Dana Point, CA -- America is in real trouble, but you won't see that reality reflected in the daily news. All the pundits and "experts" are busy interpreting all the signs, telling us how to think, but not one of them will concede that the institutions that they love so much have failed and are collapsing. The general public is smarter than most of the "experts," because at least it is aware that the society is undergoing deep changes; but unlike the pundits, the public does not have a vested interest in perpetuating the institutions that give the "experts" status and security.

As the U.S. has tried to export its brand of "democracy" to Eastern Europe, and the new republics that were born from the defunct Soviet Union (along with the corporate presence that defines American power), the intellectual elite of the Beltway Culture of Washington, D.C. began to recognize that American society was not in as great a shape as they had believed. The fact that few of them have ever ventured out of the District of Columbia long enough to experience life as it is for the vast majority of Americans, didn't stop them from proposing "solutions" to the collapse of American society.

The so-called "communitarian movement" had its genesis in the late 1980s when George Washington University sociology professor Amitai Etzioni started calling for a return to politeness in American civic life. While tin-cup "political centrists" elevated Etzioni to the status of a cult figure, few people actually appeared to understand the root causes of the decline of civility. As an example, Penn President Judith Rodin said,"...We are grappling with some of the same issues our nation's founding father's did." Yet the issues the founder's confronted basically centered on protecting their property with police, and suppressing slave revolts, the DREAD of which permeated early American society, which most of its institutions -- which are still with us today -- were designed to address.

The answers and solutions offered by the so-called "communitarians" amount to starting new organizations and applying for foundation funding, none of which represents anything concrete in the way of brainstorming the causes of the collapse of our society. The "solutions" they DO offer all consist of the same old tired "answers" of training the poor how to apply for jobs, and convincing corporations that there is an untapped labor market in the inner cities. The idea that the only problem facing the poor is their inability to manage money is a slap in the face to a whole class of people who work hard for wages, the value of which the government and corporations have destroyed through inflation, and their open willingness to exploit the powerless using legislation and political influence. The "communitarians," of course, derive from the leadership of this corrupt system, and they are more interested in securing salaried positions with benefits than in performing any genuine studies into the decline of the country. This becomes really self-evident when we look at the list of new institutions being set up and funded, and the dazzling luminaries who will get paid from these funds for their "dedication" to the community. The mere fact that none of these people love America enough to offer their services pro bono should give the more intelligent cause for pause.

New "commissions" are being "born" at the rate of one a week. Suddenly, out of the blue, these new bureaucracies are sponsoring a flood of conferences, studies and books. The propaganda- oriented mass media is acclaiming this ridiculous last-ditch effort to save a political system in its death throes, and the elite are convinced that as long as they deny reality, they can pass off their tired and wasteful "solutions" yet again, and no one will notice their ineffectiveness.

The idea that what America needs is new organizations betrays the superficiality of the whole "communitarian movement." The latest organization to be set up is the Boston-based Institute for Civil Society, which has already qualified for a $35 million grant from an anonymous donor. Charities serving the poor -- homeless shelters, soup kitchens and free clinics -- can barely keep their doors open, yet a NEW group that is a useless "think tank" has secured for itself a small fortune! Of course, there are no strings attached (or are there?). Former Representative Pat Schroeder will draw her salary from the Institute for Civil Society.

The Pew Charitable Trusts has set aside $14 million for "work on issues of renewing democratic life in the United States." But it never dawns on anyone that the causes of American social tensions derive from the stark lack of a real democratic political or social system, and the dominance of a caste system the media spends most of its air time denying the existence of.

Retiring Senator Sam Nunn will show his patriotism by joining Virtues Czar Bill Bennett in launching the National Commission on Civic Renewal. Bill Bennett also set up the lackluster organization "Empower America," which was little more than a soapbox for Bennett to push his Catholic values on all Americans under the guise of "virtues." The fact that Empower America has been an utter failure has not stopped Bennett from pushing forward with the creation of this new organization, which undoubtedly will be financed by the same shadey corporate forces that guarantee that this new National Commission will generate a mountain of paperwork, but nothing that might challenge the status quo.

Not to be outdone, another retiring Senator, Bill Bradley, recently launched the National Commission on Society, Culture and Community, sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania. Of course, all the major universities are heavily dependent upon donations and grants from corporate sources, which has always guaranteed the outcome of all the studies the legions of tenured professors generate.

In an almost pathetic gesture the Pew Foundation will spend $700,000.00 sponsoring a "bi- partisan" retreat for House lawmakers to contemplate the lack of good manners on the floor of that institution. Yet no one seemed to notice how well the Democrats and the Republicans came to embrace the ideal of bi-partisan collusion when it came time to shut out Ross Perot, or any of the other third-party candidates, from the 1996 Presidential debates. The fact that the Democrats and the Republicans have operated the United States Government under a corrupt symbiotic relationship since the Civil War goes right over the heads of most Americans, who don't realize that the rivalry of the two parties is just for show, and "bi-partisanship" is supposed to make politicians appear "noble."

Even the "venerable" Brookings Institution is looking to cash in on the civic renewal hustle. To look at it from another angle, in a 1995 article by Harvard University sociologist Robert Putnam entitled "Bowling Alone," he chronicled the demise of American membership in civic and fraternal organizations ranging from the Rotary Club to the bowling leagues; of course, this same brilliant scholar failed to notice that the same causes probably led to the decline of such wretched membership organizations as the Ku Klux Klan. The idea that the Rotary Club or the PTA somehow embody community values exposes the truly bankrupt nature of the kind of community Americans have had to rely on since the founding fathers set up their garrison state of a republic.

Never does the issue arise of the 1.8 million Americans now in jail and prison, many for "moral" crimes that represent the real tyranny of the U.S. political system, and the corruption of the law enforcement and justice systems. Not once is it ever mentioned that America has more police than most banana republics, and that the law enforcement institutions virtually run the country, and define the political debates. It is never, EVER discussed that this political system virtually annihilated the native population through the original version of "ethnic cleansing" and genocide, or that the entire Hispanic American population was conquored, and treated as second-class colonial subjects for over a century. The issue of slavery is NEVER raised, even though the liberation of the slaves didn't include any compensation, even though they had been suppressed for centuries through legalized terrorism and murder.

Of course, for the billions we spend on the school system, we should realize that the illiteracy of the average American is according to plan (approx. 117 million Americans cannot read above the 8th grade reading level). Additionally, the media's reluctance to rise above an innane programming menu is designed to distract the masses from their misery. The fact that the institutions that have harnessed them -- and that work them into early graves -- realize that the System is breaking down, to the point that they are hurriedly funding "think tanks" and commissions, should give us all hope, because it means that even the tyrants recognize that the day is coming when Americans will be ready to throw off their chains, and begin living their lives for their own purposes.

(CNS, 12/20/96)