The After Shock of the Corporate Kragen

While reading The Blue World by Jack Vance, I couldn't help thinking how the Kragen creature he describes that rules the story's water society by taking what he wants and destroying what he doesn't is similar to the stories on our home planet, Earth, of us paying homage to the church, the mafia, and most recently in our human development, the generous, omnipotent corporations who give us jobs and throw us bones and take our tax dollars and destroy any who get in their way.

I have several friends who were making good money last year and some who have been on the decline for a while. Some have been couch surfing and others near homeless. So many people can not even afford to fix their cars; my mechanic can attest to this. He was once over busy.

This is the after math of our visit with the Kragen, only this monster is not a hideous sea creature, but is in fact a well orchestrated corporate entity consisting of banks, the big five, and big corporations mainly those that make war materials and oil companies that have charged many times the amount for their product in order to bleed society of all of it's money. These creatures reek a similar havoc of the Kragen that destroys homes and businesses and eats the fruits of society at his will while the "Intercessors" pay homage to him with their pretty words and fancy robes. These noble intercessors who we have rightly elected to protect and serve our society have unfortunately just as those in the book, a primary purpose which is to serve the giant monsters, the corporations and banks, those that pull the strings in Washington and around the world. And when this monster decides to unleash his power he does so with many more tentacles than any sea creature you could imagine.

Are they as benevolent as the Kragen described in this 1940s tale of a society created on a water planet after escaping the tyranny of Earth. Yes, they destroy at their will, and possess the same soul, mainly none, yet they have their minions of followers and believers. A human can have a soul; a corporation is merely a machine with an eternal hunger. How does this monster feed and what does it eat? It eats the souls of humans by stealing their land, their time, their labor, and ultimately their dreams.

True Capitalism, Not Corporate Capitalism

Today my thoughts linger to defining the ubiquitous, Darwinian concept known as capitalism. Does capitalism mean the fittest survive? Does it mean the store front offering the best product at the best price will thrive? Does the trophy go to the company that provides the best service to their customers or the guy with the biggest guns?

In our modern day feudalism, the meaning of capitalism has been interpreted to mean that the guy with the biggest guns in Washington gets the prize. It also has meant that the big gun that can hire thugs to shoot the competition off his farm or oil rig or any other capitalist endeavor that he might be pursuing will win the price, steal the other’s land, absorb his business, take his customers, and leave the poor soul's family with the sorrow of his savagery.

Do the nice guys win, the ones that create their dreams and honestly want to provide a service to humanity? Yes, as long as they do not step on the dinosaurs' toes. I say dinosaurs, because their days are numbered. These giant overly-fed, eternally hungry beasts will leave this earth for good one day and no Jurassic Park will resurrect them.

You can be sure the Big Gun is not true capitalism nor free enterprise nor a free market. A free market also does not mean killing and stealing land in other countries so that they can offer the cheapest product, as has been the common practice of so called capitalist in the last few centuries. To enslave others and pay them as slaves, bullying other countries into selling their prize possessions, their land and human population, for a few bucks or pay the consequences of refusing to honor the tyrants, is not true capitalism.

And how have these soulless creatures convinced the world that they are the deity to be worshipped above all others? How have they convinced much of the population that their conquest are noble and good, all the while murdering, raping the land, and stealing the souls of all they touch, consuming everything in their path with a never ending hunger?

Why is it so easy for society to forgive those who kill millions for greed and enslave entire populations and spew their poisons not only on our earth but through the control of mass media into the world’s' minds. The people of the world have been brainwashed just like our elected officials to believe in the power of the big banks and the big corporations, to think that we need them as a child needs a mother.

I cannot even fault the politicians for falling for the scams of bailouts and fall outs and pay offs and free vacations and lifetime compensations; for they are under the same spell as all of society that bows down to the beast and whatever the beast produces, whether that be words in a paper, bills that ban viable products from our society, or wars that put more of our too hard earned money in their pockets.

Protecting the interest of tyrants who enslave others around the world is not true capitalism nor is it a reason to send our most precious resource, young men and women, who have in good faith committed to up hold our constitution and protect our citizens, into harms way. War is a last resort and in a civilized world, not an option at all. Today's wars are for greed and two-year-old's throwing temper tantrums.

And if you think for one second that our current wars have anything to do with true freedom or the Twin Towers, you are forgetting pipelines in Afghanistan and the black gold known as oil in Iraq. You might also have forgotten who is profiting from this war; you will find that it is the big banks we borrow money from and the big corporations, cousins to these banks who produce the killing products needed for this theatrical production. Only this is not a movie or a play, it is real with real blood shed and real karmic consequences.

What is Freedom?

Is freedom in a box? Could it be found in a bagel with lox? Is it true happiness? Is it the answer to all of our prayers? Does it exist? Can it exist in our modern day labyrinth of toil and trouble, in our self-created limbo, in the shadows cast on the cave of the mind?



Why do we think that some big brother or sister, which ever the case may be, is the answer to all of our problems? Is it not OUR government, our illegally collected tax dollars, our fragile piece of paper containing the ideas of democracy?



And why do we believe the paper dolls that report our news, the puppets on the stage miming the words of big banks, big corporations, big brothers that want to enslave the world? Why do we think we cannot take care of ourselves, but need to borrow until there is no blood left in our bodies? Do we not borrow the future of our children, casting the evil shadow of debt down with our genetic codes?



And if we think for one moment we are safe, because we have given all of our freedom away to be protected by the wolves that long to slay our souls, who are we fooling but ourselves? And is it not one assault after another on our precious spirit with each murder committed for the blood of oil. Have we not become the fiendish vampires ourselves? Does our lust for money, oil, land, enslavement, not increase with every conquest? Can we stop the madness?



Do you believe that you cannot live without that SUV or Motor Home or giant house in the hills? Ask yourself if you can? At least until you save for some time, saving your life from the demon of debt by living simple, appreciating what you have right now rather than living for gratifications that can never fulfill you.