Federal politics in America has always been about class warfare. The Founding Fathers were, for the most part, rich land owners. In most states only white male land owners over 21 could vote. This persisted through the early 1800s, but by the 1820s was no longer common. North Carolina was the last state to remove the property requirement in 1856.

Senators were elected by the legislatures of their respective states until 1913 when the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified. This was another way that the wealthy retained power. After the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment Senators were elected by the constituents of the states. This was a good step towards equity, but there were other ways to twist the system in favor of the monied class.

It was set up as a good old boy's club and pretty much remains that way to the present with the addition of some good old girls as well. Sure, some less than wealthy candidates occasionally get elected, but by and large, they don't remain that way for long. We've all seen how some elected officials come into office with a modicum of wealth and within a few years have accumulated a rather large nest egg, much more than what their annual salary justifies. The longer they serve the larger the larder.

Does your mind feel like a pin cushion, similar to being stuck like a voodoo doll by invisible forces intent on stealing your free will? Does it feel like every day there's a new assault on your sanity, a new way to divide yourself against yourself and against each other? Do you feel confused about what is right and what is wrong, like old sociological taboos are now acceptable and what was once unthinkable is now subliminally admissible? Do you feel like you're being led down a menacing alleyway in the dead of night, in the midst of an archetypal dream where you need to run from some danger yet your legs don't work no matter how hard you try. Do you feel intimidated about saying the wrong thing to the point where you don't even want to think those thoughts? Do you feel like you have three legs of which only one can go forward but two will then step back? Do you pine for the old world order of just a few short years ago, that was chaotic in and of itself but now seems idyllic and much more manageable compared to the mass confusion of this nascent new world order being thrust upon us?

Do you feel helpless and hopeless? Do you want it all to just stop? If so that is exactly the raison d'etre for the incessant and ubiquitous propaganda and gaslighting we've been bombarded with by the media for many years now. It's been ever present in our lives since birth but has recently been taken to a whole new level of full spectrum mind control.

Why? Why have the societal paradigms shifted so much in the near term and what may the consequences be in the long term?

As economic inequality has continued to dominate our society, I am constantly reminded of the original Star Trek series, and more specifically a particular episode. This essay has really nothing to do with the future of space travel or exploration (a word the precedes exploitation). Instead I use that series to address what is going on Earth in the present as the original series did.

We base our entire politics on the idea that we're living in a meritocracy. In other words, like the knights of old at a joust, we find out who is best through competition, a competition assumed to be both fair and honest. In the old days, the joust was assumed to be fair and honest because God was both omnipotent and just and therefore, obviously, would not allow a bad man to win.

Capitalism's Report Card

Part One: Basic Principles

This essay is not about political power, although inevitably it dovetails into such. This is about another meaning of power.

From Webster's New 20th Century Dictionary Unabridged, Second Edition:

power, n. [old French pooir, from an old infinitive podia, from LL. n potter, to be able, used for posse, to able, from potis, able and esse, to be]
...5. physical force or energy; as in electric power.

The legend: King Canute and the waves.

Doug Henwood's Facebook page had this paragraph emblazoned upon it today:

I have written much about the drastic changes we need to make if we are to survive our self- made crisis. There is no need to point these things out to the water protectors at Standing Rock. I only wonder if the rest of us really understand this.
Today there was a pause in construction announced. This is a victory for all people on the planet. It has significance in many ways. Surely the protection of the water is the obvious one.

I'm writing this after surgery yesterday so I may still be fogged a bit. If so, I like the fog for it helps see things more clearly.