Absolutely convinced we possess the right

to pursue our “happiness” and “security”,

we Americans are in a race to hoard the most toys,

to eat the most food, to have the most orgasms,

to be the best looking, and to be

the biggest winners in a repugnant orgy

of narcissistic and gluttonous hedonism

We live in a time of imperial-driven

destructive wars in the name of ‘democracy’,

savage exploitation in the name of

‘emerging world powers’, massive forced

population displacement in the name of ‘immigration’

and large-scale pillage of natural

resources in the name of ‘free markets’

We live in a time of barbarism

and the barbarian elites employ an army

of linguistic and cultural

manipulators to justify their conquests

Americans are absolutely convinced they possess the right to pursue “happiness” and “security”, regardless of the cost to the Earth and the rest of its sentient inhabitants.

Americans are in a race to hoard the most toys, to eat the most food, to have the most orgasms, to be the best looking, and to be the biggest winners as we engage in a repugnant orgy of narcissistic and gluttonous hedonism.

Contrary to the false consciousness bestowed upon us by a horde of incredibly adept propagandists who “dutifully” man the bulwarks of exploitative capitalism, we are not “benevolent liberators” or “peace makers”.

We wage war perpetually, strip the world bare like a swarm of locusts, and give virtually nothing in return. Ensuring our “happiness” and “security” extracts a tremendous price from the rest of the Earth.

Since it rose to military and economic hegemony at the close of World War II, the United States, its proxies, an array of US-installed ruthless reactionary tyrants, and the World Bank have worked in concert to slaughter, torture, and impoverish untold millions of human beings in the “developing world” in an endless quest to satiate our plutocracy’s insatiable thirst for power and treasure.

Bush, his henchmen, and their multitude of war crimes are not anomalies. Amerikkka the Babylon (as our nation is referred to in some circles) has been a barbaric, opportunistic, exploitative, racist, and imperialistic entity since the first Western Europeans set foot on North American soil.

Contrary to the delusion proffered by our “manufacturers of consent” (i.e. the “liberal” New York Times), changing the cast of characters in the White House in 2008 may give the world a bit of relief from egregious crimes against humanity and planetary devastation.

But until our malignant system of merciless plunder for profit is eradicated, increasing numbers of wretched beings will languish in misery to permit a relative handful to revel in obscene opulence. Jason Miller

"We live in a time of barbarism"

We live in a time of imperial-driven destructive wars in the name of ‘democracy’, savage exploitation in the name of ‘emerging world powers’, massive forced population displacement in the name of ‘immigration’ and large-scale pillage of natural resources in the name of ‘free markets’.

We live in a time of barbarism and the barbarian elites employ an army of linguistic and cultural manipulators to justify their conquests.

The great crimes against most of humanity are justified by a corrosive debasement of language and thought – a deliberate fabrication of euphemisms, falsehoods and conceptual deceptions.

Cultural expressions are a central determinant in class, national, ethnic and gender relations.

They reflect and are products of political, economic and social power. But just as power is ultimately a social relation between antagonistic classes, cultural expressions are also mediated through the lenses, experiences and interests of the dominant elites and their rebellious subjects.

Even as the writers of the barbarous elites have fabricated a linguistic world of terror, of demons and saviors, of axes of good and evil, of euphemisms which embellish the crimes against humanity, so have new groups of writers, artists and collective participants come forth to clarify reality and elucidate the existential and collective bases for demystifying the lies and creating a new cultural reality.

In the face of elite barbarism, a cultural renaissance is born. Revelations of crimes are made through journalistic investigations, plays and songs.

Affirmations of integrity, social solidarity and individual rejections of the monetary enticements strengthen moral commitment in the face of ever-present threats, assassinations and official censure.

The great crimes of the imperial powers and their local clients include the massacres and daily death counts, propaganda, which pronounces every victim a criminal, and every criminal a savior.

The political delinquents have not, do not and cannot silence, deafen or blind a new generation of critical intellectuals, poets and artists who speak truth to the people. James Petras