A societal prescription from a cynical, Oligarchy-supporting Democrat — and Caitlin Johnstone's fury in view of it

© 2021 Peter Free

 

02 July 2021

 

 

Today, two competing views of the American state

 

The first comes from a historically knowledgeable, reflexively cynical, Democratic attorney friend of mine.

 

The second, from humanitarian Caitlin Johnstone.

 

Contemplate, if you will, which view better fits your own for humanity's future.

 

 

The cynical prescription

 

The attorney friend agrees that American society is failing. However, he says, resistance to the Oligarchy that is sending Liberty, of (arguably) some kind, to Perdition needs to be crushed.

 

Stability for the largest number of people, for the longest remaining time possible (before American dissolution) is his mantra.

 

He points out that the US public (and our situation) are not yet psychologically prepared for a successful revolt.

 

Therefore, maintaining societal order and avoiding unnecessary, futile bloodshed requires that small rebelling American groups be squashed. Black Lives Matter excepted, of course.

 

Revolutions, he says (with significant historical justice) almost always result in worse outcomes than existed before.

 

As a result, it is better for the Oligarchy to wield repressing power, than it is for us to witness the fragmenting of America in a blaze of disjointed conflagrations that are unlikely to go nowhere beneficial.

 

Black Lives Matter, again excepted.

 

 

On the other side of the issue — Caitlin Johnstone's articulate scream of rage

 

Johnstone, writing about the passing of the Devil's brother (Donald Rumsfeld), said this:

 

 

Iraq war architect Donald Rumsfeld has died. Not in a prison cell in The Hague, not murdered by bombs or bullets, but peacefully in his home, surrounded by loved ones, a week and a half shy of his 89th birthday.

 

The imperial media are giving their fallen master a king’s tribute, with headlines describing the psychopathic war criminal as “a cunning leader“, “a man of honor and conviction“, or simply as “Former defense secretary at helm of Iraq, Afghanistan wars“.

 

In reality, exactly zero percent of the world’s worst people are in prison, but some of the best people are. The fact that Donald Rumsfeld lived a long life of freedom while Julian Assange wastes away in Belmarsh Prison proves the world doesn’t work the way we were taught in school. The very worst bad guys are not put in prison by the good guys who run things, because the very worst bad guys are the ones who run things.

 

The system isn’t designed to protect us from society’s worst, it’s designed to protect society’s worst from us.

 

It’s designed to keep us turning the gears of industry without looking around and noticing that we’re all getting fucked in the ass by an alliance of plutocrats and security state insiders who only care about power and money.

 

It’s designed to keep us too busy and propagandized to use the power of our numbers to take back what the bastards have stolen from us, and to make sure there’s enough guns on their side to kill us all dead if we try.

 

© 2021 Caitlin Johnstone, The System Isn’t There to Protect Us from Criminals, It’s to Protect Criminals from Us, caitlinjohnstone.com (01 July 2021)

 

 

The moral? — What price, what future — and which ideal?

 

Too few people think about these most basic of society-constructing conundrums.

 

That lack of energy and insight probably predicts that Cynicism is, indeed, the most effective way 'forward'.

 

Score another for the 'bad' guys. (No offense, my friend.)