Why I have a hard time being a “real American”

I’ve often wondered if being a Marxist is worth the trouble. It can certainly cause me to lose a job or certain friends. After all, if I made some compromises I might be able to just be a liberal and support the Democrats. I would be for more socially acceptable. I think people would understand me better.

Actually there really are no liberals anymore. Ronald Reagan moved the political center to the far right and today no one questions it. The liberals I know will vote over one issue, such as abortion. Yes it is an important issue, but I will never need an abortion. There are other issues.

I decided long ago that I needed something I could believe in. In my anarchist days it was easy to criticize everyone else’s country, political beliefs or systems of government in general. Having a solution, even if it is not the best solution, is better than criticizing everyone else and offering no solutions of my own.

Then there is the society we live in. I watch TV night after night to see commercials that show us what is important to Americans—convenience we can buy, really big cars with all kinds of do-dads that show off our technical rewards of living here—computers that do everything for us—cell phones that do everything for us that our computer can do and more. The phones even tell us how to get around. We literally don’t have to think.

The truth is I don’t need a real big car to make me feel important. I like my computer, but why do I need to duplicate it on my phone? I personally use my phone as a phone and I’m fine with that. I have gotten around this town my whole life without any navigation system, so I think I will stick to the old way of getting around.

There are poor people in the world and I have seen them on my trip to El Salvador, Nicaragua and the day I spent in Algiers, Morocco. These people don’t even have running water or electricity. To them, our way of life must seem like a far off fantasy. It seems most Americans never give these poor people a second thought. Many Americans I have talked to would prefer to never leave this country. They believe the entire universe they live in is within the borders of the U.S. For them, the outside world is a hostile place and unless enlisted in the military and traveling with soldiers, meeting those strange people is to be avoided. Many people I know would rather not have to think about the poor people in the third world, much less visit where they live.

I have seen how the rest of the world lives and I can never forget that. When I see these commercials for hi-tech gadgets available to Americans I have to wonder who people in such countries as Afghanistan feel knowing such gadgets might as well be Lear jets. I see myself as a citizen of the world and feel that the people in poor countries have as much to teach us as we do for them. I have learned from the way people live in Europe and I feel that we Americans have really been scammed by our corporate masters.

I’m not like the Republicans who seem to honestly believe the richer they are they happier they are. A lot of us who have studied psychology and philosophy know this is often not the case. I am one of those who would like to be financially well off, but not ridiculously rich. The attitude of nearly all our elected leaders today is “be self absorbed.” “Care only about yourself.” “Make as much money as you can and whoever makes less than you, you have earned the right to look down on them.” Spite and hatred against the poor is understandable and to be expected. After all, they are lazy drains on OUR system. The rest of us have to work, unlike them thar liiiburuls.”

For those of us who have spent part of our life poor and living among the poor, all these beliefs are insults. I can have nothing more than contempt for people who are not willing to try and understand the people they so quick to criticize, such as poor people.

Those are attitudes I can’t accept. I can’t believe that a country that puts more of its citizens behind bars than any other country is really “the freest country in the world.” I can’t believe that any U.S. soldier in Afghanistan or any where else is fighting for my freedom. It’s bull shit and I just can’t put any faith in a system so full of lies. -សតិវ អតុ

Lenny Kravitz - American Woman

guess who- american woman

“I don’t need your war machine, I don’t need your ghetto scene”