Their Reality. . .
Is Now Our Reality - It Can't Be Denied - It Can Only Be Fought
by The Old Hippie Because Stating The Obvious To The Oblivious Is Fun
"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community."... I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off."
(Ron Suskind talking to senior Bush advisor, The New York Times Magazine)"That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
[ That quote, without any doubt, is the most accurate thing said by this administration. ]
Reality-Based Proof. . .
Within the first year, of the first term of this administration, the sum total of the U.S. Treasury surplus, left by the pervious administration, was transferred successfully into the pockets of the extraction, pharmaceutical, military industrial, and other corporation's upper management.
All of the upper, and upper-mid-management, positions of all of the federal regulatory agencies have been successfully replaced. Almost all of which spent their entire previous careers as CEOs, and/or as lobbyists, working for the very corporations that the agencies, that they now de facto control, were created to regulate. Many of which still receive financial compensation from.
The successful creation of, to a level unseen in our written history, a propaganda machine, of proven immense power, to control the national mind set. i.e. Consolidation of the mainstream media into, at this time, the control of just 5 corporations, and more consolidation being considered right now. The allowing of major media outlets, FOX News most notably, to become, and to continue to, openly put out in-your-face un-stoppable propaganda-in-plain-sight for the "oppressed" conservative media machines.
The incredible success of the creation of "free-speech zones."
The ongoing successful destruction of the Separation of Church and State.
The successful, and continuing, disregard of federal laws against the spending of tax dollars to put out political propaganda as "news" stories.
The successful tax cuts, during war, during the largest deficit in history, that favors only those making over $100,000/yr., and increases the load on the middle and lower economic citizens of our nation - us, the lower 98% of this nation, putting even more of "our" tax dollars into their pockets.
The success of the allowing of the corporate privation of the vote, and the resultant, and well documented, corruption of "our" last three national elections. i.e. One mid-term, and two presidential.
The incredible ease of the allowed successful transfer of "War Powers" out of "our" control, through the Congressional Branch," into the hands of one person, in the Executive Branch. Not to mention the ease of the also allowed war of "choice & profit," rather than "of last resort," on Iraq, a nation that had not attacked us, that was of no real threat to us, nor any of our allies.
The amazing fact that not a single person has been punished for any of the multitude of well proven, well documented - lies, and/or war crimes, and/or the obvious cronyism of war-profiteering, and/or the treasonist "outing," and exposure, of a deep cover agent, Valerie Plame, that was tasked with the finding of WMD networks worldwide.
The successful placement of the president's lawyer, Alberto R. Gonzales, as the Attorney General of the United States, the very man that "proved" it is okay for American policy to allow torture of human beings.
The successful placement of the John Bolton as "our" ambassador to the U.N., whom has openly, publicly on the official record, stated he wants to destroy the U.N. There is no single person that he could have named who is more anti-UN than John Bolton. It is not hyperbole to say this is like naming the head of the Ku Klux Klan to head the NAACP.
All of this, and so much more, that has been so successful, so easily, so quickly, so arrogantly, so in-plain-sight, so well documented, so judiciously studied, and so un-punished - IS proof of the accuracy of the original quote I presented in the opening of this posting.
posted by The Old Hippie @ 7:05 AM
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Retro Mania
Most recently we have seen a mania towards re-introducing concepts left over from the 1950s and 60s. Most notable are cars: The Mini-Cooper, the VW Beetle (or bug), the Ford Thunderbird, Chrysler 300s, and so forth and so on. Failing that, people buy older American automobiles (1957 Chevies, for example), fix them up, label them classics, and then sometimes even tour the country attending one car-show extravaganza after another. Hot August Nights, for example, here in Reno and Sparks Nevada. They’re a lot of fun, bring back many fine memories, and certainly manage to hook this old boy by their nostalgia. Frequently the car shows are surrounded by other events that reflect back to those times: prom nights (where all the ladies dress-up in those old poodle-skirts, and guys wear white bucks and sport coats, and sport pink carnations and such). Fifties bands are likewise ubiquitous (do-whap, do-whap), and put on shows night after night.
This retro nostalgia craze has its darkside, however, and that is when large majorities of individuals come together to try and re-institute the socio-political climate of those times. In a sense, that was a pre-enlightenment period in American history, and while the lack of over-sophistication seemed wonderful (and freeing), many other aspects of those days are not. Prejudice, for example, was rampant, not only against blacks (in particular – they still had separate bathrooms and drinking fountains back then, and had to sit in back of the bus), but against any minority not particularly familiar to the local populace. Women had not yet become militant about asserting their rights as equal human beings, Indians were still expected to pretty much stay down on their reservations, blacks took jobs at Greyhound depots and as Red Caps at airports (or sometimes opened doors and ran elevators – or just stood as effigies on front lawns), and those of Polish descent worked in heavy industry and wore dirty bowling shirts. Despite the largest middle-class expansion in history (following World War II), America was pretty much still a white-mans’ paradise, where others were only welcomed provided they kept to and knew “their place” in society.
Today, it would appear, after a half-century of minority struggle to assert their place in society, and where, admittedly, the white man has been subjected to quite a bit of bashing (every father on TV, for instance, has in the last almost 30 years been depicted as some sort of an idiot – ala Archie Bunker) the white man has begun to re-assert himself, and his privilege, and has unfortunately found solace and succor for his cause within the reactionary Conservative party. George Dubya and Rush Limbaugh becoming the archetypical white protestant male roll models, for instance. When a white Southern Conservative male (transplanted or not) starts talking about family values, what he really means is the old Roman ideal of the paterfamilias. While Romans were more than willing to have outsiders fill up their legions, they were very much less enamored of them becoming full citizens of Rome, or taking the positions of real authority. The alpha males ran society, and the rest were all there to more or less service their needs. It’s a pretty neat trick, really, if you can arrange it.
And arranging it, complete with the lictors carrying their fasces at the head of the procession, is precisely what the neo-Conservative Republicans are all about – real retro Roman-empire stuff. All that’s required now is Sir George filling in for Caesar Augustus (Octavian), and you have the entire analogy down to a…well, down to a Dubya. What Augustus did was to bring a halt to the Roman Republic and institute an Empire in its stead, with him, of course, as its leader and Caesar (Czar). Eventually the Roman populace hailed him as a god, and savior of all that was Roman. But then, the Roman Empire had been built upon the ideals of violence and conquest, and the military (the Praetorian Guard in particular) were the real movers and shakers of this proto-fascist Roman society. Strangely, however, Augustus hated war (or more precisely hated the idea of him having to go to war), and never really did continue the tradition of conquest (in those days the Emperor would have had to participate – although later that would not be the case) nearly so much as he simply consolidated what had already been taken.
I would today be extremely suspicious should any legislation be offered in Congress that even hints at the idea of changing or modifying the 22nd and 25th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States (dealing with Presidential succession and tenure), or any other proposal put forward seeking to institute Marshall Law, or temporary suspension of elections, or unprecedented National emergencies requiring some sort of temporary ordering of the government (FEMA, for instance, being put in charge of government), or anything at all along those lines. Democracy has already been severely eroded in this Country, and there is nothing the Conservatives would like better than to dream up some extenuating circumstance which might help them to ensure the continued rule of The Right. You can’t really trust them anymore than you could have trusted Octavian (Caesar Augustus) to have continued the Roman tradition of representative (i.e. republican) rule. From Octavian’s rule onward, the Roman Senate became naught but a rubber stamp for the Emperor.
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