During the conversation on Thanksgiving, we were talking about some of things that are happening politically… but, according to my brother, we can’t do anything about it because upsetting the status quo that would effect his pension…
I commented on the fact that everyone owns a tiny chunk of everything (through mutual funds, pension funds and such) so that no one controls anything…
Actually, that’s not true. SOMEONE is in charge. The five or six vilest creatures in history are currently in control of the whole world. We still have a little time and could change that, without a violent revolution. Unfortunately, most of the people who vote are like my brother – “but what about my pension…”
Quote:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.
(Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following
the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.)
The weirdest part is that my brother is a Jewish convert, and married a Jew. I want to ask him why they recite the story of the Holocaust, and whether it contains some special lesson we should remember.
It’s happening again, right here, right now, and this time the perpetrator is the US government. This time, the only people who can speak out -- the only people who are in a position to stand up to it -- is us.
Had I been alive during the time of slavery, I would have been fully awake to the realities of it, that the entire economic system was based on an horrific practice, but I would have been something of a coward. Going around talking about it openly when everyone you know owns slaves is not a good way to make friends. And it wouldn’t have done much good for an individual to stand alone like that. Still, we can mention it once in a while.
My brother is comparable to one of those gentlemen plantation owners. I’m sure he thinks he’s a nice guy, and that he legitimately earned every penny. It’s hard work, keeping those shiftless, lazy servants on task. And they’re such ingrates – everyone knows that the ONLY ALTERNATIVE to working on our happy, polite little plantation is to be sold down the river.
Today, if you connect the dots and acknowledge reality, they’ll just classify you as a member of the tinfoil hat brigade…
Gad, I hate the world.
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Occupy Everything!