Cowboys and Indians

What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization and religion?

-Andrew Jackson-

Jackson's views concerning the removal of the "savages" is well documented and from these views, the "Cowboy" mentality began and it has changed very little over the last two centuries and some would like to see Jackson's image removed from the twenty dollar bill. Imperialism was alive with Jackson and it's still alive today as Bush and associates attempt to consolidate the government's power into the executive branch. It's not the image of imperialism we need to remove, but the mentality which is attached to the idea of imperialism which has no place within the future of a sustainable economic and ecological world.

Under the current administration, we see again attempts to constuct an empire. The architects of this empire within the 21st century are aggresively pursuing their agendas through what is being purported as Cowboyism. This is nothing new for the political machine of the U.S. Even the founding fathers of this nation had the same empirical aspirations, and visions of empire is seen by the country's cowboys as American as Apple Pie. It is very apparent that Imperialism is woven into the U.S. past doctrines and principles whether the people are willing to accept this fact or not. And it continues today as it lies hidden within the continuous patriotic connotations spun by the past as well as the latest administrations, along with their use of military intervention; it's within The World Bank; and it's woven within the structural adjustment programs of the International Monetary Fund.

The ruling elites in the economically backward countries depend on their relations with the major powers and giant corporations for their privileged position. In return, they are charged with imposing the dictates of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on the working class and peasantry to ensure that oil, minerals, agricultural produce and other essential raw materials find their way to the advanced countries or to production facilities set up by the transnational corporations.

The Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, defines imperialism as huge monopolies and financial institutions which control economies and political systems, which in turn, control the lives of the people all over the world.

Imperialism means parasitic exploiters who oppress hundreds of millions of people and condemn them to untold misery; parasitic financiers who can cause millions to starve just by pressing a computer key and thereby shifting vast amounts of wealth from one place to another. Imperialism means war--war to put down the resistance and rebellion of the oppressed, and war between rival imperialist states--it means the leaders of these states can condemn humanity to unbelievable devastation, perhaps even total annihilation, with the push of a button. Imperialism is capitalism at the stage where its basic contradictions have been raised to tremendously explosive levels. But imperialism also means that there will be revolution--the oppressed rising up to overthrow their exploiters and tormentors--and that this revolution will be a world wide struggle to sweep away the global monster, imperialism.

This "Cowboyism" is inseparable from what has been deemed as The New World Order. Even John Brown, a former State Department official who resigned in protest of the invasion of Iraq, sees the War on Terror as a 21st century continuation of the American Indian Wars, only on a global scale. Brown has written an essay entitled Our Indian Wars Are Not Over Yet. In his essay, he list ten ways of interpreting the War on Terror as another frontier conflict. These "Cowboy and Indian" wars have dominated our culture as was seen in Vietnam, and ironically, military commanders and news commentators also refer to war-torn areas of Iraq as “Indian Country” for the supposed savagery of Iraqi insurgents and their will to fight to the death, if necessary.

It amazes me how the more we change, the more we remain the same. I speak with people through online discussions and e-mails concerning the past atrocities inflicted on our indigenous people and it amazes me how some of these individuals can't see that these atrocities are still alive and remain within our social structures yet today. Each and every day I see the same attitudes of the past Jacksonian democracy within so many of our citizens. Attitudes which are built by imperialistic minds whose intent is to conquer entire civilizations and cultures. When will we as human beings decide to put an end to this constant circle of destruction? How do we open the eyes of the politically blinded and the immorally justified people? When will we as human beings outgrow the Cowboys and Indians mentality?