Kent State Massacre 2.0

                                                                              Thurston’s Thoughts

May 4, 1970

Kent State Massacre 2.0

If you live long enough or study history deep enough several revelations will become evident. Time does not repeat itself but circumstances most certainly do repeatedly. A politically imperfect storm brews from the perfect ingredients processed under complimentary conditions applied to heated rhetoric, defective ideologies, and authoritative coercions. Geopolitical agendas supersede rational restraint, humanitarian recognitions, and collateral damage from combustive allegiances to questionable aggressions. The schematic of conflict includes the usual suspects of religion, ideological clashes, and conquest of ulterior motives.

The Kent State Massacre combustive casserole involve students protesting participation in two escalating foreign wars, the military draft to support those wars, and a National Guard mobilization on campus to quell protest. Four students were killed and nine wounded as the National Guard opened fire on students. This single tragedy galvanized students, campuses, and the general public nationwide, magnifying the essence and social force that the shootings had sought to suppress.

Repressing protests on American soil with American military force against American citizens to muffle dissidence and civil rights for a foreign agenda actually increased the protest. Domestic rights were massacred in pursuit of spreading democracy, which was the façade du jour promoted, concealing  geopolitical ideologies propagated under patriotism, nationalism, and imperialism. The reheated leftovers of the Doctrine of Discovery and Papal Bulls of cajoling religion, conquest, and  dogma always with a splash of righteousness against a competing ideology, were paramount.

Vietnam and Cambodia left a stain on America with Kent State, Agent Orange suffers, heroin addictions, and less than heroic treatment of returning service personnel. Protest against the military draft and conscientious objections to the war signaled the puppet master’s strings being cut, changing the dynamics of the slaughter mill obedience to unbridled compliance. It ushered in a period of social revolution questioning the cocoon of authority.

Albert Einstein stated that blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of truth. Blind obedience festers atrocities justified by objective. A military draft removes choice as the embryo of brainwashing and psychological grooming leading to an assembly line of thought submission. Muhammed Ali was vilified for his resistance to the Vietnam War and draft to later become globally beloved. Doing right may not be recognized until later, but if it had not been done, what would there be to celebrate? The American Revolution is the epitome of such a protestive rebellion.

College campuses are the incubators of thought and often the genesis of leadership changing the status quo to generationally sculpt their interpretation upon future policy, procedures, and politics. Our world reflects this clash of old and new. The old holds the advantage of power and experience while the young possess enthusiasm and blossoming ideas. Many old heads were the youth of yesteryear’s protestors now fiercely protecting a current reality they then fought against. Debate by military force is no remedy to settling differing perspectives.

Those making war-mongering decisions are not the ones fighting and dying over them. The same college students are relied upon for military service but not the declaration of their convictions. Reasonably, an invalidation of a disputed position or method does not invalidate the merits. The dismissal of claims as anti-this or that, victimhood, or expired cannot dissolve the culpability or veracity its built upon.  The reason breathes even as the method is suffocated.

Many of today’s disputes emanate from an ideological religious crusade poorly disguised as politics. Religious beliefs of dubious veracity other than pure faith should not govern war or politics but they do as well as national and geopolitical allegiances. In addition, nationally during the early 70s, an embattled President Nixon was toppled by the criminality of Watergate, seduced by power and jolted by the prospect of losing it. Hence the crime and coverup.

There appear to be two overwhelming factors humanity must confront and they are inbred religion and absolute power. Both are corrupt and corrupted for dubious and distorted purposes. So by vicarious affiliation of consent or concession, the guilt of silence fuels the locomotive of atrocities as efficiently as purposeful intent. Perhaps the government of the people should listen to the dissatisfaction of the People. This time period of the 70s was deemed volatile by the volume of change and challenges. 

The 1973 codified Roe v. Wade recently overturned was enacted by the Pulse of the People. Additionally, BRICS now threatens the default currency status of the U.S. Dollar exploiting the 1971 Nixon removal of the gold standard to stimulate government spending and deficits. Globally nations are returning to the gold standard. Would you rather have a currency backed by gold or a diminishing fiat reputation? Lack of DEI was deemed a liability to productivity and decency shunning the equality of inequality. 

C. Everett Koop railed against cigarettes and its 600 ingredients, igniting 7,000 chemicals, leading to the warning on the packaging. The cigarette was vilified but not its producers  despite the verified health cost. The matador defense is now against menthol. Albeit smoking sherm, drinking ammonia, or eating rat poison is frowned upon except when consumed in cigarettes. From weapons of mass destruction to the current geopolitical dogma, truth and independent thinking should be encouraged to avoid the spin cycle of history repeating itself. Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.

There comes a time when it is prudent to take the keys from great grandpa not necessarily by age but by perspective. Over a half of our congressional leaders are over the age of sixty-five. Is there any wonder we are stuck in an ideological and geo-political stone age governed by perspectives of the 1940s and 50s? At the risk of being woke, wake up people it is a self-aggrandizing job for many politicians whose personal agenda trumps the public wishes. A governor who votes for a trans bill because of his child or a Speaker of the House who pushes foreign aid because his son is in the military.

Not to belie the decision but the selfishly subjective motive. This is how we are governed and compromised including the shell game of the Electoral College. So why encourage the youth to pursue an education that we don’t want them to use for critical thinking? If you can’t teach old dogs new tricks, why stop new dogs from performing new tricks? College campuses are the seeds planted years ago bearing fruit into the future. The pruning of this tree instills conformity to past social and political establishments.

The youth are shackled by decisions from people who will not be around to experience the damage. By association or capitulation, the slumber of stagnation cannot be allowed to massacre conscientious change as woke. The youth today will be us tomorrow just as we were them then. Institutions of thought should not stifle the expression of thought either by massacre or militia. History proves it only exacerbates the protest and rebellion.

Look around at the campus protests, two foreign wars potentially devouring our youth in escalated combat, talk of re-instituting a military draft for lack of volunteers, law enforcement/military confrontations with college protesters, abortion ban, voting rights circumvention, de-dollarization, social inequality, and a disgraced former President. With history repeating itself, we definitely do not need a Kent Massacre 2.0. Find another way, might does not make right. It makes martyrs and crusader’s. 

 

The Dreamer’s Dream

Delayed Delivery

The Dreamer’s Dream

Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” speech spoke of hope at daybreak after a long night of captivity. He spoke of the crippling continuation of segregation and discrimination even 100 years later. He spoke of us as an island isolated from prosperity by public policy and racist sentiment. He spoke of cashing a check issued on a promissory note. His civil rights speech questioned the inalienable rights, liberty, and pursuit of happiness promised to all but yet not delivered to us. He spoke of the urgency of the times, police brutality, ghetto conditions only varying in the size of the ghetto, voting rights denied, and the indifference to injustice provoking an interdependent fate of destruction.

However, he did not speak of becoming docile and we should not let the interpretation of his words convert us into doormats for those who say his words were those of passivity. He was emphatic about there can be no rest or contentment until we are recognized and treated equally as first class citizens.  He did indeed speak of a color blind society but have we achieved it yet? If not, many interpretations and assertions regarding his speech are still delinquent in their realization. As such, the racial utopia of his dream is a society we are working towards but still have a considerable ways to go.

The unrelenting echoes of his voice ring loud and true as if he is giving that speech today. Many of the conditions he spoke of still exist as challenges of today. Sure, apologist, revisionist, and the treasonous historically ignorant point to gains amounting to meatless bones of patronization comparative to other segments of society. He also warned us of contentment fatiguing us to complacency. It is also true that our complacency has now led to our conditions just as much as the forces against us have. Patience is a virtue only when it is not used as a crutch propping up alibis of inaction and deficits of fortitude.

Where is our bus boycott or march on power mentality insisting our demands are met? We whimper in celebrations of causes which allude us disguised as a tribute to the man himself. They are separate. Celebrate the man but the fight for the cause, his cause which has always been our cause is still waging far from over and constantly under siege. Any factual revelation of discrimination is labeled anti-American, anti-white, divisive, and well, racist. It absolutely is exactly that if judged by the metric of Jim Crow and those who would hold themselves to a delusional entitlement of superiority.

But that was the point of his speech. He was, and I am also very clear to state it is not a reference to all white people or people of any “color” who do not hold racist sentiments. Much like in home room when they call names at roll call. If it is not your name, you don’t answer because they are not talking to you. Same for acts of racism not committed by you. Counter claims of racism because we assert our humanity may just have to be the price of doing business and should not deter us from our appointed duty. This counter claim of racism from pointing out the elephant in society amounts to playing the dozens and you can’t play with me in a way I don’t play.

Label it as you may but it does not change the nature of the historical accuracies by the whining “white victimization” petition when social change or accountability hounds your privileged fragility of a fractured identity. The reimbursement of our claims are met with entitlements of moral bankruptcy or written off as an uncollectable debt of justice. But, why? A large part is the psychology of assimilation where we must shun any association or resemblance to those of us still stereotypically marginalized based on our indoctrination of them as memories of inferiority. Our Judas approach to denounce them to appease others and pacify ourselves maintains our separation and our collective ostracization.

It is an adoption of an ideology mimicking an identity conditioned upon us similar to the squabble between house and field personnel. An immigrational surrender of our identity to gain acceptance. Dr. King spoke of governors, some now are freshly minted immigrants I might add, as vicious racist whose lips are dripping with, well their hypocrisy of racism or the eradication of it. Frankly speaking, presidential candidates can be included as well until their ethnicity is challenge as not “white” and then they cry racism which they say does not exist.

However, I would bet white is what they self-identify as on an application when it suits them. This code switching is a form of discriminatory privilege many fail to admit but routinely use such as the term minority or person of color. These minor practices do not obscure the awareness and denial of much more significant normalities and fluctuating definitions of unnecessary labels. They protest the restrictions of racism and subjugated labels only when directly applied to them. Why would it exist for them but not for us when we have a documented archive of its existence for us? They can ban books but history, memories, and truth is a much different story. 

So, August 28, 1963, was the date of Dr. King’s historic speech and more than 60 years later the runway is still not clear for equality to land. Advocates of freedom are not voting for something. We are voting against our forever intertwined destruction. Our collective survival. This is especially true for Blacks, the enemy of those who opposes our interest is a friend not to us but to our interest. Assimilation surrenders an identity which many believe was taken from us centuries ago, but as Dr. King said this is a beginning and not an end.

Our salvation will be our dignity, content of character, and fortitude persevering as our sword to tremble the sentiments of injustice from the ideological delusion of Stone Mountain in Georgia to whatever rock of ideology racist hide behind or under. We have tried a soul force of faith more appropriate for that time. It has proven that the beggars tool benefits only time. So, don’t discredit Dr. King’s dream turning it into a nightmare by our empty talk and celebration. Celebrate his life and legacy sure, but don’t succumb to the relaxation of a partial achievement. Dr. King warned us of this with his words and life 

Nevertheless, his legacy is best celebrated by the actions of people who embody his calls to arms by being about it instead of talking about it. Standing on the ideological business about it. To not be deceived about his dream we must learn about the Dreamer and his speech from his words beyond the sensationalism of a few of the more famous verses. It will inspire you to a greater appreciation for his significance as a sociopolitical force so dangerous he had to be silenced. READ the speech to consume the magnitude of its message so it can never be silenced. Please, don’t sleep on the Dreamer’s message. Humanity has no color only where racism has no place. Hopefully one day we’ll have a Happy MLK Jr Day which is not a dream but a reality!

Thurston K Atlas

Creating a Buzz

Hocus Pocus- Election 2020



Lesson Learned,  Strategy Applied

Hocus Pocus is a catchy phrase that is associated with magic tricks. It is a concept that captivates your attention without any detection of its sly execution. But, in practice, it is meaningless talk or activity specifically designed to draw attention away from, deceive, or disguise what is secretly happening in front of you.

It magically enchants or charms you using a series of words and actions directing your thoughts towards a diversion. While at the same time conducting the deception. It has already brought about some sort of magical distortion by undetected sleight of hand or mind when spoken. The hocus pocus is the diversion that exploits perception with the pretense of magic. Thus it is called a trick for this reason because you are indeed tricked by deception.

The 2020 election has been the magic act, while the protest, civil unrest, and political shenanigans have been the hocus pocus diversion exploiting our perception against our objectives. We must realize the right to and the purpose for protest is not questioned or diminished by examining its objective and effectiveness but redefined and improved.

Is the goal of protest in and of itself for emotional release or to achieve a beneficial objective? Removing emotions must be replaced with the resilient decree of logical substantive resolutions. Furthermore, the ensuing political circus has been a well-orchestrated misdirection concealing an even more sinister plan, stroking fear to solidify power fueling re-election. 

My commentary is not a political statement and is devoid of politics or concern for who won the election because this has nothing to do with who won. It is more about the tactics of how the election was almost lost ideologically. Nevertheless, the need for adaptation in the premises and implementation of opposing strategy is brought in context by the support for Trumpism, which cannot be easily dismissed as just racist.

It is therefore prudent to develop counterintelligence from the ideologies that oppose our interests and learn from them. We must identify, know, and understand the instruments of repression used against our progress. 

Foremost, people align themselves with their interests more so than being opposed to someone else’s when they are not mutually exclusive or diametrically opposed intrusions. Thus, social justice can occur without threatening to upend society but promising to improve it if done strategically.

What does threaten to upend society is the fear of senseless violence and random destruction. This path has been traveled repeatedly and has not accomplished social justice but more alienation, ours. But, on the other hand, the contortion of Democracy and suppression of mechanisms of change continue as obstacles to be challenged and transformed.  

Regardless of any other section of society’s condition, we must concern ourselves with our condition. Comparatively, our grievances are legitimate, but we must maximize the actions within our power to affect our change. We must consider what has aided different segments of society to exceed and excel while we remain relatively stagnant. 

Complaining, making excuses, and finger-pointing relies on the offender relenting and granting us some degree of redress at their discretion.  Recognition of limitations beyond an empowering point produces weakness and is demoralizing, leaving us begging. There are more significant dynamics at play within our control and the development of effective ideological initiatives. 

What is within our control is, in fact, our power, and utilizing power needs no permission. Therefore, a structured demographical, tactical, psychological, economic, and political crusade using a calculated, disciplined, and focused application is required to create and expand our ideological initiative. Initially, we must be brutally honest in identifying our condition, counterproductive influences, and course of correction.

We must also assess our human resources, level of resilient commitment, best deployment options, and methods of quantitative accountability. Finally, any strengths and weaknesses of our resolve must be accurately assessed to formulate discipline to a resolution.

Supporting pointless actions must not become engrained or flourish within our objective. Once a blueprint is devised, identifying activities that jeopardize or damage that blueprint must be isolated, neutralized, or discontinued. It is minimizing or eradicating self-inflicted harm eroding our collective objective. The more focused and comprehensive the commitment, the more effective the plan is, expanding the considerations for implementation. 

Those who oppose this objective should not be able to infiltrate, associate, or instigate under the cloak of the collective objective. This infiltration of provocateur’s detrimental behavior is then wrongly associated with our protest and purpose when allowed or tolerated.

The method used to isolate and eliminate this infiltration is accomplished by adjusting our methods and directives of objection. Denouncing these actions as unrelated Operandi of an antagonist intention in opposition to our goals. This is not to endorse cowardly behavior or spinelessly tolerate repercussions but to advocate for logical and tactical outmaneuvering of opposing ideologies.

When in conflict, the allocations of the adversary must not be contributed to or enhanced but lessened or eliminated. As part of our resistance, it is foolish that we would provide the incentive, justification, sustenance, division, or discord to be used against us. If it does, then that policy is fortifying the opposition, feeding their interest against our objective. It simply cannot be allowed to nourish their starving resistance.

When building our formidable resistance, the dimension and composition of the participants is the primary determination, utilizing them as a cohesively focused demographic unit. We must use the right tools for the job, remembering that selected suitability varies according to purpose by capabilities. Some who could not or would not protest in the streets are eager to contribute otherwise. They can also contribute by other values and associations.

With only 14.7 % of the U.S. population identifying as black, we cannot underestimate our need for alliances with other demographics to accomplish our objectives. We need to project shared interests and avoid unnecessary alienation that does not promote our intent. Thus, promoting mutual effort by mutual gain emphasizing their benefit by coalition with a shared principle or common aspiration. There is no need to create opposition where none exists.      

Bullhorns and rhymes have their limitations. Old practices should be scrutinized and avoided if they create too many negative implications with minimal practical benefit. Resources and volunteers must have a mission, be purposefully mobilized, and be preserved from harm by design.

For example, where demographics are strong on local municipal levels, we can dictate our fate in the areas where we reside and work, then expand outward and upward. Considerations and accommodations in our concentrated demographic regions can provide a favorable safe haven or bubble where our circumstances are protected and expanded by legislative means. 

There must be recognition and proactive countermeasures enacted to prevent the games being played. Mauling voting rights is the emerging contention by voter suppression and redistricting to circumvent the antidotal counter to defend against the hocus pocus. 

We cannot proudly remain exclusive from others when we so desperately can use their help. There is strength in numbers, and mathematically these coalitions make it easier twofold by creating support and removing resistance. Furthermore, we need to reasonably identify our strategic advantages and partners, what resources and techniques are required, and methodically strengthen and apply them. 

 

 

 

Tactically, new creative methods of protest that rely less on physical presence, raging emotion, or confrontation are the most compelling, effective way to gain a powerful advantage. It is not hiding; it is stick and move, strike without being struck. Accomplishment is the goal, not posturing or grandstanding.

Additionally, conservative and religious forces need to be favorably engaged in extracting adherence to their stated core beliefs, aligning and consolidating them with our social justice goals. The incentive would be to embrace support for the freedoms they enjoy or claim to represent. 

Make them an offer that their belief cannot refuse or further expose and identify the basis for their hypocrisy, thereby being specified as part of the remedy or a fraud. Psychological actions imaginatively applied using proven, but unconventional applications are also less likely to be proactively neutralized or resisted. There would be no proven recourse for this fresh approach and its nuances.

Educational persuasion repetitiously applied in a targeted manner to a youthful perspective would be enormously influential and effective. Time is a tool for the progress of perspectives using generational change and leverage. Also, economic and political support or their withdrawal are significant motivations for attention to our social change demands.

Support withdrawn should be reminiscent of the sixties bus strike, where withdrawal of consent and economic patronage was transformational declarations of resistance. Withdrawal of support has always been a compelling motivator where our participation is needed, or our money is wanted.

Our consolidated demographic should encourage different economic and political choices to coordinate a more concerted effort and stimulate cooperation. Under these circumstances, more will align themselves with our interests instead of against them using our support.

Our economic platforms can directly inspire and enrich our people by diluting adverse power and influences. We must not beg for what they created from us or need us to sustain. We must prioritize our social justice and cultural needs to reflect our participation redirecting our actions to promote self-actuation instead of dependency.

Numerically, we must lead the way and carry our burden collectively, not overly relying on the rich and famous among us.  It is more of us who are less affluent and prominent than who are famous. The number one priority is our self-evaluation to better ourselves and our condition. We need to be aware of others’ interpretations of the images and actions that we project that harm and obstruct us. We must be accountable and responsible for our conduct and presentation.

How this projection harms us and restricts our progress needs to be considered more than the context of the implications received from this election. Our projections must be examined in a historical context just as they were created in one. What do we stubbornly cling to and justify? Is it just as damaging to ourselves as what anyone else may do to us? 

If others deem our objectives to be anti “law and order,”  should we examine what behavior we exhibited is legitly associated with eliciting this claim by not regulating our behavior, particularly towards each other. Thus, there are two sides to the coin of accountability, theirs and ours.

Have we become conditioned or disillusioned to exist or remain an injured people?  We must now claim our place without reservation or limitation to the equality that others enjoy. For example, does other’s financial interest oppose ours because we do not generally participate in the knowledge and profits of these investments and the resulting prosperity, or are we forbidden?

Is it only to the extent of our exclusion from opportunity, or is it a lack of choosing participation? It starts with our thoughts giving way to our actions, becoming our habits establishing our reality leading to our prosperity. But, first culturally, we must determine what we want to project, be associated with, or profit from generationally.

Realizing we are at liberty to choose or create the communities, education, and economy we want to live in, patronize, and stimulate. Elevating our spending habits, actions, self-education, education of self, discipline, and sacrifices will be required. Any success unique to our advancement can quickly elevate our condition, but only if we control and maintain the supply, demand, and quality.

Whatever division exists outside our interest, we cannot deny the need for more solidarity within to promote our prosperity. Consequently, whatever our outrage should be more reflective in our steadfast commitment to refrain from or institute actions according to our expectations. 

Expectations are similar to planting an apple tree. To bear fruit, it must mature, and it must ripen before harvest. It is an exercise in time, cultivation, and patience. The path can be long, but then so may the yield when expectations are realized.

The intel derived from the election totals for Trumpism, widely considered questionable political regard or disregard for our concerns and condition, is a better barometer of what may lessen opposition or assertions that harm us. 

Just because they are wrong, sometimes we might not be right. Of course, two wrongs do not make a right, but we need to get at least even. All considerations must be on the table for reevaluation. At the very least, we must not harm our interests by our actions toward ourselves or others.

Winning the battle or skirmish but losing the war causes collateral damage that will eventually be restored at our expense. So considering, despite civil unrest, the status quo was only interrupted for a penalty imposed upon our interest, but with limited substantive change achieved.

Instead, evaporating support and selective change have been arbitrarily metered with the diminishing sustainability of outrage and protest.  Rage burns like fuel. It will eventually extinguish itself when exhausted, and it is unsustainable at elevated levels. At the very least, it suggests that it needs supplementing or replacing with something more effective and sustainable.

Hocus pocus, sleight of hand, and our indignation was used to validate their fear, weaponizing voting their fears against our methods used to address social justice initiatives. It is a lesson that rage and fear are opposite sides of the same perspective and must be skillfully and situationally utilized for maximum effectiveness.

This fear-based sleight of hand and the delusions created by social distractions nearly disguised a sinister election plan to highjack Democracy, which was narrowly averted. They were attempting to achieve their comprehensive political control, thereby suffocating our fractional objective. Our objective remains encompassed and restricted within their agenda, making it a fraction within the whole.

The election was advertised as a runaway condemnation of Trumpism but shockingly was closely contested. Our objectives and objections must employ the tactics of chess and not checkers to logically repel the nonsense and diversions which undermine our interest. 

We must heed the lessons learned from this election to adjust our crusade avoiding the hocus pocus but producing some real magic. Working smart will create the magical results needed without succumbing to delusion.

The blueprint for agendas on diverse objectives, conditions, and cultures does not deviate too far from these tactical fluidities of perspective. It is interchangeable parts and transferable skills utilized with purpose.

It requires committing to the cause of self-determining your preferred condition. Remember, roses are beautiful but fragile devoid of nourishment. Plant apple trees, though taking longer to cultivate, provides a nourishing sustainable harvest.

 

Thurston K. Atlas
Creating A Buzz

 

 

America’s Tombstone



 America’s terminal in critical condition.

The grave disorder afflicting what was formerly known as the union has a terminal prognosis. The unthinkable is upon us, threatening to engulf and suffocate us with our arrogance, inequalities, and stubbornness constricted by clinging to the misgivings of history. Unfortunately, history often painfully repeats itself.

Have we not learned anything from history and the collapse of world powers before America. History is poetic in stating that the greatest threat to the republic would be from within its borders and domestic, not foreign. America may be too mighty for any other country to defeat but not mighty enough to resist a self-destructive implosion.

The nightmare of the house divided has become real, and this division is set on an irrevocable path of self-destruction if allowed to continue. The question is, at what price is the destruction of another worth your demise. The answer then becomes how much will you injure yourself to inflict injury upon another where neither survives if survival is the objective. 

Just as a house divided will not stand, a structure built on a faulty foundation is eventually doomed to collapse upon its weight, unable to support its faulty construction weakened by time. The realistic commentary is a perfect union is not attainable, but a more perfect union is possible. Let us not pretend that America is not without its blemishes, a utopia of perfection. It has much room for improvement despite its greatness and the freedoms afforded by it.

However, it will, without doubt, require the truth. So first, there must be an admission and recognition that there is a problem to be solved, identifying the problem accordingly with brutal honesty.  The majority of dissatisfaction on many topics reflects deep discontent on fundamental issues. This discontent needs resolving to instill a therapeutic response while rejecting the nostalgic imbalances of the past. Adherence to inflammatory practices and principles can only lead to the extinction of them and their practitioners.

Change, while often uncomfortable for some, is necessary for the evolution of life and progress. Consequently, unjust imbalances can not go on indefinitely. These masquerades and deceptions must end at some point exposed as bogus. Thus, the damage is no longer tolerable whether being either naively conditioned to believe or maliciously following errant agendas of deception. Either way, the reality is never pleasant when the outcome proves destructive.

Likewise, the creation of these diversions enables covert schemes to be executed while distracted and concealed by the bickering fractions.  The astute manipulation of the public’s sensitivities to produce a predictable outcome based on emotional ignorance accomplishes this agitation. Everyone must stay mad at someone at all times. 

Politicizing the intent and purpose of the Constitution and government authority underscores many vile exploitations of power. The collective will and good of the people was the original democratic design. But, unfortunately, it has been blatantly mangled in a power grab that threatens to bring civil war and financial collapse, enriching some while eroding other’s freedoms.

How can we destroy ourselves? Let me count the ways. Overall, we have civil discourse, protest, rioting, a Capitol siege, and the accompanying damages and cost. We have a denial of economic and human rights. A pandemic that was downplayed by 45 to avoid panic but not to prevent the spread. Both have occurred, panic and spread along with monumental loss of life and resources.

We have the disastrous stock market manipulation by a cocktail of quantitative easing, propping up of the bond and equity market corpse, and pending evictions and foreclosures of residential and commercial properties. The erosion of pension funds and retirements is happening again. Also looming is the eventual banking system recurring collapse, as evident by the repo market activity indicating insolvency again due to reckless operations and greed. 

The effects of many supply chain disruptions and shortages are emerging. In addition, inflation fears and labor force dissatisfaction are rampant.  Then there are the increasingly overwhelmed medical system and societal bickering concerning vaccines, income and gender inequality, gender and sexual preference intolerances, abortion rights disputes again, and racial disparities. 

Include immigration policies, denial of historical racial ramifications, the Confederacy resurgence, resistance to new law enforcement initiatives, and reluctant criminal justice system reform. Continuing with the bias political redistricting, voter suppression, unsubstantiated elections fraud claims, and you name it.

America has suffered more damage than any terrorist group could have ever deliberately inflicted simply by allowing the political deceptions guided by greed to run its unfettered course. The intoxication of power at any cost has undermined Democracy and Capitalism. Yet, at the same time, the public is intentionally distracted over trivial differences inattentive of the hardships imposed upon them.

It is a risky gamble for control of the political system, which affects all Americans. Red or blue, Republicans or Democrats, it is a gang turf war with the public as collateral damage. Separately these events create a volatile discord of dire circumstances. But, combined, what is the prognosis of America’s survival, if not terminal? 

Even more outrageous is the destructive ideology fueling a combination of the budget deadline and debt ceiling scabbles implicating hints of a national shutdown and default for political gain. But, can we risk the devaluation of the U.S. dollar and America’s status as the world’s default currency triggering a global financial collapse and ushering in digital currency controlled and monitored by the government?

To ensure that the wealthy pay a fair share for taxes, they must monitor our transactions for over six hundred dollars. Likewise, banks must report activity on our lowly accounts as if the wealthy cannot be otherwise identified by their bank accounts. Every time they crack down on someone else, the general public must bear the squeeze.

Fear and compliance are the tools of deceptions used to limit the public’s freedoms, and we are always eager to oblige. It reaks of predictable behavior manipulated and triggered by fear of terrorists, the Covid, tax cheats, race, religion, sexuality, and maybe our shadow next. Are we to believe information harvesting, artificial intelligence, digital or electronic banking, electronic surveillance, or thirst for power and greed is not a threat?

Furthermore, we have witnessed the attempted coercion of the 2020 Election to maintain power, an uprising against the seat of Democracy at the Capitol, and now fiscal roulette for political gain and power. The cannibalism of our Democracy has been intensifying while disguised by discord.

The second amendment right to bear arms gives citizens the right to oppose an authoritarian federal government. But, by definition, wouldn’t that be one overthrowing Democracy? An armed militia intimidating politicians, dissenters, and unarmed protesters by political gangsterism would qualify. A violent coup whose forceful imposition of views and governance upon their fellow citizens or denial of other’s rights, which they proudly claim without reservation, seemingly would also qualify.

Resorting to force against the practice of Democracy and the freedom to exercise civil liberties, no doubt, descends into opposition to Freedom? Ultimately, the force used against the Democratic structure is the same violent instrument used by the power mongers against the people. Attempting to implement a military authoritative state or dictatorship brought about by a coup, suppression of the people’s vote, and government takeover effectively eliminates Democracy. 

Dictators or monarchs are what this country was created to escape from, a king and his dynastic lineage by creating a separation of power and the democratic vote. At the core of Democracy is voting and for the duly elected to reflect the best interest of the majority, not party affiliations, much less individual interest.

Any effort, foreign or domestic, to hijack the democratic process is an assault on the very principles of Democracy. The country cannot exist as presently constituted without Democracy. You can not take over the Capitol, discard an election, and still have Democracy. Any attempt to circumvent the prescribed electoral process is a hostile takeover with fatal repercussions. 

Unfortunately, the mutiny against the Democratic majority and its sovereignty’s principles continues as the minority seeks to prevail and promote their agenda. Ironic how minority status is unbearable but should be fine for others but is not honoring the majority vote paramount to Democracy. Did you expect any less when you were not the minority?

Acceptance of this reality has always been the rule notwithstanding dissent but reflected or upheld in the next voting cycle as the majority’s will, disdaining mutiny against the foundational principles of our voting rights. Otherwise, the whole system and Democracy collapses. Divisiveness enforced by might and contentious rhetoric has proven inadvisable and unsustainable in this country. Instead, it leads to repetitive civil unrest and opposition, be it race, abortion, war, or what have you.

Integration of law enforcement and military by race and ideology would splinter efforts of a violent coup. Predictably, law enforcement and the military would have to first turn on their respective ranks, eliminating those not in agreement. These two groups are critical to enforcing radical distortion of the judicial process and free speech in any authoritative society. The true principles of Democracy rely on cooperation, not force. Force is no longer a viable option for all occasions.

America is at a tipping point. Remembering history may help prevent it from repeating itself, as seen in the rise of Nazi-Germany and its race-based utopia of superiority. It is tragically ironic that Hitler got his ideology from Jim Crow in addition to eugenics. The symbolism of white power is the Nazi flag and swastika, which should have been roundly denounced when soundly defeated. In America, the racist ideology at its core was the symptom manifested by greed, the illness.

All the above alluded to precarious events are at their roots based on racism, casteism (shudra), and power manipulations for wealth fueled by greed. As a result, America is on the brink of moral and fiscal bankruptcy, deprived of political and ideological solutions or compromise for mutual survival.

Even if the balance of power switches, nothing is resolved. It is just reversed without resolution, still about winning and accumulation by any means necessary. The objectivity of fairness and compassion are sacrificed as collateral for personal ambitions. 

 

 

To further complicate matters, this perfect storm of destruction brewed and calculated from the inception of this republic and exacerbated over time necessitates exploitations being expanded beyond the traditional groups to sustain itself. But, this expansion is camouflaged by race, immigration, and socialist accusations to deflect from the actual cause, greed.

Any titan of leadership understands that when proclaiming the buck stops with them, responsibility must begin with them. Deflecting any bitter occurrences is not a shared debacle when charged with leading. So, where has leadership led us, if not to the brink of destruction by divisiveness and selfish ambitions? But, change is still staunchly resisted continuing to perpetuate societal detriments.

It is a collective failure of leadership if only by constructive possession of the governance of Democracy. Heavy is the head of leadership and guidance, accepting both credit and blame. To claim otherwise is a self-indictment, a discredit to your position, and a disservice to the country. While the blame game is a favorite game of politicians, the general public is left to take responsibility for its contribution while also suffering from theirs.

As a result, we are allowed to struggle at the bottom suffering from the virtues of the very Capitalism that we fund. Consider the distractions of the last two years that have the public preoccupied while grand larceny is afoot. Democracy was born out of Capitalism in concept and practice. But, unfortunately, both have been perverted to elite set-asides and bailouts contrary to the principles of Capitalism.

How resilient can America be, and how tolerant will a disposable public remain before significant course corrections are too little too late. The power grab excludes the elite and politicians from suffering while willing to risk triggering a global financial crisis with the brunt of domestic suffering skipping them.

I suspect essential workers are expendable when exposed to heightened risk and hazardous conditions for similar compensation. Does your compensation reflect your value? During this Covid crisis, being bestowed the title of essential worker makes you an interchangeable clog that has suddenly become scarce and valuable.

It resembles indentured servitude but with a more palatable twist, making it a lot easier to accept. Duty or coercion are the tools of persuasion used to disguise and accomplish blind submission. It is capitalistic exploitation at its finest. This hybrid capitalism where supply, demand, and efficiency do not apply to all in the valuation of essential services or labor.

From an economic and governmental standpoint, providing protections with governmental subsidies for big companies, political cronies, and banking favorites should violate capitalism. However, these same protections are bemoaned and conditional when provided to the general public and labeled as socialism.

Rebellion against taxation without representation started this country. But, will little or no tax on big business or the wealthy end it? It is the weiner for the ham swindle to relinquish something of greater value for a lesser value or benefit. Could the founding fathers envision the ablest paying no taxes while the least able collectively pays the most taxes? The economic shell game will be played with diminishing returns; the more conditioned, mind-controlled, and hopeless you become.

It is not a condemnation of riches but an accurate assessment and indictment of some unjust methods of achieving it. Funny how the rules loosen and the opportunities expand with the more money or favor you possess. To suggest that all pay their fair share is unfair and outrageous, if not for sure downright extreme leftist and un-American, right? But, on the other hand, resisting exploitation is unpatriotic too.

A dog-eat-dog cannibalistic quest for prosperity at the bottom and a doctrine of exclusion or exploitation at the top preserve our economic imbalances. It is not by accident; it is by designed calculation and deception.

Capitalism needs a tune-up to run smoothly for all instead of just smoothly for the advantaged. Money is not the root of all evil, but greed and power can be argued as the roots of most of America’s problems. In this pursuit, the disregard for passing the sugar sours the essential workers’ expectations, ambitions, and opportunities.

America’s greatest resource is the people, but sustaining and preserving their well-being has become a casualty of this power grab restricting liberty and prosperity for the lower classes. A caste system is swelling with the increasing disappearance of the middle class. It creates a blight on the standard of living, which economic and political vampires are systematically draining.

What was planted has grown. The seeds of deceptions and inequality planted long ago have blossomed into a system in need of an overhaul if it is to survive. Democracy, The Constitution, and fiscal solvency will not survive the status quo as the pillars upon which a crumbling society will no longer support.

It is time to compromise and make alterations for the country’s survival as the challenges escalate without reprisal. Remember, when people take to the streets in overwhelming numbers to protest, that is usually the last warning that the level of dissatisfaction with the governing body or system has become no longer tolerable. History is undefeated in that regard.

However, the aftermath of not heeding the warning is undisputed as nations and civilizations must inevitably change or perish. They have always changed, or they have always perished. We can be certain that radical change always precedes avoidance of collapse or results from a disastrous outcome. We are at the crossroads of history where we choose a collective survival or fracturing destruction. But, we can no longer be unresponsive to the glaring warning signs.

America’s historical precondition of affliction did not just start in the last five years. It began with blatant exploitation and indifferences at inception. Now, the lies promoted and the promises unfulfilled to conceal those lies have swelled to the current national dysfunction.

It worked on an unsophisticated callous public, but the currently available information and knowledge have revealed the evil sorcery of these traditional policies and practices. Time has expired for reckoning, and change is the modifying salvation.

The naked truth and change is the final resort of reckoning for survival, or it was a good run. It was better for some than others, but the final obituary will read that we could not rest in national peace, so we perished in national discord. The jalopy has finally broken down, leaving us in need of new wheels.

There cannot be a return to America’s way tailored for white males and the economic elite strife with injustice and greed. Because of gains of women’s rights, changes in domestic violence laws, women employment opportunities and accomplishments, commonality of young people; same-sex, biracial, and inter-racial relationships, LBGTQ recognition, sensitivity to racial discrimination, a global economy, and similar evolutions, those days will not be returning.

Many now display a significant change in the sentiment and rejection of bigotry being only an interchangeable pronoun away from a persecuted or ostracized group. I would think more people are aligned with equal justice than ever before by more people being subjected to injustices and economic hardships. 

Furthermore, the economic expenditure and residual fallout from the civil unrest since late May 2020 and the Covid virus has amassed such an enormous total.  Likewise, scrutinizing motives for disregarding the massive impact from Chavin’s knee to 45’s Covid denial, will contextualize their explosive impact on the ensuing mayhem, which was avoidable.

Additionally, resistance to both has had dire consequences and astronomical expenses. A different decision here or there would have netted vastly different results and conditions. Better decisions should have been made with their handling.  We should have learned by now that opposition to evolution is to invite revolution. Change is constant and can not be restrained, at best only delayed.

But some change is beyond delay or denial. Such is nature’s fury. Foolishly, the defiance of nature has caused an escalation in the severity and seemingly frequency of catastrophic weather conditions and fire. Therefore, it would have been more prudent to address and mitigate the problems in hindsight than to ignore them. We should have learned by now that resistance to evolution is to invite revolution by circumstances, humanity, or nature. Change is constant and can not be restrained, even if delayed.

Unfortunately, the meter is still wastefully running. Many wasted resources and ill-fated decisions should have been contemplated far more beneficially. We must now relinquish a time gone by and logically improvise to address the prevailing circumstances. It is impossible to resuscitate the past by pretending it is the present. But, on the other hand, there are many benefits in seeking solutions and few in denying the problems.

The resulting distortion of Democracy, Capitalism, and the Truth is much too high a price to pay to avoid dealing with the symptoms, illness, and remedy for America’s afflictions. The only alternative diagnosis is that sustained disregard welcomes the certain toppling of Democracy and Capitalism.

By antiquated ideology, shakey fiscal policy, and a rampant virus America is on the brink. We are presently confronted with severe self-inflicted challenges. It is a bloated conceit to behave above the laws of nature and our common interest as citizens. Both will prove to be the wounds from the bosom of America too detrimental to survive.

My how times have changed having remained the same. The absurdity of events now has political zealots and separatists polarized, demanding land of their own to preserve their sense of nostalgia or rejection of inevitable changes. 

Still, father time waits for no one, and change does not ask permission. Is America not so beloved and grand that its destruction is preferable to resolutions to instill equality and address its inequalities no matter the culprit? If so, surely, you couldn’t tell by appearances. America’s terminal in critical condition.

It appears now that it is only a matter of time before we know what America’s tombstone will read. Here stood a great nation severed by arrogance and ignorance. Reluctant to change, unwilling to survive, and condemned to fall.

P.S. If it provides any comfort, America is not alone as country’s and governments around the globe seek to prevent significant changes beneficial to the people they supposedly represent. The mass suppression of economic, religious, and human freedoms demands satisfaction as swells of discontent stretch across the globe. The names, places, and circumstances are different, but the desire is universal, change.

 

Thurston K. Atlas
Creating A Buzz