3 Sept 13

Analyses of current politics, from a friend in the System:

“So went Rome, so we follow.

The central problem with a democracy or a democratic republic is that ‘leaders’ do not have to be the best and the brightest, nor do they even have to be decent nor honest. They merely have to be elected, via making all kinds of false promises and proffering false hope.

In the interim, ‘bread and circuses.’ Handouts to sweaty masses, and the brutality of popular entertainment, coupled with an unfunded military, stretched too thin, brought Rome to its knees.

And, for every Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, and Hadrian, there was a Nero and Caligula, et al.

Today, unending hand-outs to the illegal immigrants, continual generations of permanently unproductive welfare-recipients whose votes are purchased, coupled with entertainment like ‘mixed martial arts,” where there is much brutality and scant skill, the ‘bread and circuses’ continue, and our unfunded military is also stretched way too thin.

Finding an honest politician is impossible, because elected officials who don’t become part of the Beltway ‘system’ don’t last long. Parties choose candidates, not the people, and there is little discernable difference between parties.

Democracies and Republics are inherently unstable. When they fall, dictators arise. Dictators fall, and chaos reigns. The cycle is not exactly new!

I long ago gave up the illusion that we were doing what we did because we were noble. Economics rule, but our current generation of political ignoramuses don’t even understand economics!

You and I are contemporaries. We stepped forward, wore our Country’s uniform, and went forward to kill our Country’s enemies, which we did with great skill and daring. The same generation produced ‘hippies.’ Drugs, orgies, and anti-establishment gospel, considered by so many to be harmless, became quite harmful when hippies, ever-shunning honest work, bathed, cut their hair and beards, stepped into suits and got themselves elected to political office.

Now former, and oh-so-pious and self-righteous ‘war-haters’ have morphed into war-mongers, hoping we’ve all forgotten their past rhetoric. Their hypocritical ‘justifications’ are simultaneously comical and pathetic.

In 500BC, Sun Tzu clearly told us that long, drawn-out wars are good for nothing. We’re all supposed to forget that too!”

Comment:
“Un train peut en cacher un autre” Loosely translated from French: “One train may be hiding another”

Inscription found on warning signs at French railroad crossings

Please tell me we’re “doing it for the children!”

Hang on to your hat!

/John