The world is filled today with stories and images of a man, bloodied, forcibly removed from a loaded airplane. Did he commit a crime? No. Was he a suspect? No. As it turned out the united airlines needed room for some o its own employees to get on board. The man was a nothing in their book. He was a thing. A unit. And that is why in our era of oligarchy, Donald Trump and corporate domination, we have a problem that cannot be solved without a massive shift in the way we think about who we are, what we want and what we can do to get it.

United Airlines is typical

United Airlines is one of perhaps 1000 corporations we call multinational. Many of them are too big to fail. Most of them live to pay their stockholders by means of growing more and more. These are the entities that Donald Trump has promised to love and serve in a bargain that we should have seen coming. The New York Times today speaks of a concierge culture in which the rich essentially pay to avoid the hassle corporations make the standard with everyone else.

Donald Trump is exemplary

Donald Trump is a splendid example of this careless and inhuman approach of corporations. It is built into the very design of society which Donald Trump has been part of creating. It turns everything that is not high end and luxury into the lowest common denominator, whether we are talking food, lodging or travel.

Sometimes you notice. Most times you don't. When you have a con artist oligarch-in-chief telling you everything is just great, you believe it, but only to a point.

Oligarchy avoids it all

An Alternet headline sums it upl. "We have all won an Oligarchy and lost a democracy." Thom Hartmann notes that mainstream TV helps us to ignore the massive gap between those with no debt and money to spare and the rest of us.

If you think oligarchy does not affect us, Hartmamn reminds us that Donald Trump's victory was a huge win for Citizens United and that it could well result in the loss of federal funds for public schools. This is bigger than United Airlines. When they dragged the man off the plane they were saying everything. If you ride first, you don't even have to know what is going on in coach.

Cybercomunities are democratic, tolerant and helpful

Cybercommunities are an idea fifty years in the making of a society that honors a fair profit motive, educates everyone equally and makes living with debt unnecessary. All this because instead of a car, oil, or sprawl economy that is doomed, we say no to Donald Trump, no to oligarchy and no to United Airlines. We say yes instead to a new society based on tolerance, democracy, and helpfulness.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED