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. 

 

A Civil War Story

  Thurston’s Thoughts

Days of Old Again

A Civil War Story

There have been many wars that have shaped the fabric of American history. The question of whether they were necessary or not is a different question. However, a glimpse into the past should provide a projection into the present. The American Civil War was not about the abolition of slavery or the liberation of slaves as much as the method of labor. These were incidental attachments to an economic scuffle for equilibrium of economics, not equilibrium of humanity. Long after the method changed, the sentiment remained.

The humanity part lingers with the residue of racism’s heritage still openly displayed. Jim Crow became the moral compass for the next hundred years. Now it is tacit denial, selective amnesia, or charge it to the game. The Industrial Revolution may have freed the slaves as a replacement more than any moral consciousness. Whatever the case may have been, the resolution left plenty to be desired or accomplished regarding racial dynamics in America. This cannot be disputed despite the revisionist lens of denial. 

Likewise, the current global landscape of conflicts in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East are based on the imposition of economic policies, unhinged fidelities, and religious justifications. They are all wars of destruction. They are the old ways of doing business to settle a dispute or occupy territory. The economics of war has been to destroy only to rebuild later.

The destroyed cannot rebuild, so the destroyer pays for the rebuilding. This is paying twice for the same destruction. The seemingly deranged commitment to war and allies of war whether in agreement or not is illogically apathetic to self-interest. Consider if a sovereignty wanted to engage in war, I am sure they could start their own especially if others pay for it. Far too often, most wars are rooted solely in religious ideological justifications of subjective morality.

To lambast the reasons would be juvenile, but let us consider the consequences of what is lost since what is gained has always been anti-climactic to what was shattered. Sure bragging rights, intimidation, conquest, or religious and political governance may have been accomplished. But sometimes not really or only on a surface level. The undercurrent of resentment, opposition created, and ethnic or nationalistic contempt simmering in waiting is greater. Beyond war being hedonistic and narcissistic displays of frustration or power, it is the chess game of elites for power or dominance.

As such, ever wonder who the pawns have been? Pawns are sacrificed to advance a strategy in the protection of the King. Pawns only become valued when all has been decimated and they have the chance to be “crowned” and converted into an elevated hierarchy of power or usefulness. The King has less power than the pawns although they are still subservient to his protection by pedigree. Pawns are the lowly slaves of the chess board to be cavalierly forfeited.

In a war who are the forfeited pawns or slaves? For example, in WW2 when the shoes got tight, what pawn of sacrifice and degradation was “crowned” to fully participate in securing an “allied” victory? The answer is the same pawn that was once again condescendingly discarded and contributions minimized after they were no longer needed for war.

The Buffalo Soldiers, Red Tails, and many other Black soldiers and civilians contributed to a war effort whose domestic agenda did not include them. Ironically, chess pieces are black and white but the white always moves first for advantage. However, this article is not about that or the many sacrificial white pawns. There have been many recent wars since then from Korea, Vietnam, and most recently Iraq and Afghanistan.

If we only focus on the war against weapons of mass destruction, the accusations were false but the casualties, devastation, and expenses were real. One can argue the hidden agenda, but not the patriotism, nationalism, and commitment to American Democracy displayed by those who later were essentially expendable pawns. The greatest accomplishment of this war was generational expenses.

As far as terrorist accusations, many of America’s terrorist threats were once American trained or supported in the furtherance of their terrorism against someone else. Then they were freedom fighters but they are now terrorist. Furthermore, they are often religiously motivated or as resentment for some act of America committed. The two headed coin depends on which side you called, heads or tails.

The two sides of war are similarly positioned but the arrogance of unaccountability or at least the stipulation to err should not be arbitrary to patriotism but instead justice. The current arrogance of the colonist and religious states are under siege for this reason, repercussions. The indiscriminate unaccountability to humanity or for geo-politics run amok has led to a hazardous road ahead instigating WW3.

Notwithstanding the architects of 911 devastation on America and the vicarious global ramifications since, the impact has also been an economic calamity for America. Consider how one man has reshaped so many facets of American life and beyond strictly by the economic and governmental policy of a country he was never a part of. Other international powers have learned where America and its colonist brethren has refused.

The new method of war is civil in both senses of the word. One sense is domestic cannibalism while the other is polite in the form of vicious economics. I am afraid this will not be settled in the usual brute manner of who to bomb or slap around. Yet, the world persist. But, who do you strike out at when the enemy is you by your proclivities? What America has been a slave to has become its master of destruction by implosion. More widely, why do the global pawns continue to be ruled by ignorance or cowardice refusing to reject an elitist game of destruction and redistribution of wealth and forced ideology.

Nationalism is the older sibling of patriotism and thus subjective to selective geography and the perspectives of that terrain. Yet still, nationalism is a servant to religious bullying and the centuries old conflict caused by coercing beliefs upon those who do not share them. But, I ask two questions. What religion in the world accounts for dinosaurs in the 6,000 years old history of the world? Furthermore, is it more likely the earth’s archeology is lying or the narratives of religion are? But, heaven forbid we challenge inconsistent narratives.

There is a detachment from logic overwhelmed by faith in narratives that only stand on itself but not by independent assessment. Like religion, I guess governments are not to be questioned either. Nevertheless, how can governments of the world not be accountable to their people? Why do the people sheepishly submit to governance of bling obedience? Their smug rules are not our rules and our sacrifice is not theirs but their decisions are ours.

So, the people’s money often participate even if the people don’t. Yet the same money cannot be used to better the people’s condition. It probably is not a mere coincidence if you follow the money and not the distraction. We are programmed units serving a superior whose wellbeing exceeds our ignorance. But, is it ignorance if we know better but refuse to act outside of our mass hypnosis? This global calibration controlled by social and religious hallucinations become less defensible as time passes it by.

But it still exist because we play a childish game of tag or follow the indoctrination. I wonder what America’s next civil war will be sugarcoated as for easier consumption and digestion or does it matter? The principles of a pseudo Democracy with a pseudo religious compass governed by pseudo legislation under a fascist capitalism of exploitation last bastion of deception is patriotism. So, the next civil war at America’s behest will be religious nationalism, the greatest plague of historical European collapses.

From beyond the borders of America, the attack will be fiscally and that war has already begun following the 911 blueprint. Devalue the currency and squeeze the pockets by escalating expenses that create no value, only a false security, divisive accusations, and revolving victimization. It is a social experiment of scarcity creating desperation when dominance is not assured for a rigged outcome.

Therefore, America’s next civil war will indeed be about freeing slaves to ideologies, patriotic submissions, and misguided aggressions caused again by economics, cultural bigotry, or religious immorality. It is a civil war story we can avoid. Globally, humanity should check ourself before we wreck ourself. We must be careful not to let the past haunt us any longer. However, the present most assuredly will condemn as the past has. So, sadly the next global war will be to free the slaves of antiquated justifications and ideologies. But only if we can survive it.

P.S. Perhaps immigration policy would be more successful if it addressed the frontend where they are fleeing from instead of the backend at our border. Remember the Monroe Doctrine and the many intrusions when they wanted to keep foreigners out before the geo-political scramble of colonialism forced its way in. The money spent to keep them out could be used to improve their condition which would improve our border’s condition.

If that is not America’s problem, neither is any of these global skirmishes we engage in while civil war bangs on our door. By unnatural selection, immigration policy resembles the bias regulation of repopulation administered in the old school of segregation. We freely visit or appropriate yours but you are definitely not welcome in ours. But somehow, it is as fair as it has always been and just as destructive humanitarianly and politically.

Thurston K Atlas

Creating a Buzz