Lest we forget as we enter the fray of our Brave New World:
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled
was convincing the world he didn’t exist.
— Charles Baudelaire, “The Generous Gambler”
Sometimes, you read something that slants reality ever-so-slightly.
It’s a well-laid-out Conspiracy which didn’t do a damn thing for me. It’s a theme we’re all to familiar with, anyway:
Liberals accuse Conservatives of “One World Government” while surreptitiously kicking the legs out from under their own argument with their own objectives. Republicans then attempt to “fix” the situation, all the why claiming that it happened due to a lack of foresight, while kicking the legs out from under their own argument by passing the first proposal to come along.
They all come together in the middle, and we get screwed in the process. No big friggin’ news there.
Actually, the blog did get me thinking.
But it wasn’t the Conspiracy theory…
Instead, it was this statement by Dwight Eisenhower that struck me:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
“Knowlegeable citizenry,” schmitizenry…
A long memory is the most subversive idea in America.
— George Wald
For years, we’ve observed that peoples’ attentions spans are short, and their memories even shorter. A perfect example of this is in the Obama campaign’s vicious attacks against Hillary Clinton, inciting mass hysteria over Sexism, and yet, when she dropped from the race, people forgot… and began blaming Republicans for said sexism, despite the confessions of so many prominent Democrats that it was them all along.
The afforementioned blog was also haven to a quote suitable for a “Duh of the Day” award. In reference to Obama making promises he has no intention of keeping, and in stark contrast to “knowlegeable citizenry,” someone replied:
No way he’ll bite the hand that feeds.
I would counter with this, further showing that our memory has been disrupted for a good century and a half:
You can fool some of the people all of the time,
and all of the people some of the time,
but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.
— Abraham Lincoln
“Honest Abe” fooled a Hell of a lot of people, promising during his campaign and subsequent inauguration that it wasn’t his job to outlaw slavery, nor would he, as it was the right of each and free man to draw their own conclusions. It was those statements that got him elected, but what did he do afterwards?
Yes… He bit that hand pretty hard.
Regardless of The Emancipation Proclamation’s forward-thinking and status as a defining document in our Nation’s history, the very nature of its passage is still a matter of great debate and conjecture. There are many people, both black and white, who consider that our History books are incorrect, claiming that the Proclamation was nothing more than a political ploy designed to disable the ability of the Confederacy to operate autonomously.
To a very large degree, it worked. However, it was also the reason for Lincoln’s untimely demise, thus proving his own theory to be correct… You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Back to the point, please show me a Politician who doesn’t bite the hand that feeds…
Everyone knows that you can tell when Politicians are lying because their lips are moving.
I almost said, “his lips,” but I didn’t want to come off as “sexist.” *smirk*
