So you’re shocked about the looting that’s accompanied the peaceful Black Lives Matter protests that have swamped the entirety of America these past few days?

You’ve watched in amazement as retail stores large and small are broken open and stripped bare—not a cop in sight.

You’ve hit Twitter, Instagram and Facebook with your disdain and wonder. It’s terrible you say, nothing like you’ve seen before. You call them thugs and animals as you make your way back to the fridge for another bite while an advert plays on Sky, CNN and Fox.

Where have you been?

There is absolutely no difference here to a hedge fund flash-trading on Wall Street, a multinational corporation siphoning small business handouts from the government, or a politician lying while corrupt.

What shocks me more, particularly in America, is that middle-class onlookers of the recent looting have hidden their heads in the sand till now, from the reality that their society today is largely selfish, brazen and without dreams.

As if an opioid crisis, domestic violence, medical scepticism, child exploitation, seniors’ abuse, charismatic religion, racism, political injustice, and prostitution of the network news weren’t sufficient clues all along.

Welcome to Greed Inc.—at a corner near you. “The global franchise where the only Heaven is on Earth.” ™

Doesn’t this piss me off?

Of course, it does.

From the corruption of religion I witnessed yesterday at the hands of Donald Trump, brutalising citizens who were expressing their First Amendment Right of Free Speech, so he could clear the way to a church and hold a bible. I’m sure his savant of a political adviser told him what a great opportunity it was, to shore up the Right-Wing Religious vote and prove to America that he was a conqueror albeit of Lafayette Park Washington, DC.

Let me assure you Mr. President. If the squirrels are still there—you conquered nothing.

To the corruption of religion I saw at a White House multi-faith prayer breakfast some months back, where Kenneth Copeland prayed for Trump’s success side-by-side with reverends, a rabbi and an imam. Copeland would then go on YouTube declaring himself “God”, and commanding that Covid-19 “be gone!”

To the daily lies of politicians worldwide who refuse to admit their errors and malfeasances—most recently US Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, who claimed today that though he nodded to the mayhem at Lafayette Park, he had no idea it came because Trump wanted a photo op at a Church. That’s from one of his team who resigned in disgust just a few hours ago.

To the whores (and that’s gender neutral) who call themselves journalists, paid millions to read the news and parrot the commentary of their billionaire network benefactors. To the networks themselves, who claim to offer honest narratives, different from their rivals while all feed on the same hype to sell the same microwave ovens and colour TVs.

To the gangs of thugs that roam the streets day and night while protected from justice. Mainstream mafia we could call them, but it’s only entertaining with Francis Ford Coppola behind the lens and Al Pacino on the screen.

Yes, it pisses me off.

Because were I at any of those rampaged stores, I’d be the one struggling to find a pair of EEE shoes for wide feet and too honest to leave before I powered up the EFTPOS to swipe my card.

But for my reward as the guy who just watches from home, I’ll still get screwed at the register once the clean-ups are done.

Because most crap is made by slave labour in China these days, while those stores will still want to charge me US-made retail.

There have been 17,083 gun violence deaths in the USA since January, as at the time of writing.

Oh, America has been looting itself for years.

© 2020 Adam Parker.