The Last Gasp of American Democracy - by Chris Hedges

This is an excellent that points to some of the major problems in the US right now. Hedges is right, we (collectively) are in the end game, the final throws of the creation of a global totalitarian state. Once a country is knocked over the mergers begin, two more follow and four after that and then eight and on an on until there are none left.

Source Article

The public debates about the government’s measures to prevent terrorism, the character assassination of Edward Snowden and his supporters, the assurances by the powerful that no one is abusing the massive collection and storage of our electronic communications miss the point. Any state that has the capacity to monitor all its citizenry, any state that has the ability to snuff out factual public debate through control of information, any state that has the tools to instantly shut down all dissent is totalitarian. Our corporate state may not use this power today. But it will use it if it feels threatened by a population made restive by its corruption, ineptitude and mounting repression. The moment a popular movement arises—and one will arise—that truly confronts our corporate masters, our venal system of total surveillance will be thrust into overdrive.

The most radical evil, as Hannah Arendt pointed out, is the political system that effectively crushes its marginalized and harassed opponents and, through fear and the obliteration of privacy, incapacitates everyone else. Our system of mass surveillance is the machine by which this radical evil will be activated. If we do not immediately dismantle the security and surveillance apparatus, there will be no investigative journalism or judicial oversight to address abuse of power. There will be no organized dissent. There will be no independent thought. Criticisms, however tepid, will be treated as acts of subversion. And the security apparatus will blanket the body politic like black mold until even the banal and ridiculous become concerns of national security.

The key point in this address is surveillance and a government's (or their handler's) ability to monitor everything you do and then destroy you when you get too vocal or too popular or too rational for their own good. You might want to give it a good read.

Cheers - Dave

reply to post by bobs_uruncle


Hi Dave,
I take it then Stephen Harper has your full support?

brice
reply to post by bobs_uruncle

 

Hi Dave,
I take it then Stephen Harper has your full support?

Harper is just another assclown politician that needs to be charged with treason. These wankers in government in Kanadakastan actually passed a law that gives the law of limitations on treason charges at three years. Your creditors can't chase you after two and murder has no limits, so WTF is up with that? A politician can commit treason, hide their activity for three years claiming national security issues and then walk away scott-free.

Do I support Harper, ROFL, personally I think they should wipe the limit on treason charges, apply the law equally, charge these wankers and use a green solution like rope to take the garbage out. Don't ask me how I really feel, but then the intel community always said my solutions were too permanent ;-)

Cheers - Dave

reply to post by bobs_uruncle


Thanks for the dig-- may the myriad of bumps arrive for this thread, and Chris' eloquent rant. Everybody should read that whole article at least once, because it's the best presented indictment of modern totalitarianism I've read yet.

The globalists started all this generations ago with public schools, and we're paying the dear price now. The great many of us who were played by emotions to table the rule of law are the reason why democracy never works... the majority is almost always wrong.

Maybe the sides are already taken and purely from acquiesence. Haunting many of my nights will be his eloquent stab, "..a state-induced stupidity." There is truth somewhere in the noise, and it's becoming more impossible by the day to discern.

EDIT:::and off-top, long Sovteks for the 12AX7's-- they made my Ashdown and me weep.

reply to post by bobs_uruncle


Last gasp of what???
I live in a republik, not a democracy.
Well it's actually an oligarchy now, but some are trying to make corporations non people and get money out of politics.
But the US has NEVER been a democracy.

g146541
reply to post by bobs_uruncle

 

Last gasp of what???
I live in a republik, not a democracy.
Well it's actually an oligarchy now, but some are trying to make corporations non people and get money out of politics.
But the US has NEVER been a democracy.

Yes, but the government keep touting democracy as an ideal rather than a republic as the initial (and what would be) the original path the US took. In a republic, you have the rule of law that is pretty much static and can only be manipulated when ratified. In a democracy, laws are more flexible and can be changed easily. You are correct however that what is in place now is an oligarchy and when the oligarchy is seen for what it is by the majority of the people, it is a short time before a government will collapse into either a totalitarian state, facist state or dictatorship which is the natural course of a democracy. Just like fiat currencies without serious checks and balances result in hyperinflation and financial collapse. In Canada we have a feudal oligarchy based on a monarchy, Canada isn't even a country, but the controls are basically the same and conform with Mussolini's ideology of corporatism, which is actually a form of fascism.

It's all smoke and mirrors, if you make people believe they are living in a democracy by constantly inundating them with words like "democratic process" and even call one of the parties "the democratic party," eventually people will believe it, a world view change occurs and you have a paradigm shift in thinking pertaining to what people think the government can and can't do. Of course with this kind of confusion in place the government does whatever the hell it wants.

Cheers - Dave