THEY-R-US

 

My thoughts have been swarming around the logjam of politicians that are not representing we the people, but representing self-interest always, the well-being of the population never a consideration. I say this as an example of how they are not representing us. Once it's written down and I look at it, there it is: they represent us by acting exactly like us. The egoic extreme of American individualism is the narcissism of the 80s, the cynicism of the 90s and take all for self in the 00s. Taking all for self is what our representatives are doing. I hear of Exxon with 28 billion profit, while the people that operate their stations make hardly enough to live on. One of those billions would give all their station managers and employees a wage they could live with. Absurd not to, but this is capitalism. Take from the working people and give to the rich. That's American history in one sentence.



The people out here in the world have become hysterical from half a century of television and a focus on money that is for money itself, like money was something besides a number. It has attached to it words like status, position, attention, nice things, satisfied desires, "the best people." Money has a lot of perks. We're a society of wanting more, can't get enough, insatiable, We've even become a society of fantasy. Nonstop talking has become so common, so American, it's patriotic. Unconsciousness is what all this points to. Unconsciousness is why the spiritual path recommends frugality with desires, wanting less. Start having more, more, more and unconsciousness sets in, due to identity with numbers and things and status. Money and things become a liability, a burden and a target. The target aspect of too much money is a serious liability. Everybody wants your money, wants it for free. They think a great big obnoxious smile is the key to your bank vault, the smile that says: I want.



Another strangeness I have that separates me from the people around me, besides not being influenced by television, is no interest in wealth. A Roaring Gap summer resident, driving a BMW sedan, is not better to me than somebody living in a trailer by the side of the road in Ennice, driving a Ford pickup. Having no interest in wealth for myself, I see the people with wealth in a very different light from what people who want wealth for themselves see them in. I tend to see them as just people, largely arrogant toward people down the ladder, nice in a way you're nice to a dog. (Good boy. Down. Stay down.) The way white people regard black people--not at all. I tend to see black people and rich people and redneck people as just people. I can't help but see us all just people, but that separates me from almost everybody else, again. I live in a world of people who hate somebody from another country, speaking another language, having a different color, different accent, religion, political party. All the people I live among call themselves Christians, and that they are.  



I was in London in 1972, continually answering to, "you rich Americans," and I'd attempt to explain that I was not rich. The answer came back, "How did you get here?  I can't afford to fly to Americer." That told me their idea of rich and mine were very different. I think of rich as a bit more than a round-trip airline ticket to London. English contempt for Americans equalled that of white Americans toward black Americans. Not long after I returned, some friends asked what it was like, they were going to London. I told them if they've ever wondered what it's like to be black in America, this is their chance to find out, as Americans in London. Upon their return, they concurred. I saw a commercial there on the "telly" of an expensive motorboat cutting a long V wake on smooth water in the Lake Country seen from above. Closeup finds Mrs So-and-So, "a rich American," prefers butter to margarine. Phew, what a complex message for a people with contempt for Americans, advertising to them using the appeal of imitating not just any American, but a rich American, Mrs So-and-So with big blond hair and big sunglasses, she can afford toys you can't have, her rubber duckie uses batteries to make it go quack-quack.



Our representatives really do represent us. They grovel at the feet of the rich. They look up the ladder, not down it. Money is all that matters. They want more, more, more. Self comes first. They talk and talk and never get anything said. If you got the money, honey, they got the time. They represent us in their indifference to us. I'm seeing that I am way off the beam when I say they do not represent we the people. They represent us completely. They-R-us. Sarah Palin is not unusual.   

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