This future we live in is a flimsy, weak thing. It is based on bad signal; incorrect assumptions, mistaken beliefs, and the refusal to face facts. Adam Smith - arguably the most misquoted man in history - tried to explain this, with the "invisible hand of the market place". Likewise, Kipling wrote about it in The Gods of the Copybook Headings.
Basically, the universe doesn't care what you believe...And if you base your actions on incorrect beliefs, the universe will correct you. This correction can have results that range from "embarrassing" to "fatal", depending on which part of reality you have chosen to ignore. Examples abound: Economically, these examples include the "corrections" of 1929 and 2008. Likewise, a series of bad beliefs from 1880 to 1914 led to a chain of bloody wars that haunt us til this very day.
Lysander Spooner, in 1867, wrote an essay called No Treason, in which he argued that Lincoln had no constitutional right to keep the South in the union, and that while preserving the union, he had destroyed the republic. By both strengthening the federal government, and retaining the South and its aristocratic notions, Lincoln had set the stage for an oligarchy. He was, of course, correct. The correction that reality imposed was almost immediate, and remains almost completely unrecognized in America today. In fact, most Americans assume that they are more free than they were in 1859, which is patently not the case.
Today, our "government" and their masters at Goldman Sachs have turned bad signal into an art form. They have led the entire world to believe things that simply aren't so. The correction that is approaching may very well dwarf the economic upheaval of the last decade, and they may in fact find that an unceasing war may produce people that aren't afraid of them or their lackeys. Two symptoms of this are the Tea Party and the Occupy movement. While both are clumsy and more than a little silly, they both have a few things in common that are interesting enough to examine.
First, both movements are composed of a large percentage of veterans...The Occupy Movement having more recent veterans. Both know something is wrong, but not precisely what that might be. Both are manipulated by outside interests, the Tea Party directly, and the Occupy movement by propaganda in the popular press (as the scary "alternative" to toeing the line).
Second, neither group has any cohesive leadership. The Tea Party's chapters can't get along with each other, and the Occupy movement is run in circles by would be demagogue hipsters arranging "general assemblies". This can be a strength (no "ring leaders" to arrest or discredit) or a weakness (fizzling out due to lack of direction).
Last, both are rendered mostly harmless by the media. The Tea Party is a useful tool, but was quickly neutered in case it got out of hand (take a look at media photos of the Tea Party, and whom they focus on as examples), and the Occupy movement is ignored by the media unless something scandalous happens, in which case they are portrayed as Huns.
What's going on here is this: The current power structure believes that by stunting or co-opting these movements, it can render harmless the discontent that is currently felt across the United States. This may work in the short term, but while the movements may be reduced to laughing stocks, the discontent is still there, though it may lack immediate focus. They are driving the symptoms under the surface, while the cause remains unresolved.
One can only imagine the "correction" that will follow.
Okay for now,
Dok
