- "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole
world but loses his soul?" ---Jesus Christ
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- Humanity's "beacon of hope" is unraveling at
its moral seams faster than George Bush can say nucular. 230 years ago,
disciples of the Enlightenment shattered the shackles of colonial oppression
and inaugurated their conception of a haven for humanity. While tainted
by patriarchy and racism, the founding of the United States was arguably
the pinnacle of social and political evolution. Tragically, the descendents
of those who ascended to that zenith are racing to the bottom at a dizzying
velocity.
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- In a collective sense, the soul of the United States
is writhing in the agony of spiritual asphyxiation. Trapped in an overflowing
cesspool of its own making, the nation's élan vital desperately
needs freedom and an infusion of spiritual oxygen. Sans significant change,
its odds for survival equal those of an under-sized fish carelessly tossed
ashore by a heartless angler.
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- Yet it is not too late for the "cradle of democratic
civilization" to fulfill the dream of a nation governed by We the
People. Our ancestors overcame seemingly insurmountable odds by defying
a tyrant. What is preventing us from following their lead? Humanity and
the Earth desperately need for us to end the Corporatocracy's destructive
rampage and direct our unparalleled resources, wealth, and technology toward
the betterment of the world.
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- We the People need to recapture the Zeitgeist of 1776
and initiate a revolt. To overcome a ruling class that maintains its power
through the manipulation and enslavement of our psyches, we need a spiritual
revolution. Since reactionary forces have assassinated the influential
spiritual leaders whom have arisen in recent history, it appears we will
need to resurrect one in the abstract.
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- While there have been a number of viable potential candidates
throughout history, Jesus Christ appears to be the obvious choice. While
people continue to debate whether he was man, myth or God, few would deny
the wisdom and virtue of the teachings attributed to him. His popular appeal
and impact on civilization are unprecedented. And one need not subscribe
to organized religion or ecclesiastical zealotry to manifest the soul-nurturing
principles of Christ.
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- What would happen if the poor and working class of the
United States said "no mas" to the Corporatocracy? What if the
wage slaves finally became self aware and leveraged the overwhelming strength
of their numbers against their parasitic masters?
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- Over 250 million US Americans acting in unison and embracing
Christ as their leader "in absentia" would overwhelm the relative
few manning the bulwarks of exploitation, imperial conquest, and obscene
militarism. While it is unlikely Jesus would have advocated open revolt,
it is a virtual certainty that he would have instructed his followers to
minimize or end their participation in a system driven by avarice and abject
cruelty.
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- Improbable that such an evolution will transpire? Yes.
Impossible? No.
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- So let's indulge ourselves by taking a glimpse at the
potential results of a mass movement of the wage slaves and disenfranchised
in the United States acting in accord with the enlightenment of Christ:
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- [Five years have slipped by since the "rise of the
Proletariat" in the United States. Working in unison according to
the spiritual principles embodied by Jesus Christ in the Synoptic Gospels,
the poor, the working class, and the besieged middle class had finally
renounced their allegiance to their pecunious over-lords.
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- Consumers staged mass boycotts, decimating the cash flow
that served as the life-blood of predatory capitalism. Sweeping strikes
and sick-outs deprived the vampiric moneyed class of their wretched wage
slaves. Spreading like a plague, civil disobedience infected the fascist
titan and brought it to its knees. Military personnel refused to serve,
bringing the war machine to a grinding halt. Law enforcement personnel
rejected their loathsome task of enforcing unjust laws, exposing the miscreants
ruling the nation to the terrifying possibility of enduring consequences
for their heinous actions.
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- Realizing that neither their wealth nor their gated communities
would afford them ample protection from receiving the just punishment they
so richly deserved, the power elite emptied their bank accounts, cashed
in their decimated securities portfolios, and scattered like roaches scurrying
to evade the Light.
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- Riding on the wings of their hubris, the haute monde
fled to nations with no obligation to extradite fugitives to the United
States. Tragically for them, their repeated displays of contempt for international
law and rapacious actions toward other nations proved to be their undoing.
Officials in nations harboring America's noblesse were delighted to cooperate
with the newly formed United States government of We the People.
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- Within less than a year, astoundingly large numbers of
the deposed Bush Regime, members of the US Congress, false prophets like
James Dobson, and avaricious swine like Lee Raymond found themselves occupying
the grim confines of the vast gulag of prisons they had built to "protect"
themselves from non-violent drug users and impoverished Blacks.
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- At last the abusers of power and exploiters of humanity
faced consequences for their unabated spree of crimes against humanity.
How the mighty had plummeted. Stripped of their wealth, freedom, authority,
and individuality, with shaven heads and sunken shoulders, the uniformed
inhabitants of the nightmarish "correctional facilities" (of
their making) choked on the acerbic medicine they had so gleefully prescribed
for so many of their "inferiors". Fortunately for them, justice
and compassion guided their jailers. State executions, torture, and prisoner
abuse had been eliminated.
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- While the ousted power brokers met their fate, a new
Constitutional Convention had convened. The new founders were truly representative
of We the People. The assembly was comprised of men, women, Blacks, Latinos,
Whites, Asians, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Atheists, Gays, Native Americans,
the disabled, the mentally ill, and more. Ensuring diversity and equality
was a significant priority to the new government.
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- Habeas corpus, checks and balances, the separation of
powers, and the Bill of Rights were restored and enshrined as the cornerstones
of the new federal government. Numerous rights and responsibilities were
ceded to the state level, balancing the power between the federal and state
governments. The rule of law once again prevailed over the rule of man.
Big Brother was properly neutered and caged.
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- Wisely retaining the Preamble, and building upon it,
those crafting the new Constitution determined that public funds would
be dispersed in equal measures to revamp and sustain the judicial system
to "establish Justice", to provide the means to "insure
domestic tranquility", to maintain a military just large enough to
"provide for the common defense", to fund humanitarian programs
to "promote the general Welfare", and to perpetuate an independent
watchdog entity comprised of elected representatives from each state (empowered
to initiate a national referendum at any time to call for another Constitutional
Convention) "to secure the Blessings of Liberty".
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- They abolished the Electoral College and electronic voting
machines. Congress was reduced to a unicameral body comprised of elected
members with each state represented in proportion to its population. Each
member was limited to one term of six years. An unlimited number of political
parties were given the right to equal share of public campaign funding.
New legislation made private campaign contributions and lobbying felony
offenses.
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- The infinitely complex tax scheme which had enabled the
criminal class to pay so little was relegated to the dust bin of history.
A flat rate tax on personal, business, and corporate income, sales taxes,
luxury taxes, tariffs, and property taxes filled the public coffers with
money that benefited each citizen as equally as possible.
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- Corporate personhood was abolished. The new government
of the people nationalized major corporations providing essential goods
and services such as healthcare, food, and utilities. The plethora of corporate
industrial complexes, including the prison and military, naturally withered
as federal funding for their malevolent and profligate programs was cut
to the quick.
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- Assets seized from the criminal ruling class were utilized
to provide a financial jump-start for this second attempt at forming an
"asylum for mankind". Collaborating closely, national and local
governments, nationalized industries, and businesses kept in check by a
reasonable degree of public oversight worked to ensure that every citizen
in their nation of excessive wealth had access to quality health care,
education, food, and shelter.
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- As a majority of US citizens focused their attention
on matters of the spirit and new laws were implemented to deter rapacious
capitalism, many of the social and economic institutions shriveled, atrophied,
or collapsed. Consumer protection statutes and diminished appetites for
material possessions dealt severe blows to Master Card and Visa. New and
more effective anti-trust legislation crushed leviathans like Wal-Mart
and Microsoft. Small business owners could flourish (at last) in an environment
devoid of competitor-crushing monopolies.
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- Moral clarity and clear-mindedness armed the masses against
the relentless flow of lies and manipulations manufactured by Madison Avenue
and the corporate media. Individuals and churches exploiting religion for
their empowerment and enrichment found their pews and collection plates
as empty as Mother Hubbard's cupboard. Grossly overpaid entertainers and
athletes awoke to a stinging reality in which the public no longer worshipped
them nor showered them with obscene riches.
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- Begging forgiveness from the rest of the world, US Americans
withdrew hundreds of thousands of troops occupying other nations. Together
with the rest of the "nuclear club" they began dismantling their
doomsday weapons. The Zionist state collapsed when the United States ceased
subsidizing its genocide and militarism. Palestine became a model of diversity
as Jews, Christians, and Muslims imprisoned the proponents of violence
and hatred in their midst and followed the example of their former patrons
by forging a new government that truly served the interests of the people.
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- With the Neocons tried, convicted, and imprisoned for
egregious war crimes, a withdrawal of US troops around the globe, and justice
restored in Palestine, the "unfathomable" came to pass. Asymmetrical
attacks on the United States and its Western allies came to a screeching
halt. At long last the "War on Terror" was exposed for the sham
that it was.
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- Having surrendered their perceived invulnerability, hubris,
and narcissism, US Americans awoke from their state of mass delusion and
began to perceive reality. Rather than launching military invasions that
murdered millions of innocent civilians, the servants of We the People
crafted and implemented a foreign policy based on the simplicity of the
Golden Rule. Acting with fairness and respect, US leaders employed diplomacy,
dispensed humanitarian aid without strings, and eliminated the military
option excepting situations involving self-defense.
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- Despite the "loss" of material wealth, the
power to dominate the world, and the "entitlements" associated
with the capacity to crush virtually all opposition, those who had found
a unifying set of convictions in the wisdom of Christ and dismantled the
American Empire could rejoice. Gaining far more than they had lost, they
had reclaimed their souls, individually and collectively. And they believed
Christ's assertion:
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- "He who rules his spirit has won a greater victory
than the taking of a city."]
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- Mother Teresa once said, "Each one of them is Jesus
in disguise."
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- Christian or otherwise, WE are Mother Teresa's THEM.
We who have been psychologically, spiritually, and financially enslaved
by the insidious malevolence of American fascism have the love, compassion,
and power of Christ within us.
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- We have the capacity and the moral obligation to reject
the Faustian bargain offered by the ruling elite. Temporal security and
prosperity afforded by raping humanity and the Earth are not worth the
price of our eternal souls. And without the complicity of their minions,
the emasculated oligarchs' reign of terror would be reduced to a historical
footnote.
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- Off with the disguises and down with the Corporatocracy!
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- Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who
has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He writes prolifically,
his essays have appeared widely on the Internet, and he volunteers at a
homeless shelter. He welcomes constructive correspondence at willpowerful@hotmail.com
or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
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