failing economy, about the signs of the reemergence of a worldwide Great Depression, of falling stocks and diminishing monetary systems. And, once again, one of the two aspiring presidential nominees is drawing attention to their solution to the contemporary issues facing the American people. Once again, opponents are crying “Socialism” and “class warfare” in response.

I’ve always marvelled at the theory of democracy, I admit. It’s probably because of the theory upon which it’s founded: a government by the people for the people. In theory, it sounds good. On paper, it sounds good. But there is an underlying problem which keeps getting overlooked by everyone, it seems. And so, the gospel of Democracy continues to be spread around the globe, oblivious to the reality.

Democracy has been promoted as the ideal form of government, because it is a consensual rule rather than an imposed one. Decisions are made by the majority, and they decide for their own selves which laws and regulations which they will be governed by. Leaders are elected to office to represent their constituents in the higher echelons of government and speak in behalf of those who elected them into office, and to work hard to defend the rights of the people.

But the reality is that Democracy is far less than we hoped it would be, far less than the theory would lead us to believe. It is the highest form of government, for a certainty, the ideal to which we as humans aspire precisely because it promotes freedom from government by allowing ourselves to be ruled only to the extent that we choose to be ruled.

But that’s the underlying issue, isn’t it? No matter how hard we try, we cannot escape the core problem that we were never meant to rule ourselves, just as we were never meant to rule and dominate one another. In that sense, Democracy, while the clearcut winner in the pool of human governments, is paradoxically also the epitome of failure in humankind’s ability to govern himself apart from his Creator. In that sense, I have every reason to believe that it is truly the final form of human government that we will see.

That’s not to say that we won’t see reversions back to earlier forms of governments and associated tyrannies. In fact, one school of thought is that there will be a new emergence of a fascist or dictatorial form of government that will bring with it a newfound Great Tribulation unlike the world has ever seen. Some have indicated that it is already emerging on the world scene, and that the latest financial catastrophe may in some way be connected with it. I, of course, have my own speculation on the matter and may address it in a future entry.

But come what may, one thing needs to be reiterated here: Democracy is not the answer. It never was, no matter how much we want to believe it is. No matter who wins the election here in the United States. It is doomed to failure because humankind simply does not have within itself the capacity to truly know the difference between good and evil with no regard to the Creator.

It is, after all, our answer to the suggestion which God put forth to Adam and Eve, who took it upon themselves to decide between what would be good and what would be bad. It was in the Garden of Eden that Democracy was born. It hasn’t really held up under actual practice, however.

When a people, such as the United States of America, agrees to pay $700 billion dollars in order to shore up corporations, banks, and big businesses rather than suffer through the inevitable consequences of fast living based on credit and consumerism, it reveals an ugly truth about ourselves. It reveals that in spite of what we claim and hide behind under the guise of Democracy, we are self-absorbed in our own self-interests, with little to no regard for others unless and until it infringes upon our comfort.

We could have tightened up our belts and strapped on our boots and pulled together with determination as we went through the fallout from our excessiveness and indulgences if we really believed in the dream of Democracy. But we didn’t. We bought into the fear instilled by politicians and financial experts and the media. We bought into the fear instilled by plummeting numbers on the Stock Market. We bought into the lies in order to continue to lie to ourselves that Democracy will work, and it won’t cost us anything–if we throw enough money at it. Once we do that, we’ll be able to go on feeding our indulgences, living on credit, consuming the goods, enjoying entertainment…

But it doesn’t appear to be working. Stocks continue to stagger in uncertainties, politicians continue to plead their case with us that they have the solutions which will save the lifestyles that we have become accustomed to, and all the while unemployment numbers are up, home foreclosures are up, and national morale is nearing an all-time low.

Yet we continue to hope that somehow, Democracy will pull through… if not for us, then for our children. If not for our children, then surely for their children.

Yes, we will continue to lie to ourselves and deny the truth. We will continue to refuse to become “our brother’s keeper.”

I mentioned earlier how we were oh so willing to pay out $700 billion in order to stave off the threats of another Great Depression, rather than admitting that we’ve lived far too long “high on the hog” and that for that there are consequences. We failed to accept our accountability as a people who like to go around promoting Democracy as the best form of government ever to exist, because we as a people would much rather take the good than the bad.

If ever someone was going to make a case for the validity of Democracy as a form of human government, it would have been when Wall Street was crying out for a bailout. We could have said, “No. This is the result of conscious decisions. There are consequences for those decisions, like it or not.” But we didn’t, because we were afraid of what it might cost us. It might have caused us to lose our creature comforts, our lifestyles.

We could have, experts have said, for the same amount of money that we gave to the profiteering conglomerates on Wall Street, stamped out hunger, poverty, and malnutrition worldwide. One such expert, Devinder Sharma, wrote:

The additional US $900 billion that the US has spent in the past one year could have pulled out the world’s estimated 2 billion poor from perpetual poverty and that too on a long-term sustainable basis. The US $700 billion bailout package that George Bush is promising could have wiped out the last traces of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and squalor from the face of the Earth. [Global Priority: Feeding Markets, Starving Hungry]

Clearly, we’re more interested in self-preservation than in living up to such a humble premise as demonstrating to the entire world that “I am my brother’s keeper. I will share what I have, that nobody might have to go without.” And to justify our indifference, we will continue to hail Democracy as the ideal, all the while proudly proclaiming the gospel of Democracy to the rest of the world, inviting them to be just like us.