Bill Moyers: A Parable For Our Times( "axis of corruption" )

[RedEarth]

A Parable For Our Times
Bill Moyers
December 22, 2006
Bill Moyers is president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy. The center's senior fellow, Lew Daly, was his accomplice in this essay, written exclusively for TomPaine.com.

The Christian story begins simply: A child is born. He grows up to be a teacher, sage, healer and prophet. He gains a large following. To many he is a divine savior; to the rich and powerful he is an enemy. They put him to death in brutal fashion, befitting his humble beginnings in peasant Galilee and his birth in a stall thick with the raw odor of animals.

.......

When he finished the story, Jesus asked the people what the owner of the vineyard will do when he comes back. “He will kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others,” Jesus tells them. In the Gospel of Matthew, the people themselves answered: “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

Political dynasties fall from negligent stewardship. Think of the upward redistribution called “tax relief”; of the Iraq invasion sold as critical to the “War on Terror;" of rising poverty, inequality, crime, debt, and foreclosure as America spews its bounty on war and a military so muscle bound it is like Gulliver. Think of how far our business and political overlords have deviated from the covenant of equal opportunity and shared prosperity. It would be hard to imagine a more catastrophic failure of stewardship, certainly in the biblical sense of helping the poor and allocating resources for the health of society.

• • •

The story is told of the devil and a companion walking along a city street. The companion saw a man reach down and pick up the truth from the sidewalk. "You're finished," the companion said to the devil. "What do you mean—I'm finished?" the devil asked. "I just saw that man pick up the truth from the street, and that means you are finished." The devil smiled and answered, "Don't worry. He's a human, and in l5 minutes he will have turned the truth into a concept that no one will understand." From theories stubbornly pursued in defiance of truth on the street comes ruin.

............

Political dynasties fall from negligent stewardship. One thinks of the upward redistribution called "tax relief"; of the Iraq invasion sold as critical to the "War on Terror"; of rising poverty, inequality, crime, debt, and foreclosure as America spews its bounty on war and a military so muscle-bound it is like Gulliver. It would be hard to imagine a more catastrophic failure of stewardship, certainly in the biblical sense of helping the poor and allocating resources for the health of society. Once upon a time these errant stewards boasted of restoring a culture of integrity to politics. They became instead an axis of corruption, joining corporate power to political ideology to religious self-righteousness.

http://www.tompaine.com/print/a_parable_for_our_times.php

[JohnnyLib2]

1. Help, I need Cliff's Notes.

But he certainly follows the conservative descent into Rovian hell thoroughly!