Myths of the Robber Class?

By David Swanson

March 31, 2009

"Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution." That's the title of a booklet Cindy Sheehan is selling online. I know we have CNBC to set us straight on such things, but I thought I'd check out Cindy's take. Her full-length books have been terrific, and I've published 1,631 shorter articles by or about her, because Cindy is not just a grieving mother. She's a grieving mother who feels betrayed, is mad as hell, is uncorrupted by money, power, or party, would rather die than censor her statements, and gets straight to the heart of a question faster than anyone else I know.

Medea Benjamin recently wrote that Congress needs to see the people's rage. A Congress member could get a fine understanding of the rage sweeping this nation by reading a few pages of Cindy Sheehan. Cindy advocates nonviolent and thoughtful solutions, but her writing is almost pure rage and fury the like of which hell hath not.

"We in the US of A," Sheehan writes, "have less than 5 percent of the world's population, yet we wastefully consume from 25-40 percent of the world's resources, but we don't have to apologize for being gluttonous pigs who murder innocent people for these resources."

"Both political parties of the Robber Class," Sheehan argues, "like to say that we have to fund the wars to 'Support the Troops,' and a very tragic amount of people in the Robbed Classes buy into that nonsensical rhetoric and even the so-called Peace Movement allows itself to be co-opted by 'Supporting the troops, but not the war.' The false urban myth of the hippie girl spitting on returning soldiers from Vietnam and calling them 'baby killers' was designed by the Robber Class so we would never question the war crimes committed by our troops which is unfortunately inherent to war and unavoidable during times of war."

As you may have gathered, Cindy divides us into the Robbed and the Robbers, with most of us on the Robbed side. The Robbed are essentially the working class, people who have to struggle for healthcare and higher education.

"Well, never fear!" writes Sheehan. "Obama has a plan! If 'you are willing to volunteer in your neighborhood or give back to your community or serve your country, we will make sure that you can afford a higher education.' When he said this, most of the bots in the Congress jumped up in unison and cheered. My first thought was, 'you dirty mother-effers!' Am I against service? No, my entire life is for service. … none of the children of the members of Congress, or their partners in crime on Wall Street or in the defense [sic] industries have to do 'service' to get a college education. … Does a child of the Robber Class have to go into 4 to 8 years of indentured servitude [in the military] to get buck teeth straightened or rotten teeth pulled?"

These are the 10 myths Cindy explains:
Myth One: America: Greatest Nation in the Universe!
Myth Two: Elections Matter
Myth Three: There's a huge Difference Between Dems and Repubs
Myth Four: It is Noble to Die in Robber Class Wars
Myth Five: The Central Banking System is good for the Robbed Class
Myth Six: It's a Privilege to pay Income Taxes to the Robber Class
Myth Seven: Housing, Health Care and Education are Privileges, too
Myth Eight: America has a Free Press
Myth Nine: The Environment, Who Needs it?
Myth Ten: 19 Muslims with box cutters were responsible for 9/11

I actually think elections matter, although not remotely as much as a lot of people think. And I think Cindy kind of cops out by discouraging people from voting and encouraging them, and never coming to a real decision one way or the other. I don't think ranked voting or the Fairness Doctrine, two reforms Cindy proposes, will solve much. But I think an honest examination, like the one in Cindy's booklet, of what can be repaired and what should be started from scratch will help solve quite a lot.

Author's Bio: David Swanson is the author of the upcoming book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush" published by Feral House and available at Amazon.com. Swanson holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson is Co-Founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, creator of ConvictBushCheney.org and Washington Director of Democrats.com, a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, the Backbone Campaign, and Voters for Peace, a convenor of the legislative working group of United for Peace and Justice, and chair of the accountability and prosecution working group of United for Peace and Justice.