Monday, June 19, 2006

War is a Racket, and You thought you were free!

I highly recommend either buying these books or lending it from your library. It sets the tone of what is happening today as what has been happening since the last few centuries in the U.S. Next is this book by
Milton Mayer; Here is an excerpt, courtesy of Ellensplace.net:
What no one seemed to notice. . . was the ever widening gap. . .between the government and the people. . . And it became always wider. . . the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway . . . (it) gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about . . .and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated . . . by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. . .

Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures'. . . must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. . . .Each act. . . is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow.

You don't want to act, or even talk, alone. . . you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' . . .But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves, when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. . . .You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father. . . could never have imagined


I leave you with this to ponder, as I will post on the 14 characteristics of fascism by Dr. Lawrence Britt this week.

8 Comments:

Blogger Kel said...

Jesus, I'm going to have to go hunting for them today!

I've also been thinking of re-reading 1984 as it seems so relevant to life in 2006.

2:28 AM  
Blogger El Mas Chingón said...

Damn, I wish I had the money to buy those books right now. Ingrid, you nailed it this post. We as a nation have accepted a lot of things in the name of liberty that never should have happened. I'm afraid when the masses wake up it will be too late to do anything about it.

3:41 AM  
Blogger Ingrid said...

Kel, you do remember that 1984 was originally supposed to be '1948', right? I don't remember when it was written exactly but I do remember that the author decided to change it to a later date as it was already too close to the year 1948. And I remember that from English class back in the Netherlands (aging myself..that would be early 80's).
Robbie, thx! The thing about the library is (and I thought about that afterwards) is that naturally here in the US, our library records are not private anymore in the name of war on terrorism. (Instead of just making books on explosives or chemistry or oh say, flying airplanes fair game even though that's suspect as well but more to the point) Perhaps one of those 'cheap' second hand bookstores might carry that. I am going to look for it today as I do not want to get it out of the library..just being cautious I guess. Scary too think that there are so many similarities huh? And earlier book I recommended, "America, Fascism + God" by Davidson Loehr ('sermons from a heretical preacher) have given me a lot (!!) of food for thought, and I will tell you both, it ain't manna from heaven but molded crap from hell..pardon me for saying so.. (it is actually an endorsement for the book, can you tell??)
Ingrid

9:57 AM  
Blogger - said...

This has been happening in the country almost since its inception. Classic example.

-Territory is pioneered (settlers)
-Territory is threatened (Indians and the British)
-Territory is registered (County offices identify land for deeds)
-Territory is protected (Land holders get rights granted by county)
-Territory becomes property (The creation of housing developments)
-Property is taxed (State and county assessors office is created)
-Properties with dwellings are re-taxed (Property is small so sales tax is applied to land acquisition and dwellings)
-Property is an Asset (People use land as bargaining tool for money)
-Property is a liability (Loan offices offer mortgages as cost of land rises)
-Property becomes debt (Few people pay off the property passing debt to relatives)
-Property is eminent domain (States determine fee-simple rights do not apply to homeownership)

What happened to my territory again?

12:21 PM  
Blogger Ingrid said...

Cyberotter, great case in point!
Ingrid

3:08 PM  
Blogger Ingrid said...

Great rebuttal Cyberotter, read my comment on your post. As for the links not being clear. You have to pardon my ignorance on that one. I have another blog site with another template and that one seems to automatically show up better. My html is fairly limited at this point due to time constraint for learning (summer holiday, do I need to say more??) so if you have any suggestions as to how to improve it..by all means. Email me and thanks for any input. I will change the site once school resumes and I have every morning free (let it be august 28th soon) so I expect to have a few more things improved. I am even contemplating changing gears and using Wordpress as I feel I am continuously hampered by trying to add things to the sidebar when I know I have done the right thing. Even with my limited html..so..bear with me and if you can't bear it...great..give me tips and lots of it!! lol
Ingrid

11:11 AM  
Blogger - said...

enclosing html links in () or <> or -==- or [] make sit easier to pickout as you read long.

12:00 PM  
Blogger - said...

HOT OFF THE PRESS

I just had to cross post this one

Donkephant

5:50 PM  

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