These are seasons of wither that are upon us, times of failure and abandonment and a loss of faith in the institutions which we once depended upon. George W. Bush destroyed the vestiges of the Reagan coalition. His coronation by the Supreme Court in 2000 signaled a fissure opening up under the foundation of our court system. Subsequent rulings have left behind a public stunned and numbed, it is indeed a world turned upside down.
"Command is given, we must obey, and quite forget old Christmas day:
Kill a thousand men, or a Town regain, we will give thanks and praise amain.
The wine pot shall clinke, we will feast and drinke.
And then strange motions will abound.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down.
Our Lords and Knights, and Gentry too, doe mean old fashions to forgoe:
They set a porter at the gate, that none must enter in thereat.
They count it a sin, when poor people come in.
Hospitality it selfe is drown'd.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down.
The Butler's still out of the way, or else my Lady keeps the key,
The poor old cook, in the larder doth look,
Where is no goodnesse to be found,
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down."
Barack Obama ran for the Presidency on a platform of "Hope & Change." Once elected, the administration called its followers "f*cking moron's that needed to be drug tested. Disillusionment? Yes, disillusionment, alienation? Yes, alienation. In two years Barrack Obama has done what it took George Bush eight years to do to his own party, he has destroyed the Democratic party as a cohesive unit.
We face a Stalingrad of class war, a rising fascist state that searches its citizens at will and without just cause. A splintering of political power against a background of crumbling state revenues. The largest deficit in American history while the public cries for tax cuts.
Our media is polarized and partisan, corporatist and marginalized and against this backdrop a twenty two year old man has opened fire upon a US Congresswoman and a crowd. Is anyone really all that surprised? Of course it is a tragedy, but this is a land of tragedy.
Millions that can't afford health care who were offered bait and switch instead of real change. Tens of millions who were offered hope to save their homes from foreclosure who where instead force fed the same Bush mortgage - bank controlled program with a new and improved label.
Three years ago a stockbroker who had once made $700,000 in a day had lost it all. He sold his million dollar home to fund his new stake in the market and when he lost that he shot and killed five members of his own family and then turned the gun on himself. Ninety year old Addie Polk turned the gun on herself as sheriffs waited on the porch to serve the elderly widow with foreclosure papers.
Then there was the man who flew his private plane into the building where the IRS had forced him into bankruptcy. This while corporate America dodges sixty billion dollars in tax revenue annually, and how does the President combat this problem? He creates the cat food commission.
The stages of grief are clear, denial and then anger, people can only stand so much, a people can be pushed to their limit and no further. This is not to justify these things they do, but only to understand why they do them. In June of 1914 a young Serbian nationalist armed with a pistol opened fire on the Archduke Franz Ferdinan sparking the first World War. The Austro-Hungarian empire was in decline, this is what inspired the young assassin. These things follow historical patterns that repeat themselves, military collapse, economic collapse followed by social collapse.
In February of 1933 Chicago Mayor Anton Cermack was shot and killed while shaking hands with President elect Franklin Roosevelt. The bullets missed the President elect by inches while the assassin claimed that he didn't have anything against Roosevelt in particular, just Presidents in general. During the 1930's there were riots in every major city in America, people will only stand so much. Abandonment by a central government to their plight is the short road to disaster.
The Colorado legislature during the last great depression failed to ante up their share of WPA money leading to work projects being shut down. Angry mobs attacked the capital building forcing the Colorado legislature to run like thieves in the night with an angry mob hot on their heals. The legislature met in special session and quickly an-teed up the funds for the projects.
This is just one more tragedy from the daily smorgasbord of American tragedy. This one will draw the focus of the media to blur and obscure the truth. Some will call for tougher gun control laws but gun control didn't save the young African American man shot by subway police in Oakland. We can look at it from a partisan standpoint and we can blame Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck. These people are the byproducts of our despair. It would be like blaming the Kleenex for the head cold.
These people are fear merchants in scary times, the Fox media of today is no different than the Hearst media empire of the 1930's. Without a collapsing economy, without a dwarf star job market these people would be powerless. You can only sell fear to those already frightened. They watch as Wall Street profits climb while their own personal finances dwindle. Millions upon millions of job losses, home losses, tragedies uncounted and the pall of disaster hangs over us and its smell clings to us like the smell of death.
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