Greetings, my Fishes – tis I Imperator Offensiveness MaXXXImVs!
Along the stupidity of all the fake ‘culture war’ we are in it is too easy to see that it is merely a distraction. This is indeed fake, mere “Corporate EFT” aka con-jobs. They buy up businesses, pump them up, set them to slide to failure and collect Govern-NOT bailouts and then “Short-Sell” stock against the businesses they own to make money. It’s so unbelievable it goes over suspension of disbelief. We don’t have a media anymore, it is only entertainment sometimes with “News” on it. And I mean either FAKE “Side” the left/right thing is a pathetic parody of itself.
The “Woke” online are (One Man’s Opinion) just cyber-bullies who pretended to be “Conservative Christians” in the 00s and if around in the 90s were the trolls that posted Rotten dot com pics anywhere they could and flashing gifanimations on Epilepsy boards. Even the most rainbow unicorn snowflake Gay/trans “Defender” (online persona) will probably be “SSstrikeMaSSter88 at hatehatehate…whatever dot com” next 5-10 years depending on the cultural shift. They just like to grief and bully based on where they can get away with it longest before being blocked and/or some business sending them papers.
All that energy – and the will to do violence – if ONLY we Xers weren’t held at the knees by our Hippie parents. Imagine a legit “Project Mayhem” but instead of massive smiley vandalism it was more “We guard you while you SLEEP…” intimidation and ELIMINATION of the worst of our rich elite…? Oh, well, can’t change the past. Most were too busy to get in debt for degrees they wouldn’t use to get jobs they hate to buy things they didn’t need.
Now the Millennials over-educate, are in insane debt for said shit fake “Education” and can’t afford what they DO need…Sorry safe space made by slave labor rainbow plastic diaper babies – we should have left a smoking world of anarchy for you so you grew up helping your parents load ammo versus being raised in a cushy Teletubby pay ground then tossed into bleak brutal reality at 18 with shit snowflake ideals packed into your soy rotted head…
However let’s go to what the activism is waste on and what problems DO need to be addressed.
What does NOT need activism
Sexism and Racism – Serious – though YES there still are legacies that need to be addressed (which I will next session) the world is a VERY different place than mid last century. This is in no small part to the work, struggle and sacrifice of “My Hippie Forefathers” (and Mothers) sacrificing so much even when it wasn’t “Fashionably Radical” to turn the needle just a tiny bit. The “Woke-oids” want to re-fight those battles again and again to LOSE them. There are now many laws backed by overwhelming public opinion to fight the past entrenched sexism and racism. Also people expressing openly sexist and especially racist views are hated and marginalized. It’s not that either are eliminated and they never will be but they are not entrenched needing a fight against by activism in general.
Gay rights – Serious – yeah it took longer than the fight against racism and sexism but come the late 90s into the 00s nobody FUCKING CARED if you were gay as long as you didn’t molest children. Oh, yeah is that ‘hate’? Well they cracked down hard on even men going on sex tours to have sexual relationship with children who were HETEROSEXUAL. That is fair’s fair, gays. If they ONLY prosecuted gay sex relations but not hetero pedo relations that’d be “hate” but it’s not the case by a long shot. Beyond the stereotypical issue most stopped caring. Oh, we had that wonderful preacher from Topeka (sarcasm) but notice how hated and marginalized he was? Come the 10s with the recession they really did NOT care if you were GAY. Survival TRUMPS (hehe…) the need to shout at others how to live their lives if they aren’t bothering you.
“Trans” Rights – You can mutilate your own genitals and pretend to be another gender. It should be 18 only. If you think normal healthy KIDS should be mutilated you are the ENEMY. Even a pervy man like myself who thinks (if 100% FICTION) all sorts of freaky shit should be OK (IRL if consenting adults) thinks anyone who maims a child IRL that way deserves the wood chipper. I mean it’s even lower than some sexual sadist serial killer who at least finishes his victims in weeks or days at worst – they mutilate normal healthy children grade school level and then set them into today’s bleak, impoverished, hate with a plastic smiley mask world to be alone and isolated when they were lonely people doing anything for attention.
Changing COMIC BOOKS, movies, video games…
Serious – Get – a – LIFE.
No, serious – GET A FUCKING LIFE. We’ve had a DECADE of our pop culture media wasted in what I’d have thought would be an insane parody of the joking exaggeration of the “Political Correctness” resurgence in the 90s that mostly got laughed off the stage though the public did push down open racism and blatant sexism though they let comedians tell naughty jokes without being “Cancelled”.
I could type all day on this garbage and I have typed way too much. It does NO GOOD. IMO the “Woke” garbage does more to help racism, sexism and other intolerances return than 100K of the Skinheads or KKK throwing rambling manifestos in bags of rice on people’s lawns ever could.
How do I know? Well I remember a few years back there was this spoiled rich boy turned into an egomaniac adult who got confronted during one of his pretend politics to keep his name in the public acts over “Sexist” things he said. His Daddy’s money was still there so no one could fire him so he just doubled down and said worse. The audience laughed, seeing how BRAVE he seemed. Later we called him President… Thanks, WOKE. If it was the 90s he’d have only been seen as confirming he was a Preppie Silver Spoon sexist A-hole. But he seemed brave because so many actors had been forced into struggle sessions, made to give tearful apologies and gotten fired/canceled the next day regardless over things people said in every other breath in the 80s…
While cities become looter and crime filled hell holes near impossible to rent an apartment despite whole blocks empty the “Woke” scum riot for a Gender Neutral Potato head toy and to “Change” this or that outfit. They break someone else’s toys, sow the seeds to undo the work of the mid last century and think themselves “Social Justice Warriors” when all they are is either grifters, con-artists or ‘fashionably radical’ FAKERS in search of a CLUE.
Cancel Culture – against those with very little power and who don’t deserve it.
Look up the Simpsons – S6E9 – “Homer Badman” – watch it.
This is you “Hipsters of HATE” in a nutshell, the vile, evil SCUM that you are. Excreted from the Debt Factories and going to “Change” the world one vicious act of targeted hatred on defenseless small fry opponents or uncaring big opponents. Nothing will happen save a few small people get ruined, sometimes harassed into suicide.
Sure there are some guys that’ll grab or try to accost a woman. Today’s social and legal system is overwhelmingly against them vs decades ago. Expose a few who misbehave and they’ll be scared for a decade. But you are in “Operation infinite punishment” mode and it won’t stop the next action or the next or even give pause to real elites.
What DOES need activism
War – we got World War 3 brewing and the snowflakes riot over gender neutral potato head. THAT is one thing 100% in line with the 1960s… And a “Military/industrial complex” that thrives on it so ensures more war.
What can I say more? Oh, I could write a BOOK and perhaps it’d be published and It’d sit on a pile of other books gathering dust with no one reading it and if they did and talked about it…. Next section…
A FAKE NEWS MEDIA – either FAKE “Side”
This is one of the biggest modern problems. We have no true fair, unbiased, impartial news that everyone on any sane “Side” can trust to be the truth as much as is possible in this world. Reagan helped end it – killing the Fairness Doctrine but also being against fighting monopolies emerging in media even though he loved to use the Antitrust laws against labor unions. Bit by bit rich elite interests bought out the media and turned it into a clown show that shows biased ‘sides’ that cancel each other out in pointless argument and neither talk about anything real affecting everyone. The public is misled, informed and any attempt to bring public these debates is derailed by “Sides” denying any information given. We literally live in a “Post-TRUTH world”…
A grotesque wealth imbalance
Ever hear of “Hoarding”? People used to be SHOT for it – say hoard all the grain so people starve so you can charge more. Sure it’s nice having the possibility of wealth as incentive to work harder and save more – but the wealthy need the rest of society to support and protect them. When the wealth imbalance is too high a society can break down. This is really one of the things the Founding Fathers feared as it was one of the things that killed Ancient Rome. That a tiny niche can gain enough power they vote money for themselves and let society rot while they live in indulgence.
I’ve had older relatives who legit survived the Great Depression and no they didn’t dabble in stocks and margin trading. They were rural and very far from the cities and IF anyone tried to sell them “Futures” they’d have talked about selling a bridge to them. However they suffered horribly because it locked up the money supply making it almost impossible to exchange work for goods. You might have heard of it in that farmers burned corn to stay warm and miners with coal starved. Well they had farmers hooking up the horse and wagon (not able to afford gas) and taking nice piles of produce to the mine to trade – not to scalp the miners but “I need fuel, shame if these veggies rot…” fair sane trade. They got killed by thugs that the owners of the mines hired fearing a revolution. It’s not in history books and some right winger will scream “LIAR” even if I could find a “Source!?” for it – post truth above.
We are on the edge of this simply because a few elites suck up money with no fear of taxes, regulation or competition. Eventually it’ll reach a critical phase. They’ll also make sure to cause huge inflation damage if the Government prints more money, even though it is just a fiction. Something is worth what another will pay for it.
We really need to demand our government – letters to officials – regulate these elites and break up their monopolies and other rackets so society operates on a much fairer level.
Massive trade imbalance and technology exportation.
Remember when the hacker Mitnick got jailed for distributing PGP encryption on the net. “Exporting Encryption”? As he did that President Clinton helped nail open the Outsourcing door President Bush Sr. swung open wide which Nixon opened and Carter was blocked by fellow Democrats from resealing.
And none of you nose ringed ‘woke’ raised on Teletubbies were taught about that or care – off to riot for “Gender Neutral Potato Head” forced EFT change…
But notice how the tech jobs are done by remote from India, the high skill manufacture is sent mostly to China and cheap exploitable labor floods from everywhere but especially Mexico? This is a betrayal of the “Law of Supply and Demand” by using a foreign cheap source as a dodge but demanding full compliance and protection within the laws of the USA.
And it does NOT work the other way – a few years back I visited India and wanted to buy a Tuk-Tuk for getting around town. Would have paid for one and got it shipped back here. Was staying mainly in Mumbai (formerly Bombay, renamed to original name by Indians) so sadly their clean air bills had eliminated those so was asking to go elsewhere to find one … Well I did until I rode in one of their MODERN cars. Compact but spacious, high tech, ran on CNG (Methane) and was open book for mechanics with apps for smart phones and web assist. The price was insanely low even for a “Ferengi”. (Foreigner) BUT – well they were honest with me when instead of cautioning me NOT to drive there (Do NOT do that, not in India!) they told me IF somehow I got it to a ship to the USA it’d be impounded and destroyed and I’d be lucky if I wasn’t arrested and beaten. Laws to protect big $ auto companies so they can slowly die as long as they slowly lay off union workers and get totally replaced by foreigners.
shit in china – remind them it’s OUR technology developed 99% by the Government, mostly war/NASA research and by government grants and boosted university research.
Monopolized Markets
From my buddy Maxx Feral–
“A few years back I went to my local chain bookstore. Remember that nice chain store that closed leaving its only so-called competition as the monopoly? They had this big “We support Local Authors” sign on the wall. I was getting back into Zines and had made some neat 1/4 sized booklet ones where you map out a piece of paper both sides with the portions made so you can photocopy them and then cut and fold them and staple them. I pointed to the sign and asked the clerk about putting a pinch full of them for cheap sales on consignment. The clerk gave me a horrified look most reserved for when the Homeless Insane smear feces on the windows. He had me wait while he talked to a homeless insane outside the store for half an hour. Then he came in said he’d need to talk to the manager and I waited another half hour until the manager came back with the same horrified look on his face even though I wasn’t homeless nor insane nor smearing feces on the property.
The manager gave me a nice long but thorough speech on how the “We support local authors” was just something the company told them to put up for taxes, tax breaks. That they have every INCH of what is in that store approved by CEOs at the top end. If they put my zine in without approval they’d be fired and they’d try to get them arrested. To get in I’d need to submit my works for approval but there’s a flood of applicants and you have to sign away your rights and properties to them – then you’ll likely end up in at least $100K debt as they’ll charge out of your small % of $ you get before taxes all kinds of fees for printing, ‘art’ for the covers, distributing, renting space on the shelves…
Reminded me long ago about a guy who was half near postal with rage, half on the edge of bellyaching because he made his own Sci-Fi movie. 80s VHS era, he did blue screen and sets and careful stop motion of space fighters and overall it was a neat little show. The theater explained they could NOT show his movie even in an off night. Why? because there was always one or two renters of all movies they had as an option. If they rented outside they’d never be able to get ANY new movies again. Sure they could sue and get a tiny judgement just enough to pay the lawyer then not be able to rent any movies. Also any “Art house” theaters that somehow get movies that aren’t pornos and try to attract mainstream audiences, say early movies not in copyright anymore, radical directors… The Movie industry sends lawyers to get them shut down.
Also John Norman of the “Gor” novels got blacklisted. Not just fired and no longer hired by DAW once the head of it died and the guy’s “Feminist” daughter took over – they worked out a blacklist because he refused to butcher his Sword and Planet and bondage books. For 15+ years he could NOT get published and not even advertise in a magazine lest they be kept out of magazine shops and mall bookstores – again a handful of distributors setting the rules. Despite that he was popular – I worked in a used bookstore during college briefly. Guy who ran it was an intellectual ass but I learned a lot from him. He HATED the Gor novels but they sold for hundreds each so he unloaded bucketfuls that had sold at a quarter each 10 years earlier for a few thousand dollars – I even sold off some of my collection to help make ends meet during that time. Once the internet opened ways past this blacklist he sold like mad and republished his older novels and made new ones. But we had 15 years without this thanks to the publishing and distribution industry.
Now, we have this “Woke” industry pushing utter trash that is just re-hashed old characters but whoops they are “Gay” even if they were opposite that. They expertly make sure that no one else gets in. Try to get your local comic store to stock even mainstream ish “Alterna” comics you’ll 90% get that same look I got at that chain bookstore years ago reserved for homeless insane smearing feces on the wall. God help if you ask for them to stock Cyberfrog or anything truly edgy and outsider.
Let me be “Master of the Obvious” by saying that this is NOT a “Free Market”.
We have a controlled and limited market of Corporate Welfare where a handful get most of the pie. In the past even 17% of a market could be called a monopoly and broken up. When a few players can control the access to and distribution of a product the quality and choice collapses. Granted we don’t need to EAT “Gay fashionably radical modern Xmen” nor are TTRPG publishers major employers – but our fictions, fantasies, diversions are “Food for the Soul” as Kahlil Gibran expressed and so when they are limited and controlled it does damage us inside as high priced poor quality food taxes our bodies. And in fictions we have the promise of “Capitalism” given to us -that if we have some idea, can make wonderful artworks, can tell a fantastic and enthralling story we might become very rich even without owning a lot of money by inheritance and earning more selling flammable pajamas and sending jobs to China and demanding Government bailouts and hiding $ from taxes in Cayman Island accounts. This modern market is the opposite, high $ interests control it and dictate it. It’s not regulated as it should like producers of Food and…
Oh, wait, we also have “Post Soviet” shelves in stores even years after lockdown and the “Because we-CAN-Flation” is going to cause food riots where they steal the food not the TVs, sneakers and snacks… They don’t fear competition so they make less and less and charge us more and more. What are we going to do? Make our own food production chains – likely we’d get shut down by “Health” inspections that allow Melamine from China as an additive under prison slave labor factories and not be able to sell in Grocery stores because we weren’t at a “Grove” sacrificing a baby to Satan.
This needs to be ENDED – we need to WRITE our Congress and Senate representatives. Letters. Yes “Snail Mail”. Polite, concise, to the point. Demand they stop the slopping of corporate welfare for luxury and media companies. Demand they force breakups and ensure competition for our $ for comics, magazines, news, books… Demand they tell the SEC to justify their existence and look into corrupt dealings, such as “Short-Sell” stock bets which I suspect are being made against all these products they force “Identity Politics” and “Diversity” on that collapse shortly after. Sign and date, include some $ if he’s on the side you vote for normally.
Yes, I know it’s a “Corrupt Swamp” but there’s good reason to do it. No ideals but real – it won’t end this overnight but it’ll make it a lot more expensive for these companies to get bailed out. If it gets too expensive they’ll run and move on and the politicians will be PO’d they arent’ getting bribes so then impose the breakups and regulations they should have done from day one so the government gets taxes from many smaller ones vs the big dogs bribing to get out of paying them…!
UBI – Universal Basic Income
Ok – master of the obvious applies here also – we NEED this. Pure and simple. With the addition of AI to the equation of outsourcing jobs, importing illegals and existing automation the AI factor is going to be catastropic. Even to people who did jump through flaming hoops and educated themselves in dry, soul-destroying boring skills to be as marketable to the big corporations. Forget the “AiArt Turk Muh Jurb!” it’s going to kill off stockbrokers, high tech workers, businesses associates, accountants – pretty much get everything including things (art, programming) they thought would be the last to go if ever.
As Ben Franklin said – “A Republic. IF you can KEEP it…!” – we still have the means of changing society and going for UBI- Universal Basic Income is the way to go. And don’t “That’s Commie-Nizm…socialism, Aaaaiiieeee!” – we HAVE this already. Corporate welfare for the rich elite. If you had any idea the $ that is given to them that only “Trickles Down” into Cayman Island or other tax shelters… Also false industries like defense products we’ll never use and the “War on (some) Drugs” – if we cut any of these we could pay for them. We should also block out easy trade with China and the use of Mexican manufacturing and imported extralegal labor. This is exploitation of people, funds failed and totalitarian regimes and helps the wealthy sit on mountains of money they inherited while they fight off and block out competition..
Sure it’s “Welfare” as if “Ensure the General Welfare” in the Preamble wasn’t VERY important. Even at the most brutal level Welfare is cheaper than JAIL by far. All these “hallp us, aiart turk mur jurb” so called artists (illustrators) being used to rave against AI while big corporations have theirs ready to help them rob the remaining $ from us could benefit most from it. Imagine some empty mall taken over because it can’t be used as a tax avoision scheme to sink bad business deals and turned into a huge apartment complex with some stores and food and arcades and a laundromat and gym? The UBI artists could do a part time job for extra $ so they had art supplies and/or computer hardware and software then work on their OWN art most of the waking day. If they had ambition they’d not need to compromise working for others and thus could demand high wages. Most might make their own comics or gradually publish books of their best works at leisure.
The social cost of this would be far less than we pay to bail out big companies that keep them VERY poor working 3+ jobs to barely make ends meet. If anything I’m just arguing to cut out 70% of one form of welfare and replace it with a saner, softer and less degrading. That’s short-term. Long term Ai can help run society and we’ll have Ais helping us manage what work we do to keep everything together. The current rich can either help provide this and go out rich or fight it and we’ll have an Ai backed popular Republic. I’d be for offering the carrot but they do deserve the stick… Caligula style!
The environment/climate change
We are facing weather that not in my Grandfather’s Grandfather’s time has happened. Whether it be natural or man-made it needs to be studied and measures taken to either minimize the damage or adapt to new conditions.
The costs of doing a lot and being wrong end where the costs of doing nothing and being right begin.
Serious – imagine a lot of $ spent (via cuts to defense and bailouts to elites) on windmills, solar and many other natural solutions such as more natural housing and infrastructure. We’d have an “Ecotopia” that even if we find tons of fossil fuels and beam power from space well the existing fossil fuels would last FAR longer and there’d be less pollution and damage. Reinforced buildings to deal with catastrophic storms would last far longer saving construction costs and absorbing 100% natural disasters all these “Once in a century” storms that happen every few years.
On the other hand, let’s keep making houses that are a degree above cardboard with even wider spaces in walls where law doesn’t forbid to save on lumber so a 70MPH wind rips them out why wait for 140mph tornadoes that many older buildings could stand – and then have hurricanes every other year. Oh, wait, insurance companies are now just getting OUT of Florida and other high danger places because they can’t sink the costs elsewhere… Some areas you can’t buy insurance anymore and they tend to be places there are laws you HAVE to have it… Bet they get forced to sell their land cheap to big property investors who’ll charge a fortune to rent in even shoddier put-togethers…
This is also where I go “F— the politics” as it is backed by big polluting industries working mainly with the Republican / right wing and so-called “Conservative Christians”. To protect their polluting factories and avoid paying for or adjusting to prevent environmental damage. It’s as moral as Flammable Pajama sellers who just sold off extra inventory and sold the rest to 3rd world countries when they were told they couldn’t sell kids clothing that’d melt into the brats like Napalm when their Krusty night light gave off a single spark. It shouldn’t be “Left” or “Right” to want this issue investigated and do reasonable actions even at large public cost to avert or lessen danger.
Last and certainly LEAST – vandalizing art made with NATURAL (Linseed oil) Oil, most of which were done before industry got into art (acrylics, modern synthetics) does NOTHING to help the “Environmentalist” cause…
Cancelling those that DESERVE it.
In reflection of the “Homer Bad-Man” I’ll use a pop culture reference. In Real Life there are around 100 ultra rich people and big companies that are making this world a horrible place or making it far far worse to enrich themselves at best 1% more when already they have wealth and power even the greatest kings of the past would have envied.
They are truly evil.
They KNOW their actions cause a far greater net harm than help. They know things will be far worse down the road due to their actions today. They know they employ every unethical action at their disposal to achieve these goals. They know they are already so wealthy the power/comfort they gain is microscopic compared to the misery it creates.
This is true evil. Mammon, the demon of the endless desire for wealth and possessions that exists with or without any magic or religion. Also Moloch, the unholy beast upon which children are fed to. They are its servants who demand their portion now. They operate openly and with pride for their works.
Their huge imbalance of wealth and power makes removing or limiting them by the engines of our Republic to be very difficult.
Thus IF someone was willing to sacrifice their lives and freedom – or put it at great risk – there is a list you can look up of people who need a “Cancel”. Peaceful protest does nothing nor does shaming nor does exposing them. We have no “News” anymore just different media entertainment with that name of various flavors.
When the line is crossed into illegal action it does have impact. In the early 00s the FBI spent TEN times the manpower, money, resources looking for to CRUSH the last remnants of ALF and “EarthFirst!” This is even though they were only into property destruction (whole dealerships full of Hummers!) and took care not to hurt people. The latter had an incident with a spiked tree but they TOLD they spiked them and the company cut them down and sent them to the mill later NOT informing the mill workers… Their actions did give many big developers and businesses pause though they were hunted with the same passion they went after the Weathermen who did plant bombs and kill people in the 60s to 70s still waiting to put them in a supermax even into the 2010s if they could catch anyone to charge with the crime.
To take that step you’d need to be a James Bond but not flamboyant, have your own “Q” as you can’t trust any 3rd party device, do NOT use the internet directly and “Assume you are watched at all times.” – but perhaps a big CEO getting his head blown off by a 50 caliber rifle or his yacht sunk by a drone limpet mine when he’s too far out for rescue then later its communicated why it was done could make them think at least once before the next toxic waste dump or pipeline they know will leak like a sieve…
Now is this direct “Incitement”? That’s actually covered by free speech – though if I said something like “Who will rid me of —” knowing someone I knew took that as a command it’d not be. Tons of extremist literature calling for all sorts of stuff and I will have no connection with that. I’d certainly NOT be typing anything like this on the internet if I was connected…
Do I want the “Social Justice Warriors” to take up arms and join neo-resistance groups? FUCK NO. You’d be “Pubic Enema (sic) #1,000,001” and might as well walk with boots that leave a painted footprint via a paint pack inside them and hollow shoes and wear a wire and video camera with a cellular and satellite connection the Fed Fuzz have the pickup upload from… You types are the most pathetic of criminals there are. The recent urban demolitions under “Black Lives” – your fashionably radical “anarchists” got caught 99% of the time despite being dressed in black, wearing masks because you used your own social media under your own names to boast and photograph your crimes. Any legit domestic terror person should RUN if you talk to them and hide low for a while…
I don’t advocate or directly incite violence here – not legal CMA, but that I hope while we have our Republic enough people can get our government to enforce its own laws, repeal recent pandering to elite ones and -gasp!- make the rich elite pay TAXES and obey regulations…!
Letters – polite, concise, to the point mailed to your Congress and Senate reps will do a lot. For silly things like the big companies making crud products and relying on bailouts it could make them pay a LOT more for their bribery and face eventual forced competition again. On the larger slow death of America I’m a bit pessimistic but do hold a tiny candle of hope it can be reversed. Our country has recovered (at least) twice from things that sank others into permanent Dictatorship and dissolution. I’ll get into this again….
More people need to be involved in Politics.
Serious – the Founding Fathers lived, strived, sacrificed and many DIED so you can have the blessings of Liberty. 99% of the Ancient Romans would have been in AWE of what they did. Our modern shit politics is an INSULT to this but our lack of participation is WORSE. Yeah “We are a Republic, not a Democracy….”
Good thing I still fear the law, I’d shoot or punch an idiot who says that otherwise. Ancient Greece had 1:1 Democracy and for a while it was good – a free society (except for slaves) of everyone from low to high having a say. Over centuries it devolved into petty tyrants and literally coined the term “Draconian” for cruel brutality as elites fought to keep power then it got swept away as city-states voted for themselves then the elites within did the same thing.
The core failing was that when it gets too big it’s too much trouble to always go to city center the forum and listen and if you think you have a very good idea or suggestion speak. There are olives to harvest, sheep to F– er shear and care and guide for, pottery to paint, marble to carve and all that fun stuff. Eventually the city-states isolated from far territories and then this happened within themselves so an elite and political class grew to power but save speeches cared nothing but for themselves.
Rome picked up the ashes of this and swore to improve. Observe the Fascis.
And before you shit snowflakes who might read this go butt blasting looking for somewhere to “Flag” (hint, private hosting you Cancel Pigs) screaming “Hallp us! Haaate speech! Hallp us!” know this is also on the wall in the USA’s Government, the Senate… Know where they got that name!? ROME.
The Romans were NOT Gods or Super-Men. They were exiles, criminals, malcontents, vagabonds. They were sent to live in a putrid swamp to struggle and die. One of them had a flimsy cheap old axe and the handle broke while using it to cut wood. The only advantage he had was the sheer anger not to give up and die so he found twigs and twine and bound the axe handle together enough so he could finish chopping the wood for fire and cooking. Then he used it to make better handles, etc.
It was a very simple lesson;
A twig by itself can easily be broken. A bundle of twigs, bound together, can be stronger than a branch of similar size. Rome bound itself by laws and traditions and they more or less ruled the (western) world for a thousand years. Eventually they forgot this rule and the ashes of their civilization aka the “Dark Ages” lived in awe of that ancient empire with roads, walls, bridges – some still in use today telling them what was.
I won’t go over the whole damn history lesson, there’s tons of works on this and don’t blame Christianity – Rome embraced it aka the “Roman Catholic Empire” which is still in place today so technically Rome isn’t dead even.
However the lesson is that – not for “Fascism” as was abused later on but the lesson we need to stick together.
The Founding Fathers wanted to recreate the glory and power of Ancient Rome but also they looked into how it died and how to prevent it. Thus there was the “Checks and Balances” system. The Republic simply expands on the City-State which can remain 95% as it was but then larger city states extend power to the countryside so representatives can merge. They give the slightly more power also so they don’t feel drowned out by a crowd in the city. City-States can link together and form a vast and powerful nation. Not an empire but one ruled by laws and elections.
The biggest weakness to that system is what we are having now – where a few entrench to vote themselves money and abuse the system with crooked gerrymandering districts and agitprop. This is NOT doom and gloom. America has already faced at least two or three states where it would have fractured and/or fell into dictatorship and corruption. The Civil War. The industrial issues of the mid 1800s. The Great Depression. Due to our system we pulled through.
Right now the issue is that too few are involved in politics. I understand – it is ugly, depressing and worst of all, My Fishes, it is Sooooooooooo BORING!!!! Going to a local city council much less voting regularly seems like a real “Drag” to use a term from the past, no?
But it is our civic DUTY.
That’s the one thing the Founding Fathers (exception = Franklin I bet) didn’t understand – that when we were given such powers as we had votes that counted and could have influence that they’d not use every inch of that power and speech in very careful thought out plans. That they’d not every month or week depending spend some time getting informed, talking, making their opinions. Then they could get back to the pub or church or both and taming a continent and killing the Indians to finish conquering it. Sarcasm on that last bit, Hiawatha’s “The Great Law of Peace” had a big influence as well…
I’m often pegged as an edge-lord, really I’m pretty liberal and leftist. I usually vote Democrat but I’ve told Republican friends I’d be a proud Republican if we had a country where we complained about a 90% voter turn out like we used to a 30% voter turn out. And it’s not just about maybe voting in a major election once in a while. It should be seen as civic duty to read the papers (and demand a neutral media with standards back!) and keep reasonably informed then vote with knowledge on local issues and once in a while go to at least your City Council. Not to be a “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” but to learn and listen. The more people that do this, normal citizens, who learn, listen then speak, act and vote as needed the less corruption we’ll have and the better a country we will also have.
We don’t need screaming idealists wanting massive change – we need “Senator, I heard you voted big $ and lots of legal/tax exemptions to —– company. Why is this good? What does this benefit our state and city? Why should they have exception and for how long?” and they’ll be there beyond that issue. To listen, learn, think and then act accordingly.
I think for the most part an elected official should be from the older half and most often from the well to do, but I mean established professionals. Still we do need Mr Smith types and street idealists. The rich elite do need representation too but the money needs to be strictly limited so many see it as a sacrifice of what they can earn versus an opportunity. That’s one thing I’ll say good for a recent President, he lost a LOT of money where most gained a lot.
Here’s a classic cartoon for inspiration – a silly 1970s cartoon but so perfect. Kids had to MEMORIZE the Preamble and this helped many C students get an A in that test. It’s also why “Hippie” era kids and even early Xers were more informed and the rot that was set in that era took a lot more time to get in place.
Sincerely,
O-MaXXXimVs.
Ram it hard, my Fishes!