Throughout history, shared mindsets have brought people from different backgrounds, countries and belief systems together. In many ways, the kind of cooperation that comes from a shared goal is how we as a species have moved forward. In the same breath, it must be noted that shared beliefs among those who seek to do harm often lead to coalitions that leave a trail of destruction in their wake. We've seen it in countless holy and ideology wars throughout history.
Today, we face a new ideological threat that stems not from as racial or religious superiority, but from self-interest. The newest threat to mankind resides within every single one of us and unites people in the interest of self-interest.
It is greed, and it flourishes in the society that we have built and the paradigm that we've created in the corporations that we allow to grow in immense size and power. If you need proof of this, look no further than our president. Before any political ideas or "outsider" rhetoric, he was simply the shady businessman who we all recognized as the loud, arrogant symbol of narcissistic excess.
He is the ultimate Manchurian candidate. He isn't a secret emissary to a different political party. In fact, the group he represents is the unfettered American business. He puts the value of a dollar above that of the people he is supposed to represent and refuses to let ecological, fair international trade and the little guy in business from stopping the oil-fueled American greed machine. He is the ultimate double agent because the group that he serves are the people who make their fortune on the backs and at the expense of others.
If you need proof, look at the legislation that has been passed during his year in office. He has allowed the privatization of the internet, scaled back national parks so that companies can lease the land and drill for oil, cut back the EPA to it's barest form, and passed tax bills that favor corporations and the CEO's who head them. He espouses inexplicably effective euphuisms to a group that is predominantly under the thumb of the corporations he seeks to help, yet they believe he is their champion.
This man is not doing the things he does because he is trying to help the people. I don't believe that he is actively trying to sabotage this country, and maybe he truly does think that benefiting the rich will trickle down to the everyday man in some weird modern incarnation of Reaganomics. Maybe in his own mind, corporations and people go hand in hand, but if you look at history, when the government puts the well being of business over people, it never really benefits anyone but those at the top.
The best case scenario is that he is a well-intentioned man who simply strayed along the way, being brainwashed by his own greed and drive, doing what he thinks is right with his clouded mind. But the more likely scenario is that he saw an opportunity for power to change the country to benefit people like him. His greed is a parasite that has taken control and he has become a puppet to it. And we the audience, are watching this puppet show unfold in the White House, complacently hoping that he will make America great again.
