After Gutenberg

jcwinnie

Gosh, Michael Moore’s Truthout St. Patrick Day rant makes this blog look positively staid.

It was amazing. Every story on the front page of Monday’s New York Times told the story of the Age of Greed during which a system known as capitalism is slowly, but surely, killing us:

• Insurance company greed: “Millions Spent to Sway Democrats on Health Care”
• War profiteers: “Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants”
• There’s no profit in repairing our infrastructure: “Repair Costs Daunting as Water Lines Crumble”
• China, the bank: “China Uses Rules on Global Trade to Its Advantage”
• You mean NAFTA didn’t improve life in Mexico: “Two Drug Slayings in Mexico Rock US Consulate”
• What happens when Big Food profits from hurting kids: “Forget Goofing Around: Recess Has New Boss”

There’s now a daily parade of news like this — well, not really “news,” more like the media division of large corporations shoving your face into the dirt that is your life. You already know the schools are a disaster and the war is a boon for the Halliburtons and a bust for you. You don’t need a newspaper to tell you the roads and electrical lines and the local sewage plant is in miserable disrepair.

And by now you’ve figured out that you don’t really have any say in this, that what we call the “democratic process” is mostly a sham, pretty words that get repeated in the hopes we will all still fall for it. But the fix is in and we don’t fall for it anymore. Admit it: Wall Street owns “our” Congress lock, stock and big barrel o’ campaign cash.