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writing for godot

Is America Evolving Into A Totalitarian State?

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Written by michael payne   
Thursday, 01 August 2013 09:10
America has become a Democracy in name only; a system of government, actually a Republic, that is under attack by elements situated with the U.S. government itself. The supreme power that determines the direction of this country is no longer vested in the people but rather is solely held by the government.

If our democracy is truly a thing of the past, then exactly what kind of a system of government do we now have? While some might call it totalitarianism others would say it is authoritarianism. So let’s see what Wikipedia says about this issue:

“Totalitarianism is an extreme version of authoritarianism. The term 'an authoritarian regime' denotes a state in which the single power holder - an individual dictator, a committee or a junta or an otherwise small group of political elite - monopolizes political power. However, a totalitarian regime attempts to control virtually all aspects of the social life including economy, education, art, science, private life and morals of citizens.” And, further that "The officially proclaimed ideology penetrates into the deepest reaches of societal structure and the totalitarian government seeks to completely control the thoughts and actions of its citizens.”

History has shown that there can be different forms of totalitarianism. There is one form of this system of government that seems to describe America quite well; it is called “totalitarian democracy” and it can be described, according to Wikipedia, as “a system of government in which lawfully elected representatives maintain the integrity of a nation whose while granted the right to vote, have little or no participation in the decision-making process of the government. Sound familiar?

Or America might best be described as “totalitarian capitalism” in which the governing of this nation is carried out by the government and Corporate America in promoting common objectives and a common agenda, neither of which are connected to the needs and interests of the American people. To my way of thinking there is not a doubt that America is and has been evolving into totalitarian capitalism.

Yes, that’s it; that’s a very accurate description of what is happening within America today. Yes, we have the right to vote and cast our ballots for the candidate that we favor for a given elective office but that’s where the process of our involvement in government comes to an end. Think not; then just consider how this government functions and totally excludes the wishes and interests of the American people as illustrated in the following:

This people of America really do not support and, actually, are very opposed to this country’s many unjustifiable invasions and occupations of other nations. They do not want to continue having to pay hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars of their taxpayer dollars for war and empire building. But, the opinion of the people means nothing and is completely ignored as this government that has no intention of backing off its agenda of endless war.

The people of America want and deserve jobs, the vast majority wants to earn their money, they don’t want to have to rely on unemployment checks, food stamps and rely on other government assistance to survive. They watch as the middle class is being torn down, as the American Dream morphs into a nightmare and they ask, “How can this be happening in this, the supposed wealthiest nation in the world?” The members of Congress as a whole, tightly controlled by Corporate America that has disavowed the American worker, meekly obey their masters and refuse time and again to enact any form of job creation legislation.

The people want reasonable, effective background checks on firearms so that their children feel safe going to school. Poll after poll indicates that the vast majority of Americans feel that these background checks can greatly help to alleviate this massive problem without endangering 2d Amendment rights. However, this craven, pathetic Congress doesn’t care what the people want or think and takes its orders from the gun manufacturers and their lobbyists, in particular, the NRA.

Most people want privacy in their lives, in their various means of communications, they don’t want the government listening in and recording their conversations. They want their 1st Amendment rights of free speech preserved and they don’t want government intrusion. But the U.S. government seems to be hell bent on doing just the opposite as the exposure of the NSA spying program has so clearly brought out. And this same government that is forcefully going after whistleblowers has now decided to also go after the journalists of this nation to prevent them from reporting on these matters.

The people in this country who know the value of education are shocked when they hear that this nation lags behind most of the other advanced nations in the world in math and science. They want a return to academic excellence because they know that this country’s future growth and stability are greatly dependent upon the quality of education. But not this government has other plans and does not consider education as one of its main priorities. So the deeply embedded problems prevalent in the system continue to remain unaddressed.

Lastly the majority of people of this nation still appear to adhere to the principles of morality, ethics and integrity. But what they see is a government in which corruption and unethical behavior and actions have become the norm; they see members of this Congress unashamedly accepting millions of dollars from their corporate masters. They see this government failing to investigate and prosecute those in past administrations who have promoted torture; they see a government that continues to allow Wall Street to use unethical and deceitful practices to swindle the American people. The people want action; the government says no.

The voice of the people, their needs and concerns fall on deaf ears. This is a government whose main objective is to control every aspect of the lives of the people, from using the NSA network to spy on its citizens, to taking away many of their Constitutional rights and freedoms, to allowing Corporate America to turn American workers into the modern-day equivalent of the serfs and peasants.

So as this nation and government continue to rapidly evolve into a system of totalitarianism, conditions may seem to be very grim and the future may look very bleak. A most critical question is: is this march into a totalitarian state totally unstoppable or is there some way that the people of America can rise up by finding ways to reverse the process?

Well, we certainly should expect that this government can and will continue to expand its NSA spying program as well as creating more methods by which to monitor the actions of the people. In addition it can use its power to attempt to censor and control the internet and the many means of communication carried on between Americans. But while that may work for a time, in the long run, it will be doomed to failure and here’s why:

We will see this government most certainly double its efforts against whistleblowers such as Pfc. Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden and try to silence journalists such as Glenn Greenwald. It will continue to intimidate those who manage internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo, as well as a wide array of telecom companies. It certainly will bully and intimidate investigative journalists and try to scare them into silence and submission.

We can fully expect this government to try its best to take complete control of the Internet but it will not be so foolish as to attempt to dismantle it because that would, in so many ways, literally cripple this nation. The Internet has a myriad of ways by which people communicate such as Facebook, Twitter, email, texting plus many others in the developmental stages. It has now grown to be so powerful that every time this government succeeds in controlling or shutting down one element of it, it is highly likely that some other element will eventually be created to take its place.

In the longer term the government will find that it will be impossible to completely control the people and totally strip them of their Constitutional right of free speech For every whistleblower and hacker it prosecutes, more will find ways to expose government abuses and find ways to avoid being apprehended; for every journalist it tries to silence, more will use Wikileaks and foreign news outlets to get their message out to the public and more will seek asylum in countries where free speech still exists.

It’s almost incomprehensible and more than tragic that this kind of adversarial relationship exists between the government and the people; where fear and distrust prevail and government policies and actions are tearing down the Constitutional foundations of this nation. And if this descent into the deepening darkness of totalitarianism is not somehow aborted, then America will become a living hell.

Michael Payne

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