Fork Stuck in Supreme Court

If you waited patiently until the 45th min of the President’s speech last night, you were privileged to catch a glimpse of the pathetically cavalier attitude with which Washington regards campaign finance reform. The paragraph of lip service Obama allotted to the Court’s recent landmark decision expressed the same sense of gravity and urgency one would exhibit in taking a late afternoon nap. Let’s just hit the snooze button and hope we don’t sleep through dinner. Personally, I think the occasion called for more William Jennings Bryan and less Rip Van Winkle.

But so it goes....the Supreme Court’s ruling is just another contentious round in the age-old grudge-match between Liberty & Equality. And once again, the all-seducing narcotic of "freedom" has foiled reasonable measures to ensure a semblance of fairness in the political process. Under the guise of protecting free speech, the majority opinion was an unmistakable victory for the well-financed establishment. My only question is: why the public outrage?? Shouldn’t the average citizen expect a windfall of "trickle-down" democratic justice? Isn't what's good for the plutocracy good for everyone? I’m pretty sure that Monsanto and Exxon will have my best interest in mind when they start planning their election season propaganda campaign. I’m also quite sure that progressive candidates don’t need to fear crippling media reprisals should they take policy stances in conflict with business.

In all seriousness, it was only a matter of time before corporate henchmen were able to dismantle the modest gains of campaign finance reformers. The ugly marriage between money and politics is far too co-dependent for any lasting partition. The principled few who are brave (or crazy) enough to stand in the way of this grotesque confluence risk suffering the following education of Network's Howard Beale:



The bottom line is that this trend is nothing new. This Court's ruling is just the most recent application of "laissez-faire" political philosophy- but it's clear the contagion is spreading beyond the sphere of economics. It's another manifestation of the epic quest to undo every rational constraint on the corrupting potential of highly concentrated wealth. According to our esteemed judiciary, multi-national corporations do not have enough political voice. Forget their legions of lobbyists. Forget the fact that their ad dollars underwrite (and therefore unduly influence) most outlets of mass communication. Let's tip the scales a bit more.

This is not to imply that the American business community is either monolithic or inherently evil in their political posture. Of course, they're not. However, they are all unified in at least one respect: their unending pursuit for profit. What's wrong with a tidy profit? Absolutely nothing, in and of itself. The problem begins when the institutional constructs that maintain a logical distance between commercial and social life are completely eroded; when quarterly earnings are exalted above all other social and democratic considerations; when behemoth conglomerates entirely removed from the long term welfare of citizen and country are allowed to penetrate and overwhelm every facet of human life. It is the moment where we forfeit our collective humanity and become faceless, interchangeable consumers conditioned to worship our wants over our needs. We become a culture awash in hollow, commodified diversions where the illusion of "freedom" and fulfillment are promised, but only a gilded poverty is delivered:

(This ad is brilliant.)



It sounds like an Orwellian farce, but is it that much further from the present? Just how far down the rabbit hole are we? We already live in a media-saturated world funded almost entirely through corporate patronage- where news is sold as entertainment and politics is presented as sport or scandal. Should we really expect progress when we're trapped in a perverse paradigm that breeds ignorance and compromises truth for the sake of ratings???..... Welcome to the Society of the Spectacle.