Comments for Fear, Procurement, Profit: Permanent War and the American Way at http://atlanticfreepress.com , comment 1 to 2 out of 2 comments http://atlanticfreepress.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:02:51 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/4825-fear-procurement-profit-permanent-war-and-the-american-way.html#comment-5977 ANDREW BACEVICH HAS EARNED OUR EAR Only rarely does someone surface with qualifications as well as insights and a delivery that stimulate thinking. Even more rarely does an individual stimulate the very personal mental articulation of self observation. http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/08/andrew-bacevich-rare-sobering-voice.html Bacevich deserves as broad an audience as can be exposed to his thoughtful analysis. - PacificGatePost Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:13:44 +0100 http://atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/4825-fear-procurement-profit-permanent-war-and-the-american-way.html#comment-5956 Fifty years ago, somewhere in California, Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters were present at some sort of a happening. Some anti-war activists urged Kesey to speak. I don't recall the exact situation (Find it somewhere in "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test") but somehow Kesey was button-holed with a microphone and more or less HAD to speak to the crowd. The gist of what he told them, I DO remember. It was short and not real sweet: "You want to stop the war?" he asked. "Then just say 'F**k it,' and walk away." From a guy of Kesey's stature, the activists hoped for a real barn-burner of a speech. No doubt they were disappointed. Every day I get e-mails from do-goody wowsers in Congress, in politics, in the blogosphere, and they all ask me for money to help them fight the good fight. According to them it costs money to stop the war. It costs money to save the trees. It costs money to realize peace and social justice. It costs money to do what is right. Today I got an e-mail from Ellen Brown, over at the Web of Debt Blog. There was no message, but just a link -- [URL]http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259[/URL] -- that leads to a post by Dmitri Orlov, who offers a solution to our present problems that looks an awful lot like the solution Kesey recommended all those years ago. Orlov touts "A time-tested, time-saving approach to national politics, guaranteed to work for any collapsing superpower. "1) Don't pay any attention to national politicians – it only encourages them. They are a colossal distraction. Stay focused. "2) Don't even make fun of them (tempting as that is). If you completely ignore them, they will fade from view faster. "3) Alexander Solzhenitsyn . . . developed a handy saying which helped him survive the Gulag. It may help you too: 'Don't believe them, don't fear them, don't ask anything of them.'” It sounds silly until you realize the level of commitment it requires, the many kinds of strength for which it asks, and the myriad temptations it requires one to resist. The one thing it doesn't ask of anyone is money. Orlov endured the collapse of the Soviet regime in his native Russia. He compares what happened there with what is about to happen here. I laughed at Orlov's post -- He makes his comparison with his tongue pressed firmly against the inside of his cheek, and the whole comes packaged as a parody of your typical businessman's Power-Point presentation -- but what he has to say isn't really funny. Fact is, fascists control our government. Our democratic system is no more, but even if it was still functional, these thugs would never peacefully let go the reins of power they now hold. There are, therefore, only two options for those who want democratic government restored: one is violent revolution; the other is passive civil disobedience on a grand scale. I'm sure that some who come here have seen the Orlov post. It's worth a second look. Those who haven't yet seen it ought to look twice. Everyone on the American Left should think about it real hard. J. Ford - J. Ford Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:17:58 +0100