How can we explain the stunned silence of the crowds when President Obama mentioned the word "peace" in his acceptance speech? Like an abused wife, have we become so accustomed to the control tactics of global domestic abusers that we now see abuse as normal and peace as an impossible dream?
Domestic abuse gone global. It's not just an intimate couple trapped in a cycle of abuse based on power and control, it's all of us in the world. Global domestic abuse. Domestic abuse tactics include:
• Isolation
o Controlling what we do, who we see, who we talk to, what we read, where we go (The Patriot Act and Homeland Security, and their counterparts around the world)
o Limiting our outside involvement (Creating a climate of fear of traveling to unapproved countries such as Cuba, and restrictions of movement for travel and immigration across the US border)
• Male Privilege
o Treating us like a servant (Wage slaves)
o Making all the big decisions (WTO, World Bank, IMF, etc)
o Acting like the King of the Castle (All those experts we are expected to believe)
o Being the one to define men's and women's roles (Women still do not legally have equal rights, and what rights women do have are being challenged every day)
• Economic Abuse
o Preventing us from getting or keeping a job (We've all seen this)
o Making us ask for money (Mortgage applications, car loan applications, Health Insurance applications, Social Aid applications, Student loan applications, Grant applications, etc, etc, etc)
o Not letting us know about or have access to the (global) family income (Rich getting richer and poor getting poorer)
• Emotional Abuse (Turn on the TV and you'll find all of these; hence the epidemic of mood-altering medications and suicides)
o Putting us down (If we're not an expert, our ideas don't count)
o Calling us names (Advertisements that imply "You're ugly, fat, unlovable!" etc, if we don't look like a model)
o Making us think we're crazy (Prozac, Paxil, Ritalin, etc.)
o Making us feel bad about ourselves ("You're a social reject if you don't have the latest iPhone!" or whatever)
o Playing mind games (Too many to list)
o Humiliating us (Airport security)
o Making us feel guilty (Mortgage foreclosures, IMF loans with harsh conditions)
Article comments
1 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
Americans need to consume less, waste less, eat better quality food and pay excess consumption taxes
to make sure that the junk food is taxed literally out of existence. In additon, we need to stay away
from costly foreign entanglements that do little except to fuel more terrorism.
2 - Glenn Contrarian
In the United Kingdom there is a program for abusers to learn how to accept responsibility for their actions and reform their ways.
Whaaaaaat? That's socialist! And communist! And Nazi! And Fascist! Worst of all, that's LIBERAL!!!! How DARE you suggest such a thing! It's our constitutional right to abuse everyone and everything - that's what made America great!
3 - Lynette Yetter, author of 72 Money Saving Tips for the 99%
Glenn Contrarian, thanks for the belly laughs! :D
4 - Igor
This morning I was listening to a talk by a Doctor of "Doctors Without Frontiers" in Africa who was trying to intubate some small babies so he could feed them formula. He looked out the window at acres of green plantings and reflected on the reasons that there was no food from those lush fields for his starving babies. They were guarded by Police: Private Property. The IMF and World Bank had convinced locals to raise cash crops like tea so they could join the cash economy and pay for formula. Of course they had no money so babies starved while tea was grown for the leisure class where they used to grow yams and sweet potatoes and all manner of good food for themselves and their babies.
5 - Lynette Yetter, author of 72 Money Saving Tips for the 99%
Yes, Igor, travesties like this are happening everywhere in our global home. Talking about them, while educating ourselves and others, are first steps to creating a more mutually beneficial future for all. Thank you, Igor.
6 - Lynette Yetter, author of 72 Money Saving Tips for the 99%
Thank you, Dr. Joseph S. Maresca, for your excellent suggestions.