Forum Post: Well Fed Beasts

"Well fed beasts!"

• Socialist MP Keir Hardie, who grew up in a one-room shack in a coalfield, unable to restrain himself during a debate on the efficacy of the nation's poor laws by the wealthy and aristocratic members of Parliament

  When the sons and daughters of the American working class are sent under false pretenses to be maimed and killed in foreign wars which benefit only a select few vested interests, a class war is going on.

When a municipal government stops prosecuting domestic violence charges because of shortfalls in the budget, a class war is going on.

When a nation's leaders are so immured by perks, privileges, remunerations and exemptions from criminal prosecution that they no longer comprehend the harsh realities of their constituents' daily struggles, a class war is going on.

When states pass laws allowing their police forces to stop and interrogate citizens solely on the basis of skin color, a class war is going on.

When the financial industry knowingly and deliberately uses the American Dream of home ownership to buy and sell fraudulent debts and then receives billions of dollars of government support even as it illegally forecloses on thousands of mortgages, a class war is happening.

When sexual predators in the clergy are protected by their superiors for years on end, and then sheltered and given sanctuary from prosecution, a class war is going on.

When a nation which effectively practiced apartheid into the middle of the 20th century still questions whether a black president is a legitimate American, there is a class war going on.

When a municipal police forces serves the wealthy and powerful like the Tsarist Oprichnina, assaulting citizens, seizing personal property, and making extra-judicial arrests, a bloody class war is in the works.

When it is more cost-efficient for the elderly to charter buses and purchase medicine in foreign countries than to subsist on the inadequate health care offered in its own nation, there is a class war going on.

When multi-billion dollar corporations pay less taxes than students or a young married couple, a class war is happening.

When unnaturally repressive drug laws imprison thousands upon thousands of citizens within institutions which defy both the Bill of Rights and the Geneva Conventions, a class war is happening.

When a decent education is viewed more as a privilege rather than an expectancy, a class war has begun.

When two working parents must go deeper and deeper into debt simply to afford food, housing,transportation and healthcare for their family, a class war is occurring

When the gap between the wealthy and the poor or the highest and lowest paid employees of a business is a regular feature of economic reportage, a class war is brewing.

When a nation simultaneously passes laws which allow greater freedom for companies to pollute the air, earth, and water with carcinogenics but slash spending on healthcare, a class war is happening.

When leftist agitators in heart of the nation's financial district are decried as "a mob" while right-wing fantasists celebrate the supposed glories of of America's colonial rebellion, a class war in the streets is a possibility.

When church ministries use the ecclesiastical tax shelter for vast media empires which have little or no relation to the actual ministry, a class war is occurring.

When a presidential candidate who is the son of a past President and Vice President wins a fraudulent election in a state governed by his brother, which is then upheld by a Supreme Court, half of whom received their position during his father's tenure in the White House, a class war is well and truly going on.

When the pejorative term "entitlements" is consistently wielded as political propaganda aimed at cutting the already-earned benefits of the sick, the poor, and the elderly, a class war is happening.

When fewer youths between 16-29 years of age are employed than at any time since the Great Depression while corporate earnings escalate on a quarterly basis, a class war is happening.

When politicians begin using the term "class war" in an attempt to scare the middle-class into turning against their protester sons and daughters, a class war might very well be in the works.

When a nation is told over and over again to be content with the crumbs trickling down to it, and that it lives in the best of all possible worlds because of a successful revolution which occurred well over two centuries ago, a class war is long overdue.