I awoke this morning from another fitful night. I can’t say I slept; I didn’t; I haven’t rested in quite some time. I’m usually a sound sleeper due mostly to mental exhaustion and fatigue, but the restful days are gone since I caught a glimpse of the puzzle many years ago.
I have several afflictions that cause my restlessness; there’s the inevitable onset of age and all the things ricocheting around in my brain. There are external stimuli like; where we’re headed as a republic and our out-of-control government, to name a few. I recall historical examples and the outcomes of other inattentive republics, replete with slumbering, inattentive, and distracted sheeple.
There’s the fall of the Roman Empire, the collapse of Russia, and the rise of the Third Reich, to name just a few. These, and too many more, ought to serve as cause-and-effect examples of our present direction, yet we hire misrepresentatives who choose to ignore them. I am astounded that our system provides opportunities to correct mistakes, yet we fail to make that choice.
It is said that we learn from our mistakes, but apparently, America has a learning disability; we don’t learn SHIT! We make the same mistakes repeatedly and foolishly celebrate them!
Other recent and very personal issues cause me to seriously consider if mankind – humanity – is even worth saving. Thousands of years and countless wars are potent examples of mankind’s corruption.
Decades of past American events, especially those of the past four, illuminate and exacerbate deeper human issues like our inability to coexist and our insistence on proving that “power, in point of fact, does corrupt and absolute power corrupts, absolutely.” ~ Lord Acton
Is this all some horrendous experiment gone wrong; is it simply a sick galactic joke in very bad taste? Did Inter-Galactic Aliens, invetro-fertalize monkeys and turn them loose on this planet just to watch the mayhem?
Has America run amok?
My answer to the last question is a resounding “YEP…”
Society’s past attempts at self-correction were abject failures, yet I’m still fighting to redirect our path into the future to prevent another inevitable calamity. I stand on the forecastle (fok sal) of our sinking ship of state and shout that there is an iceberg ahead – at a population so distracted by propaganda and lies, blaring into their ear-pods telling what they want to hear; my alarms go unheeded.
“It’s all free – and it’s the other guy’s fault,” barks the narrator in a pedantic tone. “It’s all OK with Comrade China Joey at the helm. China Joey’s the salvation of democracy! Look at all he’s done for this country!”
“It’s racism – white supremacy – classism – and other socio-political contrivances” to further divide citizens into warring factions. They accuse the citizenry of treason if they don’t drink the Fascist Kool-Aid… “If you’re not with us, you’re against us…”
You can believe whatever you like; as long as we approve…
How’s that for freedom of expression?
“The government is here to care for you – if you’ll only comply…”
“Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.” ~ Mark Twain
I know precisely how he felt…
I, too, have come to question my sanity and my resolve…
I’ve referenced this song title before – its chorus echoes in my mind constantly, even though I try to ignore it.
“I think it’s time we stop, children.
What’s that Sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down.”
· ‘For What It’s Worth’ – Buffalo Springfield
You can find the complete lyrics on the inter-web… they make a very insightful read – it was recorded in 1967…
I have an eclectic education and background in everything from the arts to sciences to literature; I am an autodidactic polymath.
There are pluses and minuses to this collection of information. I know stuff, and it causes me to want to speak out against repeating the mistakes made by past civilizations. The causes and effects are well documented, yet we believe we can control the maelstrom of governmental indiscretions and policy blunders with more legislation to append their recklessness and disregard for our Constitution – as imperfect as it is – our Constitution is still the best possible guide forward.
We have the map, but we fail to follow it because; “we know better than the thirty-eight delegates of foresight who wrote it and two hundred years of our history.” Again, our Constitution is not perfect, but it is an excellent foundation. The authors recognized that it needed to adapt as the national situation changed and specified the process to amend it with two-thirds approval and consent. Pretty fucking smart, in my opinion, but our misrepresentatives are so egotistical and intently focused on partisan politics that they don’t see the cardinal points of the moral compass. Their needle is frozen, pointing at ‘SELF.’
My ability to reason makes me question whether I’m drawing the appropriate correlations and inferences or simply delusional. I prefer to believe that I’m on the right track, which indicates that I am not delusional since I can question my sanity. If I were unrealistic or insane, I wouldn’t wonder or care.
These immutable facts trigger memories and similarities to stored information, like the song lyrics I mention in the opening and the historical facts of civilizations’ past.
The minus is that no one cares to listen.
Is the rest of the world so self-absorbed that they fail to make these connections? Maybe they didn’t study or read the classics or history. Perhaps they’re just along for the ride… Passengers on this sinking ship of state. One thing is certain: when the ship-of-state goes down, they will scream like a chorus of scorched cats.
I hear a noise in the background as I read the headlines or listen to the propaganda spewing from the media. It’s the unmistakable sound of a flushing toilet; America is a turd in the bowl, caught in the vortex, circling the drain on its way to relegation as a charter member of the banana-republic club.
I keep reminding anyone who’ll listen that the unpleasant task before us, requires uncommon courage to reach into the bowl and rescue America before it goes under.
· I know that’s a bit graphic, but I got your attention.
A few loyalists work diligently to awaken the slumbering sheeple to the impending doom, but the flock of sheeple is mesmerized by their portable propaganda portals, unswayed by anything contrary to the reassuring pabulum of empty, unfulfillable promises and media double-speak.
We are so enamored of these portable propaganda portal devices that we ignore everything – including our safety and security. I almost ran over a pedestrian crossing against a red light because he was walking and texting. The term is “Cellphone Zombie.”
Driving home from an appointment, I was nearly broadsided by a person texting-while-driving!
These are a minute fraction of the examples of America’s obsession with these “Alters of Information” where we pray. Yet no one has the strength to back away in deference to their imminent danger. We know what’s right, but we’re addicted to the messages – we are “junk information’ junkies. We drank the Kool-Aid and bought the bridge.
This ubiquitous appendage rules their lives. They can’t or won’t put them down. If you have control of your life, refusing to allow an inanimate object to control you, you are in the small minority; 97% of Americans live on their portable propaganda portals.
Is it reasonable to forego observations to follow a Leprechaun to his pot of gold or continue to chase these mythical promises to oblivion? Will the sheeple of America play ostrich and bury their collective heads in the sand – or other places – for plausible deniability like – “I didn’t know,” Or “Nobody told me, “Or” I thought that was the government’s job,” and finally take personal responsibility for the direction of THEIR republic?
I keep repeating this same cliché – America is our country.
This is our republic.
It is ours to keep, and therefore, it is ours to lose.
What I see and what I hear is that too few citizens give a tinkers’ damn.
We owe all the people who’ve sacrificed for our liberty, thank you, but you need to consider if the remaining patriots will write the same check…
What check?
“A veteran (patriot) is someone who, at one point in their life, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America,’ for an amount up to and including their life.”
What are we doing to honor that sacrifice?
If life exists on other planets and galaxies, why would they want to contact us?
We are intractable and arrogant…
We can’t even live together…
We kill each other for ridiculous reasons…
Corrupt everything for profit…
What do we have to offer to any other civilization?
“Everyone thinks of changing the world,
But no one thinks of changing himself.” ~ Leo Tolstoy
You’ve dishonored all the patriots who served this republic.
They are my brother and sister patriots…
I offer no apology…
For the Amalgamated Heavy
Charles R Dickens
January 23, 2024
~ The Author ~
Charles R. Dickens was born in 1951, is a veteran of the Vietnam war, for which he volunteered, and the great-great grandson of the noted author, whose name he shares.
He is a fiercely proud American, who still believes this is the greatest country on the planet, with which we’ve lost control and certainly our direction. He grew up in moderate financial surrounding; we’re not rich by any stretch, but didn’t go hungry – his incredibly hard working father saw to that. As most from that era, he learned about life from his father, whose story would take too long to tell, other than to say that, he is also a fiercely proud American; a WWII and Korean war, veteran Marine.
Charlie was educated in the parochial system which, demanded that you actually learn something, and have capability to retain it before you advance. He attended several universities in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, and chased the goose further to a master’s, and has retained some very definite ideas about education in this country.
In addition, Charlie is a retired blues guitar and vocalist – a musician. This was his therapy career. Nothing brings him as much joy as playing music, and he wishes that he could make a living at it… but alas… life goes on!