The Wretched of the Earth

The Minister Smith had returned to the Capital in the spring, and admired the bloom of the cherry blossoms. The long black limo came up alongside him, moving slowly, keeping pace with his leisurely stroll. He looked at it from the corner of his eye, once, then twice. After a few moments, he stepped away and turned to look square on. He saw Senator Steele smiling by the window, pushing the door open to make room.
"Come on. We'll drive for a while."
They had known each other for years and had worked together even longer. It was Senator Steele who had requested that he leave his post overseas and return to D.C. at this time for the Sub-Committee hearing. He had resisted at first, but acceded to his friend's request.
After some talk and after another stretch of silent driving, Mike Steele said softly, "I know you did not want to make this trip, but I need you with me now. They're after my hide, and I need my friends."
Silence.
"The knives are out..." the Senator said, and the thought trailed off. Smith had seen the knives of politicians cutting all over the world.

--

We are a Democracy, thus in a sense, we are all Ministers of the Government.

The Knives have been out for us for a long time.
We need our friends with us when the career politicians and  bureaucrats come for us, but the power structure has been able to effectively isolate us into small habitats:  environments as in zoological parks; we are fed by cable TV and conglomerate media empires a nutritious mush, we are amused with our own reality shows: imagine! we find ourselves so infinitely entertaining that we watch ourselves on TV!

Yet this image of ourselves is in the majority an image of troubled, degraded, decidedly odd people; if these shows were the theme of a film, it would have a very unhappy ending. We watch abasement, think it is other dopes being put down, but it seeps into our spirits, too!
We are being Colonialized! O, wretched of the earth! We are being turned into an impoverished race, are we not?!  Just as the Brits turned India into a nation of their own personal Gunga Din-water carriers, so are we being duped into a colonialized mentality.
What is a colonialized mentality? It is a frame of mind which thinks that banks are there to help you achieve your goals; that government is  by the people - such as a government where wars are voted on by the representatives of the people, not carried out by presidential fiat; and where education is to enlarge, not to diminish;  a nation where racism is treated like Original Sin and not something which can be eliminated... racism is thus bad, very bad,  but it springs eternal! So let's make the most of it.
(So much so that the Arts & Entertainment channel is the place for Dog, The Bounty Hunter, where a man given to racist tirades - now reformed and rehabbed - tracks down crack-addled bail-jjumpers after a prayer to thank God for a beautiful day.)

Today there is a rally at Senator Debbie Stabenow's  offices at 4:30 PM to bring attention to the foreclosure industry and how it will not supply any meaningful help for homeowners, will foreclose, will get mortgages paid off by government controlled mortgage entities ( like AIG, Fannie, Freddie... essentially I and you pay for it), then turn around and sell that foreclosed house cheaply, thus degrading the community further.

This will not stop in an age of Exploitative Capitalism unless we stop it. The Knives are out, they have been out, and they will continue to be out; they will cut any government program small folks depend on, while maintaining their own life-styles.

The Politicians have lost confidence in us. They have voted on us, and the Nays carried the day. We await our Gandhi.