Response to A Rolling Stones Article.

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”  ― Sun Tzu

And that is Exactly what we have here.

I will attempt to be succinct in my response, but I will reference documents and I will cite facts and perhaps some quotes. If you think reading a couple pages of information from this crackpot loony is tl;dr, then I urge you to stop Right Now, because this has no use to you.

This... Inflammatory, derogatory, albeit well structured essay by Dickinson is, while foolishly biased, succinctly accurate. The only problem is it has no real bearing on the actual causes of what we see today. See, at the root of this entire debacle, our whole world at this point centers around money. So many people believe 'money' is this great force, this mysterious object which, once attained, grants freedom and prosperity and material things like jewels, jet skis , and vacations to exotic locales.

Money is nothing more and nothing less than the medium of exchange accepted by most cultures as payment for goods or services rendered. Don't believe me? http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/money?show=0&t=1321328336

However, money has become what the comedian Dennis Miller would call Frank Sinatra: it is “simultaneously the most hated, loved, feared and admired

[thing] on the entire planet.” And it is NOT, say again NOT, because it is a mystical, unstoppable force.

So why? Why is money, this simple thing we use in exchange for getting a Dr. Pepper or enjoying a massage, causing the entire World to crumble and fall to its knees, begging for mercy? I'll stop with my antics and just get down to it: because people who people have chosen to run their countries are a) uneducated to the point of dangerous on basic principles of economics, b) feel threatened by money itself (or because of a multitude other things), and c) wish to control those people who they are elected to represent. Don't believe me? Feel free to do your history research. George Washington (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp ), in his farewell address cited more examples than I can name as to why a citizenry would be subjugated to the will of its government, led to believe that the people did not have the freedom to act for themselves, and battered into a corner from all sides. He urged us, the United States, not to break into factions, not to make long lasting alliances with foreign nations (in order to preserve our own unity and individuality as a nation), and to enlighten the populace. What have we done? Nearly as soon as Washington stepped out of office, we split into Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The North and The South. And now, as Dickinson writes, the money-hungry GOP, and whatever his name is for liberal Democrats. We are a nation divided. We are a nation who has promised billions of dollars to the populace, and millions more to the outside world. We serve as the global peace keeper.

Along with all this, on the underside of all government upheaval and pandemonium, businesses are trading. Selling. Buying. Bargaining. Now, no one ever said a business can't trade. But there is a specific place which exists only Because of America, even though its roots can be traced back to man's beginning. The stock exchange.

This is a place where businesses and people can buy and sell portions of businesses, as well as certain goods, at prices. However, the unique thing about today's stock exchange is that those figures can be entirely speculative. This is where we branch off into the crazy world of unverifiable facts and why most people look at me like I drank too much coffee this morning and sprouted a foot in the middle of my head.

We have created a system which allows people to change the rules of money. It allows them to make bets and guesses on things which do not yet exist, with No Real Collateral to be put up in case of a business failure (we will get to why that is in a moment). But I want you to ponder these two things. A) people with money are trading on things they do not have yet, and may never have (the futures of their businesses) and b) people in power want people with money to back them up so they can retain their power. This is Not a conspiracy. This is a theory, yes, but it has basis in fact (as any scientific theory is allowed).

The worst is the fact that our current problems would have been so much less, that we would have been able to turn into an educated, prosperous country , if not for a chain of events, all having to do with money and the way it works.

I bulletize:

• Political machines form in the United States, circa 1850 (definition:http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/467617/political-machine , example:http://www.albany.edu/~dkw42/tweed.html ); this allowed the government to control who gets into office and, by virtue of that position, the flow of money. Those with money elected those they wanted, and they got power. They used that power to put the populace under their thumb.
• Progressive Movement, circa 1890. While I won't go into detail, it was a sweeping movement which brought with it the idea that government helps the people, is there as a guide and a sounding board, more so than just a tool for law enforcement. (As good a timeline as any you will find:http://www4.bluevalleyk12.org/bvhs/mklopfenstein/Apush_notes/Unit_VI/THE%20PROGRESSIVE%20ERA(post).pdf )
• FDR, 1933. The Great Depression has hit, due to over-speculation of stocks and business failure in Europe. So, FDR passes a series of reforms. Most, if not all, are detrimental to anyone wishing to rely on only themselves to do any free thing in this life (one man's opinion) but the fact I would like to look at is the passage of Executive Order 6102 (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14611#axzz1dkFtFOXz ). Basically, this states that people... everywhere... in the United States... were Required to give up their gold to the government... in exchange for $20.67 per ounce. … Think about that. The government took hold of the only basis for the medium of exchange (money) besides silver all over the United States, taking it From The People By Force Or By Implication Of Force. … I'll let you stew on that.
• 1946, along with all the other countries, we are put onto the Bretton Woods System (http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1852254,00.html ) which then collapses in 1971, when Nixon ends the trading of gold, and the U.S. Federal Reserve grants itself the right to print it's own money (same as Germany did after WWI... Worked well for them too...)

See, the beauty is, it doesn't matter if this is a well-orchestrated conspiracy by the GOP all these years to seize control of the population's wealth, or a vast leftist-Marxist-Communist plot to overthrow our way of life, or just one big happy accident. It is All The Same. An uneducated populous, unaware of the rules and foresight which intelligent men laid down for them at the beginning of this country, used their emotions of fear and greed to elect people they liked to power. People who made them feel good about themselves, who their neighbors thought were good choices, and who they felt were good but didn't actually do any research about and just blindly followed. America ignored the Constitution, ignored it's own principles, ignored how really wonderful and spectacular it is, and just ran on fear. For over 200 years, we have eaten away at our own systems until we bicker in news articles with paragraphs like this:

“In September, Perry went even further, proposing a flat tax that would take a sharp bite out of the paychecks of the poorest Americans – while slashing taxes by more than 40 percent for the wealthiest. When confronted by a reporter over the fact that his plan would give millions to the rich, Perry replied: "I don't care about that." His plan is almost as regressive as Herman Cain's original 9-9-9 plan, which called for increasing 

taxes on 84 percent of Americans – squeezing $4,400 a year out of every middle-class couple to finance a $455,000 tax cut for millionaires. What's more, both Perry and Cain want to abolish the estate tax entirely and eliminate all taxes on capital gains. A similar plan by Michele Bachmann would enable 23,000 millionaires to pay no taxes at all – while allowing the top 400 earners to pocket nearly two-thirds of their income tax-free, and then pass those riches on to their heirs without paying a penny. "It's madness," says Stiglitz. "And it is dangerous to the fiscal order. The wealthy know very well how to convert normal income to capital gains income."

Taken out of context and without background, put into a media which does nothing but attack the population with rhetoric and slam us with words much as I am using now, this means Nothing. It is bickering. We aren't solving problems, we are avoiding them. Your proof? Here:http://www.usdebtclock.org/ If you look at no other link, look at that. Our debt is $14,993,43x,xxx,xxx as of this moment. And climbing rapidly. Is that evidence of a responsible government? Is that proof of an educated country? No. It's an animal which is backed into a corner and does the only thing it knows how to do: lash out blindly because fear tells it that doing so will save it.

What do I think of this Rolling Stones article? I agree with Janet: it does not surprise me. I expect nothing less from 95% of the people out there. I wish it were different, I really do. I am about 7 years younger than you, Pat, but I know a thing or two (if only that). And I know responsible, intelligent, fore thinking people don't do the things our elected officials do, or the things most of the people in this country do. I have a great love of what America stands for, what we are capable of, and the freedom which we represent. But I fear that, unless we actually stop doing these horrible things to ourselves like meaningless legislation, vehement protests, foolish violence, and letting greed and corruption run rampant (because, yes, even thought the GOP has taken the money, it is the people's fault for not doing a damn thing about it because they don't Care About Educating Themselves On Any Of These Issues, which is why no one but a few will read this rant)... Unless we stop warring with ourselves... as Sun Tzu said, most of the world will be subdued without ever having fought a battle.

I do hope we can turn it around. If not... I'll be prepared for what comes.