DOPOTO REPORTS: GREED KILLS AND BANKRUPTS

The Department Of Pointing Out The Obvious (DOPOTO) has been carefully monitoring the news for signs that the worldwide economic meltdown is lifting. So far, no good. The news seems to be all bad, with even the one half of one percent of the population that qualifies as super-rich feeling the pinch of a bad economy. It is worth noting that there is another, distinctly different one half of one percent of the population that generally does the bidding of the super-wealthy, the military, alternately securing peace so the wealthy can operate on a multinational level and making war on the enemies of international commerce. Those enemies are generally those who question the right of one half of one percent of humanity dictating to the other ninety nine and a half percent, and those who would seek a piece of all this international commerce. It seems that not everybody in the 99 percent that is neither super-wealthy nor in the military agrees that the lion’s share of the world’s wealth ought to be deposited in the coffers of a tiny greedy elite.

Hence the need for a strong military, to convince the 99 percent otherwise. Interestingly enough, the half a percent that is in the military has no one in it from the half percent whose interests they champion, a pretty odd state of affairs, leading one to wonder what is their motivation. For example, not a single person in the military thought it would be a good idea to attack Iraq 6 years ago, a nation that posed no military threat to the United States. Yet, it was decided by the richest half percent of Americans that Iraq had to be attacked and that was that. The rest is history, as they say, and The Department is reminded that history is basically a bloody mess.

In these modern times, however, a third one half of one percent of the word’s population has emerged as a political and military power to counter the historic monopoly on power and riches secured by the world’s military organizations at the behest of the world’s super-wealthy (remember, it was never the average Roman or British citizen who thought it would be a great idea to conquer the world at the cost of much bloodshed, but their leaders’ brainstorm). This other half a percent would be religious fanatics, remembering fondly the many centuries that religion shared in the spoils of war and the benefits of commerce. A mere glance at the many grand palaces that are churches, temples and mosques and the vast riches accumulated by organized religions serves to remind mankind that untold wealth poured into religions for centuries and these various faiths held a whole lot of political power.

Indeed, for almost as long as there has been organized religion, almost every war has been fought in the name of God, at least nominally. Wars are actually fought over money and for no other reason, but the God excuse was perfect and it unleashed an inordinate amount of savagery on the so-called enemies of God. So now you’ve got your Islamicists and your Christian fascists and even some Jewish Fascists fighting to get their rightful bit of the spoils, angry that the businessmen have taken over their turf in the past century or so. And to show the businessman that they mean business, these religious fanatics are sacrificing all manner of their own people to unrelenting warfare, terror attacks and insurgent fighting groups. 

Taking their cue from the half percent of the super-wealthy, the religious leaders never actually put themselves in harm’s way. Everybody remembers what happened to Joan of Arc, and that just wouldn’t do when there are so many saps out there willing to sacrifice their lives for them. And just as the super-wealthy have the military to act as their proxies, the super-religious draw on a further one-half of a percent of the world’s population, the super gullible.  Can there possibly be a bigger born patsy than a suicide bomber? Approaching their gullibility are the ragtag militias assigned to battle modern armies, which works here and there in surprise attacks and ambushes but ends predictably in their wholesale slaughter when open combat is attempted. 

Not that modern military personnel are not gullible either, otherwise they would never allow themselves to be used so callously in the name of flag and nation. While the vast majority of any nation’s military personnel are honorable people signing up to serve and protect their country, that is very rarely a mission they are assigned to carry out. Generally they are used like pawns on the chess board of world commerce to insure that the money flows upward to the richest half of a percent of the world’s people. And as far as DOPOTO can tell, the world had reached some sort of status quo economically using this system, but in recent years the reemergence of religions wanting to get their former share of war loot has upset the delicate apple cart and the economy has suffered as a result. 

Religions dearly miss that 10% tithing that made them among the wealthiest, most powerful and influential organizations on earth. If that meant espousing all sorts of implausible superstitions, well, they needed some justification for their existence, and playing the God card was always an effective tool for controlling vast populations who might otherwise question why 99% of the people had to make do with less than 10% of the available wealth. We here at the Department Of Pointing Out The Obvious are not suggesting any solutions to this age-old dilemma, that is not our job, but merely pointing out the 800 pound gorilla in the room. So, subtracting the 2% of the population mentioned above, that leaves the rest of us, 98% of humanity, as the hapless victims of the relentless power struggles of the wealthy, the military, the religious and the gullible. The greed of the business and religious elite has driven the rest of us to the brink of bankruptcy for probably the thousandth time in history. It’s pretty obvious, hence the name of this agency.