Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
In the US, public offices like the Governor, Mayor, Police Chief and Attorney General are elected. So they need to listen to what the electorate tells them – which the media says it does. So they do what the media says most people want them to do.
Who owns the media?
The rich own the media and control what we see and think. What happens is that the media make the laws that the rich tell them to.
Good election policies are: “cleaning up the streets, reducing the drug problem, eradicating crime…”
To do that you have to have more police with wider powers and stricter judges….
The supposed beacon of democracy, the US has the highest prison population in the world. 75% of people arrested are unable to afford bail – Less than 2% of those charged receive jail sentences!
About 2.8% of adults (1 in 35) in the U.S. population were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2013. *
(Isn’t that a gulag by another name?)
There were 10.3 million arrests in 2018 in the US . ** There are bound to be some tragedies along that road.
The media know what we think before we do and can work us up to a pitch until we spontaneously combust – just crafting and channelling the news.
Well now, it’s time for a change – polls show that the viewing public wants something different to police chases and drug murders on the news…
Look at the media sensation that “taking the knee” picture has created – maybe it is the match that starts the revolution that throws out the current western capitalist led democracy and heralds a new economic model.
Some are even saying more than “Black Lives Matter”, they are saying silence over a black criminal’s death is racism, they are saying political candidates should commit to de-funding police forces.
So … what am I saying? I think it is something like this:
- Democracy as we know it doesn’t give society a good outcome
- The reliance on the creation of crimes and punishment to regulate society is wrong
- The freedom of the individual must be subordinate to the best interests of the community.
- With universal surveillance cameras, privacy is obsolete (this may be part of the solution)
- The stranglehold that the media has on public opinion makers must be broken. We have been under the sway of media sensationalist newsmakers for too long.
- All lives matter, not just black lives. This type of slogan gives rise to value systems which promote the interests of a class of people to the disadvantage of the rest. It is apartheid and is reprehensible.
Are we watching an Empire beginning to crumble?
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
** https://www.statista.com/statistics/191261/number-of-arrests-for-all-offenses-in-the-us-since-1990/
sillysocksonfriday 
Dude! Sheer poetry, I applaud you. All strength to your pen.
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Thanks for your post – noting to disagree with (this time)!
….The stranglehold that the media has on public opinion makers must be broken… How? Any ideas?
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