Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 39
effective to remind the mortal kings and princes who the real holders of power were,
and therefore secure ultimate suzerainty for the priestly class.
The great cathedrals were built in times when most people lived in utter misery,
ignorance and disease. Very few people ever imagined that they could have dreams of
their own. For the masses the only acceptable dream was to find a way to buy
themselves, their relatives and ancestors a place in heaven. Modern-day TV, radio and
tent evangelists often use the same ruse of Christian devotion, sometimes illegally, to
provide themselves with all the comforts and pleasures of life. They are not a good
example for the rest of us who want to pursue truly value-creating dreams.
The same pattern of exploitation of the masses but under the guise of temporal, rather
than eternal, utopia continues to create problems in contemporary times. During the 20 th
Century alone the Russians, Germans and Chinese produced leaders who, after
mystifying their countrymen, became the scourge of the earth. They accomplished this,
first with the hypnotic articulation of a vast and sweeping dream, often rooted in a desire
for revenge, and then by imposing it through the most brutal tactics of intimidation, terror
and abuse. These events took place in the face of universally accepted codes of
international conduct and domestic laws. During my lifetime these dictators oppressed
millions upon millions of free individuals. Let no one underestimate the strength of a
dream.
The world had to pay the unfathomable costs of World War II and the Cold War to
restore sanity to human dreams. The history of every nation, large or small, primitive or
advanced, contains sagas of the deeds of despots possessed of a dream. They are
always eloquently articulated by the authors as benefiting “the people” in an unselfish
and altruistic way, but they never fail to provide the best of everything for their
proponents first and foremost. This is indeed true, perhaps especially so, among the
most pathetic. Has Fidel Castro lived at the level of poverty his countrymen do? The
unsavory Sadam Hussein?, the leaders of North Korea?, some of the dictators of the
developing countries? The answer is a resounding negative, but the worst part is that
their dreams don’t go away until the despots do and the victims are uncountable and
mostly silent.
During the Cold War it was disgusting to me to watch the coverage given to some of
these dictators by sympathetic media. It came in daily doses, not only of slanted news,
but also of profusely biased news commentary. It was easy to get confused and accept
them as underdogs fighting for the poor and dispossessed. With the end of
communism’s threat, this disinformation technique has abated significantly, except for
the Castro regime in Cuba that still has many big-media sympathizers. However, the
deft manipulation of the media during that period has clearly demonstrated its inherent
power, not just in a dictatorship such as Hitler’s or Stalin’s but also in a free country
such as ours.
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