American Way

(unearthed during a wholesale file cleaning)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/obama-legacy_b_2654287.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/sooner-rather-than-later-_b_2839940.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/america-is-drifting-mindl_b_2881138.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glen-browder/alternative-scenarios-for_b_2875298.html

FTA,PT4:”I also have a challenge for the Ameican people: Recommit to a new civic course accommodating change in our socity and systemic environment. Essentially, we all should participate, as responsible citizens, in that national dialogue; we also need to embrace change but resist radical alteration of the historic democratic experiment.
My suggested course for both the president and the people also means foregoing partisan advantage, as much as is humanly possible, in favor of practical democratic progress. Too often, for example, conservatives tend to cling stubbornly to cherished but outdated remnants of the past; and, alternatively, liberals tend to ignore valuable lessons of history. Such tendencies are acceptable when neither side prevails completely in our limited, representative system of governance. However, if one or the other assumes sufficient dominance and pursues wayward tendencies, within an extremely distempered environment, the outcome could threaten the substantive ideals and representative procedures of our historic experiment.”


This is a Transformative Time, in American, and World History...and including both of those(American and World)...including that Context is Important.
I am confronted Daily, by erstwhile Liberals(who often do not know it), who unwittingly Parrot Conservative Talking Points:”Obama is a Failure”,”He's Worse than Bush”,etc...and who aver that it's all over...and that We should give up on Democracy, and the Republic...since they're “All the Same”.
A sort of Galt's Gulch mentality, often shorn of it's Randian precursor of Selfishness as the Highest Good.

This Exhaustion is the direct result of two things, both part and parcel of the 35 year Project of what I term the Violent Parasitical Elite(VPE):1. The Wholesale Purchase of the Apparatus of American Governance, and 2. the accompanying Mindfuck, directed at the American People....the overwhelming Barrage of Confusion and Helplessness, the Confusion of Tongues and the Corruption of Language,Cognitive Dissonance, and Revisionist History.
All of this in the context of Racial Pandering, and the encouragement to Blame
our Neighbors and Fellow Prisoners for the Actions of our Ruling Class(whom they have convinced us, do not even exist.(“Classless Society” is part of the Mindfuck.))

While we're beating each other about the face over whether or not, variously, Black People, Brown People, Queers, Women, Non-Xians, etc are Citizens...or even People...the VPE have run off with the Country.
We have been sold into slavery, and our chains are made of Mythology and an Inability to Think.


A Comment:
FT Comments:”Thomas Pain
365 Fans
05:10 PM on 03/30/2013
Glen Browder's heart is in the right place, but call for a renewal America inspired by "the sacred fire of liberty," "a new birth of freedom," and a "dream of equality," is far to vague and amiguous to take us anywhere.

What we need is some very specific proposals.

First, I propose putting a sign at the front of every classroom in every school grades 1-12 that says:

______________________________________________________

I WILL TREAT OTHERS THE WAY I WANT THEM TO TREAT ME
______________________________________________________

Yes, the Golden Rule, restated as an affirmation, for this is the essence of the law, and of love, friendshp, civility, civic cooperation, and civilization.

Second, every student in high school must take a course in Political Philosophy, in which he, or she, will read and discuss "The Rights of Man," "The Age of Reason," "The American Crisis," and "Common Sense," by Thomas Paine (with an "e"), the most influential philospher of the American Revolution; the "Meditations" of Marcus Arelius, Emperor of Rome; "The Quotable Founding Fathers" edited by Buckner F. Melton, and "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer.

Fourth, also in every classrom, a poster with these words of Abraham Lincoln from his first annual message to Congress on December 3, 1861:

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, Capital. Capital is only the fruit of Labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to Capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." “

Consider, that in Texas, the new Social Studies Curriculum is...instead of being concerned with History, Context, and Truth....is all about Indoctrinating our Youth into believing many of the VPE's Favorite Mythologies...Christian Nation, “Capitalism” as 1. What we've been doing, and 2. the perfect expression of Liberty....the American Experience as Nothing but the Good and Positive...meaning,”My Country Right or Wrong”, and the Uncritical,”We're Number One!”.
What Mr Browder doesn't mention is all of this, as Context.
He is pointing to the Effects of the Mindfuck, without mentioning the Mindfuck.
It's the Ontological Crisis I've been hollering about all this time.




Another Comment:”
Peter Goguen
3 Fans
01:44 PM on 03/30/2013
Despite the widespread belief that the present government is mired in partisan politics, I would assert that quite the opposite is true. We are embroiled in a national dialogue about fairness and justice, with more voices being heard than ever before, and this is a good thing. The issues over taxation,health care, gay marriage, and voting rights are being fervently discussed and argued at multiple levels of varying detail in every political news cycle of the day. As these arguments proceed they will eventually distill some form of consensus, enlighten the electorate and lead to a better America. Patience is all that is needed - good things are happening in America “


This is what I would like to Believe...and there is an argument to be made that there is Great Transformation happening, under the surface...after all, how would we expect to know...when the VPE have a Tentacle thrown across the Media(Hydraulic Despotism)?
When our Information about the World is Filtered through the wholly owned Corporate Media, is it any wonder that We are confused?

I am, of course, way out beyond mere Party and Politics...Review my Ramblings...Left and Right, Conservative and Liberal...none of this means much , any more...
Better: Dominator/Cooperator, or Authoritarian/Egalitarian.
I side with Democrats, because the LEAN towards Cooperator/Egalitarian...not because they EMBODY them. We let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Acceptable Improvement.

With that in mind, Protest Does, indeed Work...despite what my Naysaying Buddies would have us believe, on our way to Throwing in the Towel.
Racists use Euphemism and Code Words, instead of openly declaring their Racism=Progress.
Even Republicans are set to give up on Gay Marriage...shamed into silence for fear of losing elections=Progress.
Occupy, ere it was Cast into Outer Media Darkness...and Tea, ere it was Bought...agreeing on the Fundamental Problem of Super Rich Folks, and the Corps(e) they Hide Behind, essentially Buying Our Governments.=Progress.
There is reason for a little Hope....







Another Comment,Exemplifying the Confusion of Tongues:”Bart DePalma
Bart DePalma
563 Fans
11:27 AM on 03/30/2013
"Can our nation -- a people of growing cultural diversity, with increasingly divergent values, and dissentient governance inclinations, in a constrained systemic environment -- continue to sustain our collective pursuit of freedom, equality, and justice through the traditional framework of limited, representative government?"

Talk about your compound questions! Let's break this down...

The traditional framework of constitutionally limited, representative government is based on the proposal that the purpose of government is to protect the liberties of the people and accomplishes this purpose by limiting the power of government to infringe on liberty. The only proper law ("collective pursuit") is one that prevents the citizenry from harming one another.

This permits divergent cultures to live with one another peacefully.

The fundamental challenge to the existence of constitutionally limited, representative government is progressivism and socialism - the "dissentient governance inclinations" referred to in the question.

Progressivism and socialism are based upon the proposition of unlimited government power exercised by an unelected bureaucracy of "experts" directing the economy and society. This is the anti-thesis of and cannot coexist with constitutionally limited, representative government.

Under our current progressive and socialist government, the bureaucracy and courts rather than our elected Congress enact the vast majority of law.

Our caesarist President quite openly declines to enforce laws of which he disapproves and rules by executive order or bureaucratic decree where ever he can. How Professor Browder can even conceive of Mr. Obama as a transformative president advancing democracy is a complete mystery to me.”


Here is the Exemplar of the Confusion of Tongues....
To me, it is Obvious...the code Words,”Progressive”, allied with “Socialist”...mixed with the others,”Constitutionally Limited,Representative Government”....
Again, I am confronted Every Day, with such rhetoric...mostly by erstwhile Liberals...who do not Know that they are Liberals(after all, don't they eat babies?)
Who cannot Define Terms, save from Inside the Mindfuck....”Socialism/Progressivism/Liberalism”= Soviet Russia.(or even Nazi Germany!!)...always neglected in such statements is the Effects, even the Reality, of Corporate Domination of every area of Life.
I stand firmly with Mr Browder...We, the People, must Engage in Dialog....except that no one seems to recall what “Dialog” is.
In order to begin a Dialog, “Both Sides”(but especially what is known as “the Right”!) must accept the other as American, Too.
Our Diversity is often the root of our ineffectiveness.
Fear of the Other is fomented....by those who would have us fighting our Neighbor, rather than attacking the actual Enemies of Freedom.
We, the People, must overcome this Distraction...this Manufactured Division...if We are to ever even begin to, as we heard so often from TEA,”Take Our Country Back”..

Again, We have been riding the car, driven by maniacs, bumping along in the Right Hand Ditch...any correctional swerve to the left is regarded as going all the way, into the Left Hand Ditch...the Perfectly Serviceable Road remains Empty.