Last night I watched the old 1940s, black and white film based upon John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath. It is still a powerful movie, one that leaves you with mixed emotions.

Based upon the struggles of a working class American family during the Great Depression of the 1930s, it showed the extremes of human nature: the decency of an ordinary family who, like many, were thrown off their land to make way for Big Business and economies of scale. It showed how, after they set off for California, the Promised Land, in a worn-out old truck, they were exploited by many but found occasional touches of generosity and compassion.

Reaching California, the movie showed man’s inhumanity to man and showed the beginnings of the union movement in response to the gross exploitation of workers by the greedy and the powerful, something which appears to be universal and never-changing (remember John Howard’s Work Choices?). It showed how law enforcement officials tend to back the rich and how the competitive capitalist system struggles to cope with those who are poor, unemployed and homeless.

Ironically, yesterday afternoon I saw photographs of a tent camp for the homelessness in Sacramento in California (see above). I even thought of writing a post about it. Today I have!

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Friends, there are a few signs that the Sheeple, that large group of humans who have been mercilessly manipulated and exploited by the Robber Barons and Politicians and the Media, etc, are beginning to revolt. How do I know?

Well, the laws rushed through the Congress to take back  most of the bonuses which were paid to failed AIG executives from taxpayers’ money by imposing 90% taxes, is one of the signs. The Masters of the Universe are getting the message that they have gone too far, that they can’t continue to reward the crooks, that they can’t continue to prop up a system that is corrupt,  one that is based upon inequality and greed, one that is destroying the planet.

Elsewhere in the world, Governments are doing handsprings to show how they care about the working people and are throwing money at anything that moves. They can tell the natives are filled with unease, with fear, as their super, their real estate, their savings, their retirement dreams disappear in the global downturn.

And how else do I know? Well, gun sales have gone up astronomically. It is a growth industry. The sheeple can see that in the not too distant future, people will be fighting hand to hand over scarce food and water and a gun may prove to be helpful in deciding the argument.

And determined protesters have begun to appear across the world.

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Friends, the powerlessness of people like you and me is absolute. The only real power we can exert comes when we vote and that assumes we are intelligent and educated enough to vote responsibly and we haven’t been told a barrel full of lies or haven’t been promised a barrel full of money or the voting machines are legitimate.

No, our world is being controlled by the following main groups: the imperialists, the religious, the corporate, the political, the wealthy, the media, the legal, the educational, the medical and the financial. There are of course other groups like the Zionists who are also in there battling to fulfill their selfish ambitions.

Sometimes these groups have similar goals and will work together to achieve their aims and sometimes they will work alone. They each use a variety of methods: lying (Weapons of Mass Destruction), bribing, force, threats, indoctrination, fear (War on Terror), blackmail, murder, torture, war, etc.

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Photograph from Reuters.

Friends, this morning Reuters carried a story about the Pope going to Africa carrying a message to the continent that condoms were a no-no!

Yes, this man who is supposedly celibate and is supposedly unfamiliar with the urges that beset the average male, has brought the full power of his position to bear upon a collection of black nations where AIDS is rife as is overpopulation. But what is the real purpose behind his illogical, ridiculous mission?

The answer to that can be found in the strategies employed by the cigarette companies. Let me explain. When, through better education, the stopping of advertising, and the limiting of places where smoking was permitted, sales of cigarettes declined dramatically, what did the amoral cigarette companies do?

Without conscience, they exported their death-dealing, health-destroying products to third world countries where people in their billions were largely uneducated. They flooded these markets with cheap cigarettes and,  using the ‘smoking is cool’ mantra that had worked so well for them in Western countries, they got the citizens hooked on nicotine addiction and continued to make zillions of dollars. In other words, they found new, gullible markets and exploited them to the hilt.

Now the Pope, in common with other brands of religion, has a bit of a problem with declining Church membership.

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The Forbidden City.

Friends, Reuters carries the story today of the last of the Chinese eunuchs. It is a touching tale which demonstrates that life, for some, is not easy.

The essence of the story is that a Chinese boy, Sun, had his genitalia cut off by his father who hoped the eunuch he created would be able to join the Royal Court and serve the Emperors. His father hoped the tearful boy would rise to a position of prominence and help the family to recover land that had been stolen from them.

The boy, who, after the removal of his manhood, had a goosequill stuck in his urethra to stop it blocking, somehow survived the barbaric operation and his genitalia was pickled to ensure it would be buried with him hence again rendering him whole.

To cut a long story short, Emperors abdicated then came the Cultural Revolution and the overthrow of Royalty and Sun’s hope to avenge his family was lost. His family, fearing retribution for holding his pickled organs, threw them out. Again Sun cried. He was despised for a time but eventually became a communist official. He lived a long life and was a repository for much that went on in the Forbidden City (read the full story on Reuters).

The point of me mentioning Sun is to show how differently life deals with each one of us.

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Perhaps peace can only come when the world

is completely excluded?

Perhaps it only comes with death?

“As a senior member of the G20, could I suggest we push billions

of dollar bills into the holes in the hull and try to refloat

the good ship RAMPANT CAPITALISM!

We from rich countries can’t afford

to lose her, can we?”

Friends, members of the G20 are meeting this weekend to have a preliminary discussion about the world financial mess ahead of the larger meeting in April…

It will be  a fantastic opportunity for real change to be made in the way the world works. Apparently, on the agenda, is the idea of doing away with Nation States. Yes, after ten thousand years of endless war, the idea has been floated that we should be organizing the world on a cooperative basis, that having competitive Nation States is an anachronistic concept.

Now the U.S. has been the prime initiator of this bold move. Yes, it has finally accepted that its ambition to control the world by military force is counterproductive and is bankrupting it. “We cannot continue on this course any further,” a White House spokesperson said. “It is divisive. It leads to inequality and hatred. Besides, we want to be loved again so we are disarming!”

America went further. “The capitalist system has also  failed us. We have lost many of our billionaires. It is time to give up having markets and competition and materialism and greed. We must all work together and share equally. We are all brothers and sisters under the skin!”

Britain also has expressed similar sentiments. “Although we were once an Empire, and it must be said a glorious one, the idea of Empires is old-hat. It’s time to bury all national flags and raise the Earth Flag. After all, we are all humans and everyone is entitled to share equally in the world’s wealth rather than most of it being in the hands of a privileged few,” a spokesperson from No10 Downing Street said, his voice shaking with emotion. He added, “And war – who needs it?”

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Be warned. We will punish all dissenters!

Friends, sadly, the brave man who threw his shoes at George W Bush, the one who trashed his country, has been jailed for three years. He also claimed he’d been tortured and assaulted while in prison.

Of course, he should’ve been declared a national hero and feted by all nations in the Middle East but given that the Government in Iraq is one installed by their American occupiers, I guess the outcome was predictable and could’ve been much worse.

It shows how political systems, wherever they are in the world and whatever colour they are, tend to be self-promoting and self-perpetuating and one thing they don’t encourage is activists speaking out or showing their disapproval by deeds, even spontaneous, symbolic ones. No, keeping the proles quiet and respectful by whatever means is the name of the political game as is punishing dissenters.

I notice also that  Wall Street is experiencing some upward movement. The footage I saw showed traders with their faces alight with excitement and greed. Money was being made again trading bits of paper, money that requires no effort at all and contributes nothing to the economy.

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“Darling, I can spend hours looking deeply into things!”

Friends, we are at a critical moment in world history. Never has it been more important for all humans to exercise their powers of thinking, even if, for some, it will be for the first time.

One way to get the attention of those whose brains are not in working order or are permanently on stand-by is for people like us to ask them questions, difficult questions like the one in the post title.

If you think the first question is too confrontational to be a conversation starter, another question that is bound to get their attention would be: “Shortly, when the world ends, would you prefer being burned alive or drowned?” Another option is to ask, “Which is the more likely future scenario: that in Lord of the Flies or that in Orwell’s 1984?” Option three could be to pose this question: “If God made everything, who made cancer?”

If the person stares at you blankly after questions like these then you know you have a real challenge on your hands but don’t give up. What you need to do is to get them on familiar turf. What you can ask is something profound, like, “Which advertisement do you like best on television?” A smile will quickly appear and you must be prepared for fifteen minutes of excited conversation about a four-wheel drive or a packet of potato chips.

Be warned! Say nothing during the deluge of meaningless words. Try to look interested even if you’re seriously considering committing suicide. Then, during a pause, slip into the conversation that you don’t have a television and besides, you’re building an Ark in preparation for the next Great Flood or you’re setting up a survival chamber at the bottom of an old mine, one that will withstand a nuclear blast.

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