Marvin Gaye: Whats Going On?

Marvin has always been one of my favorite singers. His original phrasing of the highly introspective probing lyrics of “What’s Going On” became my own personal mantra as I made my way through the crises filled decades here in America. The song lyrics addressed more than the general problems of the world, they asked questions that were specific and uniquely applicable to America. The inescapable irony is that the questions present in the lyrics written in 1971 are even more relevant today as we approach the U.S. Congressional election of 2010. With Marvin in mind, I’ll attempt to answer the main question raised by the title of the song, “What’s Going On”?
From a non-political aspect America has a huge problem and DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO SOLVE IT! Forget all the flag waving sentimental crap you have heard since birth, the only thing that runs America is MONEY and lots of it! Americans are sitting in the midst of the most nefarious political experiment that this country has ever experienced and the American public doesn’t even have a clue as to what is really going on.
Here are several questions, so put on your thinking cap!
(1)  Why do you think Dick Armey (Freedom Works) chose these people (who actually belong in the institution for the insane) to be serious candidates in the general election?
(2)  Do you think Armey is goofy or he just couldn’t recruit anyone else to carry the Tea Party banner in the general elections?
(3)  Do you think billionaires like the Koch brothers are pouring money into Freedom Works just to get the tax write-off?

These and other questions are generally ignored by people who oppose the right wing fringe Republican ideology currently saturating the airwaves across the nation, simply because the answers clearly point to the obvious. It is so much easier for progressives, liberals and moderates to simply dismiss the obvious conclusions underscored by these answers as simply just another conspiracy theory! Are we lazy or are we just afraid?

Well, like it or not here is the answer to those questions. America is at a cross roads historically in the classic struggle between the super wealthy oligarchs and the rest of us for control of the American government. Yes, I know a number of people are going to sigh and say, “Here comes the same old class warfare arguments”. Yep, it is definitely class warfare, I accept that. However, this moment in American history is unique due to the fact America is struggling mightily to replace its social and power institutions after the GIGANTIC iconoclastic period that was unleashed in the late 1960’s, and is now slowly and painfully grinding towards completion.

A critical component in the current American iconoclasm has been the nation’s religious institutions. Many institutional religious icons have been toppled and lie broken and dishonored in the dust scattered along the public ways. Sexual scandals have rocked all religious denominations, the most notable of which is the Catholic Church. Indeed, the ever expanding sexual preference issue has also made its own contribution to the ongoing American iconoclasm. Industrial institutions once revered with religious-like fervor have been sold, and packaged into the conglomerate portfolios of international corporations, wherein the only thing uniquely American remaining are the well known original old fashion company logos. Selfish national political strategies over the decades have further expedited the de-industrialization of America by incentivizing American corporations to increase their presence and business investments in foreign countries.

As a population, common everyday Americans sensed the continued loss of the nation’s most revered icons and expressed their apprehension and unease at the polls in 2008 by electing Barack Obama a true African American to the presidency of the United States. However, the failed American economy, the very issue that helped to elect Obama to the presidency also became a millstone around his political neck. Recognizing the presence of such a formidable handicap, the super wealthy republican oligarchy decided to take advantage of this hour of America’s domestic weakness, with actions specifically timed for the November Congressional elections.

Their weapons are powerful 24/7 media propaganda channels which boast a certain level of maturity by virtue of its long term presence in the American domestic environment.  They appear to be following the Goebbels’ model in respect to their use of the most inane observations in their propaganda messages. (Ref: www.psywarrior.com/Goebbels.html) Goebbels’ philosophy is to saturate the public media with this propaganda until the general population come to accept it as truth. The American super wealthy oligarchs have been funding their propaganda machine for more than FOUR GENERATIONS and recently they have become critically aware of the American iconodulic struggle to replace its discredited institutional icons. The wealthy oligarchs think that this is the ideal time, and therefore provides an ideal opportunity to inculcate the cornerstone of their ideology into the new emergent American society in the 21st century. It should be noted that the super wealthy American oligarchs view themselves as the real American patriots, because in their mind America was founded as a REPUBLIC and the democratic ideals added later to the Constitutional writ was simply a political mechanism designed to monitor and manage the American population at large.

I personally think it is a mistake and a severe misreading of this critical moment in American history to simply concentrate on the babbling of these fools that the Freedom Works organization is bankrolling. The wealthy American right wing oligarchs are using the upcoming Congressional election to test the POWER of their PROPAGANDA machine to subjectively control the American voter and thereby achieve eventual control of the entire American government. Their USE of the most IMPROBABLE, UNRELIABLE, UNPROVEN, INEXPERIENCED people as CANDIDATES for the highest most respected political jobs in the nation will demonstrate the effectivity of their well oiled propaganda machine. If their propagandized political strategy succeeds with these obviously undesirable candidate types, it therefore will succeed with any type of candidate. Following the November elections these schemata for controlling American elections will be Q.E.D. (that which has been demonstrated).

I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to alert people in the Democratic/Liberal/Progressive community to the actual threat facing the American public. In the midst of this very difficult American institutional rebuilding/replacement period can we, who stand for a free America, assume that the process of creating these shiny new American icons could be accomplished in the glaring disruptive presence of such a fanatic, infinitely subsidized, ideological propaganda machine without being perniciously contaminated on every level? Concerned Americans need to experience a paradigm shift in their perception of the current struggle going on in America. This is a clarion call for a spirited aggression on behalf of progressives, for no war can be ever won by any combatant that will only reluctantly fight back with a spirit of passive resistance. The battle is NOW and the struggle is NOW and those who deny this urgency are simply emulating the dusty historical image of Britain’s Neville Chamberlain.

The political propaganda machine of the wealthy Republican oligarchs MUST have its horns removed from the airwaves of the American public. This is not some minor problem as many Democratic lawmakers would have you believe. Further, this ceased to be a freedom of speech issue a long time ago. The Constitution gives people the right to stand in the middle of the town square and say whatever they want, whenever they want. However, the Constitution does not give people the right to use the national airwaves to say whatever they want, and to say it whenever they want. The battle here is to take back the national airwaves in the name of the people of the United States. If we fail to do this we will have surrendered the United States of America to the wealthy American oligarchs. Can you visualize what life in 21st America will be like if we surrender this opportunity to those who would control and capriciously interpret our freedoms much in the same manner as they manage the “bottom line” of their vast corporate empires?

5 thoughts on “Marvin Gaye: Whats Going On?”

  1. I love Marvin too, which is why I had to read this excellent diary.  That title is probably limiting your number of readers to desperate but tired boomers.

    We Americans are all in agreement about what’s going on.  What belongs to the people has been stolen or despoiled.  

    The oligarchs have been successful in their divisive tactics.  
    As long as we are convinced that those others are stupid and horrible people, we’ll never achieve the unity of shared purpose needed to “take back our country.”  

  2. Beautifully written, parvenu.

    So hard to gauge the nature of public discourse concerning the actual problems we face when the sphere of public discourse itself is entirely a media construct. Who knows what we think?

    As far as a complete oligarchic takeover, I fear that horse has already left the barn.

    Note that the makeup of fascism as espoused by Mussolini included the proviso that the populace should be allowed to retain superficial freedoms.

    1. W.W. thank you for your thoughtful comments.

      In the course of writing this piece I was blessed with an introspective insight that appears to explain the confused malaise currently entangling and depressing the American psyche. virtually all of the “confusing” signs dominating the American daily consciousness defy rational explanation, yet in sum total clearly point to the most unique phenomenon in American history, i.e. the final stages of social iconoclasm in America.

      I will go out on a limb and state that if I were 45 years old or younger, I probably would not be capable of reaching such a conclusion.

      Since I am a long time fan of cultural anthropology who also happens to be older than dirt, I intend to write a post on the current state of social iconoclasm in America and its omnific effect on my country in the 21st century.
      Peace…

      1. Booman Tribune ~ Marvin Gaye: Whats Going On?

        Since I am a long time fan of cultural anthropology who also happens to be older than dirt, I intend to write a post on the current state of social iconoclasm in America and its omnific effect on my country in the 21st century.
        Peace…

        i look very much forward to that!

        very fine, well-expressed diary, tho the marvin reference was just a tease, it didn’t matter, the diary would have stood up well without it anyway.

        peace to you

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