tfpa

"THE FINE PRINT"

The musings of Michael Schrader

FREEDOM AND COMPASSION LACKING IN 21st CENTURY AMERICA
(Written and posted 27 July 2001)

      Once upon a time, there was a wonderful place, a great and magical place. It was a place overflowing with milk and honey, a field of dreams. The land was bountiful, full of more game than a man could ever eat in his lifetime, and Mother Earth herself provided plentiful fruits and vegetables. The air was crisp and clean, and the water was so pure one could drink from any stream and see to the bottom of it.
        In this magical place, industriousness reigned supreme. Those who worked hard were respected, even revered, and achieved their every dream. It was a wonderful place, where neighbors cared about neighbors, where a person could be whatever a person wanted to be.
      Many will tell you that this land does exist, and it is here, the United States of America; they are mistaken. Although we like to think that we are the land of freedom and opportunity, we really are not. The land is controlled by corporations. The food we eat is grown and processed by corporations. If is a little tainted, well, we just have to live with it. Corporations have to earn a profit, don’t you know? People are expendable; money is not.
      Our air is polluted; our streams tainted. But hey, if it means that our corporations are making profits, then we just have to sacrifice a little. What’s a little cancer, anyway? Money is everything; lives are not.
       Don’t get me wrong, I am not all anti-corporation. But I do think that we do have our priorities just a tad bit messed up. Our government is willing to chunk environmental and safety regulations because it will hurt corporate profits. We talk of “freedom” and “compassion” but I see little of either. We are not free – we are slaves to corporations. How many lives have been wasted dreaming of what could have been while working unappreciated in the grist mill called corporate America, only to be unceremoniously discarded when we are no longer considered to be useful? Some freedom, some compassion. What a way to live a life. We work every day for people who treat us like we are nothing more than the stinky stuff we wipe off of the bottom of a shoe, people who view us as a machine part, replaceable when we wear out or malfunction. We are not people; we are machines, identified by our part number.
      For most Americans, the odds of successfully breaking free of corporate servitude are so overwhelmingly long that an escape is never attempted; instead, these folks are resigned to their enslavement and begrudging accept it as the only option in their lives.
      For those few who attempt to break free, isolation is often the result. People that were thought to be friends abandon those who pursue freedom for fear of being associated with “troublemakers” and the retribution that comes with such an association. It is very disheartening when you are trying to choose a path independent of the corporate economy of your father, your father’s father, your neighbors, and just about everyone else you know, and you are greeted with no phone calls save bill-collectors and cobwebs in your mailbox. I have attempted freedom twice before, and twice before have allowed the discouragement to eat away at me like a cancer to the point that I became more than willing to repent my evil ways and beg the forgiveness and reinstatement into the corporate economy. I will readily admit that the third try has been equally disheartening. However, I am a few years older and wiser than I was before, and I know that if I try to rejoin the corporate economy, not only will I have admitted that I am a failure in wanting freedom, but that I will try again in the future. Once you taste freedom, you don’t want to give it up.
      Freedom is a very hard to obtain, especially in twenty-first century America. No matter what any demagogue may tell you, there is no such thing as “compassionate conservatism.” There is no compassion, period. The only thing that matters to anyone anymore is the almighty dollar, and to heck with doing right by your fellow human beings. Do you think money lenders care if you can’t make your mortgage or car payments because of personal financial troubles? Not in the least. It’s about money, and if they have to throw your family out of your house, or take away your car because you are poor, well that’s just too bad -- live with it. Do you think neighbors care what happens to neighbors? Not very many that I have seen. Just can’t get involved, you know. Might get emotionally attached or something stupid like that.
      I, for one, will continue to pursue my freedom, despite all of the trials and tribulations that are thrown my way, because I believe that I should be free to enjoy my family, free to go to the park on a nice day, free to spend time as I see fit, free to pursue my dreams, free to control my own destiny. I, for one, believe there are more important things in life than the almighty dollar, like the dignity of a human life, a dignity that is achieved when one is truly free.