Today we reprint a post from the Toxins of Power Blog:The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins?
This is an ancient question, but a question with one very clear answer.
An answer from the sages in our past which we are very fortunate to have had, but sages which we have ignored to our great demise in recent times.
An answer that seems today to be totally and completely at odds with the conventional wisdom-hype and propaganda which is composed of the glorification of the greatest source of the toxins of power.
Our founders were well aware of the question and the answer hundreds of years ago. They spoke of it with unmistakable words and with certain clarity:
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied : and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Those truths are well established.(James Madison, emphasis added). The visionary who made that statement was the 4th President of the United States, Bill of Rights author, Congressman, Cabinet Member, who was also called the "Father of the U.S. Constitution".
The above quote is from his "Political Observations," April 20, 1795, in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Volume IV, page 491-492.
Notice, in the quote above, how Madison equated or associated the toxins of power with disease epidemic concepts, saying that the war toxin "develops the germ of every other". War enhances the spread of corrupting toxins.
Clearly, he is saying that war is a corrupting toxin that generates other corrupting toxins which will eventually destroy "public freedom".
Further, war, the greatest source of toxins of power is the province of the military, therefore, what Madison said about war applies without restriction to the military.
It is no wonder that President General Dwight Eisenhower warned us with great concern about that very dangerous source of the toxins of power we always face.
That is also why war is given the highest number in the tables of toxins on this blog.
The least that can be said is that this day has been "watered down", but the closer truth is that propaganda reigns supreme in our lands.
Evolution keeps on slipping into the future, so now we no longer have the Military Industrial Complex, it would now be called the Military Rust-Belt Confusion, so as disaffected once said, MOMCOM is the better acronym.
ReplyDeleteThe Military Oil Media Complex (MOMCOM) is the big dog now.
Militarism is now officially the new third rail (touch it and you die), as Social Security and Medicare seem to have lost their privileged status. As a social experiment, it will be very interesting to see how far into our fall as a nation state we will continue to hold on to our imperial delusions of grandeur. After the safety nets are all dismantled and spending on infrastructure here at home has completely ceased (save for a few rich and influential districts with enough political clout to keep the budget faucets running), will the MOMCOM budgets continue to expand like a supernova until they encompass the entire US budgetary universe, before imploding in a spectacular cosmic light show for the ages. Something tells me that MOMCOM, crack whore that she is, will never settle for anything less.
ReplyDeleteThe president who wanted Obama to be "president for life" could be in trouble in Libya.
ReplyDeleteHis son has vowed to fight to the last bullet.
Famous last words.
Check this one out:
ReplyDeleteCan a new 'national civility institute' calm political rancor?
George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton will oversee the National Institute for Civil Discourse in Arizona, sparked by the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. But history shows it faces an uphill battle.
As if civility can be imposed any more than democracy could. There's a reason the discourse has grown so rancorous in the past ten years. Because one side has decided that they're right, everyone else is wrong, and that any tactic whatsoever, no matter how reprehensible, is allowable in service of their agenda. Sound like anyone you know?
Oh, and BillyBob is just another no-account shill who's primarily interested in keeping his face in the news and burnishing his legacy (cigar anyone?). The GOP was right about that bastard all along.