Awakening

Often, people wander busily through life never looking closely at what is really happening around them. Sometimes, perhaps by chance, they will talk to someone, read something, or see a movie that will open their eyes to some important aspect of life. Don't leave it to chance!  Please point people to resources such as the following.

Want to understand how corporate interests have come to dominate our democracies?

• Watch "Inside Job" dated 2010, via Netflix or Amazon.
• Watch "Food, Inc." dated 2008, via Netflix or Amazon.
• Watch "Capitalism is the Crisis" dated 2010 via YouTube.
• Read "Death of the Liberal Class" by Chris Hedges, via Amazon.

For a quick hit, online, here is Chris Hedges on various subjects via YouTube.

Once you've seen the recent and historic activities used to silence resistance to power are you rethinking your blind trust of government? Are you rethinking your blind trust of academia? Are you rethinking your blind trust of pure free market forces?

If you think you can trust anyone in government, academia or the big corporate class to have anything other than their own wealth and well-being in mind then think again.  You and your vote are currently nothing but a source of power and wealth to people up and down the money tree.

This does not imply that all parties are malicious!  However, it does imply that our system has a series of predilections which are not in our best interest. Governments, presumed to be in the business of protecting the public good, are now castrated so that they will obediently serve the interests of protecting big business profits instead. Profit, driven by human greed and ego, is all that matters.

I supposed you'd like to be put back into the Matrix? Forget it... instead check out these bonus assignments for extra marks:

• Watch "The Corporation" dated 2003, via Netflix or Amazon.

Corporations are not people as the US Supreme Court has recently ruled. They are artificial entities given certain rights to allow them to be ongoing engines of economy with limited liabilities and the ability to enter into contracts. Corporations deserve rights in terms of commerce but not in terms of equal constitutional rights and freedoms as human beings.

We make a mistake whenever we do not put buffers between concentrations of power, whether explicit or systematic, and citizens.

Alternately, for a lighter look at corporate malfeasance, consider the following:

• Watch "The Yes Men Fix the World" dated 2009, via Netflix.

Still clinging to a misplaced sense of trust in the ability of others to avoid being corrupted by power? Try reading the list of US federal political scandals on Wikipedia. There is a smaller but similar page detailing Canadian political scandals. Don't assume people of the same political persuasion as you are innocent while everyone in another party is guilty.

Nothing I'm pointing to is party specific. There is one message for everybody... do not trust power or those that wield it.

Free your mind.