On a Pedestal: An expression describing the undue elevation of a concept, typically rendering it overly lauded and generally immune to questioning.
Today, on the pedestal we have Capitalism. The economic foundation of our country that is absolutely worshiped by the political right and regularly used to defend corporate greed.
The reality? Fossil fuels are fast approaching obsolescence. Power utility monopolies are crumbling in the wake of renewable implementation. American cars are quickly becoming some of the least reliable vehicles and as a result are going under. The vast majority of our goods are now manufactured in another country and we’re outsourcing what labor we can and using as much cheap immigrant labor as possible. We are falling behind in the innovation race as other countries become more sophisticated. Our prison and healthcare system is a complete joke and our government has become an institution where everything is decided by the wealthy, for the wealthy and they are doing a fantastic job
Why? Capitalism. Coal is now more expensive than Solar so Coal is dying. Solar and Wind energy allows a single home to maintain their own power needs and often even sell excess electricity back to the Grid. Energy independence = Freedom but you fight it because science is just some liberal conspiracy. Toyota, Nissan, and Subaru manufacture cars that are practically guaranteed to push 300,000 miles with little more than standard maintenance. With U.S. made cars anything over 100,000 miles is a miracle. It is cheaper to make something, and then send it across an ocean than it is to make it here. All this is is exported slave labor. That’s right, no. We did NOT abolish slavery. We exported it because our conscience is immune to that which we don’t have to face. India now has it’s own Silicon Valley and China keeps using enforced patriotism to steal our technology. Our prisons and our healthcare system operate on the same principle. We don’t cure people, we treat their symptoms. We keep them sick for as long as possible to perpetuate the cycling through the system in order to take as much from them as we can. When money is power, politics is bought and paid for. When the people who are making the rules are making all the rules to leverage their position, we are officially hopeless. Recently a politician in Illinois got away with admitting to countless acts of child molestation because a bill that he passed stipulated that offenders could not be charged retroactively. These people are despicable, and we have put them in charge of the planet…
Because Capitalism has motivated the creation of a market and political system where the primary motivation is to TAKE as much as we possibly can.
Chrooth 