[Tsuwabuki]

We've been told the lie for so long, that most of us believe it.

It's especially true in times like the 50s/60s or 80s or 90s where jobs are plentiful, credit is (dangerously!) free-flowing, and war is either over or hidden. When we start getting uppity and start asking questions of the 1%, they start screaming, "SOCIALISM. COMMUNISM. WEALTH DISTRIBUTION KILLS INNOVATION. NO INNOVATION, NO JOBS!" They convince us that what little money and affluence we do have will disappear the moment we start to affect the mass-hoarding by the highest income earners.

Think about the last time the United States really moved forward. Late 1960s, early to mid 1970s. What did we have? Racial unrest. A neverending war. A cheating, lying, corrupt President. A recession. An oil shortage. Gee... sound familiar? If you go back to the time before that, you'll get to the Progressive Movement in which the same things were true (the war was the Philippine Occupation). The Occupy Movement is a classic protest movement in America, and one that should produce real gains, but it won't be today, and it won't be next year. It might take ten years. It usually does.

When we make money, we can sort of believe the lie, but when we can't, the status quo better watch out. 40 million Americans out of work. 50 Million Americans below the poverty line, another 75 million or so which are the "working poor," just one paycheck away from total ruin, and 15 million families unable to even get basic medical care. Two seemingly unending wars, with troops now in Africa (and I support legitimate uses of our forces, but we are spread far too thin at too big of a cost, and I say this as someone who no longer wears the uniform in part due to the fact I am no long affordable for the US Navy), re segregated schools by socioeconomic class which falls along racial lines (suburban schools, 90% white, inner city schools, 90% black and latino), tuition rates out of control for higher education, and top that all off with a lack of energy innovation and an increasing cost of oil products considerably higher than inflation.

If we don't see some serious changes from Congress and Corporate America, shit is gonna get way uglier than peaceful sit-ins in Zucotti/Liberty Park and a few marches up and down Wall Street.