Photo: Adelaide, 2007 /Jill Posener © 2009/ All rights reserved
California was once the the 7th largest economy in the world. Not too long ago. It now teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. We were shocked a year or two ago as small cities in California like Vallejo declared themselves to be broke. Now the powerhouse of America is looking more and more like a banana republic with an action man in a Hummer wondering what he got himself into. The collapse of Schwarzenegger and the prospect of a true financial meltdown in the California sun will be one of the head scratchingly bewildering stories one hundred years from now as people who care about these things (there won't be many left) look at the overthrow of Gray Davis as one of the first real signs that Amerika was already in a state of corporate fascism. That mob rule guided by the tyrannical hand of consumerism was already dictating our political and social course.
Is there really any difference between what the right wing describes as the 'soft tyranny' of Obama's 'daddy knows best, so change your lightbulbs now' approach and the terror inflicted on us by CheneyBush in the form of the corporatized military. They bring us to the same point of aquiescence and apathy. In fact, it could be argued that Obama is committed to the transformation of government into one large nanny impacting and controlling every tiny piece of our lives - it just won't be Blackwater but instead a growing cadre of self important and empowered nannies. We are all lobsters here. And we are not noticing how pink, tiddly pom, our toes, tiddly pom - are growing. (My apologies to A.A Milne and my hero Winnie The Pooh).
The problem is that under either form of control - we have already become a one party state with small variations of attitude when a 'social' issue comes into play, such as gay marriage or abortion. And those communities which might at one point have raised a voice of dissent are too busy taking huge contributions from the corporate world that is enslaving us. How can the gay community battle rampant alcoholism when alcohol companies sponsor every event we hold? When banks, vehicle and chemical companies advertise shamelessly that they are gay friendly, minority friendly and environment friendly who is left to ask 'then how did it happen that small businesses are declaring bankruptcy at a rate of thousands per day, how is it that whole areas of cities look like a scene out of a Hollywood disaster movie, how is it that the jails are full of black men, that drug companies are using doctors to peddle untried medications, that foreclosures are rising, that the streets are no longer being cleaned, freeways unfixed, and developers running roughshod over the needs of communities?'
We are turning very pink, and not even so slowly.
Can I ask Bayer Corporation for a donation to my beloved animal shelter and still demand of them 'What exactly are you doing with the amazing primates you experiment on?' We have become so dependent on government or corporations for our needs, and government is so deeply dependent on the corporate trough that we can no longer raise a voice or a fist in dissent. Small business - the lifeblood of the middle class has been pillaged to the point of decimation.
I got stopped yesterday by two young black female police officers. In a city where there is an internal affairs department three times the size of other police departments of the same size. They say I didn't stop long enough at a Stop sign. Could be true. I was driving in a quiet area, stopped, looked carefully at the intersection to see that I wasn't gonna hit a pedestrian, bicyclist or other vehicle, and then turned the corner. Not long enough for these two. Who stopped me saying that I had been going 5mph at the time of the 'offense'. But you know what? These two knights of the road, they said they would do me a favour. They gave me a citation that was based on the local Municipal code violation and not the state violation. Meaning it wouldn't count as a point on my record and I wouldn't have to go to traffic school. But also meaning that the city gets the freakin' fine. Do they get an instruction as they head out onto those deadly streets ' give the traffic violators a municipal citation - we get the money, you keep your jobs'.
We are living in a California where the needs of the corporations, the municipalities and the government employees are so deeply intertwined that independence is a word on the edge of extinction. But look on the bright side. Restaurants are packed. Have you noticed? We really do have the capacity, us Californians, to fiddle while Rome burns. I'll take the Sirloin. Thanks.
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