Goodbye Facebook debating

This is my inital Non-Facebook entry.  I have given up Facebook because it is too shallow for serious discussion and too polarizing for civility in the exchange of ideas. Stay tuned for my upcoming articles on Politics and Propaganda, Economic reality and the fantasy land of the rich and more.

Class War?-It is already raging!

Class War? - It is already raging!

Democrats have been accused of trying to start a class war.  When they hear this they fly to their own defense.  Trying to avoid the label of anti-American, anti success they vigorously distance themselves from any such notion. 

It is time for Democrats to assert a new response. Democrats and all dedicated Americans  need to say, “Yes, we are in a class war – a war started by the corporations, the wealthy, and the republican supporters, who have acted with warlike disregard of our nation and its people.” 

The wealthy and the powerful have formed an Axis of false Americanism declaring that the worth of a person is measured by success, especially wealth.  They have asserted that there is no reason that the Average man or woman should ever make what the corporate leader or wealthy American makes… because the average person’s contribution is, they suggest, “not worthy of much.”  “People, they believe, get what they deserve.”,  The wealthy and powerful justify their robber mentality and cloak it in American Capitalism and flawed free market economic theories.

It is bad enough that they characterize the poor as lazy and stupid.  But they write off, as Romney did, the 47% of lower income working Americans along with the poor.  “Regular people with little wealth are really just not that important.” Then the power brokers collude to keep down employment  and wages to maximize the profit of the wealthy. They prey on the hopes and dreams of success that used to be a real part of America, but which now are less and less possible as the wealthy and Powerful corner opportunity.  Lotteries, reality TV, drug dealing,  crime and scams replace initiative and hard work as the best hope for the average person to achieve success.  And now with big money they manipulate the public with massive false and misleading advertising… and the general public falls for it!

Their approach is neither American nor beneficial to America.  The wealthy are draining and exploiting America.  They invest outside of America, they hire outside of America when they can, and worst of all they limit opportunity and under reward the workers they depend on.  It is the wealthy who have declared class war.

The whole middle class, the worker class, the class of  the people  is trapped in the rut of endless care and striving with little hope of reward beyond a modest place to live and a big screen TV to comfort them, while the wealthy live lives of egregious luxury – multi million dollar houses with 12 bathrooms, Yachts bought in China for millions, gold plated bathroom fixtures, 800 dollar bottles of wine.  The top 1 percent   doesn’t earn massive wealth.  They don’t work any more hours than the average person.  And they don’t produce such great value themselves.  As executives they manage workers who produce and earn, as politicians they manipulate power and look to their own benefit first.  They sit on top of wealth and they reap wealth from a system rigged in their favor.  The wealthy get to spend more in a day, more in a hour than the average man will spend in a year or a lifetime.

Now an army of Americans must unite, ready to take back their country.  Those who cling to their guns deceive themselves… they will never have guns enough to take back their birth right.  Those who cling to following the famous and get vicarious thrills from the excess of ball players and stars are engaging in self delusion to avoid the truth of the limited piece of the economy afforded them.  Those who cling to Religion, trusting God, are being manipulated by the great purpose of God’s will, by manipulators who try to equate Capitalism and market economy to Jesus’ love.  Jesus NEVER, extolled the virtures of Capitalism or Weapons.  And those who are just bewildered and discouraged by the apparent impossibility of finding opportunity, success or power, are living lives often describe as “quiet desperation.”

And there are millions and millions and millions who could unite and stand up for their rights.  Turn out the politicians, and break the strangled hold of the wealthy.  Not in a war with guns and bombs; that is a formula for getting slaughtered.  No, the people must fight with the means given by the Founding Fathers, and still not completely disassembled by the power brokers.  Unite with the political forces that oppose unbridled, exploitative and dishonest strategies of the wealthy.  Stand up.  It is time for a new Civil Rights movement… not to enfranchise a minority, but to validate, and enfranchise all citizens – your family, your neighbors, your friends, your co-workers.

 

Understanding the second admendment debate is essential if gun advocates and gund control advocates are to find a workable common ground.  Here is my take for now...

Are Gun advocates really a bunch of crazies?

It’s easy for gun control supporters to dismiss gun advocates as Neanderthal, paranoid, reactionaries.  But with 60% of Americans supporting gun ownership and even opposing bans on assault weapons, it seems that we who oppose guns need to try to understand, not just revile, gun advocates.

While gun opponents see guns as both symbol and device for violence and mayhem, gun advocates see them as symbol and device for protection and defense.  But what is it that they feel such fervent need to protect and defend? The first thought is that they are seeking personal safety against bad guys and second perhaps protection against forces of tyranny of some dystonic future government.  But there is more to it than that.

Pause for a minute to consider a deeper philosophic foundation for the pro-gun point of view.  At essence it is not about guns themselves.  Though most can not articulate the basis for their belief system, listening carefully will reveal that these people are those who mistrust or flat out reject society in which Government operates to manage society through assertive social engineering.  To them, the specter of government having  the power to impose social programs that control individual lives in the name of “the good” of the people give rise to visions of Orwells 1984, Brave New World, Communism, and for a more contemporary example the dystopia seen in the Hunger Games.

To these people, Social engineering is a form of tyranny, a dictatorship that no matter how benign or humanistic its intent, is nevertheless, a death blow to freedom.  And what’s more, they feel that social engineering ultimately fails, becomes an end unto itself, and the individual is lost in the mass-think of a “well managed society.

To these “libertarians,” restricting guns is unacceptable, even though all gun advocates agree that guns can be used for evil purposes by criminals, and by the mentally ill.  Restricting guns is the most repressive of all social engineering actions by government, because an unarmed citizenry can not respond if the social engineering becomes totalitarian, even though accomplished in a democracy.

Paranoid you say?  Can’t happen you cry?  The Gun supporters believe that it has happened time an again in societies, most notably in Nazi and Communist movements, when they took control of Governments.  Beyond that, many Americans feel that our own Federal government has already taken on too much social engineering; too much taxing, too many regulations ranging from helmets for motor cycle riders, seat belts for everyone, an now Obama care attempting to provide a social plan for health insurance for everyone, even the lazy and indigent.   In short, they claim, that the only way to preserve liberty, it to protect the capacity for the citizens to rebel against an over controlling government… and they believe that rebellion must be, in extremis, is with weapon.

What’s worse, these latter day libertarians (even anarchists) believe that these social engineering program ultimately fail… they lead to abuses, corruption in the short term, to loss of individual responsibility and ultimately to collapse of society.  They point to the war against drugs, the prohibition of drinking to deal with the thousands of drunk driving deaths, they point to burgeoning numbers on food stamps and entitlements out of control.

We who think that gun advocacy is nuts, need to understand the real issue being fought over.  The question is this.  Can social engineering for the good of society end up leading to goverment over regulation and a loss of personal freedom, a totalitarianism of government over its citizens.  If you see the danger here, you can have a meaningful conversation with the second admentment extremeists and the gun freedom advocates.