Bread and Circuses

In Ancient Rome:

In ancient Rome, about the time of Nero and Caligula, the rulers (the Patricians of the Senate and the Caesars) realised that they were severely outnumbered by the citizens of Rome, and the army of Rome was a little busy securing the Empire.
So, they devised a plan to keep the citizens from getting restless and doing too much independent thinking.  They provided bread to keep the hoi polloi from getting hungry enough to act and circuses in the arena to keep their minds off their own sad state of affairs.
Hence the origin of the term.
Times have changed and now the Patricians of our time and place use things like Food Stamps instead of bread, free cell phones, cable tv, and reality shows to keep the hoi polloi from getting restless. 
And by keeping a constant show going in the political arena, they have managed to con the public with the illusion of self determination, of voting, of freedom of expression.
When, all the while, they (the Patricians) continually whittle at what little is left of these freedoms.  Raising taxes for personal gain and/or projects that feather their own beds with little regard or concern for the devastation this practice causes individual citizens or businesses.
And the newest Caesar is so convinced of his own rectitude that he has embarked on a blatant campaign of deconstruction of the country, its values, its rights, its citizens and its place in the world at large.
When the King of Britain began to act in this manner, the "hoi polloi" or the "peasants" realized what was happening and rose up against these acts and established themselves as an independent nation, recognizing the rights of the "common man" as free men and women, not requiring anyone's permission to do or say what they believed in. 
Now, our own government is quickly taking that freedom away from us under the guise of "protecting" us from specious threats, and in so doing, have become that very threat.

Americans??

So, I was wondering:  What the Hell is it with Americans today?
Why do we put up with all this crap that just erodes our freedom, our initiative, our will to exist as a free people?
This government and our societal structure has been eroding the psyche of Americans for 50 or 60 years now, slowly but surely wearing us down from the Greatest Generation to Gen X, Y and Z.
We have either voluntarily given up or had taken away by bits and pieces virtually everything that used to represent Truth, Justice and The American Way.
Remember that phrase?  Its from the first Superman TV series.  And that was about the last time it actually meant something.
Since then,  The American government has used its own people and servicemen in disgustingly dangerous experiments and/or programs with little or no regard to the rights, health and welfare of those individuals.  From nerve gas and hallucinogens tested in subways of major cities to marching soldiers out into open fields and then exploding a nuclear device to see what effects it might have on those individuals.
Supreme Court decisions chipping away at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Legal barriers rising at all levels to protect government employees and agencies from responsibility and liability for their actions "under color of authority".
Governmental agencies and private bureaucracies fomenting rules, regulations and guidelines that have the force of law for the general citizenry.
Not so much for the American Nomenklatura, which is a Soviet term indicating those who are on the inside of the system that oppresses and or suppresses "the People", for whom they claim to speak. And, of course, their families, friends and proteges.
A class structure society has grown up, virtually undeclared and universally denied, but all the more real and factual for the "proletariat" (a Soviet epithet for the working and middle classes upon whose backs the society rides). 
The "Big Lie" has become the order of the day.  Mainstream media tirelessly promotes the status quo while also expounding on the faux image of modern American life. 
Rap stars worth millions obscenity laden pseudo-poetry, sports stars making millions to act like violent apes, 
Programming designed to create and/or foster the illusion that we are all going to be millionaires and superstars. 
And millions of Americans are buying the "Big Lie".  On credit.  Or whatever it takes to "keep up with the Joneses". 
So, I think I just answered my own question.  
We have collectively bought the bullcrap "They" are selling.  We did it to ourselves.  Buying the Pie in the Sky.  Trading our Freedoms for Security, while ending up with neither. Sticking our heads in the sand to avoid having to face the reality of our daily degradation. 
And I say We intentionally, accepting my own share of guilt/shame/hopeless desperation and frustration attempting to rationalize the indignities foisted on me and my fellow Americans.  The rights violations, the specious propaganda, the creeping socialism, the Sovietizing of America, The scandals of the super rich banks and speculators openly violating the "law of the land" and walking away scot-free. 

Spirits in The Sky

As a child I was indoctrinated in the Assembly of God church.  Bible thumpers and Holy Rollers par excellence.

Later I was shunted to regular Baptist churches. 

As a fairly bright child who loved to read, I took up the challenge of reading the Bible. 

Without getting into incredibly involved theological discussions of the novel, I learned enough from my  reading to truly question the treatise and its premises, not to mention the multitude of flights of fancy. 

Needless to say, I lost interest in the subject of religion.  The normal result when someone of average or above intelligence actually reads the book.

And here I am talking about just the content of the book, without even discussing the effects of various translations from and to various languages and all the problems inherent with that process.  Woh!

Anyway, over the years the whole premise of a superbeing, omnipotent, omniscient and all pervasive over and around the earth, who created the universe and THEN proceeded to concern itself with actions of individuals on that earth to the point of interfering, i.e., stirring the pot, from time to time with cryptic messages, portents, prophets, miracles, etc., etc., ad nauseum, really got to seeming pretty silly to me. 

The visible evidence of Gawd’s power on Earth is and was always in the hand of pompous sounding men, and occasionally women, who mostly concerned themselves with how other people behaved and offering some sort of hall pass for that behavior in return for a sizable donation. 

Salvation directly related to the size of said donations…. Hmmmm?

Then, in my early adulthood I heard the story of how one science fiction author, at a drunken debauchery (pronounced SciFi convention) declaimed that “the only guaranteed way to make a lot of money without the government taking a huge piece, was to invent a religion.! 

15 or 20 years later, Scientology was born of L. Ron Hubbard.

So, this super being, this Gawd, everyone keeps claiming they personally talked to and who wants us to send all our money to them, has been personally responsible for more death and destruction than any other single cause in the entire history of the world.

From Mammoth stampedes to the Crusades.  From the Conquistadores to the Mujahideen. 

This God keeps telling his true believers to kill somebody else in his name, so  said true believers can get into heaven.  And, after all, they are just Infidels.  They don’t really count as People, right? They will never get into our heaven, so who cares what we do to them, except, of course, Gawd, who wants them wiped out, but can’t quite manage a plague or a flood as the Biblical days.  Hmmmmm?

I truly do not have a problem with anybody’s having religion.  Everybody’s life has to have a structure to hang its premises on.

Everyone has them.  They are just different, right?

What bugs me is when those religious types start to tell ME how to live right.  What I am doing wrong.  How they Gawd is gonna get me. 

Well, fine, then just let your Gawd come and get me.  Being Omniscient, he ought to be able to find me, right.?  And, if he is so Omnipotent, why can’t he do it himself?  Why does he send a nutjob like Achmed, or Bubba Joe to do it.?

He could just send the creeping crud to do me in.  An avalanche of sewage,  a hurricane,  or in my case, a raging semi at 75 mph would do the job nicely, now wouldn’t it.?

And all this is truly irrelevant to those of us who know the True State of Affairs on and around the Earth.  The spirits of the animals, trees and elements speak to us on a daily basis and try to show us the way to Happiness, Success, Wealth, Enlightenment and all those other aspects of the good life that escape most every member of humanity from time to time.

My personal favorite in the Wolf God, who is wholly immaterial in body, yet makes his presence felt every time I get behind the wheel, as his apparent forte is to create openings in freeway traffic whenever I try to merge..

Seriously, it happens that I will start to merge and there will suddenly be a gap or an opening that is the perfect size for my vehicle, whatever size that is.

I can hear you laughing… but you expect ME to show respect for your particular collections of dogma, stories, rituals and beliefs.   Hmmmmm?

aarex@gmail.com                           21/1/12

See, now that is a Wolf God sign if ever I saw one.  Watch for earthquakes, volcanoes, and other natural phenonema coming soon to your neighborhood.

23 Dec 2011

On this the fourth day of our counter-Christian celebration of the oldest of “holidays”, a multi-national protest of the religious hijacking of said holiday, we find ourselves in a dilemma.

We had planned to roast a pig for the festivities, but some idiot oiled the beast BEFORE catching the damn thing and after some exciting interludes, the porker was last seen heading west at a high rate of speed. 

So, we got some bacon from Safeway.

Then we planned to resurrect the Elder Gods with a ceremony found in a crypt buried beneath a temple in the Ancient North. 

Turns out the Ancient North is Del Paso Heights..  We resurrected three Cranksters and a dwarf who doesn’t even speak English.  But then, neither do the cranksters.  We dropped them off at Loaves and Fishes where they met friends.

So, we put up a picture of Elvis Costello, who, it turns out, isn’t even dead yet. 

This just doesn’t seem to be working out the way we planned.

Then we started the Holy Dancing… , couldn’t find enough drums,  Coffee cans aren’t the same.  And the dog wouldn’t hold still.

Put on a video of the Blue Man Group.  Close, no cigar.

Tried a May Pole.  Couldn’t climb the pole.  It’s December too.  No young maidens to dance in circles, either.  No maidens of any kind.

Next was a sacrifice of entrails….

YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCHK!

So, basically what it comes down to is, that since the original celebration went so far wrong, we will now just thumb our noses at Christian churches and fire logic bombs at demagogues and evangelists whenever we get the chance.

Happy Whatever Season you adhere to.. May your year be as pleasant as you deserve.

Christian Holiday

AnarchoLibertarian ViewsSince I have apparently not been as widely published as I might have hoped I plan to assist things just a bit.
With this link I thee read. 
Admittedly Anarcho Libertarian is not exactly Main Stream, but I feel that it is at the core of American values.  The REAL values most Americans treasure.
The right to privacy from everybody, especially the government.
The right to do what you please in the privacy of your own home, without the okay of the government or your neighbor's nose.
The right to conduct business without some agency or bureaucrat taking a piece of the action, regardless of how little action there actually is or was.
The right to educate your children without somebody's dogma or political belief tainting the curriculum or pushing somebody else's political/religious/social/moral agenda.
The right to do your fair share as you see it, not being forced to follow guidelines set down by aforementioned burearcracy/agency/elected official.
Think about it.  Aren't you really an Anarcho-Libertarian???

So, now EVERYBODY is after Joe Paterno. 
Why?  Either because he reported a pederast, or because he reported an assistant coach with a hobby. 
Here is the order of events I got from the media. 
1. Penn State hires a pederast. 
2. Pederast uses Penn State to further his "hobby". Using the usual cover story of "helping kids".
3. A special prosecutor is assigned to investigate allegations that the pederast is a ... Pederast!
   A. Special prosecutor starts on case.  Finds evidence... 
   B. Special prosecutor disappears, leaving an abandoned car and no clues. 
   C. Case fades into oblivion. 
4.  Pederast continues to "help" kids with assistance of Penn State. 
5. At some point pederast is spotted "helping" kids by Joe Paterno.
6. Paterno immediately informs his superiors at Penn State, the way he is/was supposed to. 
7. Penn State rushes to the defense of these poor troubled children by telling pederast he can't indulge his "hobby" on college campus anymore.
8. Penn State tells Paterno the problem is handled.
9. Paterno, being loyal to Penn State, decides NOT to follow up and report to authorities, i.e., cops.
10. Years later, it all comes out.  Press feeding frenzy.  
11. Penn State, eager to cover its butt, points collective fingers at Joe Paterno. (Figuring; high profile celebrity, easy target).
12  Penn State, eager to cover its butt and avoid liability, fires Paterno on the assumption it will drag the media off its doorstep. 
13. Media feeding frenzy II, taking the easy way out, attacks Paterno as if HE was the pederast, or somehow responsible to said pederasts actions. 
Why?  Because it is MUCH easier than actually going after the guilty party. Because they are lazy scandal mongers who have little or no interest in facts or true guilt.  They are interested in sensationalism pure and simple to sell their precious ad space. 
The very few actual fair and balanced media have been pushed far into the background by these low life bottom feeders.  
An intelligent adult reader has to search, I mean really SEARCH, for true information and news nowadays.  Instead of just swallowing the specious crap the mainstream media in continually feeding us.  
Happy searching.!

So, now we have the Occupy Wall Street.  Here in Sacramento.
Woh!
I think grass roots movements are just the best.  Unfortunately, they generally are pretty much useless from a practical point of view.
Many years I got involved in a grass roots movement that swept California.  We had protests which were ignored.  We signed petitions, which were ignored.  We even got an initiative on the ballot, which passed by a 2 to 1 margin.  i.e., two thirds of the voters who actually voted voted FOR the initiative.
It passed... then was scrapped by the California Legislature, because they just knew better than we did, what we ACTUALLY wanted.
Sound familiar?  It should, that's business as usual here in the People's Republic of California.
One pleasant exception seems to be the Tea Party movement.  From the way the mainstream media and the politicos vilify it daily, it is apparently gathering momentum.
They wouldn't be running scared if it weren't appearing viable to them.  The buzz words of racist, fascist, Nazi, anarchist are all being thrown at the Tea Party movement, apparently to which ones will stick long enough to trip them up.
Occupy Wall Street seemed to be following the same route, but then the media, the non-mainstream media, started doing live interviews with those people.
Talk about disjointed, incoherent anti-capitalist rhetoric.
I was VERY disappointed.  Somebody apparently went to a lot of trouble to motivate these groups, because I don't think the ones I saw on the news could occupy a bathroom stall without assistance.
Now the protest in Oakland is turning violent. As has the one in Sacramento.  Protestors have been assaulted, mugged, arrested in violation of their Constitutional right to Free Speech.
More later.  Rx