The Fire Next Time

God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time! --James Baldwin

The whole history of America since World War II caused an inertial transfer of power toward the executive branch. The monopoly on use of nuclear weaponry, the cult of the commander in chief, the worldwide network of military bases to maintain nuclear alert and supremacy, the secret intelligence agencies, the entire national security state, the classification and clearance systems, the expansion of state secrets, the withholding of evidence and information, the permanent emergency that has melded World War II with the cold war and the cold war with the "war on terror"—all these make a vast and intricate structure that may not yield to effort at dismantling it. Sixty-eight straight years of war emergency powers (1941–2009) have made the abnormal normal, and constitutional diminishment the settled order. --Garry Wills

So this is what we are up against: the National Security State. This Leviathan is the enemy of the American experiment in government of, by, and for the people. And all who cooperate with the Leviathan, for whatever reasons, answering to whatever motives, are aiding and abetting the enemy.

When Barack Obama was elected President, I took particular pride in the notion that the baton had been passed from the thick of the Baby-Boomer generation to my own. Sandwiched as the President and I are between the tail end of the post-WW2 pregnancy bubble and the apathetic Gen X-ers, it seemed to me that BHO was in the proverbial "catbird seat": able to see where the Boomers had gone wrong, but with enough Boomer idealism to spare to pick up the fallen McGovernite standard and undertake the non-violent people's revolution that this country so desperately needs.

Instead, BHO is riding on the Beltway carousel, neutralized, going nowhere fast. The revolution has, once again, been averted.

I must congratulate the Plutocratic War Party on yet another successful round: wresting democracy from the grasp of the American people, slipping a Presidential placebo in our mouths, turning up the volume on the Culture of Fear, and changing the subject once again. Welcome to Oceania and Newspeak, our official language. Beware the terrorists (i.e., civilians who fight back): they are everywhere. That swarthy looking guy pushing the fruit cart--he's a wizard with the beauty-products. A little hairspray, a little eye-shadow, a back-pack and cell-phone and KABOOM!

Wait till the terrorists in Iraq (pronounced EYE-RACK) get a hold of that guy's training manual. The IED will be a thing of the past.

Makes me think what a poor ignorant sap Timothy McVeigh must have been--lugging all those sacks of fertilizer around when all he had to do was stop by the local Rite-Aid and pick up the real deal. Just goes to show you how U.S. military training can't stack up to Afghan Jihadist know-how.

I must say: I am so sick of being inundated with bald assertions proffered as evidence. Bald assertions are the coin of the 4th estate's realm. No one has betrayed the American experiment in democracy like our "news" media. For the love of God and country, dis-"embed" yourselves and report on the anti-democratic tyranny of the National Security State!

It appears to me to be 1984--in perpetuity. Which is a good thing, I suppose, for then I am perpetually 24. And, at 24, I have energy to burn. What to do? What to do? I know! Let's go shopping! When all else fails, wouldn't I look good in another new shirt?

Better to shave our heads, don the Mahatma's homespun tunic, and dedicate the rest of our lives to derailing the Imperial juggernaut. Somehow. Some way. Some time. Sooner, rather than later.

For everyone's sake.