"Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but, disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort."
Marshall Mcluhan
Scanning the Huffungton post I came across this little item. Not a particularly new sentiment in and of it self but the total jest of it does hit home quite well. Having to attend school after my father died, the family was quite impoverished. Little in the way of breakfast and for me, generally no lunch for the first year after this occurred. The next year I was able to work in the lunch room and get lunch that way. And our finances improved. I was able to get a job in a local TV repair store.
There is a rather new - in the last few years - phenomena taking place in various places around the country, and even in Europe. Where singers and musicians and artists appear out of no where and start performing what is called Random Acts of Culture. Usually, but not necessarily, classical works. Here are a few examples.
I have been making a traditional Finnish sweet bread know as Pulla for the last couple of years. It is made with cardamom seed, ground and lots of egg and milk and butter. As well as time. Here is the recipe I follow. Well mostly follow. Swedish Finns call it Nissu.
Death...destruction, disease, horror...that's what war is all about, Anan. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided. You've made it neat and painless. So neat and painless, you've had no reason to stop it. And you've had it for 500 years. Since it's the only way I can save my crew and my ship, I'm going to end it for you one way or another.
"Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation."
Empires nearly always fall from within. Sometimes they are brought down by force, the government overthrown. But quite often they are left to crumble by those within. When people begin to feel that they no longer matter. When their needs are not being met. When they feel oppressed and neglected and their voices are no longer being payed attention to, they stop caring about the institutions of which they are apart. They loose hope for anything better. This is true regardless of the type of government or institution. The political philosophy or economic model.
Not going to happen. And here is why. Unlike the very spontaneous, active and sometimes violent protests of the Union and Socialist movements of the late 19th and early 20th century where people were more self reliant and had to live with risks every day and no social safety nets at all, most people are almost totally reliant on the current economic, social and political system for their lively hoods. Their ability to cope with out the services provided by the public and private sector is limited at best.
There is another option and Ted Rall's latest book, The Anti-American Manifesto explains it quite seriously and succinctly. Overthrow the present government and establish something else. Something that is fair and just and workable. This is not some 1960s hippy Abbie Hoffman type book. It contains no plans for Molotov Cocktails or pipe bombs or how to rip off bits of the system. It is an in depth examination of the reasons for taking down the current oligarchy and replacing it with a real government.
Who are these people? These so called Tea Party followers of Sarah Palin that support her with so much enthusiasm. Contrary to the caricature that those on the left and some on the right like to paint them, they are not the ignorant hicks of some back water towns that don't even have television yet. Or escapees from a lunatic asylum. They are in fact common folk from the small towns in the Midwest and parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
I'm making my dinner now. Such as it is. I just got back from visiting my mother. She lives fairly close by. About a 20 minute drive give or take traffic. My sisters brought over thanksgiving dinner for my mother and brother. My brother is two years younger than me but lives with my mother. He is an untreated schizophrenic. You cannot force people with mental illness to take treatment unless they are proven to be a danger to them selves or others. Then it's up to the courts to decide. She will not kick him out so he lives there.
One of the people in chat posted this link from Chronicle of Higher Education. It is very telling but hardly surprising. The cheating that goes on in Colleges and Univeristies especially the Ivy Leagues and the rich kids that attend them.
Most people don't remember who the First Ladies of the White House were. There were a few that stood out. Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton. I myself cannot remember President Eisenhower's wife name. And I wonder how many remember that Bess Truman was the wife of Harry S Truman.
