Notes from a Prol

It is amazing how history repeats itself. The striking similarity between our Government and that of the last Tsar (Nicholas II, 1868-1918) is one instance. OMG, Dr. C., you must have flipped your wig, you say. Well, I was led to that conclusion by Glenn Greenwald this AM in his excellent post on the multiple crimes of Cheney/Bush et al. and how they have out-tefloned Reagan. In particular, the fact that our Country has become a Surveillance State. Actually, I can't say that there is such a a great similarity because, although the oligarchic class does what it wants, our proletariat has not yet become uneasy. And, of course, we have no Lenin. That will happen when the enormous debt that we have incurred (one trillion dollars to China alone) starts coming due. Marie Antoinette was at a disadvantage, she couldn't borrow from anyone to pay for cake. (as some wag has recently said: "Let them eat Yellowcake!")

The similarity is very simple, we have abandoned the rule of Law. We have become autocratic. Again, as long as the proles are well fed (and boy are we well fed!), and have our Wii's and iPods, there will be no problem. But just as soon as Joshua and Brittany get kicked out of their little house because they can't pay the mortage, and then get their credit cards cancelled, there is going to be some awful rumblings in the street. I don't think we will ever storm the Winter Palace (there are too many traffic barriers around the White House), but there may be a move on a certain ranch in Texas, and I don't mean by Cindy Sheehan. Imagine a couple thousand pissed off 30 somethings moving across Texas and upset because their cell phones have been silenced. Hell hath no fury, etc.

What I am commenting on here is the tremendous fence that Americans have put off to shield them from reality. At first this was just passive. By that I mean things like the Today Show, which is watched by millions and millons of Americans, ignoring the carnage that occurs in Iraq on a daily basis to focus on missing white women or a starlet's pregnancy (Spears) or demise (Anna Nicole Smith). I mean, many Iraki men, women and particularly children die horrible deaths by bombing every day while Meredith Viera babbles on incessently about the most inane things. When I ask many people about current events, i.e. something not connected with Hollywood, the most common reply is "What?" Is this a deliberate ploy by the Media to distract people from the awfulness that we have created? (Of course, as we have pointed out here before, BushCo and CheneyCo are in the process of shifting blame to the puppet government in the Green Zone for the fact that Irak is in such chaos.)

So, on the one hand we have a once wonderful country that is now dominated by a lawless group of mostly men (and Condi) who refuse to submit to our most basic laws (e.g. against torture and against violation of privacy), that hide their lawbreaking by denying that it exists, and get away with it by distracting the proles with endless, useless goodies and a media that is focused on trash.

In the meantime, children are dying every day in Irak. Dying horrible deaths in burning, exploding scenes.