Unleashing
the Christ Within:
Last Hope For The Moribund
Soul Of A Nation?
By Jason Miller
07 November, 2006
Countercurrents.org
“What shall it
profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”
-Jesus Christ
Humanity’s
“beacon of hope” is unraveling at its moral seams faster
than George Bush can say nucular. 230 years ago, disciples of the Enlightenment
shattered the shackles of colonial oppression and inaugurated their
conception of a haven for humanity. While tainted by patriarchy and
racism, the founding of the United States was arguably the pinnacle
of social and political evolution. Tragically, the descendents of those
who ascended to that zenith are racing to the bottom at a dizzying velocity.
In a collective sense, the
soul of the United States is writhing in the agony of spiritual asphyxiation.
Trapped in an overflowing cesspool of its own making, the nation’s
élan vital desperately needs freedom and an infusion of spiritual
oxygen. Sans significant change, its odds for survival equal those of
an under-sized fish carelessly tossed ashore by a heartless angler.
Yet it is not too late for
the “cradle of democratic civilization” to fulfill the dream
of a nation governed by We the People. Our ancestors overcame seemingly
insurmountable odds by defying a tyrant. What is preventing us from
following their lead? Humanity and the Earth desperately need for us
to end the Corporatocracy’s destructive rampage and direct our
unparalleled resources, wealth, and technology toward the betterment
of the world.
We the People need to recapture
the Zeitgeist of 1776 and initiate a revolt. To overcome a ruling class
that maintains its power through the manipulation and enslavement of
our psyches, we need a spiritual revolution. Since reactionary forces
have assassinated the influential spiritual leaders whom have arisen
in recent history, it appears we will need to resurrect one in the abstract.
While there have been a number
of viable potential candidates throughout history, Jesus Christ appears
to be the obvious choice. While people continue to debate whether he
was man, myth or God, few would deny the wisdom and virtue of the teachings
attributed to him. His popular appeal and impact on civilization are
unprecedented. And one need not subscribe to organized religion or ecclesiastical
zealotry to manifest the soul-nurturing principles of Christ.
What would happen if the
poor and working class of the United States said “no mas”
to the Corporatocracy? What if the wage slaves finally became self aware
and leveraged the overwhelming strength of their numbers against their
parasitic masters?
Over 250 million US Americans
acting in unison and embracing Christ as their leader “in absentia”
would overwhelm the relative few manning the bulwarks of exploitation,
imperial conquest, and obscene militarism. While it is unlikely Jesus
would have advocated open revolt, it is a virtual certainty that he
would have instructed his followers to minimize or end their participation
in a system driven by avarice and abject cruelty.
Improbable that such an evolution
will transpire? Yes. Impossible? No.
So let’s indulge ourselves
by taking a glimpse at the potential results of a mass movement of the
wage slaves and disenfranchised in the United States acting in accord
with the enlightenment of Christ:
[Five years have slipped
by since the “rise of the Proletariat” in the United States.
Working in unison according to the spiritual principles embodied by
Jesus Christ in the Synoptic Gospels, the poor, the working class, and
the besieged middle class had finally renounced their allegiance to
their pecunious over-lords.
Consumers staged mass boycotts,
decimating the cash flow that served as the life-blood of predatory
capitalism. Sweeping strikes and sick-outs deprived the vampiric moneyed
class of their wretched wage slaves. Spreading like a plague, civil
disobedience infected the fascist titan and brought it to its knees.
Military personnel refused to serve, bringing the war machine to a grinding
halt. Law enforcement personnel rejected their loathsome task of enforcing
unjust laws, exposing the miscreants ruling the nation to the terrifying
possibility of enduring consequences for their heinous actions.
Realizing that neither their
wealth nor their gated communities would afford them ample protection
from receiving the just punishment they so richly deserved, the power
elite emptied their bank accounts, cashed in their decimated securities
portfolios, and scattered like roaches scurrying to evade the Light.
Riding on the wings of their
hubris, the haute monde fled to nations with no obligation to extradite
fugitives to the United States. Tragically for them, their repeated
displays of contempt for international law and rapacious actions toward
other nations proved to be their undoing. Officials in nations harboring
America’s noblesse were delighted to cooperate with the newly
formed United States government of We the People.
Within less than a year,
astoundingly large numbers of the deposed Bush Regime, members of the
US Congress, false prophets like James Dobson, and avaricious swine
like Lee Raymond found themselves occupying the grim confines of the
vast gulag of prisons they had built to “protect” themselves
from non-violent drug users and impoverished Blacks.
At last the abusers of power
and exploiters of humanity faced consequences for their unabated spree
of crimes against humanity. How the mighty had plummeted. Stripped of
their wealth, freedom, authority, and individuality, with shaven heads
and sunken shoulders, the uniformed inhabitants of the nightmarish “correctional
facilities” (of their making) choked on the acerbic medicine they
had so gleefully prescribed for so many of their “inferiors”.
Fortunately for them, justice and compassion guided their jailers. State
executions, torture, and prisoner abuse had been eliminated.
While the ousted power brokers
met their fate, a new Constitutional Convention had convened. The new
founders were truly representative of We the People. The assembly was
comprised of men, women, Blacks, Latinos, Whites, Asians, Jews, Muslims,
Christians, Atheists, Gays, Native Americans, the disabled, the mentally
ill, and more. Ensuring diversity and equality was a significant priority
to the new government.
Habeas corpus, checks and
balances, the separation of powers, and the Bill of Rights were restored
and enshrined as the cornerstones of the new federal government. Numerous
rights and responsibilities were ceded to the state level, balancing
the power between the federal and state governments. The rule of law
once again prevailed over the rule of man. Big Brother was properly
neutered and caged.
Wisely retaining the Preamble,
and building upon it, those crafting the new Constitution determined
that public funds would be dispersed in equal measures to revamp and
sustain the judicial system to “establish Justice”, to provide
the means to “insure domestic tranquility”, to maintain
a military just large enough to “provide for the common defense”,
to fund humanitarian programs to “promote the general Welfare”,
and to perpetuate an independent watchdog entity comprised of elected
representatives from each state (empowered to initiate a national referendum
at any time to call for another Constitutional Convention) “to
secure the Blessings of Liberty”.
They abolished the Electoral
College and electronic voting machines. Congress was reduced to a unicameral
body comprised of elected members with each state represented in proportion
to its population. Each member was limited to one term of six years.
An unlimited number of political parties were given the right to equal
share of public campaign funding. New legislation made private campaign
contributions and lobbying felony offenses.
The infinitely complex tax
scheme which had enabled the criminal class to pay so little was relegated
to the dust bin of history. A flat rate tax on personal, business, and
corporate income, sales taxes, luxury taxes, tariffs, and property taxes
filled the public coffers with money that benefited each citizen as
equally as possible.
Corporate personhood was
abolished. The new government of the people nationalized major corporations
providing essential goods and services such as healthcare, food, and
utilities. The plethora of corporate industrial complexes, including
the prison and military, naturally withered as federal funding for their
malevolent and profligate programs was cut to the quick.
Assets seized from the criminal
ruling class were utilized to provide a financial jump-start for this
second attempt at forming an “asylum for mankind”. Collaborating
closely, national and local governments, nationalized industries, and
businesses kept in check by a reasonable degree of public oversight
worked to ensure that every citizen in their nation of excessive wealth
had access to quality health care, education, food, and shelter.
As a majority of US citizens
focused their attention on matters of the spirit and new laws were implemented
to deter rapacious capitalism, many of the social and economic institutions
shriveled, atrophied, or collapsed. Consumer protection statutes and
diminished appetites for material possessions dealt severe blows to
Master Card and Visa. New and more effective anti-trust legislation
crushed leviathans like Wal-Mart and Microsoft. Small business owners
could flourish (at last) in an environment devoid of competitor-crushing
monopolies.
Moral clarity and clear-mindedness
armed the masses against the relentless flow of lies and manipulations
manufactured by Madison Avenue and the corporate media. Individuals
and churches exploiting religion for their empowerment and enrichment
found their pews and collection plates as empty as Mother Hubbard’s
cupboard. Grossly overpaid entertainers and athletes awoke to a stinging
reality in which the public no longer worshipped them nor showered them
with obscene riches.
Begging forgiveness from
the rest of the world, US Americans withdrew hundreds of thousands of
troops occupying other nations. Together with the rest of the “nuclear
club” they began dismantling their doomsday weapons. The Zionist
state collapsed when the United States ceased subsidizing its genocide
and militarism. Palestine became a model of diversity as Jews, Christians,
and Muslims imprisoned the proponents of violence and hatred in their
midst and followed the example of their former patrons by forging a
new government that truly served the interests of the people.
With the Neocons tried, convicted,
and imprisoned for egregious war crimes, a withdrawal of US troops around
the globe, and justice restored in Palestine, the “unfathomable”
came to pass. Asymmetrical attacks on the United States and its Western
allies came to a screeching halt. At long last the “War on Terror”
was exposed for the sham that it was.
Having surrendered their
perceived invulnerability, hubris, and narcissism, US Americans awoke
from their state of mass delusion and began to perceive reality. Rather
than launching military invasions that murdered millions of innocent
civilians, the servants of We the People crafted and implemented a foreign
policy based on the simplicity of the Golden Rule. Acting with fairness
and respect, US leaders employed diplomacy, dispensed humanitarian aid
without strings, and eliminated the military option excepting situations
involving self-defense.
Despite the “loss”
of material wealth, the power to dominate the world, and the “entitlements”
associated with the capacity to crush virtually all opposition, those
who had found a unifying set of convictions in the wisdom of Christ
and dismantled the American Empire could rejoice. Gaining far more than
they had lost, they had reclaimed their souls, individually and collectively.
And they believed Christ’s assertion:
“He who rules his spirit
has won a greater victory than the taking of a city.”]
Mother Teresa once said,
"Each one of them is Jesus in disguise."
Christian or otherwise, WE
are Mother Teresa’s THEM. We who have been psychologically, spiritually,
and financially enslaved by the insidious malevolence of American fascism
have the love, compassion, and power of Christ within us.
We have the capacity and
the moral obligation to reject the Faustian bargain offered by the ruling
elite. Temporal security and prosperity afforded by raping humanity
and the Earth are not worth the price of our eternal souls. And without
the complicity of their minions, the emasculated oligarchs’ reign
of terror would be reduced to a historical footnote.
Off with the disguises and
down with the Corporatocracy!
Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself
intellectually and spiritually. He writes prolifically, his essays have
appeared widely on the Internet, and he volunteers at a homeless shelter.
He welcomes constructive correspondence at [email protected]
or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
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