Balkanization of Protest . . . in PARTS, a’course.
Gambling is all the rage, is it not? I will go out on a limb and suggest it is a very sure bet that more Americans have NOT read the American Declaration of Independence than HAVE read it.
…But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States…
A’course, Gamblers ain’t big on SAFE bets. They like the possibility of BIG payouts, remaining stubbornly undeterred by diminishing probability of upside and gathering prospects of calamity. Taking BIG RISKS is a BIG RUSH…what Addict doesn’t salivate over THAT?
Make no mistake, it is truer to say America is a nation of GAMBLERS than to say it is a nation of Builders. It is truer to say America is a nation of ADDICTS than to say it is a nation of “hard working, law-abiding citizens”. Who COULD abide by all the laws? In September 2009, thousands and thousands and thousands of pages of Regulations = Laws ago, Gordon Crovitz opined in the Wall Street Journal that most Americans commit three felonies per day:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574438900830760842.html
As to hard-working, some surely surely are. MANY are. Something on the order of 80%, by MY reckoning. Anyone who DRIVES AROUND rather than FLIES OVER America knows Unemployment is significantly higher than nine-point-something. By MY reckoning, something on the order of eighty percent work like MULES, while fifteen-ish percent HAVE no work (tho many collect SOMETHING FOR NOTHING), and something on the order of five percent hardly work (tho ALL are extravagantly compensated).
Make no mistake, is truer to say America is a RACIST nation than to say it is a Christian nation. It is truer to say America is a MONEYIAN nation than to say it is Democratic nation. It is truer to say America is the land of the FINED and the home of the FEARFUL than to continue boasting it as the land of the Free and the home of the Brave.
Truth sometimes hurts, and well I know it. I have been screwed over six ways from Sunday while people who DID screw me over and people who screw me over NOW not only get off scot-free, they get RICHER.
Excuse me, ladies & gents and hookers & johns, but It is truer to say America is in DENIAL than to say America is in Recovery.
Left and “Right” will never agree on core issues. That’s what puts ‘em on OPPOSITE “SIDES” of a manmade moniker spectrum. (In retrospect, Democrats are lucky they didn’t reflexively offset Republicans’ brilliant choice of THE RIGHT with The Wrong.) Liberals and “Conservatives” will never agree on core issues. That’s what puts ‘em on OPPOSITE “SIDES” of a manmade political spectrum. Socialists and Fascists will never agree on core issues. That’s what puts ‘em on OPPOSITE “SIDES” of a manmade economic spectrum. Believers and “Non Believers” (I will argue they believe in something ELSE) will never agree on core issues. That’s what puts ‘em on OPPOSITE “SIDES” of a manmade spiritual spectrum.
But left, right, and center, Americans GOT screwed and are GETTING screwed. Does SCREWED offend delicate sensibilities? Is FLEECED more peecee? Hoodwinked. Bamboozled. Pillaged. ACROSS the spiritual spectrum, Reg’lar People got screwed. ACROSS the ideological spectrum, Reg’lar People got screwed. ACROSS the label-hurling spectrum, Reg’lar People who “merely” can’t stand each other got screwed.
Who did NOT get screwed across the board were Rich People, AS EVIDENCED BY AN INCREASING WEALTH GAP. The Wealth Gap was unsustainable BEFORE the manmade “crisis” and it has INCREASED since then — that’s kinda all you need to know. Well…THAT, and this business of OFFICIALS GETTING RICH.
Do the millions and millions and millions of American Screwed Over use the OPPORTUNITY inherent in Occupy Wall Street to band together to ride Tyrants and Thieves outta Dodge? No way, Jose.
SUPERIOR FORCE and MONOPOLY ON PROSECUTION/INCARCERATION is the obvious reason Commoners tolerate bullshit. And superior Force is NOT to be discounted in importance, ‘specially with TORTURE having come back into fashion. But it is not ENOUGH to render the broadcloth of a population helpless. It has never been enough. Throughout recorded history, straws have broken camels’ backs and masses have risen in revolt.
Why AREN’T the various factions of Screwed Over UNITING to marshall what is inarguably their greatest strength, SHEER NUMBERS?
Disagreements are too many to list, even if it was a worthy use of Time. Besides which, disagreements are obviously the WEAK LINKS in alliances. Recovery Circuit Wisdom: COMPARE AND DESPAIR.
Call me an Optimist (THAT’D be a first), but I DO spy foundational concepts on which all people in command of Reason and bound by Honesty MUST agree:
- RESOURCES ARE SCARCE
- HUMANS ARE FLAWED & MORTAL
- MONEY = POWER, AND POWER CORRUPTS
- SELF-INTEREST IS NATURAL/REFLEXIVE/AUTOMATIC
- DECISIONS & ACTIONS HAVE COSTS & CONSEQUENCES
- DIVIDE & CONQUER
- TO THE VICTORS GO THE SPOILS
In the spirits of FOLLOW THE MONEY and CUT TO THE CHASE, I draw the attention of the sliced, diced, chopped and pureed Indignant to DIVIDE & CONQUER and VICTORS GET SPOILS.
The Aggrieved ALLOWING themselves to be divided — BY VESTED INTERESTS, no less — along the very lines that make them THEM, plays RIGHT into the hands of Ruling Elite. Every single day that The Aggrieved are neutered by division, the very people who so revere money they will screw over their own Countrymen “make” even MORE money — as evidenced by the cold hard fact that The Rich are getting EVEN RICHER and The Poor are getting EVEN POORER.
A Dolled Up Loyalist on MSNBC had the effin’ nerve to say yesterday, 10/16/11, “We don’t wanna mess up the one are of the recovery that’s going well, CORPORATE EARNINGS.”
Bold emphasis, mine.
I never suffered fools well, but now I’m kinda OFF people altogether. Can’t trust ‘em, that’s been my experience. I was always skeptical, but now I’m CYNICAL. I used to want to live to be 100. Not any more . . . no sir-ee. Naturally smart, better than averagely educated, above averagely attractive and family with enough money that I won’t ever be on a park bench . . . and I have conscientiously SHORTENED my projected life span. I make my decisions, including financial, accordingly. THAT is how bad it is in America.
THAT is how unpleasant it is to abide Perpetual War and Institutionalize Injustice, in the wake of learning that much of what I have been told and taught is LIES, that key articles of belief are FALSE.
LIBERTY & JUSTICE FOR ALL . . . that’s a WHOPPER, that’s what THAT is.
I don’t care if you have sleeves of tattoos, a magenta mohawk and more piercings than a damn sieve. I don’t care if you have 2.2 kids, a dog that eats better than most kids and and a house that does not threaten to DEVOUR you because you were successful and prudent enough put down 20%, and intelligent and educated enough to lock in a manageable 30-year rate on a loan that can refinance or borrow against, because you know how to do that kinda stuff without being taken to the cleaners. If you are against LYING, CHEATING & STEALING, we are on the same side.
I don’t care if you are a Metrosexual strutting your stuff on busy boulevards for (hopefully) all the world to see, or if you are Militia brandishing weapons in remote backwoods for (hopefully) no one to see, if you are a crotchety old Geezer or a Know It All 20-Something. If you are opposed to LYING, CHEATING & STEALING, we are on the same side.
If you believe in PRINCIPLES OVER PROFITS, if you believe in LETTING PUNISHMENTS SUIT CRIMES, if you believe in EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW, we are on the same side.
Benjamin Franklin wasn’t whistling Dixie when he warned Revolutionaries and Posterity i.e. We The People: HANG TOGETHER, OR HANG SEPARATELY.
copyright 2011 Implausible Endeavors LLC
# # # #
PART 1: Intro / DIVIDE & CONQUER
PART 2: Tea Party VERSUS Occupy Wall Street
PART 3: White Supremacists VERSUS Black Supremacists
PART 4: Oldsters VERSUS Youngsters
PART 5: Mainstream Media VERSUS Truth
PART 6: Baby Boomers VERSUS Death
PART 7: Conclusion / PULL HEADS OUTTA SAND, HOLD LINE THEREIN
