THE DRESDEN FILES Reading Challenge



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Thursday, March 31, 2011

WHEN RAGE TURNS INTO REVOLUTION

We’re about to have a bloody civil war here in the United States.

(Now that I’ve got your attention) Howdy, all. Sorry that I’ve been absent from the trenches for so long. It’s been a great year for us – WonderWife got a job, with a company that appreciates her talents, and I’ve been sick as a dog. Interesting, what? I could push off my own health concerns until she was safely employed and then *I* get sick. I’m sure that there’s an interesting psychological monologue there somewhere, but I don’t have the time to explore it right now. Thank goodness; the only thing that’s MORE boring than prosing on about yer own mizzeries is listening to someone else rhapsodize about their children – but I digress.

I have been watching, with ever-increasing worry and fear, what’s going on here in MY country. I’ve been watching, again with ever-increasing worry and fear, what’s going on in the Middle Eastern countries. One of my very best friends in the world phoned me yesterday, voicing her fears about the wave of disenfranchisement that’s becoming a pandemic regarding the ReThug/TeaPartier take-over of the states, and their determination to fix it so that NOBODY that isn’t either a shrill RICH ReThug or an shrill, RICH TeaPartier can make a living, or have a voice in government, or make a living wage. It makes me sick to see what’s going on here, and it makes me very fearful that, with this sort of crap going on, that the ostensible leaders of this country, on both sides of the aisle, haven’t got a clue that what’s going on in the Middle East could actually make its way here.

We’re hovering right on the edge of a civil war here, gangers. This is what always happens when the Falangization of a country starts. This is nothing more or less than an attempt to turn this democracy, MY Republic, into a clone of Libya. Or Tunisia. Or Egypt. That’s what happens when the “Man On Horseback” theory of governance starts. New World Order time, folks – only THIS time, what was always said to not be able to happen here IS happening here. (You can read more about this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falangist)

Briefly, this is what the Falangistas of pre-WWII believed (this is from the above-cited article):
• National Syndicalism (nacionalsindicalismo) was to be the official ideology of the State.
o Corporate state in which class struggle would be superseded by the Vertical Trade Union, forcing workers and owners into one organization. (see class collaboration)
o Roman Catholicism
o Attention to the Castilian farmers
o Nationalist pride in the history of the Spanish Empire
o Anti-separatism
o Anti-communism, anti-anarchism and anti-capitalism
o Anti-democratic, anti-liberal, anti-parliamentarian ideology
o Paramilitarian
OK, so this means exactly what? Means, simply, that the country of Spain would be run by the corporations already in place, and that no new corporations would be allowed to form. It also meant that there would be no entrepreneurism, no new ideas that didn’t originate within those corporations, education would go completely to the children of the wealthy and the upper level employees of the corporations, and that the head of the state would rule over it all. I’ll add that he was also the head of all the armed forces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco#From_the_Spanish_Civil_War_to_World_War_II. Franco ruled over Spain until his death, even though the constitutional monarchy had been restored.)
Sound familiar? It ought to. That’s what has happened in all the Middle Eastern countries with the possible exception of Lebanon. I’ll admit that I don’t know why or how Lebanon managed to escape this. Point is, all the Middle Eastern countries became stratified, just as all of the countries of South America became stratified, with this philosophy.
But, BUT, BUT, you cry: That could never, EVER happen here! After all, WE are a free country! We have RIGHTS! Why, we VOTE our rascals into office – that is, when we bother to vote at all! Well, it couldn’t happen here until it did. If you don’t think that the philosophical heirs of these abominable policies haven’t had what’s going on now in mind for three generations that I personally am aware of, then you are just NOT paying attention.
If you are dumb enough to think that it can’t happen here, I’ll refer you to what’s happening in Wisconsin. And Maine. And Indiana, Ohio, Illinois – so far. I’m not a big fan of unions, having belonged to three of them that basically did nothing so far as I could see except collect dues, tell its members that they couldn’t work if they didn’t belong to a union, and generally wreck industries with baseless demands for more and more money for less and less hours. That’s what happened to the steel industries, for example; the unions thought and acted as if they thought that their members were more important than the product that was supposed to be made and sold to pay the wages of those workers. Automobile unions, ditto – in fact, any union.
However, the trade unions have given us several precious and priceless principles that apply to us all. The right of collective bargaining is one that we allow to be done away with at our deadly peril. Unions force employers to employ safe workplace practices. If you don’t think that’s important, I refer you to all the coal-mining disasters that have happened in recent years.
So, what does this have to do with the peoples’ rage? I’d think that would be obvious by now. Without collective bargaining rights, the workers of this country would be paid what their employers think that they’re worth, which doesn’t seem to be much – does it?
Stopping a revolt depends on three things. First is hunger – real, actual, physical hunger. Keep a populace without sufficient food for themselves and their families, and you have what is basically a slave population. If it’s a choice between making enough money to feed their families, or going on strike to protest workplace rules and collective bargaining rights, which do you think they’ll choose?
Second, slant all the information that the populace receives. Make sure that whatever information that is disseminated is just THAT little bit slanted, over a period of years. Make the slant more and more pointed to one particular philosophy.
Thirdly – and this is actually the most important leg of the tripod: Be SURE to limit good education to anyone that isn’t able to pay for it. Dumb down the public schools, make sure that the teachers can’t teach anything other than approved texts – texts approved by a state-wide commission – and make sure that the commission is packed with appointees who are following the agenda of the state to keep the population in general ignorant of the past and fearful about the future. THEIR future. Make sure that the ones that aren’t discouraged from getting more and better education are so far in debt that it takes all their time, energy and money paying off the loans.
Ultimately, the rage of the have-nots and ain’t gonna gets will become generational, and then the children of this rage blow, not over, but UP. Look at the economical states of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria. Look at what’s happening there. We’re working within the same frames of reference here.
How long before we see armed insurrection here? I don’t know. I’ve been watching, and I think that we’ll see it soon. Peaceful protest in Wisconsin was basically broken up by the police. It’s a real short step from there to what’s happening in Syria and Libya.
Of course, there is the TINY fact we’re all better armed than they are.