We Will Go Down As The Weakest People In History

[ThomWV]

We, citizens of the USA in 2008, will go down in history as the weakest people the nation has ever produced, and the stupidest. We had a free country and we threw it away. We became everything our fathers fought against in the first and second World Wars. We squandered our wealth and accepted lawlessness as the norm. We borrowed our way into oblivion, we have done damage to the planet that can not be undone. What is worse is that we have done all of this in public and patted ourselves on the back while we did it. We are a lost nation and if the rest of the world has any sense at all they will band together and eliminate us in their own self interest. We are now the enemy of freedom, the scourage of the world.

If history shows us nothing else it is that rogue nations fall.

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. K&R

[Red Zelda]

2. Wait until we're out of oil

and see what shitheads we act like then.

[Atman]

3. Sadly, I'm reccing this

:(

.

[bdamomma]

4. I am not ready to put up the white flag yet.

[Angela Shelley]

8. Hi Alyce, please share some of your optimism with me.

Do you have some "good news" to share, to support your optimism?

:think:

[bdamomma]

13. I am only hoping that we will act or may be will have to hit

the bottom of barrel to realize we have to fight back. Ignorance and denial of the populous seems to be a major factor.

[Donnachaidh]

5. I think it's a tossup between weak stupid and shallow

When we have people discussing *hotties* on a political board, it's embarrassing. :eyes:

[cutlassmama]

39. Couldn't agree more.

[tekisui]

6. We will go down as those who lived under a hijacked democracy.

We have shifted and are becoming a rouge nation. Our current occupant of the WH is an openly admitted War Criminal. He is joining the ranks of Saddam, Pol Pot, the Khmer Rougue, Stalin, Pinochet, Hitler, and the others.

1 million killed in Iraq. Illegal Invasion and Occupation. War Profiteering. Illegal Spying. Illegal Rendering. Blacksite Prisons. Illegal Detentions. Torture.

[ThomWV]

10. and we will go down as the people who allowed it to happen - even encouraged it.

[Donnachaidh]

15. Chris Dodd is still fighting

He tore UP the Senate last night - breaking down EXACTLY what Mad George has been doing.

[bdamomma]

20. yes, he deserves some recognition from us, we should call

his office and thank him. He hit upon every point last nite, he was on the floor for 2 hours. This man sees what is happening we do too.

[Horse with no Name]

32. And shame on MANY of us for not supporting that man for President

He is the ONLY one that is truly fighting for us from the Senate.

[Justpat]

48. He was my first choice

In my opinion, he is the only real warrior in the Senate.

But he was not flashy enough for the general public to elect.

I agree with what the OP says and I have felt the same way since 2000
when we accepted the court selection of the boy king without a whimper.

[bdamomma]

17. yes, we have allowed it to happen but that does not mean

we cannot fight them back either, all of us see the writing on the wall, we are the only ones to try to get us out of this mess.

[tavalon]

23. Hopefully, one day we will hold our shame as well as the Germans have

I believe, never again, is one of their mottoes. Some of us, as you know, yourself included, are trying to figure out how to avert the rest of the disaster. We haven't been able to stop them thusfar, but we've been trying. May we try smarter soon.

[Birthmark]

7. Couldn't agree more.

I was shocked at how quickly we capitulated after 9/11. I'm still shocked. I thought we were made of sterner stuff.

[drexel dave]

9. we traded our beautiful cities for lifeless automobile slums called suburbs

the worse allocation of resources in the history of mankind.

Flee the suburbs for a inexpensive city near water.

Things don't look that bad in Detroit, as opposed to its suburbs after all.

DD

[GodlessBiker]

11. Man o man. How can you live with yourself, or worse, live with us?

[ThomWV]

24. Here's how

FXSTD - it clears the mind. That's how I do it.

I fought for 3 years in Viet Nam. I am decorated. I thought I was fighting for freedom. Maybe I was but its gone now.

Secrete trials, secrete evidence, secrete executions. Government in league with business, with immunity for all.

[GodlessBiker]

28. Don't look at history in 10 year chunks, look at it in 100 year chunks.

Or even more, 500 year chunks.

There is a tendency to view the most recent past as defining history.

[TheCowsCameHome]

29. The last seven years has been way too much for me to simply ignore

It must be changed this November. Otherwise the slide will continue, unabated.

[LynnTheDem]

33. Native Americans, Guam, Granada, Panama, Phillipines, Vietnam...

Nope, doesn't look any better.

[GodlessBiker]

34. Except for Native Americans, who have really been screwed, yeah it does.

You know, the reign of Genghis Kahn wasn't too good for people either. How do you measure the destruction that he and his marauding bands caused? The Romans were even worse. Caligula?

You look at recent history and believe that this history defines the future. It doesn't.

Ronald Reagan won because people believed he articulated a vision where our future is not tied to our past. That is what people respond to. If our candidate fails to lead with this same kind of vision, he or she will lose.

[AlertLurker]

49. I think you may want to re-read some history - recent and otherwise.

"Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford would be a good start. Thucidides "The Pelopponesian War" would be a good one to work through, as well, especially if you have been following the current USAmerican conflict since the 1980s. THEN come back and say that history does not define the future...

Secondly, Reagan won simply because his puppet-masters were the self-same military-corporate scumbags that screwed the ME over to the extent that it rebelled so wholly that oil prices shot up some 300%, ME security was fucked for the next three decades (and counting) and the word "Islamic Revolution" chilled the hysteria-prone hearts of USAmerican sheeple in all 50 states.

History, recent and otherwise, determines the future ABSOLUTELY to the extent that "We the People" are prepared to ignore it...

[Dhalgren]

12. K&R, Thom. If we had the intelligence we'd feel shame...

[lonestarnot]

14. Ack Not me!

[TheCowsCameHome]

16. It's the me,me,me, now, now, now attitude with no regard for future generations

Instant gratification, a hooray for me and to hell with you mindset has led to this mess we're leaving for our children and grandchildren.

[Donnachaidh]

19. and no regard for older generations either

When you have daycare class trips to nursing homes cancelled by the MOMMIES who don't want their kids to see or interact with old people -- that too is a shameful mess!

Those Mommies don't realize they are playing with their own karma. :eyes:

[TheCowsCameHome]

21. All too true - send 'em out to pasture,

they're beyond their useful life.

Sad.

[bdamomma]

25. delete

[bdamomma]

26. yes, it's the "me" generation, will do have too many "toys"

to keep us distracted, but that is what they have taught us, they treat us as consumers and not like citizens. Rather degrading for me to think of myself as that "a consumer" that is why this filthy administration is throwing checks our way, for me that is rather insulting, and degrading. Just my opinion.

[bdamomma]

27. yes, it's the "me" generation, will do have too many "toys"

to keep us distracted, but that is what they have taught us, they treat us as consumers and not like citizens. Rather degrading for me to think of myself as that "a consumer" that is why this filthy administration is throwing checks our way, for me that is rather insulting, and degrading. Just my opinion.

[sam sarrha]

18. Sadly i agree, I've been preaching this since i came back from Africa Peace Corps '73, i have never

recovered from the culture shock from living in an Islamic Republic with starvation and death everywhere.. The Islamic Clergy is just as Corrupt as our own government, any other religion or corporation, It is called the Iron Law of Oligarchy; some predatory asshole sociopath allays screws everything up for Profit, sex or power..

a tablet from 4000 BCE stated, "What Is*, Was*, and always will Be*"

this is the condition of *Samsara: Unlimited Potential corrupted by dissatisfaction, unhappiness, suffering, sickness and death.

it is up to each individual to develop their minds, to become the best they can be to do the most they can in spite of it all, to help others raise their consciousness to see the way out.

i see this world as one big test, to see if you can persevere in the face of insurmountable odds to complete the imposable with universal love and compassion, even for your enemies.. that isn't Christianity, it is Buddhism, something i think came down the Old Silk Road thru Palestine to Jesus and others, something the early Christian scholars recognized early on and have been trying to hide ever since.

[femrap]

36. Your post cheered me up....

especially:

"it is up to each individual to develop their minds, to become the best they can be to do the most they can in spite of it all, to help others raise their consciousness to see the way out."

I see this Materialism/Consumerism as evil...guess I need to help others see that as well. Of course, the root of this Materialistic evil is the Corporation.

Too bad Christians don't act more like Christ.

[davekriss]

51. Pardon the repost, but I find Elgin's words most helpful

I come here because, despite the darkness, I have hope (February 2006)

And it is dark indeed, darker than most even here believe. We're not going to "reform" or "elect" our way out of our current situation; this is not 5 years in the making, more fundamental changes even within us need to take place before the phoenix of progress rises again from our current ashes.

We are a society in gut-wrenching transition. Faced with an age of limits (just around the corner), reactionary global forces have ruthlessly steeled their financial fortresses while successfully paralyzing the rest of us, the "to be left behind" (unwashed masses, rascal multitudes), paralyzing us with fear, with appeals to our baser natures, by breeding ignorance and apathy, by convincing most of us to sit on the couch while they rule. Their biggest fear is not Al Qaeda or Islamist militant nationalism, but us, every one of "us" who are not "them" and might come to take their privilege and advantage from them.

Our best chance to rise up refreshed and anew, with chains of fascism and kleptocracy shaken off, is right here, in this beautiful thing called the internet. More of us connect faster to new and vitalizing ideas via the internet than any other means ever available to this sea of human brains. Each of us steps away from places like DU more firm in our values and thus closer to right action than if we stood truly alone. Like mirror neurons it won't be long before we're all unknowingly acting together -- and in that is transforming power, hugely transforming power.

I found the words from this 1981 work inspirational; maybe DU-land will as well (from Duane Elgin's Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich, pp 192-194):

... We are not alone in this time of change. Everyone we meet is in some way involved with his or her own personal struggle to respond to our time of challenge. Whatever our other differences may be, we are all participants in this historical rite of passage.

As individuals we are not powerless in the face of this monumental change. Opportunities for meaningful and important action are everywhere...the list is endless, since the stuff of social transformation is identical with the stuff from which our daily lives are constructed.

We are each responsible for the conduct of our lives -- and we are each unique. Therefore we are each uniquely responsible for our actions and choices in this pivotal time in human evolution. There is no one who can take our place. We each weave a singular strand in life. No one else can weave that strand for us. What we each contribute is distinct, and what we each withold is uniquely irreplaceable.

More than anything else, the outcome from this time of planetary transition will depend on the choices that we make as individuals. There are no preconditions to our choosing a revitalized path of civilizational development. There is nothing lacking. Nothing more is needed than what we already have. We require no remarkable, undiscovered technologies. We do not need heroic, larger-than-life leadership. The only requirement is that we, as individuals, choose a revitalizing future and then work in community with others to bring it to fruition. By our conscious choices we can move from alienation to community, from despair to creativity, from passivity to participation, from stagnation to learning, from cynicism to caring. We tend to think we are powerless, helpless, impotent. Yet the reality is that only we -- as individuals working in cooperation with one another -- have the power to transform our situation. Far from being helpless, we are the only source from which the necessary creativity, compassion, and will can arise. The time of civilizational change is already upon us. The autumn of the industrial era of development has already moved into winter. It is time to begin the next stage of our human journey.

Duane Elgin was talking from his intuitions of the coming age of limits -- of arable land, of drinkable water, of diminishing oil, of the ecological constraints upon raw consumerism -- and the need to transform ourselves along equitable and sustainable lines. Very prescient, and it appears we have taken the darkest of available paths, but as this is already an overly long post, I'll leave it there (and suggest you get the book!).

So, though I have hope, it is for my future grandchildren that I hope; I'm not so confident (not at all confident) that we'll see sufficient change in our lifetimes to stave off growing darkness and struggle. But each of us is left with choice. I've made mine; may you join us in the light!

If you assume that there's no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there's a chance you may contribute to making a better world. That's your choice.
-- Noam Chomsky

You must be the change you want to see in the world.
-- Mohandas K Gandhi

Now. Or never.
-- Henry David Thoreau

[midnight]

22. I think that the trust and love we have for our beautiful country

was used as a shield to block us from the truth of those in power who don't care. It is frustrating that our neighbor's, family, and leaders keep on this disaster's path. I had a Republican family member who hates welfare. I asked how he felt about the welfare to corporations-He said, "ask me if I care"?

[The_Commonist]

30. We?

Watch that "we" stuff, kimosabe!

[LynnTheDem]

31. Don't forget FRIGHTENED. So SCARED, we gave the terrorists exactly what they wanted...

CHANGE.

So FRIGHTENED, we shouted out our appeasement to the terrorists 24/7: "911 CHANGED EVERYTHING!

Since CHANGE is exactly the point of terrorism, the terrorists won. Years ago.

[Winterblues]

35. USA ~ USA ~ USA ~ USA ~ USA

We Don't Care....We Don't Care....We Don't Care....Freeper Chants

[4_TN_TITANS]

37. The price of prosperity....

is being doomed to lose it. As a country, we've become fat, apathetic, ignorant, and easily amused. Now back to American Idol...

[Iktomiwicasa]

38. I am grateful

that my nation is slowly regaining strength.

[indepat]

40. But tens of millions of Amurikkkans who have supported and enabled those who have done all this

love Jesus.

[eridani]

41. No longer the land of the free and the home of the brave

Looks like it's the home of the well-armed bedwetters with itchy trigger fingers.

[Lady Effingbroke]

42. It's become the land of the fee and home of the slave.

Wage slave, that is - if one is lucky enough to have a job.

[leftofthedial]

43. commie

I oughtta get in my hummer and tear up your yard, you pinko

this is the greatest country ever! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number One!





:thumbsup:

[mojowork_n]

44. Brings back a Matt Taibbi column, from 2001

He called it "Whole Lotta Pansies":

http://exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=6351&IBLOCK_ID=35

Excerpt:

Someday, historians are going to look back and try to pinpoint the moment when "the American moment" ended in world history. I am going to help them now by pointing it out for them, as a contemporary witness. That moment took place on Thursday, November 8, sometime in the afternoon, in Washington, D.C.

That is the day when Attorney General John Ashcroft stood up at a press conference and told reporters, with a straight face, that America was ready to announce "its first victory over terrorism" in the period since September 11. First and foremost, Ashcroft said, Americans had "scored a victory" by showing their bravery. "Americans," Ashcroft declared, first of all, "have endured the videotaped tauntings of Osama bin Laden."

Ashcroft's announcement raised an interesting question. What would qualify as an American defeat under those criteria? Was he referring to the possibility that millions of Americans, at the sight of bin Laden on television, would pull a mass Scooby-and-Shaggy and jumping cartoon-style into each others' arms? That a line of citizens ten miles long would glumly hurl themselves off the edge of the Grand Canyon, bin Laden's terrible visage the last thing on their minds? Spontaneous mass applications for Danish citizenship?

I'm about as dovish as they come—I didn't think it was a good idea to attack Afghanistan before we did it, and I don't think it's a good idea now—but even I'm ashamed to see what a group of utter faggots our countrymen have turned into during this war. It has been a real shock to see right-wing monsters like Ashcroft acting like EST counselors in their public statements, and our leaders in general running around Washington like a group of characters in a Woody Allen movie (not the early, funny movies, but the later, faux-Chekhovian Judy Davis/Liam Neeson movies), chattering like amateur therapists as they try to "heal" and get in touch with their feelings.

But even worse than Ashcroft, even worse than our scripture-consulting President, are our nation's newspaper editors. At a time when it is of vital importance for America to project a strong, silent image around the world, the masters of our nation's print landscape have spent the last two months wringing their hands like housewives, providing, I am sure, all the encouragement any of our enemies would ever need to keep fighting us. Deprived of a real role by the government in the reporting of the war, and having voluntarily re-nounced the right to criticize the policies of the President, newspaper editors have seemingly decided en masse that their primary role during the conflict will be one of "healing"—that is, helping Americans "cope" with the pain of the terrorist bombings.

And what "healing" has meant so far has largely been a massive, thoroughly embarrassing exercise in self-congratulation, along with an almost grotesque emphasis on the heroism of the victims of the 9/11 attack, and the "pain" we all feel at their loss.

Here is one specific example, and it is an example you will see repeated over and over again for at least one full year—and probably for longer than that. A few weeks ago, I thought to myself: unless Halloween is canceled all over America, the entire country is going to stand up and congratulate itself once the holiday is over for defying terrorism by letting their kids run around in the suburbs in fireman costumes, collecting Peter/Paul-Mars products.

I was a little off. Although fireman costumes were massively represented ("If you find in a store, you're lucky," a representative of buycostumes.com told the Philadelphia Inquirer), the hit Halloween getup was, disgustingly, the mass-produced Harry Potter costume. I was also wrong about the neighborhood trick-or-treating: it turns out that the new trend these days, one that advanced by leaps and bounds in the wake of 9/11, is to have kids trick or treat in the safe confines of malls...

[ThomWV]

47. Thank you for retrieving and posting that.

That is a wonderful read.

[Echo In Light]

45. If there is a future to look back at this era historically, the defining aspect will be...

How The Few Big were so effectively able to dupe The Many.

Willfully blind.

[KG]

46. We Will Go Down As The Most Dellusional People In History

believed every lie we were told, bought into every myth.

[Justpat]

50. we are a nation of cowards

unworthy of our own heritage.