Look to past to see our future

At long last the dream will soon come true. A new era of taxation will trickle down upon us. Massive tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will, we are told, cause a rising tide that will float all our boats. What will this mean?

The philosopher Santayana made the observation, now cliche, that those who forget, or never knew, the past are condemned to repeat it. With this in mind, ask yourself how much you know about American labor history? What do you know about the “Robber Barons?” Are you able to speak with any familiarity about the struggles of the working class as they pitted themselves against the wealthy and corporations? You will be lucky to find anyone among the next one hundred people you meet who has a clue about any of this. Tis a pity.

If you want to see what the future will look like, dust off your library card and delve into the past. What’s left is now being deregulated and privatized. It’s a big sale and you and I are not invited to the Big Sale. Corporations will now own and rule the world. Any child (Our most precious resource, so the joke goes) born today will come of age in a world where they will have no choice but to obey their corporate lords and masters. They will control everything including food — a subject for another time. Life will be lived on their terms.

Better hurry and read those books because as soon as they get control of schools the truth about what they’ve been up to since time eternal will vanish from the shelves.

—Tom Taaffe

Libby