An interesting read...

Avid RightRant reader "David" sent this to me yesterday. I've known him for something like 26 years and he has similar ideas and perspectives about the world to my own. As you'll see, he's also a pretty good writer. Have a look at this essay he wrote about the the world right now and America's role in it...

Divided we fall

As the 1960’s yielded to the 1970’s, Coca-Cola transitioned from its noble motto, “It’s the Real Thing” to the mushy anthem “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” At about the same time, a British musical group, Brotherhood of Man, gained international recognition with the song “United We Stand”. This song reached number 13 in the United States and number 10 in the U.K. I mention this song not because it’s a great song nor am I particularly fond of it but instead because I can still hear them singing the chorus:

For united we stand

Divided we fall

And if our backs should ever be against the wall

We'll be together, together, you and I

And I can still remember the visualization I had when I heard this song as a ten year old child. The image was of a group of people literally lined up against a wall – all standing with their backs against the wall. One by one they would fall as the words “Divided we fall” were sung. The wall was constructed of concrete masonry units (CMU’s) commonly referred to as cinder blocks. The wall was painted light gray, I suppose, so as not to detract from the multiple hues of the skin, clothing, and hair standing in front of it. Maybe I’m cynical having been exposed to too many Coca-Cola commercials as they portrayed their version of hope and the future. While my first glimpse of mushiness was presented pleasantly enough - after all, who doesn’t like Coke – it certainly wasn’t by accident.

The soundtrack for these commercials featured the song “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”. As Bill Backer, the creative director on the Coca-Cola account later wrote, as he sat in a fogged-in airport, about his inspiration in his book The Care and Feeding of Ideas (New York: Times Books/Random House, 1993):

In that moment . . . [I] began to see a bottle of Coca-Cola as more than a
drink. . . . [I] began to see the familiar words, "Let's have a Coke," as . . .
actually a subtle way of saying, "Let's keep each other company for a little
while." And [I] knew they were being said all over the world as [I] sat there in
Ireland. So that was the basic idea: to see Coke not as it was originally
designed to be—a liquid refresher—but as a tiny bit of commonality between all
peoples, a universally liked formula that would help to keep them company for a
few minutes.

Ah the Wonder Bread years; If life were only so simply and the world so benign. To many, this mushiness is seen in their mind’s eye as a groups of friends singing Kumbaya as they toss back a few of the world’s soft drink – “a tiny bit of commonality between all peoples…” - A soft drink providing the warp and weft of peace and harmony.

The rest of the story is omitted. What is not said is Coca-Cola (Coke) and virtually all other soft drinks are chocked full of high fructose corn syrup, a product of heavily subsided corn crops and cheap alternative to sugar. Also there is no mention of soft drinks as a contributor to obesity and the general decline of health in the United States. But soft drinks are not the root cause. No, the root cause 95% of the time is laziness and a lack of self-respect. So now we have Coca-Cola, the “boon” of culture, fueling the political machine through the entanglements of farm subsides, “[keeping] each other company for a little while” (or at least until death), topped with a mushiness so dangerous if left unchecked it will destroy the world.

It is due to this mushiness we find we cannot identify our enemy. It is due to this mushiness we cannot roll back crime in the United States. And it’s because of this mushiness we have 400 channels of television garbage brought into our house. We embrace modern-day “experts” whose only “credence” is derived by their celebrity status while we denounce the true experts and academics in general. Global warming supplants chemistry, physics, and mathematics. People magazine replaces encyclopedias and good old-fashioned reading of fiction or non-fiction. High School sports trump High School academics and special education is always for those who need help catching up!

There is hope. A segment, a minority of the population is hearty enough to ward off the mushiness of the world. But this dichotomy, the hearty and the rest, create a seam, a division in the world. And this division is the front line of the war against mushiness. On one side there are the victims of mushiness (some unwittingly) and those that use mushiness to promote their world view. Currently the latter are referred to as terrorists but could just as easily be the next rogue super power or hegemon wannabe.

Lining up on the other side are those that value freedom, understand responsibility and the true price of peace. They do not fall prey to the bait-and-switch pricing technique of appeasement. They are not indifferent or lazy for they have the most difficult but noble job. Their job requires a bifurcated use of resources to simultaneously defeat the agents of mushiness while enlightening the victims of mushiness. Eliminate the former; reclaim the latter to create a united nation. We must stand united against mushiness or it will be used against us to destroy the world.


For united we stand

Divided we fall

And [] our backs [are] against the wall [!]

We'll be together [?], together, you and I [?]

Feel free to leave comments for David if you have them. I'm sure he would appreciate your feedback.