by Quan Parker
PART I. Games Megalomaniacs Play
“Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and >reverence to those who represent us? The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, >the state and federal officials only our agents. We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We >can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet.”
— S.C. Justice William O. Douglas, dissenting, Colten v. Kentucky, 407 U.S. 104 (1972).
What we have here, is, failure of imagination!
Do you ever wonder at times like these, in a so-called "democracy" like this, why are there never any viable third-parties or imaginative, well-spoken independents running against these gangster-like opportunists, milquetoast soft-shoe "leaders," pervert powerbrokers and their fetid ilk?
Why do those possessing the least understanding of history, liberty, economics, human nature, money, debt and banking, and the most disingenuous and divisive examples of faux leadership float to the top (like debris, not cream) of the esteemed "2-party" system?
Simplest answer being the best: Because this is what best serves the immoral, powermad bipartisan opportunists fanning the artificial flames of Civil War II between Left and Right. In other words, we must come to understand a Bigger Picture of partisan politics and why it is set up to work the way it does.
Social chaos would require mobilization of the over-militarized police, martial law and total control. Once done, why would they ever give it up? It's World Order, Old or New; comrades. And it doesn't matter what label you put on it, or which side you blame. Don't take the bait.
"They" are a cabal of armchair warmongers and well-shod (no more jackboots, too obvious) charlatans, the Neoconservatives. The neocons are not new, never were conservatives but most certainly are well-practiced con men. You may notice that none of these multipartisan experts in sanitized mass murder and wholesale destruction of nations and cultures have any of their own children at risk in the military, nor ever served themselves, hence the term "chickenhawks."
Of course they have a coop full of generals licking at those custom slipons who never saw a Middle East skirmish they didn't want to take nuclear; none of which has anything to do with defending America's shores. And we don't need to steal the damned oil anymore; thanks to fracking, we're exporting.
"War creates more evil men than it destroys." ~ Ancient Chinese proverb
Accepting corruption
It didn't exactly start out as a world-enslaving powergrab, but we'd better not sit by and watch this infection fester. The oligarchs are cackling like buzzards: "It's not a conspiracy when it's in your face, meathead! Read a damned book!"
Those corrupted when assuming any kind of authority soon find a pliable niche, learn how to work it and whadaya know, the devil shows up like clockwork, or roaches. Plenty of good intentions and high-minded motivations are bandied about, but things tend to evolve in a certain predictable way when a money-spigot driven by incredible powerlust and greed, uh, I mean, force of law is constructed; you know, the government teat.
Authority in the hands of many initially idealistic public servants eventually leads the average lightly-educated, ethically flexible do-gooder to succumb to the siren song of a little innocent commerce in enforcement choices, a teensy bit of graft here, look the other way there, case by special case, benefiting "good guys" only of course. After all, everyone does it, right? Otherwise the damned system of too many laws and too many lawyers would seize up like an engine drained of oil, right?
This is the genesis of the execrable practice of "rent-seeking." That's when liberties and opportunities are stolen by the system by whim, decree or new interpretation of law, and 'rented' back to the actual owners with a new "pricing structure." If you think that is similar to what the Mafia does, well you must watch TV or something.
“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” ― Frank Herbert
Certain brain chemicals become overstimulated. The power, yes, but add the certainty of money, fame, sex and (don't kid yourself) drugs, and the soul-searching over principles and philosophizing over guilt soon dies away. The trickle becomes a torrent; if not immediately then when the next scruples-challenged yokel slithers into a position of too much power, gets a feel for the possibilities and makes a few phone calls.
"No one should have that much power, not even our friends. Come to think of it, especially not our >friends." — Michael E. Holmes, only founding member of both the Libertarian Party (1971) and the >Republican Liberty Caucus (1988).
Grease up the skids
Once the grease begins to flow and the exciting ride on the slippery ethics slope begins, there is evidently no effective way to stop human nature from assuming the inherent tendencies: of both the newly empowered to gleefully embrace it, and the less intelligent, less monied or just enthralled, to worship or subjugate themselves to the powerful.
When legislators are not term-limited, it soon becomes a way of very comfortable life. Rooting out civil service toadstools is like pulling wisdom teeth without anesthetic; difficult, lots of screaming and rumors of blood.
The tendency for unchallenged power to unleash itself and become imperial has destabilized societies since we left the caves. It's not at all like on TV, except House of Cards. In modern times moral rot appears to take a bit over 200 years to run its course, get the holy central bank established, erode confidence in justice and the foundations of society and void the Social Contract in spite of every constitutional obstacle the most excellent radical and revolutionary minds of their day could throw up against it.
Instead, I hate to break it to you, but Spooner, Stirner, Mencken, Konkin and other skeptics have unfortunately been proven correct.
Thus:
"A cop shoots an unarmed citizen for no credible reason and gets away with it. A president employs >executive orders to sidestep the Constitution and gets away with it. A government agency spies on its >citizens’ communications and gets away with it. An entertainment mogul sexually harasses aspiring >actresses and gets away with it. The U.S. military bombs a civilian hospital and a school and gets away >with it.
Abuse of power—and the ambition-fueled hypocrisy and deliberate disregard for misconduct that make >those abuses possible—works the same whether you’re talking about sexual harassment, government >corruption, or the rule of law."
― John W. Whitehead, author, A Government of Wolves. [Rutherford Institute] (http://www.rutherford.org)
**Tomorrow, PART II The Dark Church**