Oil, gold, agriculture, aerospace technology, computer technology, and the entertainment business are just a few of many industries that contribute to the State of California’s rank among the top ten most prosperous nations in the world. It counts for 13% of America’s GDP and contributes $100 billion in taxes annually. It is the most populous state in the union and is home to a magnificent diversity of culture, wildlife and landscape.
California, since it became the last stop on the American frontier boasts of plenty, enabling thousands of industrious immigrants to create a better life for themselves and their successors. But as with all things, the Golden State has an easily neglected shadow.
Since American corporations have monopolized the American Dream, the promise of a decent life for the rank and file is further away than ever. Companies feed the masses, catering to groups rather than to individuals. By marketing products to children, conglomerates appeal to families, whereby a wholesome image is born. While their innocent offspring have lured adults to McDonalds and Disney’s land of make-believe, the United States has turned into a seething monster reviled around the world.
The Hollywood machine has blurred the line between fantasy and reality by perpetuating the myth of the easy life often defended by superheroes on screen. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, epitomizes the link between the fantastic stories depicted in movies and their powerful influence on reality. Doom and gloom threaten everyone; even exceedingly wealthy people are discouraged by what might lie ahead. One thing unites us however, and supposedly all we need to fight our common enemies is America’s superhero, the military industrial complex.
Americans have allowed themselves to be misled by junk created for the purpose of making money. Numerous businesses are cajoling us away from the values that were once the lifeblood of our forebears. The hope of the new world is being sabotaged by an addiction to money and mindlessness. People are so confused and desensitized by clever marketing campaigns they are seldom able to refrain from choosing the very things that are making them miserable. An excess of dubious propaganda including corporate sponsorship in schools is training new generations of Americans to be helpless against it.
The prospect of reeducating oneself and changing one’s wont may be construed as futile or undesired depending on how you view the current state of affairs. Time has surely proven that the planet can outdo us all and human fortitude pales in comparison to mother earth. Fighting a cultural war at home might seem like an arduous task better suited for soldiers in Iraq, but a soda and a trip to the movies do not pacify the vision of a future dominated by corporate-sponsored marvels of chemical, biological and technological engineering. Assessing the by-product of our business practices may well give us some control over our destiny, but at this rate the only choice awaiting us will be Coke or Pepsi.
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