Eugene Weekly : Viewpoint : 2.25.10

Supreme Insult
Our level playing field has been bulldozed again
By Mark Koenig

It seems daily another crisis competes for our attention: Climate change, inflation, immigration, health care, crime, peak oil. It’s so overwhelming “We the People” sometimes miss a Supreme Insult. 

I suggest we start by recognizing our own. No, this is not another diatribe against liberals, rednecks, Mexicans, lesbians, Iranians, or any other REAL people. No, this time, the wackos got it right. There really are aliens taking over!

To explain I’ll have to take you back to the American Revolution. One of the many myths about the early colonists is that of the “rugged individualist.” You won’t find this in high school history books, but truth is, most American colonies were high-stakes wagers that could return 10,000 percent or bust. The “absentee owners” drove the local indentured to produce windfall profits for the wealthy aristocracy back in Europe. It got so bad that these hard working Americans decided it was better to fight “the owners” than continue the financial slavery. 

A government of the people, by the people and for the people was created. It was a revolutionary rejection of the owners exploiting the working man. Amazingly, it worked! This nation and her people grew and prospered like no other. Then we the people created the Bill of Rights to legally protect us: the people. But never does the interests of the owning aristocracy rest. Fast-forward to 1886 when the Supreme Court in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad ruled that corporations are “legal persons” just like us. 

Now rethink what “we the people” means when we’re Cuisinarted together with the likes of Monsanto, Halliburton, and Exxon. Then strike two: the legal fiction is given limited liability (meaning no responsibility for acts) and immortality (meaning continuous growth). Then strike three: give the 1ž4 percent controlling 80 percent of our national wealth the legal right to go shopping for legislators! It’s the Wild West deja vous. 

While humble people strive to pursue necessities, corporations accelerate 24/7 purchasing legislation, relentlessly gaining force and power like the Mississippi over flood-stage rolling across the Iowa corn-belt. Hiring the best psychologists and media men, they slice and dice “we the people” into smaller and smaller chunks and feed us endless reasons to fight each other. Its keeps us too busy to notice the real cause of our anger. 

Strange, I’m a pacifist but I support most of Ron Paul’s platform, especially closing our government’s pimp, the Federal Reserve (which is neither federal, or a reserve). I’m attracted to the revolutionary neo-tea-partyers, but way too many are just droids acting out violent Pavlovian responses trickled-down from their invisible RNC think-tankers. 

Have you been paying attention out there? The real people have come full circle from indentured colonists to indentured suburbanites! We are, today, the debt-ridden unemployed seeking to be free of the ruling aristocracy. No offense guys, but we just can’t bare all the dead weight. Then the Supreme Court weighs in clearing the way for Walmart to run for president, Communist China to purchase our senators with pocket change, and the Taliban to purchase U.S. representatives out of opium profits. This is just the next move not unlike the famous Enron/Davis gambit, or 911 paradigm shift in the greatest chess game of all.

America’s level playing field has been bulldozed and the bullies run rampant on the playground. These gang-bangers are not responsible for what they do, or the harm they cause. They have more power than our government and are busy sucking up the world’s natural and human resources unto themselves. Any kindergarten teacher worth her salt knows how to deal with playground bullies.

Only after “we the (real) people” wake up and stop fighting each other, can we start reclaiming what our founding mothers and fathers fought and died for. Please take a look at

Mark Koenig, aka QuestionMark, is a Eugene entrepreneur, board game designer and children’s book author.