“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” — George Santayana
Sometimes, in the wee hours of the morning I have trouble getting back to sleep if I’m disturbed or if I drank too much beer before bed. In these quiet times I sometimes do some heavy thinking. Sometimes about my family drama, or I review some choices in my life, whether good or ill, and try to figure out how I would change if I went the other way on that decision. Sometimes I think of what it would be like to hit the lottery, or other wishful thinking.
Lately, these occasional midnight ponderings have turned dark. I see patterns that chill me to the bone. Years of Progressive party policies that have kept racial tensions strained for the sole purpose of manipulating minority voting blocks. Welfare programs that reward those for having as many children as possible. Unemployment insurance programs that keep the unemployed included in the statistics as long as they are useful, then disposing them when they are no longer useful.
I see policies implying everyone has a “right to a house,” the “right for free healthcare,” and the “right to go to college,” but these same policies do not provide the funding for these programs. I see the hidden hand of crony capitalism and how the masters pull the strings of those in Congress.
The Mass Media continually shows revisionist history, where some facts are omitted, and others fabricated to push the controlling interest’s agenda. Our televisions are filled with so-called “reality shows” where post-incident editing is used to effectively market rampant consumerism and morally bankrupt behavior as appropriate.
“Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now controls the past
Who controls the past now controls the future
Who controls the present now?”Testify – Rage Against The Machine
The Internet has distanced actions from repercussions so much that a new term has been coined for this behavior, the “Internet Tough-Guy.” The overabundance of lawyers in our society has led to a multi-trillion dollar a year industry, where trivial lawsuits are continually clogging our courts. A Woman in Florida took the top off her hot coffee, and put it between her legs. She was rewarded millions for her stupidity. You cannot legislate common sense, but our betters will try.
Information is flooding our senses from the moment we awake to the moment we close our eyes for a fitful nights sleep. Advertising bombards us from every way imaginable, demanding we consume. Our brains did not evolve to process this level of information saturation. Like an addict, if you isolate the subject away from their Blackberries, iPhones, iPads, Internet, TV and radio then they begin to have classic withdrawal symptoms until they can make a clean break from the addiction.
Today, a bullied child that is finally pushed to violence becomes the aggressor, and the bully the victim. Today, children are killing themselves to escape being bullied. This phenomenon is not recent, but the number of cases has increased on a logarithmic scale. The intensity level of this bullying has risen dramatically with the advent of so-called “Social Media” which has been used by bullies to torment their victims on a never-ending, always-available platform.
What patterns are emerging that harken back to the past?
Media censorship – many times governments have censored the media. Even here, in America, the media was heavily censored during the Civil War and every war after that. Now, we have a network of media moguls here in America that are self-censoring because many of these moguls are holding the strings to our elected officials. Objective news is a distant memory.
Nazi Germany, Facist Italy, the Soviets, and any other “evil” government did the same thing – only they were not nearly as effective at hiding the fact that the censorship was occurring as our own society.
Moral Collapse – Reality TV is the opiate of the masses. There is very little that is real in “Reality TV,” but don’t let the truth get in the way of a good marketing program. The diminishing moral fabric of our nation is leading to many problems. Civility is vanishing. How many times has someone let a door slam in your face instead of pausing for 1/2 a second to hold it? People allow their children to run around like wild animals, instead of maintaining family order and some discipline. There is a TV program that glorifies teen pregnancy. Reality game shows have winners that lie, cheat and steal to win. Our leaders don’t pay taxes. Some preach endlessly about global warming and diminishing resources, but use twenty times as much electricity as the average family of four.
It is the Fall of Rome all over again. Pointless news stories are the “Bread and Circus” for today’s citizen. Endless wars without clear objectives wear out our armies so when the Visigoths come, we will be helpless.
Police State – The largest expansion of government in the history of the United States was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. this umbrella organization collected all federal law enforcement agencies under one roof. Overnight, the new heads of this DHS began to put together policies to embed themselves into the day to day lives of every American Citizen. The TSA spent billions on microwave scanners that are easily fooled. The very act of travel by airplane has become a terrorist act, with jack-booted thugs violating your rights with impunity.
Drones and surveillance cameras are being bought and deployed as fast as possible, to further extend the reach of government into your private life. Social Media has become the most effective snitch in the world, with every e-mail, tweet, and facebook post being forwarded directly to the DHS datacenters for examination and permanent storage. All the better to profile every citizen for the betterment of how effective the masters can dupe us into believing we are free.
Police are trained in aggressive, military-style tactics. Every master wants their guard dogs mean. Corporations are making millions because there are too many prisoners for the states to manage them. Mandatory minimums ensure a ever-growing population of inmates for these corporations to profit from.
“Time and time again throughout history as once great empires accelerated their declines, governments have taken steps to protect their interests against the people.” — Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog
So where is this going? I see two main possibilities, either of which is frightening. I keep thinking of the rise of the fascist states. I also think of the collapse of the USSR, and how different regions could only be held together without the threat of violence for so long.
There will be a crisis soon. Soon being relative, I would have to say within fifteen years as we are talking about macro trends of history. If the economy holds together that long. Even if we do collapse, these trends I’ve listed above will guide the recovery and rebirth of this nation afterwards.
America’s unity has been tested before, with the Civil War. Revisionist historians painted over many of the other underlying reasons for the Civil War with the “slavery” paintbrush. The idea of a state, say Alaska, from leaving union has become as preposterous as pigs flying. The right for states to leave the Union is outlined in the Constitution, but no one wants that right widely published.
Our nation is becoming divided. The southwest is being overrun with legal and illegal immigrants from South America. Unlike other waves of immigrants, a significant percentage of these people have no desire to integrate into the “American Melting Pot” – they want the rest of us to accommodate them. Press 2 for English indeed. Can I press 3 for German, and 4 for Hebrew, 5 for Yiddish, 6 for Italian, 7 for Russian, 8 for French, or 9 for Sanskrit? No. Every wave of immigrants has integrated into a common language – English, but their culture has permeated through the melting pot for the betterment of all. As racial boundaries fall, the groups intermarry, which gives America unity. How many of you reading this right now are part X, and part Y? The South Americans should be no different, but for whatever reason – their own mental outlook, Progressive Party segregation policies, or whatever else — they are not mixing in. Like a clump of cornstarch in the gravy, they are ruining the American Experiment.
Regions of America are aligning themselves with different mindsets and attitudes than the other regions. the upper Northeast and the northern Rockies are independent and conservative, where New York, the lower NE states, and California are a Progressives’ dream State. Are these regions going to fracture like the USSR’s member-states did? I fear they will, and China would be the remaining superpower.
The other possibility is the darkest. Somewhere in America there is a charismatic leader waiting to gather the American idealists, glory hounds, and state-dependent together to forge a New America. As the police state grows to crush independent thought, the mob mentality grows until we are at war with the world.
If there is one thing I want you to remember about the power of stupidity of humans in large groups:
Adolph Hitler was voted Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1938
Man of the Year - 1938
