Crabs Clawing at Each Other; Disregarding the Barrel that Cages US
Written by Teodrose Fikre, June 28, 2017
Outrage! Yet another outrage! Society keeps getting whipped into a lather until we reach a crescendo only for the rage du jour to fade into a morendo. Every day, the news leads off with the new scandal that is peddled as an affront to humanity; the Corporate State Media using outrage as a business model and a way to maximize profits. We, the people, take the catnip and get worked up as the innumerable grievance groups throughout America are programmed to react with anger and exasperation. This is how the powerful toy with us and make us accept injustice as norm—when everything is an outrage, nothing is an outrage by extension.
The reason that a tiny sliver of humanity, let’s call them the oligarchy, are able to lord over the vast sea of humanity is because they are smarter and more cunning than us. The oligarchy act; we react—this is why we stay colonized and defeated by the moneyed gentry. People who are led by emotions and lose all the time to those who lead with scientific and cold calculated logic. I ruefully chuckle each time I read or hear someone say they are “woke” while they revert to the very tactic of anger and antipathy that is the very source of the system the woke denizen are fighting.
It’s sad watching all this unfold as the powerful unleash the playbook of divide and conquer and then sit back and laugh at us while we bicker among ourselves. The crabs claw at each other instead of clawing at the barrel of injustice, victims attack other victims and make a mockery of justice. Right versus left, black versus white, man versus woman—all upset and up in arms over the very same issues for the core of societal iniquities is economic injustice. What hobbles the masses in Chicago is the same injustice that kneecaps the commoners in Boise. What robs from “black” folk in the ghettos is the same thief that steals from “white” folk in the Appalachians. But we are so conditioned to see labels that we end up missing the forest for the tree branch.
Do you think your political heroes and pundit actually care about you? Breaking news! They don’t give two shits about you. They are just treading on your pains and using your suffering in order to book their next segment on Fox News, CNN or MSNBC. Grievance peddling, race cards and screaming victim is a cash cow for those smart enough to game the system in order to become spokespersons for the sheep they are speaking for. I’m talking about people like Van Jones, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Rachel Maddow et al who slither their tongues in order to inflame the passions of the easily moved and unthinking herd. They speak for us as they step on us yet most worship these boobs as prophets.
I met Al Sharpton once in 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina during the Democratic National Convention. This was right around the time I was beginning to wake up and slowly coming to the realization that Barack Obama was nothing more than an overseer of the system who was sold to us as a change agent. But I was not yet ready to disconnect from the Matrix and admit that I was duped by the oligarchy to vote for a snake who was selected to give cover to the very status quo he ran against. When I left Spectrum Center after hearing the sexual hyper predator Bill Clinton quote the bible to endorse Obama, I walked over to a DNC after party. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sharpton and decided to say hello. This man was walking around like royalty and could not be bothered to talk to us lowly laypeople.
Sharpton is no different than the rest of the pricks in expensive suits who pretend to be speaking for us as they nibble their foie gras and sip their Chateau Lafite behind ivory towers. They go injustice hunting because finding the new outrage of the day is the way these demagogues profit. The rest of us react as the cold body of a man shot by the police, a rape victim or the cadaver of a woman killed by someone who does not resemble us is used as a billboard to feign concern and indignation. Sound and fury all signifying nothing, withing 24 hours the victim is forgotten as the demagogues take to a new injustice and we take to new hashtags.
One of these days we will wake up and stop playing Parcheesi while the oligarchs use us as pawns as they use the globe to play planetary chess. Until that day arrives, it will be nothing but outrage, outrage outrage! This is how true outrage is made irrelevant as a never ending stream of injustice chasing marginalizes and hides the true face and source of inequity. As long as we are reacting with anger, we will never be able to dig at the root of injustice that is bleeding hope from all of us regardless of the labels we call ourselves. We will eventually understand that the demagogues who are promoted to peddle grievance and keep pushing upon us the spirit of victimization were the barrels all along that kept us—I hope this day arrives before boiling water becomes our collective edification. #ClawingCrabs
“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
If you appreciate the message behind this write up and you refuse to play the grab and want instead to take on the barrel that keeps us, share this article on social media using #ClawingCrabs
Check out the Ghion Cast below where I discuss on video how we, the people, can unite to take on the powerful using the story of the Battle of Adwa to connect the struggles and hopes of humanity.
Teodrose Fikre
Teodrose was born in Ethiopia the same year Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by the communist Derg junta. The great grandson five generations removed of Atse (emperor) Tewodros Kassa II, the greatest king of Ethiopia, Teodrose is clearly influenced by the history and his connection to Ethiopia. Through his experiences growing up as first generation refugee in America, Teodrose writes poignantly about the universal experiences of joys, pains and a hope for a better tomorrow that binds all of humanity.
Teodrose has written extensively about the intersection of politics, economic policies, identity, and history. He is the author of "Serendipity's Trace" and newly released "Soul to Soil", two works that inspect the ways we are dissected as a people and shows how we can overcome injustice through the inclusive vision of togetherness.
Latest posts by Teodrose Fikre (see all)
- Conundrum: Making a Difference Without Monetizing Injustice - September 8, 2017
- History to Hysteria: Politics Hoodwinking US - September 7, 2017
- Authentic Lee: Unredacted and Speaking Truth Without Pander - September 6, 2017
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