Wednesday 8 August 2012

The American Dream?

Why do you need to aspire to an American dream? Why not an Italian dream? Why not an Australian dream? Why not a Brazilian dream? We are all suffocated with mainstream media and populist prattle spouted from America. Imperialism in it’s most natural form. Sending economic hit-men to disadvantaged countries in order to silently bully near self-sufficient governments into welcoming multinational corporations who run the world on par with the world banks, who effectively create money out of thin air to cover wealthy investments and let the average man take the hit.

Soulless identities who indirectly have control over lives across the globe and yet, our heads are dug deeply in the sand, so as to never question the establishment due to our Americanised upbringing. Even to this day, cowardly bowing to America as if they are the be all and end all of mankind. Letting them use Shannon to fuel terrorism, not combat it. In an ever revolutionising world where dictators are being overthrown, it is a case, unfortunately, of America asking Ireland to jump and our island nation politely asking how high?

Why have dreams of aspiring to a police state? Why have dreams of a country in which absolute power is concentrated in a capitalist criminal cabal that uses military and police power to dominate people both mentally and physically? Why visit the 21st century equivalent of a Nazi state for touristic reasons? Be sure to capture the essence of a police state destruction of constitutional rights, genocidal murder of the working class by capitalist predators and deliberate criminal acts by government officials in your photography.

A nation plagued with narrow-minded, ill-educated, fundamental hypocrites. Didn't the mighty USA boycott the 1980 Olympics because the Soviets were occupying Afghanistan? Oh, such righteous indignation from our America brothers in arms. A nation invading at will in order to satisfy the likes of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Halliburton, Raytheon and nothing ethical. If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t Americans having parades devoted to happiness on a daily basis? Their levels of utility should be at a record high.

In America, total corporate profits for the year end 2011 were $1.97 trillion. Corporations paid $181 billion in federal taxes, a mere 9%, and $40 billion in state taxes, a mere 2%. Their total tax burden is 11%, where as the poorest 20% of American citizens pay a combined total of 17.4% in federal, state and local taxes. Health Care lobbyists spent $390 every second of 2010 fighting the health care reform bill. Does this sound like a nation where the American dream is still being adhered to?

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, on average $1 billion dollars is spent per annum just disposing of food waste in the USA. However the figure of 1 billion also appears, but this time in a much more drastic sense, counting the number of people who are hungry in the world. Now, I don't mean, ‘Oh, I haven't eaten in a few hours, I'm feeling a bit peckish’, I mean so hungry they may not have eaten for days and are powerless to walk or speak and in some cases, even open their eyes.

A 2004 study estimated that between 44% and 47% of all food harvested in America never gets eaten. Since August of last year, in a 12 month period, the charity Oxfam officially declared three famine crises in, West Africa, Yemen and East Africa, respectively. On top of that, as of July 27th this year, a further seven countries are pleading for emergency food assistance, namely - Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali and Chad. However, as they have no worthwhile natural resources which can be pillaged by America, of course, the stars and stripes won't bat an eyelid towards such futile nations.

I may not know the cheapest inn to reside at during a stay in New York or Washington D.C., but I do know you would be visiting one of the most, if not the most, mislead, misinformed, contradictory and corrupt nations. Moreover, a paranoid city in which 'please do not smile' signs have genuinely been erected across subway stations across the Manhattan, Queens and greater New York regions. However, it must be stated that I'm not saying one should not visit such cities, I am merely ridiculing the pseudo notion of an American dream.

The past is our definition. We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it by only adding something better to it. Therefore, I implore one and all if visiting the United States of America to create a unique American dream of their own. For the ‘American dream’ of old, which is still so highly craved, is now merely folklore.

S.DAWSON 08/08/12