The shops in Mid-town Los Angeles were buzzing today.
As I sat on the bus I looked out at all the people and cars that filled the sunny streets outside the shopping center. I rejoiced. “Ah, the U.S. economy is doing well,” I smiled to myself. This post-Christmas shopping rush will boost the economy. I felt happy, pleased.
Yet much of this business, this cash flow, this money train was headed to the overflowing coffers of the 1%. Not to me. Not you either. (Most likely you’re not in the 1% either, like 99% likely you’re not in the 1%)
The money goes to the rich. The rich get richer. The poor get more action movies.
Yet, there I was, and here I still am, sitting on the bus looking out at the busy human spectacle, happy for the economy.
Happy for them. Happy for the rich 1%.
Now that’s control.
To conclude this week’s As I Sat On The Bus entry, here’s a quote
A Bumbastories confession: I watch CSPAN. A lot of people think that’s weird. Aside from the basketball and baseball games, I watch the news. CSPAN is the best. There are no commercials! The congressional hearings, interviews, book reviews, and news shows that CSPAN so excellently covers are simply interesting to watch. It’s important to me to be informed and to receive my news from unbiased- dare I say the word? – objective sources. I realize that this interest in politics is out of fashion. Most people try to avoid the politics. It makes them angry and it’s just too depressing, they say.
And that is quite true. It is depressing and the first instinct is to avoid it. As a result, most people aren’t very particular, and usually rely on network/corporate media for their news. They are fed a lot of pulp and stuff that is designed to arouse them emotionally. Their anger is stoked in order to keep them watching. Talk radio is completely an anger-based medium. TV exploits anger too. I don’t think it’s any great evil plot; the TV stations just want to keep you watching. People are angry. They wish they could change the current political system but think it’s impossible. They’ve given up. They distrust government and they take little political action. Most people don’t want to be more informed. They’ve heard enough.
How much of this attitude is the result of deliberate brainwashing? Well, Ronald Reagan achieved tremendous political success by telling people, the doped-up American citizenry, that their government was their enemy. Amazingly, that line still seems to work very well – together with an entertainment-first approach. The current communications matrix of ubiquitous links and continuous noise is an ideal brainwashing machine, is it not? We are fed so much useless information, we are swamped with so much gossip and nonsense that we miss the real story, the big picture. It works out well for the powers that be. Ah, but who are the “powers that be” exactly?
Well, Bumba is here to set you straight. I’ve Got the News. I’ve recorded it again. Changed the lyrics a bit. If you want to listen go ahead, click on the arrow. I present the lyrics so you can help me out, sing along. Perhaps you can add your own track to it. News
Blame Marina Kanavaki for encouraging me, but here’s another stab at the song I did yesterday. I hope “stab” wasn’t too graphic a depiction. I’m still working on it. But this time I added another track of piano. So click to hear a train on two tracks, which sounds quite proper, a train on two tracks, but it isn’t. Huh??. The song is about the machine, the system, the corporate web of intrigue that has so stupefied people for so long. So the song says “Wake up, people, the train already run through your town” I think everybody knows that, as there’s such dissatisfaction with the political system(s), at least in the US – and, I think, nearly everywhere in the world. The political systems are overwhelmed, corrupted by the power of wealthy interests. What are the people to do?
The last verse isn’t quite clear in the recording
I got the news/Riding the bus this morning
It happened right in front of my eyes
And I tell you, buddy, there was no warning
Hey, the train. It run through your town.
And, as I said to Marina, such a description of the current political landscape certainly does put people in a corner, a hard situation. But seeing the truth, seeing events plainly and accurately is a good way to begin the long journey back home.
This is a political song. I’m still working on it. The train coming through your town refers to the great iron wheel, the military-industrial complex, the cartels, the monopolistic, monolithic machine. The corporate image, The lobbyists. The way things work nowadays, the telemarketing, the networked approach, the billing. The fear on the airwaves, the monotony of it. It’s rolled across our towns all over the world this train has.
Well you know how it looks….
It’s not the most optimistic of songs I’ve ever written, but it was playing in my mind for days and I recorded it yesterday. It’s a work in progress and I’d appreciate comments.
The shops in Mid-town Los Angeles were buzzing today.
An Occasional Story or Magazine 