And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. . . The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ~excerpted from Thomas Jefferson's 'revolution every 20 years' writing
Well, if we were to heed Jefferson's advice, the way I figure it we're 10 or 11 revolutions removed from a fresh tree of liberty. Thankfully, we're a nation of lethargy. How else could we find ourselves adrift in the rotting tub of a boat we now occupy? Can you imagine how different the fate of our government, captains of industry and mainstream media might have been if we weren't so damned apathetic?
And now it's that time of year again. (Yawn!) The end of another quarterly reporting period. The earnings of big oil are beginning to flow in with the staleness of Seinfeld reruns. Early BP and Shell returns (+63%, +25% respectively) hint at the rest that will follow. And with the staleness of Seinfeld reruns, we'll probably bitch some more like last quarter and the quarters before that.
In the meantime, prices skyrocket as we willingly sacrifice food for our tables for fuel for our gas tanks while ethanol producers reap a 52 cent subsidy for each gallon of former food converted to fuel by such enterprising folks like those of the Carlyle Group investors. (We know the names of some of those slop hogs.)
But hold on to your rage because it's an election year. A chance for real change is just over the horizon. However, I find it deliciously ironic that each of the three possible remaining candidates come from the U.S. senate, a body given a lower approval rating than Bush. Yet one of those chosen for us by special interests and MSM will likely arrive with the change so desperately needed just as our "new" congress did after the 2006 election. Best we temper our expectations.
Until then, let's kick back as 2008 promises to be far more exciting than the mundanity of just another presidential election year and all its campaign smears, disenfranchisement of voter segments and questionable vote counting results. Hell, more stolen elections are nothing compared to what some students of 2008 trends foresee, like the collapse of the American financial system, economic panics, tax revolts, food riots, and other amusing calamities.
I wonder at what point such behavior might border on the flashpoint of one of those revolutions Jefferson advocated? I'm not sure. In fact, I'm not sure if things do get that bad we're really up to doing anything about it. Americans have seemingly unlimited capacity for tolerance of the intolerable.
But if we finally do find it in our hearts to revolt in various and sundry ways, maybe it'll get really, really messy. After all, we are 10 or 11 revolutions behind.
2 comments:
Yet of those 3 finalists, U.S. Senators serving in "a body given a lower approval rating than Bush" as you put it so well ... one has been in that stagnant pool for apprx 3-yrs, one for 7-yrs, and one for 100-yrs, or whatever amt of time it takes to rot from the inside out.
Good thoughts on the "messy revolution"! For some reason, I am reminded of the title "There Will Be Blood" (another movie of which I wish you'd warned me that I would HATE). And speaking of movies, we just saw "Charlie Wilson's war" which I liked!
Good question about the flashpoint. Seems to me the flashpoint was reached many times in the last 7-yrs, but each time the short-attn-span public was diverted by non-issues like religion, abortion, brain-dead comatose floridians, gay marriage, flag-waving, nicole's baby, britney spears' undies, et al. Makes one wonder if the flashpoint could be reached prior to being marched off to a freshly-built untouched-by-human-hands halliburton prison. hope so, cuz after that, it's so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish.
before you start scratching your head, here's a little explanation of my last remark:
"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" is the fourth book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series written by Douglas Adams. Its title is the message left by the dolphins when they departed Planet Earth en masse just before it was demolished. They left by swimming away into space because as has long been suspected, dolphins really are aliens. The phrase has since been adopted by some science fiction fans as a humorous way to say "goodbye".
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