The Ethics of Three Card Monte
A smoke and mirrors game is being
played in the public arena's while debating the efficacy of social
justices like gay rights, equal pay for woman, economic imperialism
and the dominion over ones body. I would go so far as to say that
most politicians represent their particular constituents and elector
base by agreeing that racial equality as expressed in the civil
rights movement was and is a non negotiable steadfast given. Why are
we still debating the minutiae of civil unions, LGBT marriages and
the Judeo Christian marriages? That's a topic for another time.
Shifting gears to an economic hegemony imposed by the US on Mexico.
What is at the crux of the fear-mongering which is fueling an
inhumane and malicious idea about building electric fences around our
boarder with Mexico. Presumably it's to keep the undesirables out yet
I see it missing the mark on a few fundamental points. The most
glaring point is the notion that these economic and political
refugees are sneaking through our porous national boarder to
parasitically dine on America's bevy of good fortune. The fact that
America has been transforming herself into a 2nd world
country with it's chasmic separation of the have's and have not's
would seem like a fools errand to those el sud emigre’s. The wealth
in the US is not being distributed equally as bared out in the
appalling employment and job indices. I am ignoring but not
forgetting the rapid decay of the buying power to the inflationary
index. The price of widgets is going through roof compared to the
money most Americans are taking in each month. Let's pause and
remember that our militant nostalgia for an agrarian economy is in
reality run by gigantic Agra-business. Nonetheless, this nostalgia
is firmly rooted in the realm of “invented tradition”, which was
espoused by the Marxist Historian Eric J. Hobsbawm, and won't be
dissipating anytime soon. These mammoth corporations, like all
corporations, are intrinsically psychopathic at their core. They have
a singular myopic drive to maximize profits which logically entails
minimizing costs. One of the biggest costs to Agra-business is labor.
As the statistical trend continues less Americans are willing to
engage in these horrendous working conditions for meager pay,
marginal job security and negligible health benefits. These emigre's
from Mexico primarily have filled those employment gabs which
Americans are reluctant to do. Perhaps if we didn't have the
political talking point embodied in a tidal wave of economic refugees
then Americans might be lulled back into those jobs which would ipso
facto be vacated by the Mexicans. Sure; I think that might be an
jolly mental masturbation exercise which may even bear fruit; albeit
bitter fruit. The logical overarching question to ask then becomes;
why would the Mexicans want to stay in Mexico?” More to the point;
“how can we keep them there?” I don't mean to be derisive or
flippant nor denigrating. Simply how can America foster a love affair
between Mexico and Mexicans? Since NAFTA, and almost certainly
before, large influental American businesses have kept the bulwark of
RD in America while shifting manufacturing to Mexico. The reasoning
is a 1-2-3 police line up of all the usual suspects: favorable tax
breaks for investment, tax reduction being paid in America and cheap
cheap cheap labor. If Mexico could garner some long term economic
boon coupled with modern manufacturing for herself, publicly and
privately owned and run, wouldn't that be at least a motivating
factor to stay put and reap some of the economic bounty? America has
to rethink and retool it's economic/political/social ideologies and
policies. The quick fix to a symptom doesn't heal the disease.
Another slight of hand parlor trick
that has preoccupied the public forums is intelligent design.
Intelligent design has been built on a bedrock of an eroding dogma
called creationism. The ridiculous discussion about embryonic
personhood rights versus the seizure of a woman's body and her
unequivocal right to govern her person, is at the core of this civil
liberties debate. The pro-life versus pro-choice camps have pitted
themselves against one another in a World War 1entrenched ideology
battle. The spearhead of this demagoguery has been encased by the
debated right to terminate a pregnancy. The fact that abortions are
carried out clandestinely by natural selection on women all the time
is an often overlooked fact on both sides of the argument. We tend to
cloak the meaning of abortions by deeming it spontaneous miscarriage.
A bit of semantic tomfoolery. “What's in a name”, Shakespeare
once sardonically riddled. Normally I would agree with that kind of
assessment for most concepts. The English language, due to its 50/50
ratio of French based Latin derived lexicon on the one side and its
Germanic roots on the other, provides a rich and varied yet confusing
choice of nuanced verbiage. Sometimes the choice of a word is like
playing a dictionary roulette wheel. Although there are different
numbers ultimately we pick either a red or black. The word is either
tangential or it isn't. However, in this case I think that the word
choice does matter. Abortion laden like a cargo container with
emotional and ideological baggage. If we change the verbiage from
abortion to miscarriage then we defuse the weight of the ethical and
moral argument by superimposing a neutral scientific term to mean the
same thing. Why would an intelligent designer purposefully deliver a
philosophical paradox? Did a benevolent and omnipotent creator
fashion an intentional flaw in the logic of preserving life? When we
examine these questions an unresolved and unnoticed conundrum among
the most fervent supporters of anti-abortion legislation appears. The
same supporters are routinely the same lot who adamantly embrace
legalized executions and have zero tolerance for stricter firearms
regulations. Pitchforks and torches are metaphorically raised seeking
retribution even when it doesn't effect them personally.
As I think about the smoke and mirrors
and the window dressing and the con games which we all seem to be
hoodwinked by I am reminded of the Wizard of Oz. When Dorothy, the
Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion enter the Wizards lair with the
witches broom to prove they vanquished the witch they notice that the
dog Toto is tugging at a curtain. They watch Toto tug away at the
curtain as a booming voice and ominous video tell them to ignore the
man behind the curtain. Thankfully for the denouement of the story
they emphatically questioned the authenticity of the booming voice
behind the curtain. America needs to start questioning the Wizards of
politics and the media.
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