to keep rising every time he came to his stall. As I approached, Harry stopped his conversation, and turned to me. I saw that he was obviously getting angered, so I suggested that we walk around and look for a more reasonably priced stand. As we walked, I asked him what all the fuss was about.
PT: Well Harry, what seems to be upsetting you today? You seemed to want to punch that guy in the mouth.
HZ: No, I would never do anything like that. You know that. It is just that it seems that every day prices for food go up. I don’t see how things can change every month, week, and even day. It seems like nobody is trying to correct this situation.
PT: I know what you mean. I guess the produces’ costs just keep going up also. I can’t see what anyone can do about it.
HZ: How about some “Land Reform”? If these land raping farmers and ranchers were forced out of their positions of privilege, maybe we could see some more efficient use of the land that would actually make it possible to provide reasonably priced food for the entire country, if not the world.
PT: What do you mean? Can you elaborate on this a little?
HZ: The way things are now, you have these “Poor family farmers and ranchers” that have hundreds and even thousands of acres of land devoted to growing useless crops of corn and soy beans for the multinational junk food corporations. They use up acres and acres on factory ranches, raising beef, chickens, and pork in hideous conditions, pouring hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides into them and the environment, feeding them ground up animals that died from God knows what. All of this on land that was given to their dynastic ancestors for pennies per acre, or for free, one hundred or more years ago. In the meantime, there are better uses for their land that could be realized. All of this is only possible with the support of the government’s favorable laws and considerations for these landed gentry elites and their corporate masters.
It is the very size of these agricultural empires that make this waste and health hazard possible. Further, there are people who cannot afford housing, or access to recreation or enjoyment of horded resources because these gentry are hogging the land to themselves and their redneck lifestyles. Or, the giant corporations are given sweetheart deals to lease public lands for pennies per acre, and clear cut forests, pollute the waters through open pit mining or oil drilling, and dozens of other industrial enterprises.
These privileged classes have had decades, if not centuries, to enjoy their favored positions. Take away the land from them and resell or give it to the people again. Keep some for truly “Open” land that everyone can enjoy, and let others have 5 or 10 acres to use for truck farms, fish ponds, and the like. They would not need $100,000.00 tractors and other machines to grow “Real” food for the people.
Further, why should only the rich or corporations have access to private lakes and rivers and forests and deserts? I have seen lakes denied use by entire cities just so that they can sit idle while some corporation uses it for occasional fishing by their corporate elites. This is obscene. We are not living in the 19th century where the smaller population could support such excesses. I have seen river frontage denied to the public while a polluting enterprise uses it to store its unwanted and unused equipment. I have driven by great areas of land with nothing on it, yet fenced off from the people. This is the 21st century. We need more logical use of the limited resources that we have, and more efficient ways to produce food.
If anyone needs more than a few acres to produce food and an income for themselves, then they are doing wrong, and wasteful. I have seen miles and miles of land owned by one family or corporation, and able to support only one cow per several square miles. This land could be used to build houses, golf courses, support industries, and leave the farmland that we seem to love to put cities on for farms. With imagination and research, it could be turned into farm land someday, but never will because it will continue to be used to feed the ego of one man.
PT: This country sure knows how to waste land and deny the people. I don’t think you are going to see any changes soon. Why bother even thinking about these things?
HZ: You are right. I don’t think anything will get done as long as the vast majority of people still hold to “The American Dream”, and believe that one day they will be the privileged elite and be the one owning miles and miles of land for themselves. They don’t want anything to get in the way of their future prosperity.
PT: Well, I’d love to keep listening to you, but you better get back to your shopping, and I better do the same. See you later.
HZ: Nice talking to you. See you later.
THE STORE
I had just entered Wally World – Wal-Mart – to do a little shopping, when I saw a familiar figure looking intently at one of the displays. It was Willie Mahalic. He motioned me over. I went over to where he was standing, and asked him how he was doing. He replied that he was doing fine, and suggested that we sit down at one of the tables at the McDonalds stand. So, we sat down and had the following conversation:
PT: Well Willie, what is on your mind today? I know you always have some deep observations about what is going on in the world. You are quite a philosopher in your own right.
WM: I guess you are right in both respects. I guess I am developing into quite a critic, if not a philosopher, due to all the things that are going on, mostly going wrong I should say. Today I was just thinking about what is needed in order to change things in this crazy world we live in.
PT: And what might that be Willie?
WM: I was just thinking that the most important things that one needs to have today, as “Weapons” to fight both the forces that control us and the forces that support them, are memory and communication.
PT: That’s an interesting observation. Why are these two what we need?
WM: One always hears how important education is. “Get a good education and get a good job”, and the like. Well, the people need to get educated about what is going on in their world. The major element of education is memory. There is the part that is technique, such as logic, scientific method, and so on, but the major part of education is memory. One has to have memory of the past to understand that things have changed. That memory has to be trained to be correct and free of delusions about the past. Today, it seems that people don’t remember the past, and what little they do remember, is clouded by delusion. You have heard it before. “Things were better when I was a kid, more opportunities, better politicians”, and so on. Most people’s memories are idealized fantasies, especially about this country, its “Good” wars, and the like.
As I remember the times I was growing up in, the government was just as fascist, the pigs were just as criminal and against the people, and wars were just as imperialistic as today. The only difference today, is that we have the internet and drones. Maybe the people are a little stupider, and the politicians little bigger liars, but that is just a matter of degree, not kind. The people today, are either too young to remember, or have never learned these things to begin with. How can they effect any change without true memories of the past to guide them?
The old should be teaching and guiding the young in revolt against the government, corporations, and elites continued assault on the people. The young should learn from the older people. Instead, the young are too easily turned away from the knowledge and guidance of the old, and the old are too busy trying to imitate the young and ignorant and their culture. All the while, the ruling powers encourage this state of affairs through their propaganda.
As for the importance of communication, this should be obvious. Before any change can be accomplished, the need for change, the philosophy and psychology of action, and the method and goals of change, need to be communicated to as many people as possible. The untruths of the propaganda machine and the paradigms that it has created in the people need to be recognized. This is the prerequisite to freedom from the elite’s tyranny.
PT: Due to the state of total naivet?
?, criminal blindness, ultra-nationalism, and a blind, stupid, desperate love of their country, it is imperative to first concentrate the vast majority of energy on getting as much of the population as possible behind the idea that the status quo is destructive to their wellbeing. Due to the great success of the greatest propaganda machine ever seen, the people have been so dumbed down and filled with lies, that it is a miracle that anyone thinks freely enough to oppose the agenda of the elites. In fact, an American – or any citizen of any country for that matter – who questions the morality of authority, is like a cat walking on its hind legs. It may not be done well, but you’re amazed that it can be done at all.
To accomplish these things, one needs to use every possible resource of communication on as many people as possible. The task of getting fellow citizens on the same page is so difficult any way that anything less that total commitment to this goal would be fatal, and any movement toward change without it would be impossible.
It will be the internet not guns, and organization not protests, that will bring a better world into being. It will be the truth that will set us free.
PT: Great thoughts, but let’s see if you are right or not. Personally, I think the people are too