The vagabond who’s rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore
Strike another match, go start anew
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue
Those are lyrics from the great Bob Dylan song It’s All Over Now Baby Blue ( 1965). How appropriate they are now in Amerika 2022. We have finally become a damaged empire due to a mega variety of reasons. Foremost is the delusion of far too many of us that we are a nation victimized by forces of terror outside of our influence. Well, anyone who takes the time to turn away from the narcotics of electronic gadgetry, 24 hour sports, sexual delights, addictive cigarettes, alcohol and other drugs of preference, along with mainstream media’s embedded-with- empire phony news, would see that our nation is the role model for terrorism. As we float aimlessly into the narrow straights of both national and individual economic turmoil ( even bankruptcy ) the ‘ movers and shakers’ of this empire laugh all the way from their well secured gated communities to their banks and investment houses.
Can this all be a dream, as many Eastern philosophies teach? After all, could George Orwell have written a better story with the main character, a jaded Reality Television star, becoming president? How about those lemmings who thought the Gordon Gecko character in Oliver Stone’s film Wall Street was sacrosanct in his belief that ‘ Greed is good’? So too those with but ‘ A pot to piss in’ following almost religiously a billionaire so called populist demagogue who peddled the same crap. He did not ‘ drain the swamp’, rather filling it with more super rich ‘ Greed is good ‘ muck. Yet, it only shows how much our Amerkan populace can continue to take from an enema bag overloaded with…
We who love the country we grew up in, and see through this Two Party/One Party con job, have a civic duty to stand up and say ‘ NO MORE!’ One afternoon a few short years ago, as my 85 year old peace activist friend John and I stood outside our library holding signs to protest this Military Industrial Empire, a lady from Germany came up to us. She complimented us on our activism and made a cogent point: ” You Americans have so much to be angry with concerning this government and it’s phony wars. Yet, there are only two of you standing out here each week. If this was Germany and my country did what yours has done, there would be literally a thousand people out here with you.” Well, it seems that my fellow citizens have become too comfortable living in this feudal society. Psychologists refer to this kind of mindset as that of enabling. How many Apple Annies must be selling on the street corners of our nation before we all get wise?
July 4th weekend 2022
Philip A Farruggio is regular columnist on It’s the Empire… stupid website. He is also frequently posted on Nation of Change, Countercurrents., Smirking Chimp and Independent Australia sites. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 400 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘ It’s the Empire… Stupid ‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at [email protected].
