In the 1920s, during Prohibition, America was plagued with organized crime. Now, there doesn’t seem to be any. The glorified behavior of the Mafia has all but silenced on the American horizon. The only question seems to be: why?

The answer is simple: with Prohibition over, organized crime has become one of the least criminal of American organizations.

Think about it. The mob would take out other mobsters to gain more turf. They would keep all their illicit activities in-house, rubbing out a mobster when it was deemed necessary.

Compare that to corporations, who lie, embezzle, steal, insider-trade and cheat employees on a daily basis, screwing over anyone and everyone in the world to get to the top, whether or not they’ve done anything to hurt corporate profits.

Only in America could corporations be more criminal than organized crime. Yet they get away with it constantly.

Why? Because you exist solely to consume.

This is fast becoming apparent in the global marketplace, and is illustrated brilliantly in the film “Minority Report,” where advertisements scan the retinas of those walking by and directly sell them products. Perhaps not ironically, the film itself was coated in product placements, some of them discreet and some of them blatant.

But our consumer society is obvious. Think of the products you buy on a daily basis. Almost none of them will just let you consume. There will always be in-package advertising or promotional tie-in coupons. You can’t even buy a movie without having a rebate. I can see it now: you’ll receive $5 rebate if you buy the “Lilo & Stitch” DVD and three boxes of condoms. Why? Merely because companies will get in bed with anyone to make you consume more.

All the activities our government engages in are governed by money. That’s the way the world is. Nothing is ever done without concern for what that will do to the re-election (read: fund-raising) prospects of your lovely Congresspersons. Our own White House is populated by a rich child whose grandfather ran a bank invested in by Nazis and former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney. They can’t even be faulted for the current situation, because they’re not at fault anymore than any other president since John F. Kennedy, who’s rumored to have preferred the Mafia to buy his votes.

Why does the government let you vote? It makes you feel better when you do your part to have no effect on the system. Feeling positive about such things allows you to tell yourself to take the rest of the day off, put your feet up, drink some heavily-advertised beverage and watch something where product placement occupies more screen time than plot or character development. Better yet, you could watch NASCAR, which is the epitome of commercialized culture. It’s individuals doing the same thing repetitively – driving in circles – while sporting the names of products from Viagra to Stayfree maxi pads.

Why is everyone in America fat? Well, there’s not a whole lot of people out there encouraging conservation of anything. You’re supposed to drive SUVs, eat super-size and pour your money into the stock market to encourage economic growth. Growth of what? Well, to be honest, who knows? Business is supposed to run in cycles, but no presidential administration wants to be the one blamed for a recession.

Furthermore, once you’re a fat blob, a whole new world of products are open to you so that you can slim down and be a productive member of superficial society again. Gym memberships, weight-loss plans and plastic surgery are just a few of the privileges that only the obese can really enjoy.

After Sept. 11, we were told to stay calm, and if at all possible, eat a glut of high-fat food that would keep the terrorists from winning. It’s no surprise that corporations started slathering American flags and patriotic symbols all over their products.

Corporations will continue to urge consumption, and people will continue to consume. So long as they do, the corporations will win. It’s unavoidable really.

The Pledge of Allegiance is one to the government, not to God and most certainly not to Enron. At some point, it’d be nice to have the our government be separate from our corporations. That isn’t likely to happen soon.

For now, I suggest a minor change to our Pledge of Allegiance, perhaps the most truly penned words of patriotism since Francis Scott Key’s “The Star-Spangled Banner” or the equally great “America” by Neil Diamond. The new Pledge: “One nation, Home of the Whopper, indivisible, with liberty and SUVs for all.”

Tim Kearns is a senior in political science from Bellevue, Neb.