How did the corporations take over? Advertising perfection. Splintering us into expendable pieces. From community to isolation. Horacio Alger myth propagation. Encouraging our caste system. That success equals money. Taking over birth and death. Buying government. Privatizing prisons and passing self serving drug laws and encouraging profiling to keep them full. Keeping the minimum wage unworkably low. Allowing the pharmaceutical companies to create a country of addicts. Raping pensions so shareholders could get a couple pennies more per share and the executives could further increase the pay gap. Our health care system. Giving our money to subsidize the auto manufacturers and poorly run banks which stole people’s homes. Standardized testing and charter schools divert even more money to them.

In Dune, the Sardaukar and Fremen come from extreme conditions and are raised to be fighting forces. As we drive through the so called heartland, we see advertisements for joining the service. The people we meet and their children have been part of America’s Best.

Was there a choice though? Where is the work? What opportunities exist? Massive propaganda campaigns keep the far away so called terrorists on the forefront of people’s minds so the reality of our government’s systemic counterproductive for us decisions is diminished. Bartering doesn’t work for most things anymore. Getting fresh food, ironically, can mean a 20 mile trip through farm country they are not allowed to till. And then the selection still only qualifies as a food desert. Seriously, the cows eat better than the people. If the person can afford the gas let alone the car. Forced for native Americans, boarding school enrollment separated families and resulted in loss of tradition and identity.

Driving through the reservation we saw many people trudging along on the side of the highway. Roadside signs of X Marks The Spot memorialize deaths and are uncomfortably frequent. It feels like the poorer Hunger Games districts.

Even cell service is crappy in the sticks. With no money to spare, there are no suped up cars. Though we did see two sporting Oakland Raiders colors.

We are told that within the tribal communities there is racism based on so called blood purity, no doubt courtesy of the same campaign which set poor whites and blacks against each other. There were “whitening” programs, like in Australia and Brazil; check out the great films Australia and Rabbit Proof Fence. Quid pro quo keep the leadership from making a stand.

It makes for desperate people, desperate enough to decide the ads touting patriotism and honor are worth fighting someone else’s wars to keep the military industrial complex funded.

We drove through the countryside, our off highway route taking us around and through lovely areas. Doh our campground is seemingly washed away; luckily an inn a few miles back wasn’t. The crashing thunder and torrential rain later in the night confirmed we were guided there.