The United States of America. That already sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? I’m 63 years old, and I think I can remember a time when I thought that was true – but maybe I’m just remembering a line of bullshit that a naive little kid bought into because he didn’t know any better.
Nothing’s ever really united when the fuel that powers the engine is greed, is it?
So I guess this is it – we’re seeing the end game of how this grand project plays out – and it’s not pretty, is it? The ultra-rich just keep getting richer while everything else descends into chaos. Who needs to plan for a pandemic when you can ride it out behind the walls of your sequestered, bought-and-paid-for world?
Except, of course, this isn’t how life works. Sure, the poor and the working class will get it first, but eventually the virus will find the oligarchs too.
The cynic in me thinks it’s only then that money will be allocated for research and the supplies needed for healthcare workers to tend to the sick and dying, since that will now include the rich. And you can bet attention will be paid if the economy comes crashing down.
I don’t want to be a cynic, but when you look around it’s hard to feel optimistic. In an attempt to find humor in this grim mess we call “The United States,” I’ll quote one of the greatest comedians of the 20th century.
“The upper class: keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class: pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there… just to scare the shit out of the middle class.”
– George Carlin
The joke sounded funnier when George said it.