Panem et circenses

The subject of the economy and President Obama's speech came up on one of my email groups. It got me thinking about the way things are, so today, I am posting a rant here in response.

She wrote:
I figure if we owe nothing, no matter what he does we'll be o.k.
I do wish the voters had actually gone out and done their homework! Now all I can do is light some candles, burn a smudge and hope to whom or whatever that the Chinese don't call the loans due!
I never thought I'd say it but I think we have actually gone from the frying pan into the fire! Dumbya had our grandchildren and great-grands in debt. This circus is going to have 7 generations in debt OR MORE!


I'm fed up. FED UP with the status quo. I know a lot of people are as well. I don't know who to be angry with, who to complain to, or what good any action in isolation will do. I don't think things will be okay for everyone. I used to think that as long as I stay out of trouble and pay my debt, I'd be left alone and I could be as eccentric as I wanted to be... No mas.

Electing McCain/Palin would have been jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Maybe we could have put the fire out after that administration left office. I think the damage done would have been mitigable. I think electing Obama/Biden landed us right in the blast furnace. There is nothing I can do about the generations of debt that will have to be paid as a result of the dishonesty in the upper echelons of government AND private corporations. The damage is done, and thousands of people are laughing all the way to the bank. I just have to hunker down and try to pay off my own debt as quickly as possible. With my additional $13/week, I suppose the best thing to do is to buy seeds. I'm feeling pretty pessimistic about things today, so take that into consideration for what is coming. Sometimes, I find myself actually hoping that 2012 really is the end of the world as we know it, because the world as we know it sucks and it's getting worse, not better. Perhaps we will all have the option of crossing into a parallel universe, one where the concept of greed doesn't exist.

By non-conforming, am I making myself a target for surveillance? By expressing my opinion, am I setting myself up for censure or worse? Am I over-reacting, responding to some Brave New World paranoia? I don't think so. I've heard stories of dissident relocation camps for years. I think I might have even seen one. If such things do exist, I'm bound to end up there one day because of my views. You can call me crazy-I heard that back in the 1980's when I was talking about genetically engineered animals and food. Twenty five years later, it is ubiquitous, the problem is that no one knows it, so I am still the crazy one who sees GMO's everywhere.

There are people that referred to the Bush administration as Fascist. Is the current administration really better, or does it just use a different approach? The Bush Administration produced the Patriot Act to spy on us because 'we must protect ourselves against the terrorist next door-it's for the public good, for safety'. The Obama Administration produces the Smart Grid(11 billion appropriated in the stimulus package) and wants to use Enhanced ID to qualify for his social programs. That is spying on us for 'our own well-being and for energy conservation and the public good-for safety'.

If you ever saw the movie "White Knights" with Mikhail Baryshnikov, you know that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics monitored it's citizens. Neighbors were encouraged to rat on neighbors, and it led to genocide ...65 million or more. The Nazis also spied on their own people....more death followed.

In fairness, this issue goes beyond party politics, really. For half a century, we have been consistently giving up our rights for the sake of safety or convenience. We talk about Big Brother and the government usually during the Republican administrations because it is during those years we look outward at the world and deal with security and foreign policy. Usually, during Democratic administrations, the focus is more on budgets, the economy, healthcare and other domestic issues. The Obama administration is on new ground, mixing the two. Big Brother is now Super Brother after the largest increase in the size of government in American history. The red states and the blue states are all in the same situation. If we are still around in eight years, we certainly won't have any privacy left. The Enhanced ID allows tracking of individuals and now with the Smart Grid, GE food, and control of the banks, energy, and homeland security, the American people will be in a full out guillotine choke. The powers that be, the PRO government (Pelosi, Reid, Obama) just hope that the people won't notice the loss of privacy and personal rights, or if we have been properly brainwashed and conditioned, we won't care, because it is for the good of all. It is worse than more of the same; the escalation in our loss of individualism and privacy is non-linear. Americans are in a Brave New World, but other countries have preceded us.

The Initial Decrees of the Bolshevik party were really similar to the promises we hear today....I realize that most folks these days apparently want socialism, but what road are we traveling?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolshevik_Initial_Decrees

1. The Decree on Peace outlined measures for Russia's withdrawal from the First World War without "payment of indemnities or annexations".

To me, that sounds a lot like Obama saying that we will get out of the Middle East and honor his commitment to veterans by expanding the VA and increasing pay.

2. The Decree on Land outlined measures by which the peasants were to divide up rural land among themselves. It advocated the forceful dissolution of many wealthy estates by peasant forces.

When I read that, my first thought was "Share the Wealth" I recall that story about homeless people squatting in foreclosed McMansions...

3. The Workers' Decrees outlined measures for minimum wage, limitations on workers' hours, and the running of factories by elected workers' committees. This consolidated Bolshevik support amongst the working classes in the cities, where they had taken power.

We are raising wages, encouraging unions, and giving tax cuts to the working class.

If you have some time, you should read some of these decrees. It's not so different from where we are today. It's a bit unnerving considering the latest accusations of power grabs by the Executive Branch and the Democratic Party(e.g. census matrix, new appointments, etc. etc.)

Where are we headed??

Speaking of circuses...

… iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat, panem et circenses.

… Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses

(Juvenal, Satire 10.77–81) Roman poet, almost 2000 years ago, still relevant today.