Topic: America: Rest In Peace (Read 503 times)

Rest In Peace? Rest in pieces. (Peace would be nice.)

I think the evolution/devolution of America is an inevitable process that all societies have in common. At first people are unhappy with the current society, because it has become oppressive - so they fight for change. After attaining freedom however, people automatically form a new society whose main goal is to defend the freedom once attained. After a while the new society will become more and more oppressive as well, because its resources are solely directed at defending the status quo.

ya.ya.yo!

I unfortunately do not have the time this response deserves today. Really didn't expect me blowing off some steam to go anywhere But I'll briefly address this and come back to it when I'm not up to my ass in alligators. It's a very complex subject, one I've dedicated years to studying, agitating, etc...

But frankly the main problem with the current system isn't that it doesn't work, it's that it works too well. It as you said incentivises corruption at nearly every level, and has made it very much a government of rulership, rather than stewardship as originally proposed. Voting, frankly, isn't something particularly worthwhile. By voting you lend your support to a system and agree to abide by it, regardless of the outcome. Whether or not that is your intent. In small groups, where you have the opportunity to take the third choice and leave, that's ok. But in a large system like this, it merely adds to the ability for the corrupt to manipulate the system for their own good.

Eventually such large amorphous constructs consume themselves. This, in itself, is not so egregious. But they take a lot of innocents with them. I think that digital currencies are a step in the right direction. I'll revisit in much more detail when I have time.

Thanks for sharing your true affiliation (Anarchist) and the quote, it's indeed important to remember that the greatest ideas of change are born out of something originally thought of as "radical".

I don't think Democracy is the worst thing, but Deomocracy is run by people and people are flawed. People are motivated by specific incentives and if those incentives aren't aligned with the best outcome for most people you'll see the people in control govern in a way that doesn't benefit most people.

Two things,

1) Current politics is structured to incentivize politicians to create legislation, which causes money, adds debt, and pushes government down the spiral.

2) The majority of eligible voters in the US is becoming more and more poor, so if those people decide to vote they will get the handouts they desire (at the destruction of the institution that is a financial sound government.)

What can we do?

1) Vote for and reward politicians to don't add to the costs but improve efficiencies or reduce costs (and not automatically at the reduction of services - that's the challenge the new politician must rise to)

2) Educate the people on the fact that handouts at a large scale kill governments, we need a generation of workers. People who are proud to pay taxes because they earned the right to contribute to a city, state, department, or country that they're proud of.

Ah, but we can only vote for our rulers, not the rules themselves. Unlike Switzerland. And day by day the rules become worse, the rulers become fatter, and we more and more resemble the Weimar republic. And the shift to democracy hasn't worked so well, has it? I'm an anarchist, not a democrat. Democracy is at best a process, and at worst, the most oprressive governmental system ever devised. Taken to it's logical extreme, which they will eventually if let to be, if the majority decides a minority must die, then they will be legally killed.

As for the comment about only for whites, it was largely true, though even before the war between the states the ugly institution of slavery was fading. Lincoln had no intention of ending it, and in fact died before it was legally ended. His "justifications" for the war were on their face ridiculous and moreso the deeper you got. In fact, many of his ravings violate the causality and time. The states pre-existed the Union, therefore most assuredly COULD exist without it. So instead of fixing the problems and moving the dream forward, our "enlightened" rulers abandoned the dream. Following the 13th amendment, which made private slavery illegal, they then enslaved the entire populace with the 16th amendment. This was a great PR move, as it riled everyone up so they didn't really notice the 17th amendment, which effectively ended the sovereignty of the states, thus finishing what Lincoln started with guns.

The real reasons for the war were many, with Slavery being pretty much the "WMD" rallying cry. (though at least in Lincoln's war, the problem used as a rallying cry actually existed...). The primary reasons the south wanted to secede (which they had every right to do, and, yes, your vaunted Democracy was employed) were choking tariffs on southern goods going north and an increasingly dictatorial tone from Washington. That they were just as corrupt as the northern states does not change these facts. From the Northern side, Lincoln was determined to prove that it was a singular Empire, not a confederation of independent states, and since the North was far more industrialised than the admittedly backward south, His side won. Not because they were right, not even because of superior tactics, simply because of better guns and more resources.

It exacerbated the problem of slavery, and ended the ideation of sovereign states. You can see the shift in popular literature of the time immediately post war. People started to refer to "the" United States, rather than "These" United States.

Now, 150 years later, you cannot breathe without some bastard with a badge poking his nose into your business, the money has been stolen and replaced with paper, and our people are regularly sent to fight and die on foreign soil for no defensible reason. I wasn't drunk when I posted the first part, I was merely disgusted. It was incomplete, not incorrect.

May I remind you of H. L. Menken's quote regarding radicals...

I live only to serve.

Nice add. We need to keep these charged rants fact-based. I love the rants, I hate the omission of important details!

Fixed that for you.

How many Jim Beam's deep are you?

Don't forget that the King of England also levied taxes without the opportunity for the countrymen to vote, that's was a pretty big reason for the shift to what the US made popular again (and what Greece invented), this thing call Democracy.

If you believe your religious freedoms are at risk, vote to change it. If you think your right to bear arms is at risk, vote to change it. Don't sit in front of your computer and bitch, anonymously to a bunch of strangers. Stand up, do something, act. Just do it peacefully.

Enjoy your Independence, mate.

These United States of America. Born July 4, 1776 in response to the overt oppression of the King of England, who egregiously denied them religious and secular freedoms, due process, and imposed an outrageous tax on profits at 5%.

Died April 9, 1865 at Appomatox Courthouse with the Surrender of Robert E. Lee, and with it the proof by gun that the States were not sovereign, and were to be ruled over.

The American Empire was thus established, sarcastically and blasphemously still using the name "The United States of America". We've gone downhill a long ways since then.

Back then, the American dream was liberty. I hope this dream lies in torment, that it may rise again one day.