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On the Upcoming Presidential Elections
During the next several months the mass media will be pulling the wool over the eyes of working people in America. They will be doing this by using Gulf War type saturation coverage of the elections. In many ways it is all part of the same ongoing campaign: to spread the myth that we live in a democracy and to promote the idea that U.S. imperialism is a force for freedom and progress.
This media saturation is part of the illusion that we live in an information society, when, in fact, we live in a media society. An information society, one with unrestricted access to information, is a threat to the existing order. The free flow of information would make visible the suffering of the people of Iraq. It would juxtapose U.S. self-righteousness in relation to Libya, on the one hand, with the CIA's terrorist car bomb it planted in Beirut that killed 80 people, or this country's use of murder as an instrument of foreign policy (e.g., the CIA killing of Patrice Lumamba in the Congo, etc.).
The Big Lie that has to be starkly exposed once and for all is the idea that the itemized and increasingly passive electorate are faced with any real political choices during the presidential elections. Being a disenfranchised slave of the state, I don't have the right to vote. If I were to vote, though, it would be a vote for the start of a working class fightback and a vote for truth. But as Paul says, if voting could change the system it would be illegal.
The working class struggle is a battle to inspire the hearts of ordinary working people with a vision of a fit and proper future, and to convince them that with dedicated leadership this is within their grasp. Of course there is a big gap between these ideals for a future society and the current condition of the working class. In fact, with counterrevolution happening world wide and working class retreat at home, the gap takes on the appearance of an impossible chasm. Accordingly, our struggle lies in building a bridge between the present and the future.
We should have no illusions about the bourgeois congress and the U.S. constitution's electorial process. As with the lie that the relationship between the capitalist and the workers is equal, that there is no exploitation involved if the capitalist gives a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, our task is to rip away the veil of false democratic ideology. Because of capitalism the mass of the population lives in fear of unemployment and war, while a tiny minority rules and grows rich through the exploitation of labor power.
Karl Marx rightly said that parliamentary democracy gave the mass of people the opportunity of choosing who will misrepresent them every four years. That is exactly the sort of "choice" being faced by Americans in this year's presidential elections.
This media saturation is part of the illusion that we live in an information society, when, in fact, we live in a media society. An information society, one with unrestricted access to information, is a threat to the existing order. The free flow of information would make visible the suffering of the people of Iraq. It would juxtapose U.S. self-righteousness in relation to Libya, on the one hand, with the CIA's terrorist car bomb it planted in Beirut that killed 80 people, or this country's use of murder as an instrument of foreign policy (e.g., the CIA killing of Patrice Lumamba in the Congo, etc.).
The Big Lie that has to be starkly exposed once and for all is the idea that the itemized and increasingly passive electorate are faced with any real political choices during the presidential elections. Being a disenfranchised slave of the state, I don't have the right to vote. If I were to vote, though, it would be a vote for the start of a working class fightback and a vote for truth. But as Paul says, if voting could change the system it would be illegal.
The working class struggle is a battle to inspire the hearts of ordinary working people with a vision of a fit and proper future, and to convince them that with dedicated leadership this is within their grasp. Of course there is a big gap between these ideals for a future society and the current condition of the working class. In fact, with counterrevolution happening world wide and working class retreat at home, the gap takes on the appearance of an impossible chasm. Accordingly, our struggle lies in building a bridge between the present and the future.
We should have no illusions about the bourgeois congress and the U.S. constitution's electorial process. As with the lie that the relationship between the capitalist and the workers is equal, that there is no exploitation involved if the capitalist gives a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, our task is to rip away the veil of false democratic ideology. Because of capitalism the mass of the population lives in fear of unemployment and war, while a tiny minority rules and grows rich through the exploitation of labor power.
Karl Marx rightly said that parliamentary democracy gave the mass of people the opportunity of choosing who will misrepresent them every four years. That is exactly the sort of "choice" being faced by Americans in this year's presidential elections.
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