How Far
we Have Fallen as a Nation, as a Culture for
That Matter
By Philip
Farruggio
February 24, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- A must see
movie for all Americans is “Inherit the Wind”
(1960, Stanley Kramer, Director). To those who
never saw this film, it accurately portrays the
1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton,
Tennessee. The trial of substitute high school
teacher John Scopes was for breaking
Tennessee’s Butler Act, which forbade the
teaching of evolution in state-funded schools.
In a nutshell, the film had many levels to it in
addition to the story line of questioning the
legality of such a law. What really
frightened this writer, and yes, frightened
is the proper word to use, is how 92 years later
America has not (to use the apropos word)
evolved at all!
In the
film we are made to look at Dayton, Tennessee
(renamed Hillsboro for the film) and its
inhabitants. This was deep in the Bible Belt and
most of the townspeople reflected it, excepting
the very few who did not subscribe exactly
to fundamentalist Christianity. That
minority was looked upon as heathens and godless
outcasts. Satan was deemed to be alive and well
in the hearts and minds, and yes, the very
souls of anyone anywhere who
refused to go along with this Old Time
Religion. We could see and hear the
townspeople marching and singing that song as
they first welcomed Mathew Harrison Brady; and
later when they burned schoolteacher Bertram
Cates in effigy. This fanaticism was furthermore
reflected in the person of Mathew Harrison Brady
(portraying William Jennings Bryan, and played
brilliantly by Frederic March) as their
‘spiritual savior’ and lead prosecutor in the
trial . He was transformed through the
townspeople’s childlike adoration of him into
almost a godlike and all knowing
savior. Brady had come and he would damn the
sinner and transgressor Cates for all his
blasphemous garbage about Darwin and evolution.
Brady’s adversary in this quest for God’s glory
was Henry Drummond , Chicago activist attorney,
self-proclaimed agnostic and Brady’s longtime
friend and political supporter (played by
Academy Award nominee Spencer Tracy).They did
battle in the courtroom for more than just John
Scopes or evolution itself. They were battling
for what was really on trial in Dayton,
Tennessee: The right of someone to think and
reason for oneself! Keep in mind that the
Inherit the Wind novel was written a
mere seven years after that disgraceful era
called McCarthyism, a time all of us
should revisit and study.
Look
how far we have actually fallen as a nation, as
a culture for that matter. We have a president
who used Muslim and Mexican bashing to help him
recruit supporters. His VP is a far right wing
evangelical fanatic, worse even than Trump when
it comes to trumpeting pre-emptive war against
the Muslims. Millions of Amerikans either belong
to or agree with this phony Tea Party adoration
that mirrors the ‘America First’ and fascist
leaning movements of the 1930s. These people
have learned ZERO from our disgraceful and
illegal pre-emptive invasions and occupations of
Afghanistan and Iraq, or our destructive carpet
bombing of Libya. Just as the crazy Islamic
State thinks that God is theirs and theirs
alone, so do the right-wing Christians (and
Zionist Jews of Israel and Amerika) think the
same about the God they have decided to worship.
Utter insanity!
Where
does hypocrisy fit into all this? Well, we know
that the far right wing, which is the Republican
Party, is full of hypocrites. The
Chickenhawks are most evident, made up of
A) All those men who supported and trumpeted the
Vietnam War, yet refused to go and serve there
and B) All those men, and yes now women too, who
were of age to join up for Iraq War 1 and Iraq
War 2 and chose to stay home, but were full of
“USA USA” bluster. They spend their time,
especially those in elected office, railing
against what they call ‘entitlements’ and keep
voting to increase this obscene military
spending (now over 50% of our taxes). They have
the nerve to complain about Obama Care
as socialism, when it really was a complete
sellout to private health insurers; yet
they have their own top grade and free
socialist health coverage that our taxes
pay for… even after they leave office!
|
Break
Free From The Matrix
|
The
other side of this hypocrisy is of course the
center/right wing of the Two Party system, the
Democrats. This group likes to tell us how they
‘Feel your pain etc ‘ and then go along with the
Military Industrial Complex. Under
their ‘savior’, Mr. Obama, military spending
topped 56% of our taxes in 2011. The
Democrats supported Obama’s 10 times increase
in drone missile attacks, his NATO-led
destruction of Libya and continuation of our
over 1000 permanent military bases in over 100
countries! Just as the Bush/Cheney gang was
responsible for tens of thousands of civilian
deaths through bombing and missile attacks,
Obama and the Democrats signed off, and continue
to sign off on such horror. The Democrats agreed
with Obama’s decision to continue the
Bush/Cheney bailout of the crooked Wall Street
crowd, which we taxpayers will be paying off for
generations!
Watching Inherit The Wind should allow
you to see how rigid and foolish many of our
fellow citizens still are. Just yesterday our
new president had a rally in Melbourne, Florida.
The first plan in his agenda was for his wife to
lead the mob in prayer. No, they did
not sing “Old Time Religion” but could easily
have. Then, Mr. Trump had this ‘ ramped up ‘
supporter of his, another ‘Joe the Plumber’
type, Gene Huber, recite his love and
adoration for his president, wearing (I kid
you not) a black tee shirt (Hitler’s
National Socialist color of choice) with the
words ‘President Donald Trump’. Melbourne
was transformed into Hillsboro, Tennessee for
the afternoon. Thus a warning to those of us
who ‘know better’: If we do not stand up and
protest this fanaticism… “He
that troubleth his own house will inherit the
wind, and the fool shall be servant to the wise
in heart.”
Philip
A Farruggio is son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC
longshoremen. A graduate of Brooklyn College (
class of '74 with a BA in Speech & Theater), he
is a free lance columnist posted on World News
Trust, Nation of Change Blog, Op Ed
News,TheSleuthJournal.com, The Intrepid Report,
Information Clearing House, Dandelion Salad,
Activist Post, Dissident Voice, Counterpunch and
many other sites worldwide. Philip works as an
environmental products sales rep and has been a
street corner protest activist leader and Green
Party member since 2000. In 2010 he became a
local spokesperson for the 25% Solution Movement
to Save Our Cities by cutting military spending
25%. Philip can be reached at PAF1222@bellsouth.net
