When Dinosaurs Rule

Continued from the last post.

So in their infinite wisdom, those who hold poker tournaments require that everyone enter the game with the same amount of cash. With everyone starting on an even footing, chances are that those with the greatest ability, not those with the greatest resource, will come out on top. With a level playing field it takes skill and ability to out maneuver your opponents, as opposed to just having the resource to overpower them much like a brontosaurus steps on a fury rodent.

The wealth (and so the power) in the U.S. has steadily, over the last couple centuries, shifted into the hands of the relatively few. When the phrase “all men are created equal” was coined the culture was largely agrarian, with tradesmen and shop keepers providing goods and services. And the “men” in the phrase were just that, excluding women; and excluding Black men; oh, and by the way, they only included property holders. The original phrase was “life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.”

With this shift of resource and power to the relatively few, it has become steadily more difficult for the cream to rise to the top. Those at the top are firmly in place. So firmly that when they screw up royally and send our economy to its knees, as it has gone recently, the government bails them out. The cream at the top no longer has any accountability, this is how entrenched they are at the top. It is tantamount to socialism for the rich and capitalism for the rest of us. The system is broken.

The fix then is logically a redistribution of wealth. Level the playing field so that those with real talent have a better chance of attaining their dreams even when they are born into one of the oppressed classes. Remember the dinosaurs? Where would we be now if dinosaurs still ruled the Earth? We would still be scurrying around trying not to get stepped on. It is not until we have a system that treats people equitably (as opposed to equally), giving everyone what they need to thrive and reach their full potential, will we as a culture begin to move towards its greater potential.

Is this socialism. Sure, it is. But socialism is not at odds with democracy. One is a political system the other is an economic system. We have been duped into thinking that socialism is necessarily a bad thing. When socialism is paired with a dictatorship, we call that communism (USSR, China, etc.); when socialism is paired with fascism, that was the Nazis. Has anyone tried pairing socialism with democracy? We tried once with the rise of the unions, and it was working out pretty well for most of the people, but it was fought by those with power until Reagan finally squashed the union system (and our economy) back in the eighties.

So as the new administration under Obama begins its work. And those who have power start their propaganda machine and begin to rant about socialism. Ask yourself where you would be if dinosaurs still ruled the Earth. And do you really want to let the dinosaurs continue to rule the U.S.?