2k. Puppet Government
Theresa May’s 27-strong cabinet in the UK hardly reflected the diversity of modern Britain: 18 white male millionaires, 7 white female millionaires and two Asian millionaires. The US’s new government is even worse in terms of a bias towards a financial perception.
Yet the very basis of consumer capitalism is that we can never have enough. We exist to service our ‘economy’ by consuming and by being made into ‘hungry ghosts’ by the corporately controlled mass-media, never satisfied, always yearning for something more. The endless stream of 4,000 visual and auditory messages a day are contrived to make us incomplete. The main political parties tend this machine, as does the majority of our privately owned media.
Almost the entirety of government in the UK and US is populated by people in pursuit of financial wealth, or those who already own huge amounts. As the taxi driver advised before overcharging me – ‘ No Money – No Honey’. Many people serve money and the hierarchies of ownership. Big money possesses our governments and acts in its own interest. This is what George Monbiot has named ‘dark money’.
But the people at the top don’t just sit on bundles of money – they own the corporations that generate it. The 10 richest billionaires on the earth are entrepreneurs, investors, businessmen and industrialists. United States currently has the most billionaires amongst the world’s top 10 but India is expected to soon overtake the United States to gain more billionaires among the world’s top 10 than any other country.
The 2015 Forbes global billionaire list shows a record 1,826 billionaires with an aggregate net worth of $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion a year ago. The total includes 290 newcomers, 71 of whom hail from China. Youth are on the rise: A record 46 billionaires among the ranks are under age 40.
The people who control our governments also own the banks to which we are all increasingly in debt. They own the media we all stream and watch, the pharmaceuticals and ‘treatments’ that our health services provide. They sponsor the money that provides our national educational provision – mostly now in the interest of business and industry. Through all of these they provide a kind of ‘movie’ – a set of behavioural norms to which we must adhere to succeed. These stories are told to us over and over again right from the earliest age. Stories in the media, educational curricula, the health services, energy, legislation – all enforcing the same basic life patterns and pressure to conform.
Big business even pays for many positions within the government and civil service through sponsored jobs, where they pay the salary of the person working within the government department – a completely opaque (eg not transparent) practice.
“The combination of lobbying, the erosion of the independence of the civil service and the capture of the political elite by big business has made for a toxic combination…When businesses start funding political parties then its as if one side were handing money to the judge to get the judgement they want”.
Caroline Lucas
“In the US, there is basically one party – The Business Party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large, I am opposed to these policies. As is most of the population.”
Noam Chomsky
Parliament Must Die contains quotes from: A. Greenburg, M.D._Abraham Maslow_Albert Einstein _Alnoor Ladha_Andrew Gwynne _Anneke Lucas_Arthur Koestler _Arundhati Roy_Asgeir Jonsson _Barbara Max Paul Hubbard_Bertrand Russell _Bill Mollison _Buckminster Fuller_Calcida Jethá _Caroline Lucas_Charles the Great_Chief Arvol Looking Horse _Christopher Ryan_Copernicus_Daniel Christian Wahl_Daniel Pinchbeck_Darwin_David Edwards_David Holmgren _David Icke_Dieter Duhm_Donald Worster_Donnachadh McCarthy_Doreen Massey_Doris Lessing_Dr A Bartlett Giamatti _Dr Claire Wordley_Dr Jay Cullen_Dr Kathy Sykes _Dresden James_E C Lindeman_Eckhart Tolle_Edgar Cayce _Edward Snowden _Ethan C Roland _Ewen MacAskill_Galileo_Galtang and Ruge _George Monbiot_Gerald Heard _God in Genesis_Greta Thunberg_Gudrun Johnsen _Guido Dalla Casa _Gustave Le Bon_Guy Fawkes _Henry Cloud _Henryk Skolomowski_Isaac Cordal _J Eliot_Jack D Forbes_Jack Forbes_James Gordon M.D._James Lovelock _Jeremy Lent_Jeremy Rifkin_John Cleese _John Hammell_John Hilary_John Trudell_Jon Stone_Jonathan Bartley_Julian Assange_Karl Marx _Karlos Kukuburra_Ken Ward _Lee Williams _Leonard Higgins_Lierre Keith _Lord Strasburger_M Knowles_Maddy Harland _Marianne Williamson_Mark Boyle_Martin Kirk_Martin Winiecki_Masanobu Fukuoka _Matthieu Ricard_Mogens Herman Hansen _Nafeez Ahmed _Nanice Ellis_Neil Dawe_Nikola Tesla_Noam Chomsky_Olafur Hauksson _Osho_Paul Hawken_Paul Levy_Peter Joseph_Peter Macfadyen_Pope Francis_President Franklin Roosevelt _Rabindranath Tagore _Rene Descartes _Russell Brand_Safa Motesharrei _Seyyed Hossein Nasr_Sigmund Fraud_Silas Titus _Simon Mitchell_Sir David Attenborough_Sir Isaac Newton_Sir Joshua Stamp_Skip Sanders _Steve Kent _Sting_Terrence Mckenna_The Dalai Lama _Thomas Berry_Tom McKay_Tyler Durden_Walter Bradford Cannon_Wendell Berry_William Derham_Yaneer Bar-Yam
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