Ronald de Torre

Illusionists, Elitists, and Shamans Ronald de Torre

In a sense, any story of fiction is an alternate-universe story. This is a work of fiction. Picture the United States where the income gap equals the gap experienced before the Great Depression in the era of Robber Barons, where the top 1% incomes tripled while the remainder of citizens' incomes averaged an increase only 1/6th of that: where that same 1%, for the sake of stock market shares, has sent production to foreign countries that ignore employee safety or contaminated working conditions, while blaming unionism, workplace, and environmental regulations for the loss. It is a country where national treasures and park lands are callously sold to developers. In George Orwell's nightmare vision from the novel, 1984, its New Speak says: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is strength. In this America, thanks to labelers and spin doctors: Common courtesy and respect is Political Correctness, Protection of Constitutional rights is Big Government, Tax breaks for the wealthy are Tax Reform, The highest income 1% is Middle Class, Hypocrisy and Paranoia disguise themselves as Patriotism, Outlawing union protection is the Right to Work, Inconvenient Truth is Humanist Hysteria, And Destruction of Innocent Lives is Collateral Damage. It is a country where quality of health care is dictated by business expediency, and homeless camps are reminiscent of the hobo camps of the 1930s. It is a country where it is forbidden for federal agencies to use words objectionable to campaign contributors. The FBI has been instructed to end investigations of white supremacists while Muslims, Latinos, and any minority that dares protest injustice are demonized as the Jews and Poles were by Nazi Germany. It is a country where people make God in their own image, not the other way around. This is an alternate universe story. O