To solve problems of those in power abusing their power you must first understand how they obtained and maintain their power. In the case of our country it is because they no longer are afraid of the public. They seem free to do as they desire with no ramifications and no one to answer to. How they manage to keep this power is surprisingly straightforward and quite transparent.
A friend once said to me "You know, Shannon Doherty has a crooked face?" i threw in my VHS copy of the movie 'MallRats' and sure enough her eyes are at slightly different heights. This was something that up until this point i had never noticed but ever since, any time i see Ms. Doherty's face i now think of Picasso paintings. Suddenly everything was different. i hope here to do the same.
How is it that the top 1% or less of the population is able to control a majority of the wealth and more importantly power? How can such a small group of people hold such a large group of people at bay in a supposedly free country? The simple answer is RACISM. The long answer is prejudice and all of it's forms.
A simple way of representing the population in terms of finances is through a triangle. The top representing more money, the bottom representing less money. In this format it is easy to recognize that the majority of citizens in this country are working class or poor. As you go up in social/economic standings there are less members in each group. Fewer middle-class than lower-class. Fewer lower-upper class than middle. Few upper-class than l-u class, etc.
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How is it then, that decisions that would benefit the many are so frequently cast aside while decisions that benefit the few are frequently the rule? Why is that allowed to happen? How can that happen? The answer is a time-honored tradition of the powerful since the beginning of society: racism and prejudice. Keep re-directing the masses' anger towards each other or a common foe and they will never turn on you in large enough numbers to matter.
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Conspiracy theorists may now start pointing to the pyramid with the illuminated eye that graces the back of our currency and start talking about Free Masons, while others may start discussions about the ancient Egyptians but i am going to keep this very simple because again this just works to steer our attention towards isolated groups rather than the simple idea that is at work here. That would be quite hypocritical.
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Any time the few has amassed unprecedented power in history it has been by turning members of the middle and lower classes on each other. American immigrants against American Indians. American immigrants against England. American immigrants against black slaves. German populous against Jews. The Roman Empire even inspired Jews against early Christians. The list can go on and on throughout time with the easiest conflicts to insight regularly being based on religion or race. Of course sex and now sexual preference are largely joining the ranks of the big two dividers.
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How this is so easily accomplished is a case of not having to outrun the bear, just having to outrun the other guy. By believing that you are superior to another race, religion, sex, etc you are now a little higher up the triangle, if only in perception. You don't have to vote, you don't have to get paid more, you don't have to run for office. All you have to do is believe that someone else is inferior to you and you have done it, you have imagined yourself at a higher ranking with very little effort or work. You may not be first but at least you are not last. Meanwhile those out in front are pulling further and further away. How is this really helping you?
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The answer is: it is not! It is helping them out, those who probably need the least amount of help, and you have played your role in both aiding them and hurting yourself. So what do you do?
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Believe it or not it is quite simple. You stop worrying about things like skin color, body parts, and where others go to worship. You start worrying about the things that actually impact your daily life. You start worrying about the things that effect you and your family's well being.
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For starters how about quality of life? How about health/health care, workday/workloads, the condition of the air you breath and the water you drink? How about the food on your table? i tend to think that improving these things would have a far greater impact on your life than anything having to do with race, religion, or sex.
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How do we change the focus? First we must stop buying into and believing the hate that the top of the money pyramid feeds us, mainly through television (aggressive political commercials and even whole stations of political hate-mongering). Stop getting distracted by the hate fed to you and start getting angry about your quality of life.
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Second, we all need to vote. For this to work, though, we must ALL VOTE. Right now we have no choices, we just vote for one top of the pyramid or the other. They like it that way because they stay in power and we get disenfranchised and stop participating and lose say while they grow more powerful. If even 75% of the population voted, within 2 elections one of us could become a serious contender for ANY office. At the very least those in power would get nervous and have to start listening. People in positions of power SHOULD be nervous, otherwise dangerous things start to happen.
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Stop listening to them when they repeatedly talk about the woman candidate, the black candidate, the Mormon candidate, the southern candidate, the northern candidate. Start thinking about how they are going to help those you love, not those you hate. How are they going to help you if you or a family member gets sick? How are they going to help you when you want to retire? How are they going to help you breath cleaner air and drink cleaner water?
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How many of these things could have been improved instead of sending the bottom of the triangle over to another country to kill others with a different race and different religion? What could we have done with those resources? More importantly, what could we have done with those lives?
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Make them answer to you! Be heard, vote, write, blog, whatever you can. You only lose if you do nothing.
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