Something I read in a LTTE has stuck with me..

I don't have the actual article, but the author basically said this:

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Are we actually supposed to believe that after sustaining our democracy through decades of the cold war and nuclear threats, suddenly we need to give up freedoms and rights because of mullahs sitting in a cave somewhere???

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That really hit home with me. WTF is going on with this country?

We got through the Civil War still having elections and still having a free press-and the comments made in some of the newspapers at that time would make today's journalists run for cover! Sure, Lincoln suspended habeous corpus-but only in parts of MD, and it was reinstated when the Supreme Court said he was in the wrong.

I'm wondering if we haven't gotten too soft and complacent. Apparently a lot of people have swallowed the Hollywood/John Wayne myth about America, that we are always right and that winning comes easy for us. This is baloney, and has always been baloney. The Mexican War was a war of aggression; Lincoln was against it, saying we were like the rich farmer who said he wasn't greedy, he only wanted all the land that adjoined his. Anyone who has done research on wars, especially the Civil War, know how hard the conflict was, not only on the soldiers but on their families-both North and South.

And harships didn't end with the end of wars. It used to be that hard work was important in this country-a person was respected not for his money but for how he earned his money. A person's word was a person's bond. Honor meant something.

Now we seem to be a county inhabited by snivelling cowards who worship money and the craven way people acquire it nowadays.

..since the 1980s, "greed is good".

IMO that's where it all started. We had a lot of people indoctrinated under Reagan, who believe that everything he was selling was right. There were absolutely no ethics in the Reagan administration.

...you might find interesting.

http://www.prisonplanet.tv/audio/091204hilton.htm

I'm not familiar with Alex Jones or Stanley Hilton, but others here might be.

The whole Reagan misadministration was a den of thieves and con men.

How many of us remember the fear of the cold war? We were basically told there was a threat of some nuclear warfare at any time. Then the wall came down and it was time to grow up and do some serious self-examination. That started to happen under Carter, but it wasn't pleasant, so unfortunately, America opted to place their heads up their collective asses by electing Reagan and here we are. I'm not saying it's all Reagan's fault, but he represents the phony, nationalistic, ethnocentric, arrogant, prideful path the people chose that will eventually lead to this nation's downfall.

Then there's the apocalyptic teachings of Christianity and all the Abramic religions. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Life isn't easy, so some wait for that oldest of human archetypes to come and rescue them from themselves. Thus we have the savior, the great war leader, or Superman and all the other comic book and movie heros. Evil will be destroyed, good will triumph and all will be well.

History repeats itself over and over again. Once again, we've just come into a new century and as during the renaissance, the enlightenment and the age of reason, there is a large group of people who want to drag the human race backwards to the tribal way of life where irrational fear and superstition, not reason and common sense, were used to explain the world and keep members of the tribe in line.

The character of 'satan' as he is known today didn't really exist in the Christian religion before the enlightenment. People are afraid of the unknown, of the future, of progress, so there will always be a significant segment of the population who try to force us to go back to what's comfortable for them. They have to create an enemy. Fear and irrational hatred of some other is a common cause that helps communities of like humans form a cohesive tribal bond with one another.

"the wall came down and it was time to grow up and do some serious self-examination. That started to happen under Carter, but it wasn't pleasant.."


How do you see the self-examination coming during Carter's term?

Another thing I've heard all my life, and I'm not sure where it comes from is that America must always have an enemy. Once the Soviet Empire collapsed, some aptly recognized that the country would turn on itself to find the "enemy within" much like it did during the McCarthy era.

even believed it for awhile, until I woke up.

What happened in the Carter Administration that could be called self examination was a long hard look at our energy dependence on oil. Carter started many innovative programs to encourage conservation and the exploration of alternative energies (I got a tax break for insulating the house I owned at the time). The speed limit was lowered to 55, which caused many to squawk. I really thought at the time that an alternative fuel car was right around the corner. But all talk of this vanished when RR came into power.

...you're right, Carter started exploring other energy means.

But what do you mean that you used to believe that line about the enemies? It seems true to me, except now the country seems to be focusing on the enemies without ("terrorists"), and the "enemies" within (liberals).

there was always another country that was our 'enemy', be it Nazi Germany, the USSR, or China.

Indians-- 1650s (or perhaps earlier) to 1890s
British-- 1770s to 1783; 1812-1815; 1840s were very touchy
French-- nearly became enemies as a result of the "XYZ Affair" in 1798 ("Millions for defense; not one cent for tribute!")
Barbary pirates (Northern Africa)-- America's first foray against Ay-rabs, early 1800s (provided the "to the shores of Tripoli" part in the Marine hymn)
Mexicans-- 1836, and again in 1846-48 ("From the halls of Montezuma..")
Japanese-- when they started becoming "uppity" in the 1880s, and especially after the Japanese defeat of the Russian navy in 1905, climaxing in 1941-45.
Spanish-- 1898
Germans-- 1917-18, 1941-45
Communists-- 1917-date (reaching hysterical proportions in 1910s and 20s, and again in 1950s and 1960s; still hysterical with regard to Cuba)
Ay-rab terra-ists-- 1979 (perhaps earlier)-date

...who we really are when we don't define ourselves by who our current enemy is.

spread the word

because we never felt it necessary to significantly alter our Constitution, even with German U-boats trolling our coastlines. It's about controlling the populace, exactly as it is done in China and was in the former Soviet Union. We are not any more at risk, but the Neo-cons know the risks: that their days are numbered unless they can use fear, intimidation and unconstitutional means to herd the people.