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This is the Eye of Grace. This is where the world is set straight before your simple minds. This is where the shit hits the fan.
You are nothing without me.
Anatomy of the Republicracy
We had quite the stir recently in the wake of an eminent guest article from Richard Harlos, titled “What If It’s True?”. I recommend you read that article first, and then hop over to our message board to read the unfolding discussion that inevitably followed as we made the point of Richard’s article our Topic of the Week - “Are we run by hidden agendas?”
If you want the pop-up version, hang onto your propeller hat and thank me later:
In his article, Harlos makes the point that people (in this case Americans) are not going to make waves in a society with which they’re unhappy as long as there are enough shiny objects around to distract them and feed their social ADD – even though they know at some sub-conscious level that things are a little fucked up. The shiny happy government we see is not necessarily the real government, but rather a figurehead cabinet for the People with the Power, puppeteering us all from above in their towers of gold. Most prominent of the puppeteers is the Federal Reserve. After all, says Harlos, power derives from money and that’s where it all starts and ends. Where do we, the Joe Schmoes of the world, fit into these shadowy characters’ power agendas?
In the discussion that followed some people took the stance that, sure, we are being played but what are you gonna do? Others were of the opinion that it has always been like this and it’s time to make some changes – maybe by Y2K-ing the financial pillars of society or burning our bras in the street. And then we have the group that just didn’t agree period, and thinks we’re dandy as all hell.
OK, so now you’re up to speed.
This is the part where I tell you what the deal is and you nod and say “Shit, he’s smart, that Skeleton!”
In order to understand why we are where we are, and how it all works, you really don’t need a master’s degree in economy, financial analysis or politics. All you need are common sense and a greater perspective – the tools with which we will interpret the reality around us and channel some ghosts of centuries past in the process.
First of all, I would like to agree with basically everything in Richard’s article. It was well written, to the point, and shows us the flip side of the coin of living in a civilized democracy – the dark shit we tend to shy away from because we are so very complacent in our daily lives.
On the other hand, it’s one thing to show what is going on, but it takes a little more to explain why it’s going on. Without all the information, you cannot make an informed decision on what to believe about anything, so it’s important we flesh out the bones here. Harlos laid the ground work - I’ll fill in the blanks. He wrote about the here and now; I will give you the background. This should read as a complimentary article to Richard Harlos’ “What If It’s True?”
In the Dawn of Time mankind crept upon a slab of rock from the ocean. I won’t even get into whether it was “Adam and Eve” or some bipedal ape here (you religious fuckheads), but it doesn’t matter anyway. What matters is how the power structure was established, from the very beginning. Adam and Eve had God running a dictatorial government, supervising everything they did with a watchful eye, and punishing them for things they did behind his back. There was never really an issue of questioning his authority – it was just there.
For the early bipedal apes, authority was a little looser. We can be pretty certain some in the pack were stronger or smarter than others and were thus appointed – either by themselves or by the sub-conscience of the flock – to rule and govern day-to-day life in their little ape-world. The leadership of these boss-apes could be challenged after some time passed and other apes had grown strong and smart enough to fit the bill.
These two systems of power, the all-authoritative Super King and the elected (short term) Group Leader, have shadowed humanity throughout the millennia, taking on many different names, but always pretty much working out the same.
Kings, pharaohs, emperors and dictators assumed the role of the Super King, whereas cabinets, governments, senates, prime ministers and even presidents assumed the role of the appointed group leaders.
The quest for power can start with pure benevolent political ideologies of social revolutionaries, like Castro and Lenin, that strive to make Man come together and rule as equals - but they inevitably turn into a new total power structure with the leader on top, and the people on the bottom. Without fault. Man is not equipped to rule as one, because, as the saying goes, “There can be only one.”
As we grew smarter and our philosophical and critical thinking evolved, we developed new and exciting ways to label our different political systems of power. Depending on your viewpoint, you could focus on playing around with the One For All-, or the All For One system. Political foxes like Machiavelli and Sun Tzu put their thoughts down on paper, for different reasons, and people in power rule by them to this day. The role of the omnipotent despot is a tricky one in a modern society, as people are less likely to feel comfortable while being oppressed. Certain tricks of the trade have to be applied so people remain happy. You appoint assistants, vassals, ombudsman people and town criers to connect the vast void between you and the people. It creates an illusion of closeness between head of state and heel of boot.
Likewise are today’s governments structured in a similar fashion. In a modern democracy we appoint people to, for instance, go to Washington to represent our opinions and ideas to the best of their abilities. Here in the United States, we have a complex system with separated powers, all according to the theories of good old Montesquieu, that makes sure no one branch is able to operate fully on its own. The legislative, judiciary and executive offices are all working for us, the people, anyway, right?
Not quite so. See, we still live in a dictatorial state. That is the only way a power system between ruler and subject can work. The one motivation that drives a king, pharaoh, emperor, president or prime minister is to stay in power. Don’t fool yourselves, kids. It’s when you stay in power for a long time that you actually have power. The only way to stay in power is to be above the guy everybody considers the ruler. The Catholic Church is a perfect example. You have the priest in the congregation, getting his orders from the bishop, who gets his ass kicked by the arch bishop, who only reports to the Pope, who answers only to God. They are all replaceable, except the mysterious force called “God”. He stays, no matter what.
Or, to use another practical example, the structure of power is very much like the one found in Organized Crime. You have the soldiers, lieutenants and captains under the under-bosses and bosses. Most of all, you have bosses like dead old Gotti, who are just there to take the spotlight away from the big fish who do all the actual swimming. Bush is a Presidential Gotti in the Mafia of Politics – a dapper don without much to say about anything. He is the shiny object our ADD-addled minds focus on, so the real bosses, The Administration, can work on undisturbed. Sure, Gotti worked his way up to that spot, paving his trail in murder, and, likewise, young politicians have to pay their dues, and slowly become more and more corrupt, for a shot at the Presidency.
A modern president can’t officially wield any real power on his own, anyway. He still has to ask Congress with his hat in his hand, for favors, and then there is only so much time to do stuff in anyway. That is why the President is just a figurehead for an Administration that can’t afford to be party affiliated. Really, what do they care how Joe Schmoe feels about this and that? They will take whoever is elected president, or “acting boss”, and make him dance the jig regardless of political loyalties. In his article, Richard Harlos points the finger at the Federal Reserve System, making them this irreplaceable “God” that will always run things no matter who is in the Oval Office – and that may very well be.
A more accurate observation would be to say that the fourth branch of power in a democratic society, the monetary branch, has taken on a life of its own and has now become King Mammon, to whose pipe we all dance; you, me and the appointed people in government alike. Money doesn’t care about who you vote for or if your kids need dental insurance. Money only cares what you do with it. There will always be people who are in charge of the money, The Administration, the vicars of Mammon, and these people are our true rulers. We don’t know them. Not their names or faces – so taking out contracts on them by pondering revolution is a moot point. They have excelled at this game for far too long to let some Joe Schmoe get in their way.
Because money is, as we all know, power. It is only with money you can truly wield power and govern, and it is without that money you are the one left to be governed. You can have the greatest idea in the world for an ingenious social reform, but if it doesn’t make the right people the right money it might as well be a used condom. Money talks, and you walk, baby.
In a true democracy we naively elect “representatives of the people” to sit in Washington and play Congress, while the real puppeteers in higher places make those puppets of politics dance to the Mammon Jukebox. We could send Kermit the Frog and a dancing Springer Spaniel for all the difference it would make. The only purpose our elected officials fill is to enhance the illusion of democracy so we don’t get all depressed. Depressed people are a bummer, since they don’t work and produce, filling the pockets of Mammon.
It’s important to keep people happy.
Or afraid.
Either or.
You can make people happy by, as we have already shown, giving them a certain “power” in the decision making process, such as voting for representatives. You can also make them happy by telling them how fantastically fantastic everything really is and how horrible everyone else in the world has it. If you tell people they are free, they will eventually start believing it, and then you can get away with casual fascist things like “The Patriot Act”, tapping people’s phones, and going to war on a whim. It’s all in “our interest”, to protect us from the big bad whoever.
For that is the other side of the double edged sword of Damocles: the big dangers lurk and only our leaders can protect us from them.
You, reading this, are probably American (or not) and a child of the Cold War generation. You were brought up in a spirit of “us against the world” and led to believe that there is no place like home. America is the freest country in the world and everybody else is evil communist bastards out to get you. This has served to strengthen a society, weakened by the war, and made everybody pull together in one direction, as the rest of the world was restructuring itself around America. The Administration felt it was better to feed the fear of the Ghost of Communism, than to shrug and go on with life. Likewise did the Soviet Union make the “American Capitalist Swine Demon” serve its purpose by perpetuating lies to their people about what a crappy and decadent life people in the West live. The Cold War was one of the biggest brain washes in the history of mankind, on two different ends of the political spectrum, but both still serving the same master – the one in power.
The Cold War of the 20th century is the War on Terror of the 21st. You are still pushed into believing what the people upstairs tell you to believe, and you are too afraid of the Mad Arab to question the fact that there are people in prisons in America who have never had trials or even legal representation. They’re all Mad Arabs, right? That’s what they say on the news. If you’re anti-government your phone could be tapped. If you want to show your discontent and burn the American flag, you could face criminal charges before long. Hey, it’s the price of freedom, right? Don’t worry. Big Brother has your back against the Evils of Islam and the Outside World.
You still haven’t learned a thing. You still sit there, thinking you are better than everybody else, but still don’t know shit about anything in the world, except for what is on CNN. When you are told Israel represents the good guys and Palestine the bad guys you take that as Gospel. The rest of the world knows the Palestinians are the New Red Skins and that Israel is the New White Man, pushing them onto reservations and towards death. You don’t. For some reason you are rooting for the guys who are connected to the People in Power – the people who tell you what to think. When it all comes down to it, you are just a dumbass redneck ape with a golden collar. You don’t matter. Not at all. Nobody gives a shit about you outside your immediate little world.
Forget writing to your Congressman, forget voting, forget holding up your baby for the Presidential candidate to kiss… The Powers That Be are not the powers we see. The only way you can affect anything of importance is how you make your money, and what you do with it. That’s it. Period.
You wanna fuck with The Powers That Be? Work off the books, keep your money in the mattress and buy an Ethanol car. There. Viva La Revolucion!
What do I do? I am making you aware. I am doing my part to tell you what the dealio is – what a redneck ape you are. What you do with that information is up to you.
I actually believe in “freedom of choice”.
~ The Eye of Grace ~
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