OUR country is in trouble. At some level, most of us know it. A recent poll by World Public Opinion found that 80 percent of Americans have lost faith in their government - believing it serves powerful special interests and not the people.

While we were being served up manufactured lies, shouted clichés and celebrity gossip, the great power was steadily becoming the corporate state we now live in - a system incompatible with democracy.

Although corporate hijacking of our government has long been at work in various forms, the "War on Terror" has ushered it in on a scale beyond what President Eisenhower could have wildly imagined 50 years ago when he warned of the dangers of the Military-Industrial Complex.

The seamless connection between the administration, the political Washington infrastructure, powerful companies and defense contractors now begs the question of whose interests we're serving when we go to war.

War is becoming just another amoral corporate enterprise. While the government pours untold billions of our tax dollars into corporate coffers, the fighting and the dying are left to "black army" hired killers and poor volunteer soldiers. (The number of U.S.-paid private contract soldiers in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops.)

Self-enrichment across the corporate spectrum knows no bounds. As they rake in obscene profits - from global crises to cosmetics - corporations hatch new schemes for keeping profits up and wages down.

Today, the richest 1 percent in our country has amassed more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, a staggering disparity. This massive transfer of public wealth is destroying the middle class and eroding our democracy - violating the creeds and ideals upon which it was based. American workers, once secure and prosperous, now must compete for jobs with children and sweatshop workers around the world. They're losing their homes, savings and, worse still, their hopes and dreams.

Our own state shows the pattern. Since countless jobs have left West Virginia for some "corporate-friendly" place, our state's economy is mainly dependent on the homeboys' multibillion-dollar natural resource industry - an industry that clearly has some third-world operation techniques down pat. It handsomely rewards its executives and stockholders, it wreaks havoc on the environment and it does nothing to improve the quality of life for the people.

OUR country is in trouble. At some level, most of us know it. A recent poll by World Public Opinion found that 80 percent of Americans have lost faith in their government - believing it serves powerful special interests and not the people.

While we were being served up manufactured lies, shouted clichés and celebrity gossip, the great power was steadily becoming the corporate state we now live in - a system incompatible with democracy.

Although corporate hijacking of our government has long been at work in various forms, the "War on Terror" has ushered it in on a scale beyond what President Eisenhower could have wildly imagined 50 years ago when he warned of the dangers of the Military-Industrial Complex.

The seamless connection between the administration, the political Washington infrastructure, powerful companies and defense contractors now begs the question of whose interests we're serving when we go to war.

War is becoming just another amoral corporate enterprise. While the government pours untold billions of our tax dollars into corporate coffers, the fighting and the dying are left to "black army" hired killers and poor volunteer soldiers. (The number of U.S.-paid private contract soldiers in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops.)

Self-enrichment across the corporate spectrum knows no bounds. As they rake in obscene profits - from global crises to cosmetics - corporations hatch new schemes for keeping profits up and wages down.

Today, the richest 1 percent in our country has amassed more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined, a staggering disparity. This massive transfer of public wealth is destroying the middle class and eroding our democracy - violating the creeds and ideals upon which it was based. American workers, once secure and prosperous, now must compete for jobs with children and sweatshop workers around the world. They're losing their homes, savings and, worse still, their hopes and dreams.

Our own state shows the pattern. Since countless jobs have left West Virginia for some "corporate-friendly" place, our state's economy is mainly dependent on the homeboys' multibillion-dollar natural resource industry - an industry that clearly has some third-world operation techniques down pat. It handsomely rewards its executives and stockholders, it wreaks havoc on the environment and it does nothing to improve the quality of life for the people.

West Virginia's consistent ranking at or near the bottom in poverty and income scales (including the number of children living in poverty) juxtaposed with King Coal's record of growth and profit makes the point.

For example, Massey Energy reported a first-quarter net income increase of 28.5 percent, and its CEO's compensation soared more than one-third last year. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, his 2007 salary, bonus and perks (including the use of a company-owned house) topped $23.7 million.

Such is the story of Bush's corporate America. We see it all around us. Cities that were once booming manufacturing centers are now centers of personal and economic despair. Globalization of the past 20 years has reached its heyday, and, it's safe to say, corporations control every federal agency in Washington.

Without question, we're in a precarious place. Short-term profit as the driving force of power doesn't bode well for the long-term chances of humanity. The Goliath in charge is crazed - driven by avarice and raw power. We'd better start going for our slingshots.

Seneca 2 is sponsoring Pulitzer Prize-winner David Cay Johnston to speak on his latest book: "Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You with the Bill." This follows his earlier book: "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else." While at the New York Times, Johnston received a 2001 Pulitzer Prize "for penetrating and enterprising reporting that exposed loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code." He was also runner-up for the award in 2000 and 2003.

The forum, co-sponsored by the West Virginia State University Political Science Department and The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, will be held at WVSU Student Union at 7 p.m. July 22. It's free to the public with free parking. The sound system is guaranteed to work!

Knapp is a leader of Seneca 2.