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Where's That Confounded Bridge?

By George Ziemann -- Jan. 3, 2006

I must apologize to my three or four regular readers because I am having something akin to writer's block. In my case, the problem isn't that I have nothing to say. I have a lot to say. The problem is that I have come to the conclusion that the truth no longer counts for much. The same can be said for ethics, the desire to do the right thing, and everything else I was ever taught in school or church.

Look around. America today is all about embracing all of the behavior I was taught to avoid. Lying, cheating, stealing, coveting and killing abound. Honor? Nowhere in sight. The "right thing" is now defined as the activity which is most profitable. And that's just the government. You know, that thing we learned about in civics class -- something they probably stopped teaching decades ago.

For the last year or so, I have made a special effort to be as objective as possible in my approach to the issue of the music business. I really tried to avoid politics, hyperbole and name-calling, to let the facts speak as dispute to the obvious rhetoric, stick to logic and merely point out that the RIAA lies every time someone representing them opens their mouth.

I think I've done a good job of being objective because I not only annoy the RIAA and ASCAP, but most of the peer-to-peer crowd, musicians who are only in it for the money and anyone else who will tell you that "business" is the operative word of the phrase "music business" or that you have to sell millions of albums to be a success. Since I piss off almost everyone, I must be on the right track.

Lying has become the expected norm. So much so that the liars don’t even try too hard to hide the obvious falseness of their statements anymore. They just assume that people who can not prove they’re lying will not dispute with them. And usually they don’t.

But a consistent pattern of corruption is becoming evident. So evident that one has only to look around at the results to see that we have been lied to in the worst ways, and that the music biz is only the tip of the iceberg. (I mean, it’s not like the drug companies, credit card companies, and environmentally destructive manufacturers, etc. aren’t being granted leave to eat us alive as well)

The corruption permeates our leadership. It’s destroying America, and it’s rapidly spreading as the rest of the world follows our lead in disregarding the traditional values of American freedom and liberty in favor of giving big business all the power.

But, what can you do while the majority of the people either don’t see the lies, have unreasoning faith in their leadership, or just plain don’t care?

One of the most disturbing things I’ve read recently is this. http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1120-01.htm And this is old news. At this rate one has to wonder how we’ll survive if we don’t wake up as a nation and demand an end to the lies.

When our future is in the hands of people who obviously don’t care if half the nation’s children are born retarded, or even if they have a breathable atmosphere to live in, and still nobody seems to care, in a few years I suspect the lies of the RIAA and the resulting degeneration of our pop culture will be the least of anyone’s worries. But they will keep denying the lies, right up to the day humanity draws its last breath of poisoned air.

Personally, I would no more feed the RIAA with my dollars than I would dump toxic waste in the Chesapeake Bay. Culturally it amounts to the same thing. Supporting the RIAA is like financing noise pollution and mind control. But they say they are just a business and have a right to do everything they do, no matter how it harms the American quality of life. Yes, they are a business. Just another American corporation pouring sludge into our ears and poisoning our brains. But somehow only a few can see that - the few nobody is listening to.

More lies. http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/16700_credit.html

One has to wonder if the anti-RIAA movement lacks force because too many people do not see the direct relationship between the RIAA’s activities and those of these other big business groups. Or if it is just that other big business groups are screwing us so bad that the RIAA seems like small potatoes.

I am VERY smitten by the corruption of the Jack Abrimovf lobby scandal story and the Bush Administration spying, condoning TORTURE (for God's sake) ...lies about WMD and etc...

All THAT crap and corruption drives me gaspingly ape-shit.

...but the DEMOCRITTERS up there on the hill are also JUST AS BAD if/when you look closely enough.

----sigh, I don't know what we should do as a society.

I am CONVINCED that you can't just pick "your closest flavored" politician be it Dem or Repub anymore.

HELL YES! (And NOT to be partisan-biased) I want Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Rove and their whole Neo-Con Clan THROWN OUT next election...

...but I fear we'd just get corrupted Democrats in their place.

Good God, the USA needs a "shake-up" of a different sort than another politically usable expedient "Nine Eleven"

(Folks, our American liberties and freedoms are NOT nowhere's NEAR in as much danger from Al-Queda as they are from the rampant greedy Corporations who write all our laws and amend our sacred Constitution in their favor without input from the People.)

(I know, I know. I'm letting my crazy pinko "commie" liberal libritarianisms show. If I'm not careful, I'll drive away the politically conservative members of our little gang if I don't stop ranting.)

(I TRY to be politically neutral best I can folks, but I am only human and I certainly DO have opinions beyond just the "hate RIAA" agenda too.)

"In my case, the problem isn't that I have nothing to say. I have a lot to say. The problem is that I have come to the conclusion that the truth no longer counts for much. "

While I can understand your point George, I disagree completely. Even if the truth doesn't change anything or count for much, it does let people know what's really going on. And, quite frankly, if people don't hear WHAT the truth is, then they will never know it.

I'm sure it's frustrating to you that nothing seems to be making anything that you complain about any better. But, please, DON'T STOP COMPLAINING!!

If you have a lot to say, you'd better say it. Say it loud. Say it often. If you don't, then you can be sure that the truth won't count for a damn thing. Why? Because it will no longer exist if it is not spoken.

I didn't say I was going to stop.

"sigh, I don't know what we should do as a society."

Well, if you recall, McCarthy was doing something similar in the 50’s. He had the whole country off track and participating in a shameful witch hunt. What crashed him was the truth. One TV news commentator nailed him to the wall, and everything promptly was restored to normal.

This is what needs to happen again. Somehow the truth needs to get out beyond the internet where everyone can see it. We need effective demonstrations that can not be ignored by the media. We need to get respected figures to speak out.

What we need is a truth movement to demand accountability from the government. We need to make America so aware and so angry at the way we’ve been deceived that the liars will have to back down.

Nothing has ever happened in America until the people as a whole got really pissed. And, I don’t know, between the RIAA hitting music fans, the drug companies hitting the elderly, the credit card companies hitting struggling families, the polluters hitting those with breathing disorders, those who have lost loved ones in a senseless war and God knows what else, is there really anyone not suffering from this tyranny of liars?

Maybe the problem is that all these people are divided, stabbing at individual issues like the RIAA, when the only possible way of being effective is realizing we are all fighting one single monster and uniting our movements against it. Maybe together we can get the truth out in the open. And when all of America knows the truth, the liars will no longer be able to function.

"...is there really anyone not suffering from this tyranny of liars?"

Halliburton

"Halliburton"

That deserves a link. (Information is power)
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/

"...is there really anyone not suffering from this tyranny of liars?"

The Carlyle Group

http://www.hereinreality.com/carlyle.html

The natural expansion of capitalism into the present corporate nightmare is only possible in a democrocy. Unfortunately, one country or system is never enough. The corporate beast must feed and expand until the governments themselves behave like corporations. Eventurally they will outgrow or destroy the very governments that made their existence possible. Corporations are required to do this by the laws that govern them. No wonder the politcal bottom line is all about money. Check out the current campaign here in the great white north for another prime example.

"The natural expansion of capitalism into the present corporate nightmare is only possible in a democrocy. "

Yeah, the reason it doesn't happen in other government forms is that the government itself usually keeps all the profits from capitalistic endeavors for themselves.

Kind of what's happening now when our corporations lobby our lawmakers.