Misadministration

[Woodycall]

24. Thank you.

I've been formulating this for quite a while now. I have for years watched and read a tremendous amount of history and history related content. After a while, I couldn't help but see the striking similarities in the motives, goals, organizational structure of governments and movements (including "religious" movements) that were under the control of something other than the democratic will of the people (at least at some level). Be it led by a pharaoh, emperor, king, dictator, president, pope, ayatollah, or even those led by the likes of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, et.al., the pattern is always the same it seems. At its least it involves seizing control of a population (maybe a neighborhood in the case of the mob all the way up to a nation like Germany or Italy) and using muscle to extract wealth. At its greatest, it involves that plus, invading neighboring countries to steal their wealth and enslave their people (in one form or another). They all proclaim some noble objective or "ideology" but under closer examination, it becomes pretty obvious that those "noble objectives and ideologies" were in fact, just a smoke-screen for their crimes. In the case of Al Capone, he had Chicago so sewed-up with bought-off judges, prosecutors, and cops, and threats and actual acts of violence, that it could never have "righted" itself on its own. It took the federal government to break his unholy grip. In the case of Germany, Italy, and Japan, it took the physical force of the allies. Hell, even in "Jolly Ol' " England, the King was the "Boss", the lords, dukes, and earls were the "under-bosses", and the "nights in shining armor" we now know were more akin to hired thugs. Mercenaries working for their cut. And everybody "kicked-up" to the "Boss"... Sure, there have been a few "good kings" but the more one digs, the more it is discovered that they weren't really very "good" after all.

I hate to use this word, because it was so overused 20-30 years ago, but we need a "paradigm shift" in how we deal with that which has taken so many names in the past (and present) but is really the same old thing over and over again...

...Organized Crime.


Once I used to join in
Every boy and girl was my friend
Now there's revolution, but they don't know
What they're fighting

~ Ian Anderson ~