We are a cash crop.

The population of this planet is driven by Consumer Capitalism, which is a linear (infinite) system on a finite planet. The engine of our economy is consumption and waste, which would be great if we lived on a conveyer belt instead of a single planet. Very simply put, we are bred like livestock. Our only value is our ability to consume. The flow of money from our pockets into the hands of our governments and corporations is the sum total of how we are defined. How much money can they take from us today? How much money can they take tomorrow? That’s it.

We exist as financial livestock. We create wealth in large numbers just as cattle create beef in large numbers. Our homes are basically luxury livestock pens. Our government and the corporations that control it exist only to take our money. They seek to influence every aspect of what we do in every moment of our lives – solely to get us to spend money. We are encouraged to debt at every turn, thus placing ourselves in a position of indentured servitude. This we are told that the items we consume will make us happy. We are cash making cows being herded and branded.

Moo.

The basic model is this: We make more people every day. So, tomorrow there will be more people spending money. Money leaves our wallets and enters the pockets of government and corporations. That’s it.

We are buying out of desire (which can never be satisfied) and not necessity (which can be satisfied). In the USA, we are kept in a perpetual state of desire, in simple and complex means. Planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence both factor in. We do have large parts of our population that live in poverty, their minds and efforts consumed by the struggle to stay alive one more day. Most of our population – our Middle Class, is able to earn enough money that they will be able to spend it on the millions of things they are told that they need. It is pervasive! We are bombarded with images and messages that urge us, compel us to spend, spend, spend!

We are told to breed and to spend. After 9/11, we were told to go shopping. There is an assault on birth control and abortion and women’s rights. If instituted, these changes would lower women’s access to education and earning. The education of women in any population is the one way to break the cycle of poverty.

Why, in our country is there such pressure to place women in the role of breeding cows?

Why try to reverse the one thing that breaks the cycle of poverty?

Why do we simultaneously seek to decrease education?

What is the most likely outcome of a population that is breeding at a high rate with less and less education? A herd of cash generators that are easy to subdue – either with lies or with police action.

Our government has no problem building prisons, but just try to get schoolbooks.

We are kept in a state of wanting, desperation and ignorance.

In poor countries, starvation and poverty make necessity all that is needed. The poor are kept ignorant under the rule of military strongmen. Population swells, education lowers the mental capability of people. They are too occupied with basic survival to resist being exploited. They are denied education to better their lives with or to discern their masters’ lies. Even those that are aware of the exploitation are unaware of ways to resist and choices that are available. The disadvantaged general population has no personal relationships with anyone from outside their daily existence, while the rulers/herders have “friends” everywhere.

If you haven’t done so already, please visit Annie Leonard’s wonderful site – The Story of Stuff. It summarizes all of this in 20 minutes.

Here’s something to consider: those poor countries are not our past – but our future.

While we are living the good life of being consumer livestock, we are content enough to keep ourselves in line. We are happy with our iPods, our SUV’s, our new homes with granite countertops and our stories that we share with our friends about things we bought and places that we went to buy things. When the water, food and space become scarce, we will have an overpopulation/pollution/disease/crowd control nightmare. Our government and corporate masters/herders will use the desperation of the moment as justification for the installation of martial law and become overt strongmen. They will tell us that “it is for our own good”, “we had no choice”, “no one could have predicted this would happen”.

“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.” - Sinclair Lewis

The real showcase of the recent Beijing Olympic Games may well have been their example of a population of consumers completely managed by a military machine that kills dissidents, spies on everyone and beyond reproach. China is a perfect example of a runaway population growth. A dictatorship that uses the urgency of the situation as justification for human rights abuses, environmental destruction, killing, poisoning, spying, corruption and deceit – with machine like precision.

Meet the ranchers: Oil, Guns and God.

Let me start with oil. In his brilliant book, The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria describes how governments that are rich in natural resources are under no pressure to provide freedom to or even listen to the population. If the oil or mineral that will get them money is already in the ground, then the government’s only incentive is to pave the way for greater profits. Education is a cost and probably a liability; because the population will eventually start thinking about how truly screwed they are and come up with some nifty ideas about changing it. So, science, critical thinking, evolution and logic are either hindered or punished. No sense spending money on something that will be a problem later. Health care, democracy, potable water, and all basic decent treatment are viewed as similar liabilities. Entire countries become robber land barons or mining towns with the whole country living under brutal regimes.

Religion comes in real handy here. Give the miserable lot some platitudes to comfort them, fill their heads with societal intolerance and make them believe that God will save them, someday, somehow and keep them busy slaughtering each other in defense of their beliefs. Let them find out if the afterlife holds any better lot for them.

With all that money, they can get lots of guns for the extra security they will need. So, the military gets a nice piece of the action. Police forces of all sorts, guns, tanks and militias. Ever notice how many countries that have abundant natural resources and poor populations always seem to have money for guns to shoot their own people? Well, it’s not only the poor ones. The US has become practically obscene in the pursuit of military advantage over its own people.

Cheer up though, our governments and corporations are terrified of us. The recent battles in Washington over labor rights, Net-Neutrality, Domestic Spying are all signs that the cowboys who are herding us are very worried about what we are thinking and doing – especially when it comes to how we feel about them. The US Terror Watch List has over 1 million names! WTF??? Are there really that many terrorists out there? I think not. But there are a lot of people’s names on that list that are there solely for political reasons. This President has sought the ability to spy on US Citizens with no reason and no oversight. Now, just why would anyone want that power? Other than to watch us to see how they can stay in power, keep raking in our money and keep us from doing anything about it.

Remember the old joke? “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean that they’re not after you.” Well, today it is no joke.

Here’s a problem: We’re running out of resources and we’re up to our eyeballs in garbage. Just how ugly will it get when we run out of fish?

Our response is to organize and communicate. Fight Net-Neutrality and hold our government accountable. The traditional media (newspapers, TV & radio) are no longer working for us. Whether by really bad luck or insidious design, in the US most media are controlled by only a few very large corporations that are very interested in taking our money.

The Internet is our last best hope.

We must take our awareness of reality, our concern for the future, our desire to leave the world a better place for our children – and communicate with each other. The Internet seemed like a pretty nifty toy in the 90’s and the government loved it because the investment community made a killing (which they happily shared with the government). However, NOW…it’s not so cute anymore. People are using it to take back the government, to watch the government, to change the government. It is no coincidence that Comcast, Verizon, AT&T are leading the charge to put the clamps on it. They are the ones that help our government spy on us.

Sitting on our butts and thinking that it will all work out, is exactly what they want us to think. It comes down to this – we are either helping them or helping everybody. Our minds are our last best hope. Together with education and honesty, we can overcome this and any other challenge.

The truth is, that the Consumer Capitalist model does not work. We cannot keep making babies, keeping them ignorant and crowding them in on top of each other while we we consume every other living thing on the planet. Eventually (and maybe soon) one or more of the following will happen:
- We will run out of food and/or water
- We will pollute the environment to a point where the toxins from our waste will poison us.
- We will live in such dense numbers that disease will wipe us out.
- We will start slaughtering each other in horrific numbers.

This election, we cannot allow the US Government to continue down this path.

We can elect someone that will stop spying on us.

We can elect someone that will look for sustainable models of human existence.

We can elect someone that will stand up to the naked greed of corporations and individuals that seek to harvest human suffering into obscene profits.

We can and must hold our government’s feet to the fire for their own actions and the actions of corporations that seek to abuse their wealth at the cost of our children’s future.

Don’t just sit at home. Get out the vote. Make calls. Help elect Barack Obama and new Democrats in Congress. Then, let’s stay on their backs until they do what is right for the future.

I think that George says it all quite well right here: