by Paul Carleton Seymour, Director of Client Services
I recently traded a few letters with a distant cousin I ran across while researching my family tree. I’m quite proud of my ancestry. I always have been, even before I found out how much they’d contributed to founding, and then building America. That’s slightly beside the point, though. The story I want to share today is about the frightening thoughts she shared with me from the usually quiet streets of rural New England.
She told me that she and her husband were fully expecting rioting in the streets in the good ol’ US of A. Even to the point of thinking seriously about preparing for it. What??? Okay, I’ll admit that’s completely feigned surprise on my part. I bugged out years ago due to what I felt was an ever-increasing fascist-leaning mentality on the part of the government which is in the country of my birth.
She wasn’t just talking about it, either. They’re actually to the point of planning the stockpiling of basic necessities, and have thought through the practicalities of storing quantities of gasoline over long periods, and keeping it useful.
Alright, I hear the grumbling. As open-minded as I am, if I had heard such a story back in the 80’s, I would’ve been thinkin’ lunatic fringe. This ain’t the 80’s, my friend, and we’re talking about a sweet old lady from “God’s country” in rural New England. A retired federal employee, in fact. It has struck me recently that the people with the closest ties to the US Government seem to be the same ones who are the most skeptical about the desires of said masters to “protect and serve”. So much for “by the people and for the people”, I suppose. They seem to have become quite convinced that we now work for them.
Some of Ron Paul’s biggest supporters were military guys who were sworn to protect the Constitution, and who take that oath seriously. Brings to mind that prophetic song; “Welcome to the Machine” of Pink Floyd fame. Today we might call it the MIC, as the past General and President, Dwight Eisenhower warned us about in his departing address to the nation. If you’re not up to speed, take a look here.
In my response to her letter, and to her outright fears, I got caught up in the reality of what she was saying. Therefore, the frightening aspects of the truths that it revealed. I even stepped up on my own little soap-box. Maybe even inappropriately, I noted that she was right to feel that they were lucky to be old, and “on their way out”. We’re talking about a couple in their 70’s here, which, as my colleague recently pointed out, isn’t really that old anymore.
I was reminded of the words of ol’ Dwight, and being a student of history and economics, as well as a practical business-oriented guy with many years’ experience in the corporate world, I’ve been thinking a great deal about the economic future of what used to be America. In that light, I’ve also been analyzing the trends of the US government’s actions over the past 3 decades, through its policy-making decisions as well. There’s a clear trend there, which is visible to anyone who wishes to see it.
Let’s quickly recall that the sweet, old retired federal employee from New England, isn’t the uni-bomber from days past. Even the most ardent, governmental cum-swallowing sheep, would have to admit she has a legitimate fear nowadays. Let’s face it; if we’re going to have an intelligent conversation, we’d even have to admit there’s a valid argument today that we should have paid more attention to those “radicals” back in the 80’s. Based on my family history research (which included a lot of American history research), it became apparent to me that the real patriots, the guys with the real guts, were those who started talking about revolution before it was “cool”. It was a lot easier to be a “patriot” after a big percentage of the people were already on board.
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” – Mark Twain
My final point, to which I alluded earlier, is my own personal prediction of where the MIC-controlled US Government’s plan for economic self-preservation could logically be headed. Even Joe Budweiser might have caught up with the fact that overly complicated financial derivatives don’t add much value to, well, anything. So what’s next?
If I’m a think-tanker type in Washington, I’m looking for a product to sell to compete with the truly productive Chinese. Apparently, faking productivity seems to be a failing venture. Hmmmmm. The war on drugs seems to be playing out. Can’t even convince the third world anymore that they need to pay 100’s of millions of US tax dollars to spray US-made poison on peasant farmer’s crops. The flying of AWACS over the Caribbean is getting hard to justify, while American and European drug demand increases, and drug prices fall after 30 years or so of declared “war”. Damn, one bogey man down. The war on terror could still play for a while, but middle America is losing patience with the perpetual defeat, I mean stalemate, in Afghanistan, Iraq etc. So what can we do?
I know! We could take all of the information gathering, policing, and opinion-control technology which we’ve developed since WWII, and instead of trying to overtly control the world with it by spending money we don’t have, we could sell it to other tyrannical type guys around the world. I bet there are several guys who’d gladly pay half their country’s stolen fortune for stuff like that. Well, maybe, but how do we market that kind of technology? We could prove firsthand that it works right here in the United States! For example, start flying drones around to monitor the populations every movement. Well, yeah, but how do you do that in a free, democratic society? That’s easy! Just slip a few crucial laws under the noses of the sleeping public to make it all legal!
You mean like, the ability to arrest anyone, anywhere, for basically any reason, and take away their basic rights to a trial with a proper defense? Yeah, why not! We have friends in Congress who could get that done. It’s a simple matter of national security.
Well, what about the rabble-rousers? You know, all those folks who talk about the Constitution, and all that garbage? Yeah, that’s a problem, especially with the god-damned internet making it so easy. I know! We’ll just pass some laws to seize control of the internet! That’ll be just as easy. It won’t be that hard to convince people that such easy access to information is clearly a threat to their safety.
There you have it, folks. Look around you. A simple business plan for a desperate, and powerful group of sociopaths to make a few billion more bucks while the world is still standing on its quivering legs. Wake up. Please. Participate in your democratic process to end the insanity. Sign up to an action committee that supports personal freedom, like the ACLU. Trust me, there’s nothing sinister about civil liberties. It’s why the country was founded. When they send you an e-mail asking you to sign a petition to defend your personal freedom, go ahead and invest the 20-30 seconds. At the very least, you’d then have a legitimate right to complain when your rights are stolen from you.
While you’re at it. Be smart. Prepare yourself for the unfortunate inevitability that history will repeat itself (1930’s Germany anyone?), and be one of the small percentage who gets out, if not unscathed, maybe at least with enough to carry on for yourself and your loved ones.
LIVE FREE OR DIE
