Tyranny is found in many forms . However, it can be said to exist wherever some individual or group seeks unauthorized power in order to exert control over what others say and do. Thus, it shows up as a boyfriend or girlfriend attempting to control whatever the opposite gender or partner believes or proposes. Often, it seeps into marriage relationships where one partner seeks control over the other in ways too numerous to mention.
Or, it can simply be displayed by persons who are in helping professions who suddenly discover the power they have to influence people’s lives because of their client’s dependence on the help or services being delivered. Thus, people living with poverty or limited resources may be found making every attempt to avoid the over-bearing helper who tries to control their lives through the very help they are meant to provide without extra strings attached. It could be like having a social worker tell a client living in poverty that they must do something extra to “earn” their benefits, such as disciplining their children as the worker believes they should; or, by taking an inappropriate action that is to the worker’s benefit rather than that of the client.
And then, of course, there is that whole area of private enterprise where control is sought mostly in hidden ways that too often remain hidden until someone blows a whistle of knowledge and truth.
The tyranny of private enterprise is the bane of our existence because every day it impinges upon our lives, and we are prone to ignore or deny it simply because it is too much to contend against. AND SO, WE TEND TO ALLOW business, and advertising, schools and professionals, technocrats, repairmen and salespersons to take advantage of our ignorance, our apathy, our uncritical demeanor or our willingness to just “get through the day” all of which can be invitations to exploit, swindle, access our private information, and make enhanced profit for themselves or their businesses without a whimper from us. AND WHAT IS AMAZING is the propaganda that capitalism has produced over decades that this form of tyranny is good for us!
The growth of privatization of governmental functions is
moving ahead in the form of grants, vouchers, and contracts that are being
swallowed up by private enterprises more than eager to be paid with taxpayer
dollars instead of having to raise capital from private sponsors, bank loans or
by other private means of funding. The earnings
at taxpayer expense are kept quiet but
what we do know from www.crimereport.org is that
“A few businesses are involved in
almost every aspect of prison life, taking in billions of dollars every year
for products and services, often with little oversight, Axios
reports. Taxpayers, incarcerated people and their families spend around $85
billion a year on public and private correction facilities, bail and prison
services, says the Prison Policy Initiative.”
For-profit prison companies started in response to the
government’s incapacity to handle the skyrocketing incarcerated population.
As for private
schools pocketing federal dollars, www.corpwatch.org
comments:
“ In Jefferson County, Colorado,
Pepsi donated $2 million to build a school football stadium-in exchange for
exclusive rights to sell soft drinks in all 140 district schools and to
advertise in school gymnasiums and athletic fields. That deal is estimated to
earn the company $7.3 million over seven years. It doesn't end there. Education in the U.S.
has become big business. The "education industry," a term coined by
EduVentures, an investment banking firm, is estimated to be worth between $630
and $680 billion in the United States. The stock value of 30 publicly traded
educational companies is growing twice as fast as the Dow Jones Average.
Brokerage firms like Lehman Brothers and Montgomery Securities have specialists
seeking out venture capital for the 'education industry’.”
BUT we buy into it! For example, we actually allow pollution of our air, water, and earth – indeed our whole planet – managing to pay exorbitant prices for things that tyranny says are good for us like gas oil, over-priced drugs, unhealthy foods and drink, etc. We literally BUY IT ALL because it is engrained in us that opposition or protest of business, big or small, is hurtful to our economy and will somehow ruin our lives. And thus, the destruction imposed upon us by such tyranny goes “by the boards” consequences be damned. Just often enough, someone is punished for their miscreant behavior, and we are convinced that all is well, even though our planet keeps crying out to us that it is dying and needs our dramatic and dynamic help against the tyrannical owners who control our daily actions and reactions. We demur, we delay, we fail to hold tyrants responsible, and we elect leaders who have no business in public office because they don’t give a damn about public welfare; they only care about their own welfare, seeking public office as their chance to gain a sense of power and control over others to reap gain for themselves.
WE FAIL TO LISTEN or INVESTIGATE. WE FAIL TO CRITICIZE. WE FAIL TO EXAMINE. WE FAIL TO HOLD ACCOUNTABLE –our economic, political, and public leaders. INSTEAD, we buy into their ideologies, their falsehoods, their excuses, their schemes and their supposed leadership and understanding of issues. What we also fail to do is to demand effective representation, including their full attention to our needs and desires, their loyalty to the Constitution and their complete responsibility to represent us, not to act for themselves or for their monied sponsors. We fail to call them to account, to measure their performance with strict evaluation criteria and then to vote based on the gathered facts rather than on impressions or fantasies, propaganda and made-up negativities and conspiracies. Most of all, we need to know what proportion of our problems have been addressed and resolved by them. We then become disillusioned and vote on a false unfounded basis instead of on research, facts, and truth – on CRITICAL ANALYSIS. And we end up changing parties-in-power but do not necessarily end up with men and women who have a better sense of governing than those we just threw out. We buy the myth that change is adequate in itself, but that only starts the tyranny of power-grabbing all over again. We rarely change the system itself to guard against the tyrannies of personal aggrandizement and personal ignorance and their avoidance of sacrifice, the general welfare and the superiority of service to humanity rather than profit for the few.
Tyranny comes to us in many forms; let us mention a limited
number for context.
·
Children treated as pawns, possessions, and
numbers with little concern for their life needs; schools are ‘hotbeds’ of
little tyrannies imposed on children
·
Domestic abuse on the rise, and women kept in
subordinate roles both by administrators and staff
·
Shooting of innocent persons of color during unwarranted
confrontations; sentencing of minorities to lengthy and unjust prison sentences
·
Landlords who ignore laws and regulations and
the rights of renters;
·
Unnecessary rules, regulations, fees or fines,
licensing, paperwork and a myriad of government requirements that do little
more than force uniformity and conformity upon citizens under the guise of ‘streamlining’ administration’; too often the motive is not to enhance
service but to ease administrative workload;
·
Voluminous Personal Information-gathering about
consumers/citizens by mostly unregulated websites with tie-ins to government
·
The tyranny
of elected representatives having access to inside information that enables
congresspersons to profit; and, using government to enrich themselves as with
farm subsidies; plus, having special privileges as with health care choices and
free surgery
We have fallen prey to the tyranny of the individual versus
the welfare of the many. We are falling prey
to the tyranny of one person having power to make and enforce law as she/he sees
fit. We have fallen prey to the false
idea that social welfare is the horrifying hobgoblin that is the lead-in to
socialism and communism. Many have
bought the false idea that asserting the will of the minority and the elite few
is healthiest for our country when a greater unity and enhanced community are
what our Constitution is founded on.
We have been seduced into believing that certain people are
not worthy of full citizenship or of the right to decide matters of import that
come before us as a nation, but have instead chosen to elect leaders who tend to
disown their oath of office by not defending our constitutional form of
governing in favor of a regime that will balance a budget (to what end?), settle
for smaller, weaker government (and lack of performance ) support an elite few millionaires rather than
the multi-faceted population. We are
bamboozled by people who support violence as a tool of control of others’
thoughts, words and deeds so that only what they say and do matters. And now,
many labor under a flawed concept that only a tyrannical leader of white supremacists
should possess the power of absolute control.
WE have bought the ultimate falsehood that truth is unattainable; facts
are fiction, and people who disagree with leaders are disloyal and
unpatriotic. The tyranny of untruth and
violent control has begun to tyrannize public officials.
Moreover, we are facing the shocking truth that some (a
sizeable portion in some districts) forces ostensibly dedicated to citizen safety
and protection are some of the very forces who are threatening certain citizens
and officeholders with harm and are thus threatening our whole system of
equality and unity of laws which constitute our justice system. Legal forces being
used to intimidate and threaten citizens is the essence of tyrannical
governing.
Finally, the designated plotter against our whole form of governing, Donald J. Trump, has for years used the tools of government and the legal system to undermine that system. That is the ultimate way that tyranny prevails-- by looking like and acting as though it is a legitimate organization with legitimate structure, rules, policies and programs . It is the followers of that leader who are the tools used to commandeer and control every aspect of government as though government’s parts are their personal possessions with the gleaning of profit from them theirs to take without remorse or punishment.
Tyranny is on our doorstep.
A man who was essentially allowed tyrannical behavior from childhood and
who grew into the role of bully and narcissist; a man who was raised to admire strength,
revenge, and unemotional demeanor; topped off with an ability to control others.\—that man now
controls a political party, the Supreme Court majority, and has a base of
followers ,who accept without examination the ideology and behavior of a man
with absolute accumulated power over others.
And they stand ready to vote
against our democracy and in favor of his tyranny.
There is precious little time left to counteract the tyranny
that we face. The one Party dedicated to
make the effort has failed because of the lack of a specific detailed Plan and
the lack of the use of forceful persuasion over the two Senators responsible
for voting against the welfare of their Constituency and the welfare of society
in general. They should be expelled from
the Democratic Party, from committees of Congress, from receiving party funds,
and from access to sponsors .
Negotiations with them are futile as they have only their own
futures in mind and are acting to enhance their positions. They need to be held accountable for voting
for a tyrant and not for democracy. And the White House needs to exempt them
from federal aid whenever possible private funding and backing from
traditionally Democratic party sources .
It may mean they will go Republican to win re-election, and that is a
risk, But the bigger risk is their support for anti-democratic principles and
ideals. Time to get tough on their fake bipartisanship and call it what it is
which is-- the tyranny of personal attention and aggrandizement. They epitomize the tyranny of using public
office for personal gain.
