The Real Top Ten Stories of the Past Decade

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/01-0
by Robert Freeman

The media are awash with talking heads bloviating about the top stories of the last decade. The wired-in society. The growth of organic food. The new frugality. This is the ritual that reveals their true function in the culture: pacification. It's their way of signaling the masses that Bigger Thinkers are looking after things, so go back to your Wii or Survivor or Facebook reveries.
The amazing thing is how little is ever mentioned about the stories that really mattered, those that affected the very nature of our society, its institutions, and the relation of the people to their state and society.
Those stories paint a picture of danger, of a people who have lost control of their government and the corporations that own it. But you'll hear nary a word about such difficult truths from any storyteller in the conventional media.
So here, in no particular order, are my Top Ten Stories of the Naughties, the ones that really matter.

1. The U.S. Supreme Court hijacking the 2000 presidential election.
2. Bush knew of 9/11 long before it actually happened.
3. Iraq was all premised on lies, yet we're still there.
4. The Global War on Terror.
5. The fact that 2/3 of all economic growth went to the top 1%.
6. The Neo-Feudalization of the economy.
7. The surrender of civil liberties.
8. The failure of "the free market" to sustain prosperity.
9. The collapse of the media.
10. The meaninglessness of elections.

"It was the decade when all the institutions that they believed would protect them — the media, the courts, elected offcials, the market, messianic new leaders — in fact, betrayed them."

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