Privatization

I know I have commented on privatization before and in general I do not like to be repetitive, but this is an issue far too important to neglect or just pass over in a different context. I would like to go on record, here and now, to say that the idea of privatizing health care, education, and prisons, is the most stupid, ridiculous, harmful, asinine, egregious, and unnecessary idea ever put forward by those who are supposed to govern and represent the citizens of a sovereign nation. Who would ever have thought, until fairly recently, that the original and basic functions of these institutions would be changed to make a profit? Making a profit on health care, education, and prisons is in fact the very antithesis of what their purpose is supposed to be. In fact, changing them into for profit endeavors, can only make things worse, as in order to insure a profit they have to prey on the sick and dying, on the new generations necessary for the continuity of the nation, and on as many convictions and recidivisms as possible, even though unnecessary and actually harmful to the social organization of the community.

If this is so, and I am absolutely convinced that it is, where did this insidious plan originate? Obviously it could only be conceived in a society in which the profit motive has become accepted as the single most important motive for action, namely a capitalistic economy that places profit above all else. While I suppose someone might have thought of doing this previously I am sure no one could have taken it seriously until now. This is so because privatization of this kind can only lead eventually to a kind of national suicide. No society (nation) can survive for long with a sickly, uneducated, and constantly growing criminal population. So how has this come to be? I believe that primarily it has to do with the growth of huge international corporations who increasingly control the entire world. These relatively few gigantic organizations have budgets that dwarf those of most nations, and as they are no longer nation-based they need not worry about the well-being of nations. Nations are increasingly irrelevant. If corporations cannot find what they need in one they can find it in another. This is why education in the U.S. can be so terribly neglected, the necessary personnel can easily be found much less expensive elsewhere. In this developing cultural evolution health care, education, and prisons are just other forms of private enterprise basically no different from breakfast cereals, fast foods, energy, pharmaceuticals, diets, and casinos. In such a system labor, land, and money are simply commodities that can be bought and sold, exchanged and utilized for the sake of profit. Students, teachers, doctors, laborers of all kinds, and even prisoners become commodities that can be manipulated to increase profits for those who are in control.

In order to facilitate their control it is in the interests of the powerful to disrupt society by dividing it into various factions. Thus what used to be the United States of America is rapidly becoming a kind of “U.S.ganstan.” Think of it, we tend to acknowledge that Afghanistan is not and probably cannot be a viable nation because it is a tribal and clan-based society with different factions that can act independently of one another, coming together to form temporary alliances only for certain purposes. Although the U.S. is not a tribal society with different clans operating independently, it is becoming more and more to resemble such a society, with multiple factions finding it difficult to agree on many important aspects of our lives: abortion, rich, poor, female, male, Black, Latino, Muslim, liberals, conservatives, blue states, red states, pro Gay marriage, con, Republican, Democrat, Tea Party, Occupiers, Evangelicals, Atheists, Catholics, Mormons, Labor, Management, pro tax and not, hawks and doves, and so on and on. While these differences exist in one form or another naturally, there is little doubt that the corporate owned media exploit them shamelessly, creating and promoting controversy and competition whenever possible, keeping the population divided, confused, and fearful, makes it possible for the powers that be to more easily have their way. Multinational corporations do not care about such issues as abortion, Gay marriage, prayer in church, the separation of church and state, any more than they care about Grandma’s health, unless these issues at times reflect upon their sole concerns, profit and power. With their enormous wealth they can and do influence all aspects of our government, getting their way virtually uncontested. This process has been going on for so long now I am doubtful that anything much can be done about it, short of the citizenry taking to the streets en masse and simply refusing to any longer accept the status quo.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell