Living the (Broken) American Dream: Rebuilding the Middle Class

The middle class in the United States is in serious trouble. The aggregate earnings of the middle class has been in decline since 1970. The same goes for those at the lower end of the economic ladder while the upper 10% have seen a steady rise in their wealth. Even with 59.8% of two parent families both holding down full time jobs, it's not enough.

It used to be that a high school education was enough to guarantee you a comfortable living, usually in some blue collar job, a high school diploma nowadays would barely get you  beyond an entry level position somewhere. Even a four year college degree is no assurance of middle class lifestyle.

Of course, most of the good paying blue collar jobs have been exported overseas where corporations can exploit the need for jobs at any price while avoiding those pesky unions and OSHA requirements. Where for every opening there are literally thousands waiting in line to be hired.

It doesn't help that the quality of public schools have significantly declined over the decades to the point where many graduates have the academic equivalent of an eighth grade education.  America was ranked 11th of 79 countries in science.  While we ranked 30th in math,  the top five ranked countries in math were all Asian. But, we're still tops when it comes to basketball!

A typical college graduate with four year bachelor degree hit the street looking for a job with an average debt of over 30,000. For a professional degree, like from medical or law school, the average debt is around $250,000 and $160,000 respectively.  It takes the average college graduate 21 years to pay off their college loan debt. 

The downside is that a substantial minority chose majors with little or no job demand, leaving them stuck with a huge financial burden and no way to pay it off. These and other graduates are now wanting taxpayers to pick up the tab  under the misleading term of "forgiving" or "canceling" their academic debt. Why? We didn't pick their major. We didn't sign their loan papers or accept responsibility for their debt. That's their responsibility. It's called being an adult. 

But it doesn't end there. With all the additional expenses of simply "living"  amid rising prices and stagnate wages, the average American household debt is $101,915 as of the end of 2022. The total national household debt is $17 trillion dollars as of the end of the first quarter of 2023. That effectively makes the majority of Americans literally indentured serfs. They are literally working to pay off a debt owed to someone else, which is almost always a corporation.

As an aside, 60% of Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck, including 49% of those with an income of over $100,000 along with 70% of millennials, and it looks like Gen Z is trending the same way.  30% of Americans have enough money in savings to cover an emergency for no more than 30 days. 22% have no financial safety net which includes 27% of those 59 and older. 

Once they find a job, it's worth noting that wage inequality between genders remains a problem. Women are still earning, on average, just 82% of every dollar their male counterpart earns, which makes me curious about those who "identify" as transgender in the workplace. I wonder if they're going to be satisfied with their reality of their smaller paychecks?

Meanwhile, those at the top of the corporate ladder seem to be doing just fine. The CEO-to-worker compensation ratio was 399-to-1 as of 2021. That means that for every dollar a average employee earns, a top executive will get $399.  From 2010 through 2021, wages grew by 31%, which sounds pretty good. However, thanks to the rate of inflation, wages have lost on average 4.5% of their purchasing power.

As if that's not bad enough, the top richest 1% own twice as much as the bottom 99% of the entire world's population! To put it another way, they've acquired over half of all the new wealth created over the last decade while the poorest half own just 0.75% of the wealth.  

In the United States, the top 1% own over one third of the nation's total wealth. Did I hear someone say "let them eat McDonalds"? Meanwhile the bottom 90% control just 30.2% of the wealth. In 2021, the top one percent's wealth grew by $6.5 trillion dollars...just in that one year! Their total stock portfolios were worth $23 trillion dollars.

As wealth increasingly becomes concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals and their corporations, so too does their political power. There have already been several academic studies showing America's shift to a government of, by, and for the oligarchy (or kleptocracy if you prefer). Wall Street's mega corporations now so controls Washington that we've become a defacto neo-fascist corporatocracy. 

It shouldn't need pointing out, but we've also become a surveillance state thanks to the knee jerk reaction of Congress following 9/11 and its failure to read or comprehend the "Patriot Act" in 2001. We need wonder no more how or why the Germans succumbed to Hitler and the Nazis following the passage of the "Enabling Act" by members of the Reichstag on the heels of Reichstag fire in 1933.  

Thanks to the Supreme Court's 2010 "Citizens United" blunder, Big Money literally owns the Democratic and Republican parties. They not only underwrite the two parties and their political candidates, they've pushed the cost of running for office almost entirely out of reach of the average citizen, thus making politics the virtual domain of the very rich.

Congress isn't about "the business of the people" as Speaker Nancy Pelosi so caustically said following the January 6th protest, as corporate lobbyists now routinely write or help draft legislation and advise legislators on how to vote on which bills.

Consider this too. Millionaires, who make up just three percent of the total U.S. population, overwhelmingly control all three branches of government, including the Presidency, regardless of party affiliation. Middle and working class office holders have never dominated any branch of the federal government and are increasingly becoming rare at the state level.

Members of the Supreme Court together are worth an estimated $24 million dollars, and at least six of the nine Justices are multimillionaires. Even most federal judge positions are occupied by individuals who are at least in the top 5% financially. Of course, these positions come with their wealthy and powerful connections, making it even more difficult for the ordinary American to get a fair shake.

So, regardless of whether you vote Democrat or Republican, the wealthy win. It's just a matter of whether it's the blue corporate clique and their agenda or the red corporate clique and their agenda.

So, where does all this leave us? Historically, it's been the middle class which has held democracies together. The Founders  envisioned  the United States as a nation of  yeomen farmers and small businessmen. Ideally, a democratic society should be shaped like two inverted diamonds---narrow at the top and bottom and wide in the center with a relatively few at the top and bottom with the majority of individuals located somewhere in the middle.

Of course, that's not what we have today. The United States used to be a majority middle class country. In 1971, over 61% of the nation was middle class. Today, just under half are. The lower middle class comprise approximately 25% of the population with another 25% making up the working poor and perpetual unemployed. In 2022 just 11.3% of workers were unionized. In 1960 it was almost one third of the country--31.9%. By 1975 it was 26.3% as technology replaced some workers and employers began sending other jobs overseas.  

America also used to be the place where someone could start from scratch, start a business, and through hard work make their way up into the middle class. It was part of the "American Dream". It's what many newly arrived immigrants hoped for. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the "American Dream" may now be just that---a dream.

 20% of all new businesses fail within their first two years of operation. 45% within their first five years, and 65% within ten years. Just 25% survive beyond that. The main reasons? A lack of cash flow, poor management, a lack of organization, and inadequate marketing.   

When a society's economic system becomes unbalanced and where wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of small minority, social unrest is almost always the result, be it revolutions, civil wars, coups, or whatever. This is especially true when approval levels drop below 55% for any length of time, again, such as in the United States. 

Currently, Congress has an approval rating of just 20%, or to put it another way, a disapproval rating of 76% with 4% having no opinion. In fact, the last time Congress had a positive approval rating over 50% was 2001---22 years ago!

As an aside, 77% of those surveyed said that the current members of Congress should not be reelected again, and yet thanks to corporate funding and partisan gerrymandering, some 95% of them will be reelected.  The Supreme Court has an approval rating of roughly 40% and 66% of Americans have little or no confidence in the mainstream media to provide fair, honest and balanced news.

This is what a broken political  and economic system looks like, especially if you're one of few Americans clinging on to their middle class status. Rising prices, stagnant wages, the widest income disparity of any industrialized nation, poor healthcare (we're ranked 21st in the world with the highest infant mortality rating of any developed nation), a underperforming educational system.

 At 76, our life expectancy is among the worse of any industrialized nation, coming in 40th in the world. In Japan it's 84. We have the world's highest national debt rate at $31.4 trillion. To put it another way, our national debt exceeds the next four countries---China, Japan, France, and Italy---combined, which as most economist will agree, is unsustainable, and yet we spend more on the military than the next ten nations combined.

Is there anything the American middle class can do? Maybe. Although the United States is in decline, perhaps terminally, we can still alter the existing political system to make it more responsive to the needs of its citizens and get corporate money and control out of politics.

We can bring jobs sent overseas back home or penalize those who don't. Let's make it more expensive to ship jobs overseas than to build it here. We can raise the tax rates on the wealthiest individuals and impose a minimum tax on big businesses. No more mega corporations earning more than some countries paying zero federal taxes or billionaires paying less taxes than fast food store manager.

We can increase our investment in R&D projects and cut the red tape on new businesses, especially in the area of technology. We can---and must---improve our education and healthcare. We need to reduce our military budget to free up more money for social services and infrastructure.  We need to put focus on all Americans, not just an elite few, and that means rebuilding the middle class once again.

 

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Average American Household Debt in 2023: Facts and Figures

Average Student Loan Debt

U.S. Education Rankings Are Falling Behind the Rest of theWorld

 

Two Working Parent Households 2023: A Look at the Statistics

How the American Middle Class Has Changed in the Past FiveDecades

At Least 6 Supreme Court Justices Are Multimillionaires,Report Reveils

These 19 Fortune 100 Companies Paid Next To Nothing---orNothing At All---in Taxes in 2021

 

 

 

Are We "Spartacus"?

 

Spartacus. A name which has inspired down through the ages. For some, the inspiration was fear of a possible rebellion, be it of strikers from a specific industry or the working class as a whole who had grown sick and tired of the empty promises and platitudes made by factory owners or party bosses. 

For others, the name of Spartacus inspired hope. It showed that, united, the people could challenge the oppression leveled by the powers that be. The famous French philosopher Voltaire said that the rebellion led by Spartacus, also known as the "Third Servile War" (73 BCE - 71 BCE) was "the only just war in history".  Perhaps it was.

The name of Spartacus has been used repeatedly as a rallying cry against injustice and oppression, be it against working conditions, wages, or discrimination based on everything from age, gender, religion and so forth. It was called upon during the fight for voting rights by the Suffragettes during the first quarter of the 20th Century just as often as it was around by unions as they began taking shape in the latter half of the 19th.

The mythos inspired by the name of Spartacus has been used in pro-democracy revolts opposing authoritarian governments such as the 1848 uprising in Imperial Germany, the Paris "Commune" of 1871, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the second German Revolution of 1919 as well as the "Color Revolutions" of Eastern Europe  and  the "Arab Spring"  uprisings in the first decade of the 21st Century.  

I bring up the topic of "Spartacus" after having read of short but very informative article by Gavin J. Maziarz of Gettysburg College, published in August 2022 in "The Gettysburg Historical Journal" (Volume 21 Article 1) about the rebel leader on the second anniversary of the January 6th protest in Washington in 2021.

The article, entitled "The Spartacus Rebellion, More than a Slave Revolt" deals with more than with Spartacus as leader of the Third Servile War (along with Crixus, Castus, Gannicus, Oenomaus) and the successful escape of 70 gladiators and ordinary slaves out of an original 200 who attempted to break out from the ludus or gladiatorial school of Lentulus Batiatus. 

The article, which is only about ten pages long, discusses the modern political implications of the revolt, albeit primarily in Marxian terms, within the context of today's political collapse. To be sure, one doesn't need to be a Marxist to understand the implications of a revolt against an oppressive political system by those at or near the bottom of the social ladder. 

As an aside, did you know that globally, the top 1% owns 46% of the world's total wealth? To put it another way, the world's top 1% owns as much wealth globally as the bottom 90%.

In fact, given that CEOs make approximately 324 times that of an average worker or the fact that the top 1% control more wealth than the middle 60%, it's a wonder something hasn't happened already. The implications of a lower and middle class revolt in light of this should be obvious, especially in light of mass looting and arson under the label of "peaceful protests" by Antifa and BLM when Trump was elected and following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. One could even include the January 6th protest and brief occupation of the House by some of those on the extreme political Right.

Poll after poll has for decades reflected the public's distrust and dislike of Congress, the Presidency, and even the Judicial system. America has morphed from a democratic or Constitutional Republic into a neo-fascist Corporatocracy run by the aforementioned 1%.  Citizens are forced to bear more and more of the tax burden while corporate lobbyists write laws for the benefit of an elite few.  

Corporate interests own both political parties, underwrite their campaigns while ensuring Independents (the nation's largest political bloc) and third parties are kept out of the "People's House" as former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refers to the House of Representatives. The media serves the ruling oligarchy as their propaganda arm, controlling nearly everything we read, watch, or hear (just five mega corporations own 95+% of all media outlets).

The revolt by Spartacus was about an attempt by a few to reclaim the freedoms taken from them by an all powerful state. Although they shook Rome to the core, defeating two professional legions and several cohorts in the process, the rebels ultimately loss. Of those not killed, around 6000 survivors were crucified along the length of the Appian Way from the city of Capua to the gates of Rome itself. A distance of some 120 miles which serves as a reminder that freedom isn't free and once loss, is difficult at best to obtain again.

You'll find a link to Mr. Maziarz's article below. We hope you will check it out. I think you'll agree that given the political climate of the world in general and the United States in particular, we could use more individuals with the drive and vision of a Spartacus.

The Spartacus Rebellion, More Than a Slave Revolt

If you want to know more about this article's topic, please check out the links below. If you enjoyed the article, please consider passing it along to others and don't forget to subscribe. It's free! Lastly please be sure to "like" us on whatever platform you use to read anotheropinionblog.com. It helps with the algorithms and keeps our articles in circulation. Thank you! 

The top 1% officially have more money than the whole middleclass

Top 1% of U.S. Earners Now Hold More Wealth Than All of theMiddle Class

Global Inequality

Oxfam says wealth of richest 1% equal to other 99%

CEOs Made 324 Times More Than Their Median Workers In 2021,Union Report Finds

CEOs average pay was 324 times higher than employees: report

 

The Democrats Call for Unity, But for Whom?

Presumed President-Elect Joe Biden is saying it. So is Kamala Harris, his Vice President. We're hearing it from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. In fact, we're hearing it from the majority of Democrat leadership. Even many of the talking heads on television and radio are calling for it. Just what is it we're hearing?

Unity. That's right. Unity. After four years of a full on assault on President Trump and his Administration by the Democratic leadership, the news media, orchestrated social media groups, protesters, and talking heads on the various political talk shows, including some claiming to be conservative, everybody suddenly wants to play nice now that "Sleepy Joe" appears to be the new president. 

Apparently now that the Democrats have control of the White House, and despite their losses in Congress, they want everyone to come together and make kissy kiss. I suppose they expect everyone to hold hands and let bygones be bygones...now that "The Donald" is leaving.

Could it be that they don't want the Right to do to them what they did to Trump? They certainly don't want the media to launch personal and political attacks on Biden like making fun of his knack for making gaffes. They obviously don't want any references to Biden's alleged dementia, although to the novice he certainly acts like it given his tendency to forget facts, figures, where he is or what he's saying.

I'm sure they don't want to "alarm" the public that someone who may not have all their mental facilities will have control of the "nuclear football" as it's called or will be dealing with growing Chinese military and economic threat, the COVID virus, Putin's Russia, and the quagmire in the Middle East.

We've already started to see what we can expect from a Biden Administration. The Justice Administration and the FBI have begun to back off their investigation of Hillary Clinton and her emails, mishandling of Benghazi, alleged  illegal funneling of money to the Clinton Foundation in the "pay-to-play" scandal as its been called, or the make believe "Russiangate" scandal involving Russian interference of 2016 election despite claims that it was cooked up by Hillary to discredit Trump (particularly given her involvement in rigging the Democrat Primary against Bernie Sanders). 

Of course, don't expect anything much to come from the investigation of Epstein pedophile island or murder...err..."suicide" (wink wink). I wouldn't expect to hear anything further about Biden's son, Hunter, and the supposed bribery case involving Ukrainian lawmakers (at least not to the extend the media tried to go after Trump Junior's alleged questionable business dealings).

Nope. They want unity now, and they'll get it. Why? Because Donald Trump was a political outsider. He wasn't "pre-approved" by the ruling elite. He wouldn't "go along to get along" to quote the former Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn. Trump was an anomaly. He thought that his skills as a high stakes businessman would enable him to purge Washington corruption; to "drain the swamp" as they say.

However, President Trump misjudged the depth of the swamp.  He also misjudged the size of alligators, snakes, and other two legged creepy crawlies. For his entire term, Trump was bombarded on all sides---Democrat and Republican--- plus various agencies (most notably the FBI and Justice Department), government officials, governors and, naturally, the media. He fired and replaced numerous department heads and others in a vain effort to find not so much as loyalty to his administration as honesty and a commitment to the American People wherever he could find them.

Now that the "Establishment" class is back in charge, the call for "unity" represents nothing more than an announcement to the elites that they are back in charge. It's time to resume business as usual. The cockroaches can come back out of the shadows again. But what about the beast they fed and promoted generously over the past four years---Antifa and BLM?

Literally from day one of Trump's Presidency, Antifa was hell bent on disrupting what they could and destroying the rest. Black Lives Matter was just as eager to cause as much chaos as they could, albeit along racial lines. Other Left Wing groups joined in whenever possible, typically promoting "socialism", "communism" or just plain ole anarchy.

The majority of these groups was funded by a handful of wealthy elites who are part of the ruling Oligarchy within the Corporatocracy which has largely replaced our Republic. So now what?

With the elites back in charge, what will become of the these wannabe revolutionaries?  Common sense will tell you that the neo-fascist Corporatocracy does not want and will not stand for "socialism", "communism" and most certainly anarchy in any shape, form, or fashion. The ruling Oligarchy are committed capitalists. They are also globalists. They only "socialism" they support is for themselves and their corporations. As for us, their working class "wage serfs", good luck!

That puts groups like the Leftist Antifa, which claims to be "anti-fascist"  but behaves just like Hitler's Brownshirts, Mussolini's Blackshirts, or Mao's Red Guards in a interesting position. The BLM leadership has openly declared itself to be Marxists and following the Marxian ideal to bring about an eventual communist government through the overthrow of the present one. Obviously both are at odds with the Oligarchy, which by its very nature opposes these ideologies.

So, where does that leave these "useful idiots" to quote from Lenin?  The Oligarchy funded these groups and gave them media coverage which tended to bury their violent nature under the cover of "social justice" and "peaceful protest" despite their looting, arson, and violence while creating mayhem throughout the country which designed to make the Trump Administration look racist (to use the accepted go to trigger term) and hateful.

When Trump attempted to intercede, he was typically turned down by Democrat governors which was played up by the media to make it appear that Trump's help was unwelcome. However, after the destruction died down, these same governors and mayors had their hands out looking for federal dollars to cover the damage caused by Antifa, BLM, and others which had their tacit approval.

If Trump refused, he would be projected as uncaring by the Left leaning media. If aid was sent, it would be made to look like it was due to the determined efforts of these Democrat governors and mayors. A no win situation for President Trump. 

Now, with Biden occupying the Oval Office and the elites back in charge, I expect that funding for these groups will be dramatically reduced or cut together. Meanwhile, positive news coverage about them will dwindle. If they start making the new administration look bad, they'll be portrayed as out of control gangs. A hue-and-cry for order will be manufactured by the media and these wannabe Che Guevara's will be suppressed.

While it might be back to the public trough for the corporate elite and their political puppets and open season on "conflict of interest" government contracts, one thing will change. The elites will make changes to the election process to ensure that there will never again be someone like Donald Trump elected to the presidency. Never again will a outsider, no matter how popular, seize power from the Oligarchs.

The last populist candidate, Ross Perot, ran for president in 1992, mostly on his own dime. While he lost, he made a great showing and embarrassed the two candidate the parties had put up, Bill Clinton and George H Bush.  Perot proved to be extremely popular, polling in the 30% range and finally, winning almost 19% of the popular vote. He out debated both Bush and Clinton with his down-to-earth populist rhetoric. He even went on to created a new political party from scratch.

In 1988 the Democrat and Republican parties officially dropped the League of Women Voters for refusing to exclude third party and independent candidates. They previously formed their own debate commission, the Presidential Debate Commission in 1987, which made it all but impossible for anyone other than a Democrat or Republican candidate to participate (after Perot, it was modified to make it even more difficult).

Their more than cozy relationship with corporations made it almost impossible to obtain the funding needed to run a successful race or get media coverage (which, if they do, is treated as a joke or novelty).  They encouraged state parties to make similar changes in election laws to make it virtually impossible for anyone other than a Democrat or Republican to run, obtain funding, or take part in a debate.

So, when you hear these Democrats or talking heads talk about the need for unity and coming together as a country, remember that for four years they did everything possible to divide this nation. Now that the outsider Trump is gone, they want order and stability, but not for the country; not for you and me, but for the elites. It's back to business as usual. Prepare to receive your new master America.

 

Hunter Biden: What was he doing in Ukraine and China?

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Commission on Presidential Debates

 

Snippets and Tidbits: A Short Collection of Political Articles and Observations

Writing has never been difficult for me. I can usually sit down and put together a good piece rather quickly. In fact, I'm one of those people who can be doing one thing and simultaneously drafting an article in my head. Later, I'll either sit down and write out the draft or flesh it out into a complete article. Most articles are already written in their entirety in my head by the time I've concluded my research, so it's a lot like simply taking dictation (actually, in some cases the hardest part is picking out the best picture to go along with each paragraph. I suspect this one is going to be a bear!). Of course, I'm also always on the lookout for current topics which I think you, my faithful readers, might enjoy.

Some of these, the snippets and tidbits as I call them, are quite long---two or three pages in length; a few are even longer. Others are just a few sentences or paragraphs. It is these snippets and tidbits that I keep because, well, they're good possible articles, and secondly, I may want to come back to them at some point in the future and expand on them; perhaps turn them into full blown articles or see if the idea has held up since I first wrote it. What follows are a few of these snippets and tidbits, written exactly as I first typed them out over the past weeks or years in some cases. Since I am including several, I've chosen to include just the shorter pieces in order to provide as much variety as possible. I hope you enjoy them. Of course, your comments or suggestions are always appreciated.

What Difference Does It Make?

Let me ask you dear reader, what did you do today; this week; or even this month to help the poor and defenseless? Did you throw a few bucks or spare change towards the symptoms of poverty or did you take action to relieve the causes? One can say that the difference between conservative and liberal is the difference between throwing those few bucks or spare change in a hat or cup in exchange for a pencil and helping them learn the skills needed to make those pencils. Some would say that an education isn't complete without learning critical thinking skills; without learning a trade to support yourself. The difference then is really between helping a person for a single day and helping a person for a lifetime. To the poor or weak, what does it matters if they remain dispossessed by society? What matters is that we take the time to look at the world around us as it really is. It could be said that in the end, it doesn't matter about the wealth we've accumulated, but the difference we made in the lives of others.

The Oligarchy

It doesn't require your agreement, merely your compliance. You must accept its reality. To deny it your willingness to comply; to ignore it, that is the greatest fear of the beast.

That Sense of Uneasiness

Do you sense it? That feeling of uneasiness that seems to everywhere. Nothing seems safe or secure. Nothing feels familiar anymore. We are as if strangers in our own country. Even that which we call sacred has a sense of hollowness to it. Something which we once possessed has gone missing. Is that why old TV shows and movies and even the music of times past have become increasing more popular? Is that why we enjoy looking as old clips of times past with more than a simple sense of nostalgia? Even the old commercials bring with them a fleeting warmth of the familiar.

Corruption in our governments; our schools, our courts; and even our places of worship have become so brazenly commonplace that they barely even register our attention anymore. How often do you hear of a teacher raping a student or a priest or minster raping a child or stealing money from their congregation? We watch on TV stories about such debauchery in the name of religion that their great Khans of old would flinch.

Society is decaying. Our so-called political "leaders" are more concerned with fundraising and appeasing their corporate kingmakers than actually solving problems, which are usually of their making. They focus on the crisis of the moment; one that's usually manufactured to divert the public's attention from the real problems. We've become a nation of political media stars driven by polls rather than a nation of statesmen driven by the public good. People have become stunned into a sense of apathy.

This has become global. There's no chance for a repleve in another city, state, or country. Technology is such that anyone anywhere can be monitored at any time. People seem to have forgotten that instant connection works both ways. The would be conspirator is always being watched or even anticipated. Any attempt at meaningful change, therefore, has to be global in its conception and application while at the same time, actions must be taken locally and coordinated regionally if not globally just as the corporations act globally. Once must, therefore accept and indeed embrace the notion that "democracy" and "freedom" have different meanings to different cultures and no one culture can or should expect to respond exactly as another would. The idea is not to duplicate a response but to allow each to develop its own responses and act accordingly.

Nobility and Folly

How do these great and noble nations allow themselves to fall to their knees and be beaten by weaker, less moral, less noble people? Is it the assumption that all peoples are equal? They are not. We may be all the same in our humanness but we are not equal; not in intelligence, abilities or appearance. Not all peoples are the same either; history, religion, politics and traditions have seen to that. When two peoples are similar, there is growth; a synergy. When there is not, there is confrontation until one falls. History has shown that it has been the more advanced and enlightened nation which collapses first due to the assumption that all peoples are equal and the same.

Our Search

There was a time we believed the gods dwelt deep in the primeval forest silently watching us; somehow responsible for our ills and joys. But when we went in search of them, they had gone. All we found was the expanse of the forest and its many creatures. Then we sought them deep in still waters, but when we dove after them, they vanished among the liquid shimmers. All we saw was the deep teeming with life. Then came a time when we believed them high among the mist covered mountain tops, just out of view but always present. In time, we braved these holy mountains, but the gods vanished with the mists. All we found was the fields and valleys stretching out before us in all directions.

Later, we reasoned that the gods resided higher in the heavens, just beyond the clouds. With time, we learned to soar like the birds high above the earth but once more the gods alluded us. All that was seen was the earth expanding without end below us and the beckoning darkness of distance heavens yet about us. So, we reasoned, we must ascend into the heavens yet deeper in order to converse with our creators. As so we mounted rockets and plunged our mortal selves into the dark vastness but there were no gods. All we found were worlds upon worlds unexplored but then we looked down, we saw our small fragile earth alone. We had sought the gods but found ourselves instead.