Media Ignore the Root Cause of Rage in the Streets

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

From inception, the US has been a violent culture, an unequal one, a racist one, an exploitive one, a rapacious one, a lawless one — a fantasy democracy, never the real thing. 

Its geopolitical and domestic policies reflect it in painfully explicit detail.

Police serve the nation's ruling class exclusively, carrying out what they're ordered to do — protecting privilege from beneficial social change, polar opposite governance of, by, and for everyone equitably, what democracy is supposed to be all about.

The deplorable state of America is how it's always been from inception — with brief moments when the nation's ruling class enacted legislation that addressed public needs. 

During the Great Depression, New Deal policies weren't about altruism. They were all about saving capitalism at a time when 1917 Russian revolution echoes were still audible, the fear that something similar could happen in the US.

What establishment don't explain should be featured.

What's most important for everyone to know is suppressed.

In his "People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn explained America's dark side — suppressed in classrooms to the highest levels, never in his.

He explained that he "could not possibly keep out of the classroom (his) own experiences."

He "never concealed (his) political views" from students — his "detestation of war and militarism, (his) anger at racial inequality, (his) belief in democratic socialism, in rational and just distribution of the world's wealth." 

(He) made clear (his) abhorrence of any kind of bullying, whether by powerful nations over weaker ones, governments over their citizens, employers over employees, or by anyone, on the Right or the Left, who thinks they have a monopoly on the truth."

"You can't be neutral on a moving train," he said, the title of one of his books, explaining that disturbing "events are already moving in certain deadly directions, and to be neutral means to accept that."

Behind activism for changing racist inequality and injustice "lies the sweat and effort of boycotts, picketing, beatings, sit-ins, and mass demonstrations," he stressed.

He called the US "the most criminal empire in the history of mankind," adding:

Humanity can't be held hostage to "the threats of nuclear strikes or military invasions" that power the US imperial project.

US history is pockmarked with genocidal wars, raging endlessly, including by other means — along wiith blood in the streets at home, cracking down hard on dissent, a fundamental First Amendment right. 

Zinn called the horror of war "terrorism magnified a hundred times" or more.

Adam Smith said governments are "instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor."

Michael Parenti explained the "the best way to win a Nobel Peace Prize (is) to wage war or support those who wage (it) instead of peace."

An undeclared war rages in the US by its ruling class against the rights and welfare of the vast majority, not just against people of color alone.

It's against countless millions of working class Americans, living from paycheck to paycheck, a few missed ones away from hunger, homelessness, overall deprivation, despair, and at times rage in the streets for fundamental change.

When occurs like now in dozens of US cities nationwide, it goes way beyond the persecution and killings of Black Americans by cops.

It demands a whole new definition of separate and unequal that reflects 1% power and privilege at the expense of most others — exploited to benefit the nation's ruling class, including its monied interests.

Martin Luther King's activism went way beyond the struggle for civil rights, especially for long-suffering Black Americans.

Yet media coverage of his message ignored and still ignores his anti-war activism.

His "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" address was delivered a year to the day before his state-sponsored assassination to silence him.

Because it was and remains a powerful indictment of US wars of aggression against nonthreatening nations, establishment media won't discuss it.

He called the US "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," adding: 

"It's "on the wrong side of a world revolution. We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence, or violent co-annihilation."

"We must move past indecision to action. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight."

Silence is "betrayal," he stressed, calling war in Vietnam "an enemy of the poor."

"(I)t should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life (in) America today can ignore the present war." 

"If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam."

"This madness must cease…We must stop now…We must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam."

He called for a "revolution of values…declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism."

The horrors of his day pale compared to US war on humanity at home and abroad today — an endless inferno that may consume us all if not challenged in the streets and stopped.

What's lacking in the US today is a figure of his prominence and eloquence, speaking out on the vital issues of our time, mincing no words — laying blame on imperial USA and its partners in high crimes of war and against humanity worldwide.

What establishment media won't feature and explain is what's vital for everyone to know.

Failure to put our bodies on the line for what freedom, equity, and justice are all about guarantees losing them.

That's where the dismal state of America is today, a nation of, by, and for its privileged class, run by its criminal class exclusively to benefit the few by exploiting the vast majority.

The only chance to regain what's lost is by struggling in the streets for fundamental rights everyone everywhere deserves — and staying the course, accepting no less than peace, equity and justice for all until it's gotten.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My two Wall Street books are timely reading:

"How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion, and Class War"

https://www.claritypress.com/product/how-wall-street-fleeces-america/

"Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

https://www.claritypress.com/product/banker-occupation-waging-financial-war-on-humanity/