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MAY THE ODDS EVER BE IN YOUR FAVOR – THE REAPING
“Human
history seems logical in afterthought but a mystery in forethought. In
every prior Fourth Turning, the catalyst was foreseeable but the climax
was not.” -The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997
We
are five years into the Crisis that will not resolve itself until
sometime in the 2020’s. No one can predict the specific events that will
fundamentally change history over the next decade, but the catalysts of
debt, civic decay and global disorder were evident sixteen years ago
when Strauss and Howe wrote their prophetic generational history. The
volcanic eruption occurred in 2008 when the worldwide financial system
blew and the molten lava continues to spew forth and flow along the
Federal Reserve created channels, protecting the corrupt establishment
while incinerating senior citizens, the working middle class and
Millennials. Deep within the volcano the pressure is building again as
the mood of the country darkens. It will blow again and the economic,
social, political and military distress will catalyze into a
catastrophic emergency that will tear the fabric of the country asunder.
The existing social order will be swept away and replaced by a new
paradigm which could be better or far worse.
“Imagine
some national (and probably global) volcanic eruption, initially
flowing along channels of distress that were created during the
Unraveling era and further widened by the catalyst. Trying to foresee
where the eruption will go once it bursts free of the channels is like
trying to predict the exact fault line of an earthquake. All you know in
advance is something about the molten ingredients of the climax, which
could include the following:
- Economic distress, with public debt in default, entitlement trust funds in bankruptcy, mounting poverty and unemployment, trade wars, collapsing financial markets, and hyperinflation (or deflation).
- Social distress, with violence fueled by class, race, nativism, or religion and abetted by armed gangs, underground militias, and mercenaries hired by walled communities.
- Political distress, with institutional collapse, open tax revolts, one-party hegemony, major constitutional change, secessionism, authoritarianism, and altered national borders.
- Military distress, with war against terrorists or foreign regimes equipped with weapons of mass destruction.”
The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe – 1997
Linear
thinkers are incapable or unwilling to understand that history is
cyclical, primarily driven by national mood changes and the interaction
of generations entering different stages in their 80 year life cycle.
We’ve seen this story before, but those who lived through the last Fourth Turning
have mostly died out, and our techno-narcissistic populace has
absolutely no interest in understanding history beyond last night’s
episode of Duck Dynasty. The mood of the country during a Turning is
often captured in literature and/or film produced during that period.
The
last Fourth Turning encompassed the period from the Great Crash in 1929
through the Great Depression and World War II, ending in 1946 with a
new world order. Four novels written during this Crisis captured the
dystopian nature of the time, reflecting the fear, pain, anger,
brutality, and courageousness of the common man during that perilous
period. Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath (1939), Orwell’s 1984 (written during WWII), and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy (written
from 1937 through 1949) are masterpieces of literature which captured
the aura of the times in which they were penned. Only one of the novels
was brought to film during the Crisis, with John Ford’s brilliant Grapes of Wrath screen adaptation capturing the suffering and desperation of common folk during the Great Depression.
Most
of what passes for literature and film these days is nothing more than
glorified commercials or corporate created twaddle designed for
narcissistic, mindless, teenage girls. Many will dismiss Suzanne
Collins’ Hunger Games
trilogy and the film adaptations as nothing more than run of the mill
teenager nonsense. They are making a huge mistake. Decades from now, if
we make the right choices during this Fourth Turning, The Hunger Games
will be viewed as the novels and films that captured the darkening,
rebellious mood of the Crisis. It is not a coincidence the first novel
was published in September 2008. The worldwide financial meltdown
initiated by the Wall Street financial elite and their paid for cronies
in the nation’s capital, occurred in September 2008 and marked the
commencement of this Fourth Turning.
Collins has brilliantly created a dystopian nightmare that combines the
shallowness and superficiality of our reality TV culture with our never
ending wars of choice and rise of our surveillance state, while
blending the decadence and debauchery of the declining Roman Empire. She
also unwittingly places her characters in their proper generational
roles during a Fourth Turning Crisis.
Collins
was a military brat who was fortunate enough to have a father that
taught her the truth about historical events, not the propaganda taught
in our public schools today.
“He
was career Air Force, a military specialist, a historian, and a doctor
of political science. When I was a kid, he was gone for a year in Viet
Nam. It was very important to him that we understood about certain
aspects of life. So, it wasn’t enough to visit a battlefield, we needed
to know why the battle occurred, how it played out, and the
consequences. Fortunately, he had a gift for presenting history as a
fascinating story. He also seemed to have a good sense of exactly how
much a child could handle, which is quite a bit.”
She
learned lessons about war, poverty, oppression, and the brutality and
corruption of the ruling classes. Her knowledge of history, the visual
images of reality shows and the Iraq War displayed on TV created the
idea for her Hunger Games trilogy.
“I
was channel surfing between reality TV programming and actual war
coverage when Katniss’ story came to me. One night I’m sitting there
flipping around and on one channel there’s a group of young people
competing for, I don’t know, money maybe? And on the next, there’s a
group of young people fighting an actual war. And I was tired, and the
lines began to blur in this very unsettling way, and I thought of this
story.”
The central storyline of The Hunger Games is there are twelve districts subservient to the Capitol in the totalitarian nation of Panem. The
country consists of the affluent Capitol, located in the Rocky
Mountains, and twelve desperately poor districts ruled by the Capitol.
The Capitol is lavishly opulent and technologically advanced, but the
twelve districts are in varying states of poverty. As punishment for a
past rebellion against the Capitol wherein twelve of the districts were
defeated and the thirteenth purportedly destroyed, one boy and one girl
from each of the twelve districts, between the ages of twelve and
eighteen, are selected by lottery to compete in the “Hunger Games” on an
annual basis.
The Games are a televised spectacle, with the participants, called “tributes”, being forced to fight to the death in a treacherous outdoor arena. It’s a combination of American Idol, Survivor, and Middle Eastern warfare. The victorious tribute and his or her home district are then remunerated with extra food and supplies. The objective of the Hunger Games is to provide superficial reality TV entertainment for the vacuous small-minded masses in the Capitol and serve as a constant reminder to the Districts of the Capitol’s supremacy and supposed omnipotence. The Capitol ruling with an iron fist over its 13 Districts is clearly founded upon the British Empire running roughshod over the 13 American colonies and harvesting resources and taxes to maintain their wealth, power and control. Collins utilizes her knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman history and merging it with our degraded shallow TV culture to meld a dystopian nightmare of brutality, child murder, voyeuristic sadism, and a fragile, rotting empire.
“A
significant influence would have to be the Greek myth of Theseus and
the Minotaur. The myth tells how in punishment for past deeds, Athens
periodically had to send seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, where
they were thrown in the Labyrinth and devoured by the monstrous
Minotaur. Even as a kid, I could appreciate how ruthless this was. Crete
was sending a very clear message: “Mess with us and we’ll do something
worse than kill you. We’ll kill your children.” And the thing is, it was
allowed; the parents sat by powerless to stop it. Theseus, who was the
son of the king, volunteered to go. I guess in her own way, Katniss is a
futuristic Theseus.
In
keeping with the classical roots, I send my tributes into an updated
version of the Roman gladiator games, which entails a ruthless
government forcing people to fight to the death as popular
entertainment. The world of Panem, particularly the Capitol, is loaded
with Roman references. Panem itself comes from the expression “Panem et
Circenses” which translates into ‘Bread and Circuses’.” – Suzanne Collins
Any similarities between propaganda posters in Panem and propaganda in America are purely coincidental, I’m sure.
“At
least once every human should have to run for his life, to teach him
that milk does not come from supermarkets, that safety does not come
from policemen, that ‘news’ is not something that happens to other
people. He might learn how his ancestors lived and that he himself is no
different–in the crunch his life depends on his agility, alertness, and
personal resourcefulness.” - Robert Heinlein
The Reaping of Wealth
“War,
terrible war. Widows, orphans, a motherless child. This was the
uprising that rocked our land. Thirteen districts rebelled against the
country that fed them, loved them, protected them. Brother turned on
brother until nothing remained. And then came the peace, hard fought,
sorely won. A people rose up from the ashes and a new era was born. But
freedom has a cost. When the traitors were defeated, we swore as a
nation we would never know this treason again. And so it was decreed,
that each year, the various districts of Panem would offer up in
tribute, one young man and woman, to fight to the death in a pageant of
honor, courage and sacrifice. The lone victor, bathed in riches, would
serve as a reminder of our generosity and our forgiveness. This is how
we remember our past. This is how we safeguard our future.” – President Snow – Hunger Games
A
major theme in the novels is the tremendous wealth inequality between
the Capitol and most of the districts. District 12, the home of Katniss
Everdeen the protagonist, is the most desperately poor. District 12 is
located in the Appalachian region of the former USA. They are tasked
with providing the Capitol resources obtained from dangerous mines. The
population lives a bleak existence in poverty and squalor, with
starvation always looming like an apparition of death. The districts are
essentially slave plantations to be pillaged for whatever the
dictatorial Capitol demands.The
districts exist to harvest resources, such as fish, coal, lumber,
crops, and gems, all sent to fulfill their quotas. Many districts, such
as 12 and 11, don’t have enough coal to power their own district or
enough food to feed their citizens. Districts 1, 2 and 4 are closer and
more allied with the Capitol, resulting in them receiving more support,
better food, consumer goods, and military protection. The wealth
inequality between the ruling class and the working class in the
districts is the primary cause of discontent and increasing
rebelliousness.
The
parallels with our corporate fascist surveillance state are
unmistakable. The wealth and power in our country is concentrated in the
hands of ruling elite who primarily reside in the nation’s capital of
Washington D.C. and the financial capital of New York City. The top 1%
control 42% of the nation’s financial wealth, while the bottom 80%
control less than 5% of the financial wealth.
Table 1: Income, net worth, and financial worth in the U.S. by percentile, in 2010 dollars
|
Wealth or income class
|
Mean household income
|
Mean household net worth
|
Mean household financial (non-home) wealth
|
|
Top 1 percent
|
$1,318,200
|
$16,439,400
|
$15,171,600
|
|
Top 20 percent
|
$226,200
|
$2,061,600
|
$1,719,800
|
|
60th-80th percentile
|
$72,000
|
$216,900
|
$100,700
|
|
40th-60th percentile
|
$41,700
|
$61,000
|
$12,200
|
|
Bottom 40 percent
|
$17,300
|
-$10,600
|
-$14,800
|
From
Wolff (2012); only mean figures are available, not medians. Note that
income and wealth are separate measures; so, for example, the top 1% of
income-earners is not exactly the same group of people as the top 1% of
wealth-holders, although there is considerable overlap.
The
concentration of wealth in the hands of the few if achieved through
superior work ethic and/or intellectual advantage would not cause
discontent among the masses. Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were
admired for creating businesses and employing people. They earned their
wealth. Today, it has become clear to all critical thinking people that a
small cabal of super-rich men constituting an invisible ruling class
have captured our financial and political system. They are the .1% who
run the Wall Street banks, control the Federal Reserve, buy off the
politicians of both parties, and pay lobbyists to write the laws and tax
regulations. They use their ill-gotten wealth to maintain the status
quo and further pillage the wealth of the working class through
financial market manipulation, man-made inflation and outright theft. As
47 million Americans depend upon food stamps and other welfare programs
to get by and real unemployment exceeds 20%, the wealth inequality in
the nation has reached levels only seen in 1929, prior to the Great
Crash outset of the last Fourth Turning.
The mounting anger and discontent among the former working middle class
is palatable. Those at the top of the food chain have rigged the system
and get richer by the day. They bribe the lower classes with welfare
benefits, taken from the working middle class, in an effort to stave off
riots in the streets.
Rentier capitalism,
the economic practice of parasitic monopolization of access to
physical, financial, and intellectual property, has replaced free market
capitalism, with the rentier class generating billions of illicit
financialization profits while contributing nothing to society. We’ve
become a modern day Panem, an imperialistic state thriving on the slave
labor of other countries and inflicting our bastardized form of
democracy at the point of Tomahawk missiles. In order to survive,
Katniss defiantly and illegally hunts outside the District 12 fence
perimeter and the famished citizens openly defy the law with their black
market trading at the Hob. Desperate times lead to desperate measures.
When
people despair, laws designed to maintain the status quo are deemed
inconsequential by the peasants. You can see this happening in our
society today. Welfare fraud among the lower classes is rampant.
Bartering and working under the table for cash to avoid the crushing tax
burden is growing. The rise of bitcoin as an alternative currency and
the growing popularity of having possession of physical gold and silver
is a reaction to the banker/politician fiat currency debt scheme to
impoverish the masses. When the people see the bankers (Jamie Dimon) and
former politicians (Jon Corzine) breaking laws with impunity, they feel
no obligation to obey laws designed to keep them under the thumb of the
ruling class. The fallacy of all men being created equal, with the
American dream achievable for everyone, is still propagated by the
government media propaganda mouthpieces. You’d have to be asleep to
believe it.
In reality the ultra-rich have captured the system and have stacked the deck in their favor. This theme is captured in the Hunger Games during the reaping process, which is supposed to be random, with rich and poor equally likely to get chosen. In reality, the
poor are much more likely than the rich to be reaped as tributes. In
exchange for extra rations of food and oil necessary to keep from
starving or freezing to death, called tesserae, those children eligible
for the Hunger Games
can enter their names into the reaping additional times. Most children
of poor families have to take tesserae to survive, so the children of
poor families have more entries in the reaping than children of wealthy
families who need no tesserae. The odds are never in their favor. The
current version of the Hunger Games for our youth is loading them up
with government peddled student loan debt, with no jobs available when
they graduate, leaving them enslaved in unpayable debt.
The
rich who do become tributes from the more prosperous districts have an
additional advantage, because they are often trained to take part in the
Games and volunteer to do so. They are bigger, stronger, well fed and
groomed to win. The poor tributes face certain death. The fact is you
can only push people so far before they fight back. The arrogance and
hubris of the rich governing class leads them to disregard the misery of
the lowly peasants, while they intensify their pillaging and burning of
the countryside. Eventually a spark ignites a revolutionary spirit and
unleashes a torrent of violence and retribution. History is ripe with
instances of the downtrodden masses rising up and throwing off the yoke
of authoritarian despots. Fourth Turnings are when the existing social
order is swept away in an avalanche of violence and bloodshed.
Bread, Circuses & Reality TV
“What
must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the
press of a button? How would I spend the hours I now commit to combing
the woods for sustenance if it were so easy to come by? What do they do
all day, these people in the Capitol, besides decorating their bodies
and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to roll in and die for
their entertainment?” – Katniss Everdeen – Hunger Games
The name of the nation – Panem, derives from the Latin phrase panem et circenses,
which translates into ‘bread and circuses’. The idiom is meant to
describe entertainment used to distract public attention from the
corruption and vices of the governing class. By the government providing
basic food and ample entertainment, the citizens voluntarily sacrifice
liberties and rights for safety, security, and sustenance. The debauched
occupants of the Capitol are the wealthiest and most decadent of all
Panem, and the city’s affluence is fueled by the compulsory labor of the
districts. The degenerates of the Capitol are known for their
“creative” outfits, outrageous hair and ridiculous sense of fashion,
even to the extent of dying the color of their own skin, or having
whiskers implanted. Food and amusement are major drivers of the Hunger
Games plot. The impoverished citizens, particularly in Districts 12 and
11 are on the verge of starvation, while the Capitol has food in
abundance and throws lavish parties with extravagant and copious
quantities of cuisine.
The
superficial decadent upper class in the Capitol embraced overindulgence
to such an extreme they purposely drank a concoction which would force
them to throw up, so they could consume more. The analogy to the Roman
vomitoriums during the depraved final days of their declining empire is
distinct. Today in America, 47 million lower class Americans are reliant
upon food stamps to be fed, while the majority are left to ingest
processed poison packaged as food by mega-corporations and relentlessly
marketed on television to a dumbed down populace. The ultra-rich dine on
caviar and champagne in their penthouse suites, mansions in the
Hamptons, or make reservations at restaurants not available to the
99.9%.
Appearances
are extremely important in the post-apocalyptic pretentious world of
the Hunger Games. Style and ostentatious fashion are everything to the
affluent citizens of the plutocratic Capitol. It is natural to tattoo
and dye their bodies’ in bright colors, as well as undergo plastic
surgery to improve their looks. Some people of the Capitol have gems
implanted in their skin, as well as talons. Capitol residents regularly
wear wigs in a multitude of shocking colors. The degradation of our
society can be seen in the worship of Hollywood created stars and pop
singers freaks like Lady Gaga. The filthy rich deform their bodies with
plastic surgery to change their natural appearance. By mutilating their
bodies with surgery and tattoos, the media glorified fashionistas set
the tone for a cultural decay. The lower classes can’t afford expensive
plastic surgery, so they cover themselves in hideous tattoos in a
pathetic attempt at individuality, when they are just conforming like
lemmings to what they are told is trendy. The vain and narcissistic are
too ignorant to realize their worship of celebrity and purchase of the
latest fashions in clothes and jewelry are the sheep-like behavior of
conformists.
The voyeuristic exploitation of children is taken to an extreme in The Hunger Games
with their terror, suffering and slaughter televised for the enjoyment
of a blood thirsty public. Murder as mass entertainment in a reality TV
game show format illustrates a truly depraved culture. The American TV
culture turns news, tragedy, childhood and war into morbid reality TV
entertainment. The news, as reported by the corporate legacy media, is
nothing more than propaganda generated by the establishment to support
their continued control over the financial and governmental levers. It
is designed to distract, misinform and obscure the truth. What the news
cameras show is not reality and facades are more consequential than the
truth – a Wag the Dog
world. Virtually half of prime time TV is a staged voyeuristic display
of moronic triviality, requiring no thought and providing a form of
passive sedation for low IQ imbeciles. The sexual exploitation of
children in shows such as Toddlers & Tiaras and Honey Boo Boo is
considered normal in a thoroughly abnormal society. Television is
nothing but show business and we are amusing ourselves to death, as
revealed by Neil Postman.
“When
a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is
redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public
conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people
become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a
nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.” – Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
The
Hunger Games are televised and discussed incessantly in Panem’s media,
just as the pointless Iraq War and faux War on Terror are ceaselessly
analyzed, evaluated and hyped by talking heads with bleached teeth, like
the smarmy Caesar Flickerman in the Hunger Games movie. The Roman
gladiatorial games and the televised “Shock & Awe” of obliterating
the city of Baghdad with thousands of cruise missiles are both forms of
barbaric entertainment, with the poor sacrificed on the altar of
entertainment. The ruling class have successfully dehumanized our
culture and turned real people into commodities to be manipulated, used
and even killed for profit. Their value becomes determined by how much
entertainment they provide, and as such they lose their identities as
people. Reality television is a form of objectification. The world has
become a stage for our Contollers, their stage managers on Madison
Avenue and the mainstream media.
“Television
is our culture’s principal mode of knowing about itself. Therefore —
and this is the critical point — how television stages the world becomes
the model for how the world is properly to be staged. It is not merely
that on the television screen entertainment is the metaphor for all
discourse. It is that off the screen the same metaphor prevails.” ― Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death
We’ve
spent the last five decades learning to love our oppression, adoring
our technology, glorying in our distaste for reading books, and wilfully
embracing our ignorance. Huxley’s vision of a population, passively
sleep walking through lives of self- absorption, triviality, drug
induced gratification, materialism and irrelevance has come to pass.
Only in the last two decades has Orwell’s darker vision of oppression,
fear, surveillance, hate and intimidation begun to be implemented by the
ruling class. We’ve become a people controlled by pleasure and pain,
utilized in varying degrees by those in power. Stay tuned for our modern
day Hunger Games after this commercial for your very own Duck Dynasty
Chia Pet.
In Part 2 of this article – May the Odds Ever Be in Your Favor – Hope & Defiance,
I’ll address how Edward Snowden is our mockingjay who has ignited a
fire that will lead to revolution and the next phase of this Fourth
Turning.
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MAY THE ODDS EVER BE IN YOUR FAVOR – HOPE & DEFIANCE
In the 1st installment of this article – May the Odds Ever Be in Your Favor – The Reaping, I
addressed how wealth inequality created by men rigging the system and
utilizing media propaganda ultimately leads to rebellion. In Part 2, I
will show how hope and defiance can ignite the flame of liberty in the
minds of men. Edward Snowden has ignited that flame.
A Lot of Hope is Dangerous
President Snow: Seneca… why do you think we have a winner?
Seneca Crane: [frowns] What do you mean?
President Snow:
I mean, why do we have a winner? I mean, if we just wanted to
intimidate the districts, why not round up twenty-four at random and
execute them all at once? It would be a lot faster. [Seneca just stares, confused]
President Snow: Hope.
Seneca Crane: Hope?
President Snow:
Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope is
effective. A lot of hope is dangerous. Spark is fine, as long as it’s
contained.
Seneca Crane: So…?
President Snow: So, contain it.
President
Snow and his chief propagandist, Seneca Crane, have a discussion that
could be taking place between president Obama and chairman Bernanke
today. Hope is a funny thing. If the ruling class removes all hope, then
the masses begin to feel they have nothing to lose and revolution
becomes a foregone conclusion. For the elites of Panem, hope is used as a method of control. President
Snow understood the danger of allowing the downtrodden multitudes too
much hope. The Hunger Games allows one child to survive out of 24. The
districts are forced to remember the iron grip of the Capitol every
year, while rooting for an unlikely hollow victory of one child
surviving.
The
parents of children in the districts hope their children aren’t chosen.
They hope they’ll scrounge up enough food to survive another day. They
hope they don’t get killed in a mine explosion. They hope the
peacekeepers don’t break down their doors and imprison them for illegal
hunting. They hope they can endure another week. Snow knows that as long
as they have only a faint hope to maintain their subsistence level
lifestyle, they are unlikely to rebel. Seeing a sixteen year old girl
openly defying the Capitol and awakening a spirit of humanity and
courage in the subjugated masses is a huge threat to the ruling class.
Katniss
Everdeen ignited the flash of hope in the districts when she befriended
a young girl from District 11 named Rue. The contestants are supposed
to kill each other, but Katniss protects the young girl. When
Rue is killed, Katniss decorates her body with flowers as a means of
memorializing Rue, which the television audience in the districts views
as defying the Capitol. As she walks away from Rue’s memorial and back
into the fight, she turns to the cameras and gives a three finger
salute. The
three fingered salute of District 12, a gesture rarely used, means
thanks, admiration, and good-bye to a loved one. Her message to the
people watching is they have a common enemy. They don’t have to fight
each other because a tyrannical government commands them to do so. Once
the beaten down and subjugated masses began to understand the other
districts were not the true enemy, the flame of liberty was kindled.
Katniss
had experienced an act of kindness and mercy earlier in the novel when
she had reached the end of her rope and had failed to scavenge any food
for her helpless mother and sister after her father’s death in a mine
explosion. Her thoughts were dark and dire.
“I
couldn’t go home. Because at home was my mother with her dead eyes and
my little sister, with her hollow cheeks and cracked lips. I couldn’t
walk into that room with the smoky fire from the damp branches I had
scavenged at the edge of the woods after the coal had run out, my hands
empty of any hope.”
In
the world of District 12 bread signifies hope. Food symbolizes hope as
freedom from hunger. When Peeta sees Katniss and her anguish, he shows
compassion for her. He purposely burns some bread from his parents’
bakery and throws the bread to Katniss, who is huddled outside in the
rain. Later on, as Katniss thinks about the meaning of this interaction
with Peeta, she says,
“To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope.”
One
of the key undercurrents of the Hunger Game trilogy is what happens in a
world where all hope seems to be lost. Through small acts of kindness,
like providing a few loaves of bread or honoring a departed contestant,
hope can be sparked, and a spark can turn into a flame, a “girl on
fire.” In this way, Katniss comes to embody the hope of a better future,
a liberated and free Panem. When an authoritarian regime can no longer
keep the populace sedated with bread and circuses, they turn to
oppression and force.
With
47 million people wallowing in poverty and real median household income
lower than it was in 1999 a pallor of hopelessness has descended upon
our land. Banking and corporate interests have captured the economic,
financial and political systems to such an extent the people no longer
have any say in how this country is governed. The people are given a
choice of flavors in what passes for elections by the corporate
interests that choose the candidates. Once a politician attains office
and does what they are instructed by the financial interests that fund
their campaigns, they become rich and powerful. This is why 90% of
incumbents are re-elected despite Congress having a 12% approval rating
in polls.
The
last 13 years has confirmed the country is run by one party, as the
Republican figurehead rolled out new trillion dollar entitlement
programs, fought undeclared wars, created an Orwellian organization to
spy on Americans, and drove deficits to staggering levels. Now the
current Democrat figurehead has rolled out a disastrous new trillion
dollar entitlement program, continues to fight undeclared wars, drones
innocent people in foreign countries, secretly collects data on every
American, and has driven deficits to epic heights.
The
Crisis began in 2008 with the Wall Street created worldwide financial
implosion, spurred by the greatest control fraud in history. The bankers
and politicians have implemented “solutions” that have further enriched
the kleptocratic parasite class, while impoverishing savers, seniors,
and the working middle class who played by the rules. The temperament of
the country has continued to darken and societal trust is imploding,
just as Strauss & Howe predicted in 2007.
“As
the Crisis catalyzes, these fears will rush to the surface, jagged and
exposed. Distrustful of some things, individuals will feel that their
survival requires them to distrust more things. This behavior could
cascade into a sudden downward spiral, an implosion of societal trust.” -The Fourth Turning
When
a tyrannical privileged class has taken their greed and avarice too
far, reaped the remaining spoils of a declining empire and the exploited
hordes begin to grow restless, the oligarchs will always utilize their
mercenaries to retain control and keep the multitudes cowering and
fearful. Even though the financial elite have been harvesting the riches
of our bountiful land for decades, it only started to become apparent
to a few aware critical thinkers in the late 1990’s. It is no
coincidence the War on Terror has been used as an excuse to pass the
Patriot Act, unleash the NSA to gather every piece of electronic data
generated by all American citizens, militarize local law enforcement
agencies, conduct military “training exercises” in major cities, roll
out drones to monitor the activities of the people, subject citizens to
degrading body searches in airports and train stations, install
surveillance cameras throughout the land to monitor our every move, use
Bernaysian propaganda techniques and create fake terrorist plots to keep
the masses trembling and terrified.
The
ruling class leeches lost their blood sucking grip on the financial
markets in 2000 and again in 2008. As the common people have lost their
trust in the financial and political leaders and their propaganda
techniques wear thin, truncheons, guns and a vast treasure trove of
weapons and surveillance equipment are being prepared for use against
the people.
The
Party put forth an unknown hope and change teleprompter flim-flam man
in 2008 in a last ditch attempt to sooth the masses and allow the fat
cats to continue feasting, with the periodic purging in the vomitorium
when their gullets were stuffed. The proof of a single ruling party has
never been clearer, as a supposedly liberal populist democrat has fallen
into line and followed the orders of the Financial Industrial Complex,
Military Industrial Complex, and Sickcare Industrial Complex by not
prosecuting one criminal banker, letting Wall Street write the 800 page
Dodd Frank bill, ramping up our wars in the Middle East while spending
more on Defense than Bush, and gladly allowing the insurance and drug
industry to write the 1,000 page Obamacare abortion of a law. At the
same time he has taken the Orwellian surveillance state to levels that
would have been considered criminal and impeachable in 1990. The two
heads of the ruling party play their parts to keep the masses
distracted, believing voting actually matters, while fighting the wrong
enemy.
The
parallels between the Hunger Games novels and our current situation are
innumerable. But the dehumanization of a society is the most
significant analogy between the dystopian culture of Panem and the greed
and materialism of our late stage declining empire. It will not be war,
plague or famine that sets the stage for our collapse. A moral sickness
has engulfed the soul of our civilization, spread by the dark forces of
wickedness occupying the throne of power on Wall Street, Washington DC,
and in the boardrooms of mega-corporations across the land.
“It
neither kills outright nor inflicts apparent physical harm, yet the
extent of its destructive toll is already greater than that of any war,
plague, famine, or natural calamity on record — and its potential damage
to the quality of human life and the fabric of civilized society is
beyond calculation. For that reason this sickness of the soul might well
be called the ‘Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse’. Its more conventional
name, of course, is dehumanization.” – Ashley Montagu
The
financial elite have used the power of mass media propaganda and
jurisdiction over the public educational system to turn accountable
thinking citizens into irresponsible irrational consumers. The
ultra-rich men, constituting the invisible government described by
Edward Bernanys, have used their control of the currency and monetary
system to create a plantation society of enslaved debtors who have been
trained like monkeys to consume when they are not facebooking,
twittering or twerking. This dehumanization is in full display on
Thanksgiving/Black Friday as the corporate fascists stir the masses into
a frenzied materialistic orgy of pandemonium for cheap electronics
produced by slaves in China, doing jobs formerly performed by Americans.
Corporate profits have reached all-time record highs as the Ivy League
MBA CEOs have used global wage arbitrage to de-Americanize their work
force, convinced the lowly wilfully ignorant American serfs to spend
money they no longer have on crap they certainly don’t need, and paid
themselves billions in bonuses for successfully destroying the former
middle class by the book.
The
Party has utilized the cudgel of Federal Reserve created inflation to
fleece the math challenged masses for the last 100 years. The modern day
financial mad scientists use inflation, consumerism, debt, and media
propaganda to keep the rats in their grand experiment running faster and
faster around the maze, seeking an ever dwindling hunk of cheese. The
rats are trapped in this experiment and have not the time, energy,
resolve or enough cheese to escape. The rats will never breakout and
their progeny are born into the maze, also with no hope of getting out
alive. The mad scientists periodically reorient the maze, adjust the
stimuli to elicit new behavior, and increase or decrease the rewards as
they deem appropriate. Through their control of the financial, political
and media centers, the ruling class not only manipulates society, they
convince the rats they are really free and not confined in a maze, with
no possibility of escape. The ruling class has succeeded in capturing
the system to such an extent that they are syphoning off the income of
the nation at a rate only seen prior to the Great Depression.
The
real median household income of the bottom 90% is lower than it was in
1968, as inflation has destroyed the purchasing power of the
proletariat. While wages have stagnated due to mega-corporations
off-shoring American jobs for the sake of quarterly profits and stock
price performance, the price of middle class essentials like food,
energy, shelter, tuition and medical care have skyrocketed. The demented
American nobility have disregarded centuries of history with regards to
inequality borne of corruption and unfettered greed. When mild
deflation reigns, as it did for most of the 19th century,
goods and trade are plentiful, prosperity is ample and broadly spread to
the working classes. When banker created inflation causes prices to
rise, trade plummets, living standards deteriorate, and extreme wealth
inequality accelerates. Once poverty reaches a tipping point, unrest and
discontent lead to revolution and rebellion.
It is not a coincidence the rebellion in the Hunger Games
begins in the two poorest districts. District 12 is inhabited by mostly
white people in the Appalachia region of the former United States.
District 11 is inhabited by mostly black people in the Southern region
of the former United States. The symbolism of black people picking crops
and being publicly whipped if they steal any of the food for their own
survival is reflective of the plantation economy we have today. Miners
getting killed in mine explosions due to unsafe conditions are
reflective of the corporate greed that permeates our culture. The
masters of this human tragedy attempt to keep the plebs in one district
angry and mistrustful of the plebs in the other districts so they don’t
focus on the real enemy. It has worked for decades, but as the workers
see their lots in life descend to bare subsistence levels they have
nothing to lose by resisting and rebelling. The privileged ruling
plutocrats have the power to lessen the burden on the slaves,
diminishing the chances of revolution, but in their sociopathic
gluttonous hunger for ever more riches and supremacy they seal their
fate of ultimate destruction, as John Kenneth Galbraith aptly described.
“People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.”
A
simple act of human kindness by a young girl is what ignited a
rebellion in Panem. The power of hope and courage, once unleashed, can
overwhelm the wickedness of evil men. But, those men will not be
defeated without an epic struggle requiring much sacrifice, suffering,
death and destruction. Katniss did not realize the impact she had until
on her victory tour when during her speech an old man gives her the
three finger salute, leading the crowd to follow his lead and defy the
peacekeepers. She had inspired the oppressed to resist their bondage.
In
the most disturbing scene of the movie, the old man is grabbed by the
police thugs, dragged to the podium and shot in the head, while the
other thugs beat and pummel the crowd into submission. Shades of the OWS
beatings by the NYPD are clear.
This
is how an Orwellian surveillance state reacts to the discontent caused
by the appalling treatment of their subjects. Every district is kept
under the thumb of the ironically named peacekeepers. They enforce the
dictatorial mandates of the Capitol at the point of a gun and threats of
imprisonment, or public beatings. The technologically advanced Capitol
uses surveillance cameras and spy aircraft to monitor the districts and
enforce their dictates. Since the passage of the paradoxically named
Patriot Act, the American surveillance state has been perfected to a
level that would impress Orwell.
With
the NSA gathering every piece of electronic data generated by every
citizen, surveillance cameras monitoring our every movement in major
cities, spy drones patrolling the skies, fascists attempting to disarm
the public, and police state thugs roaming the countryside enforcing the
dictates of the oligarchy, we’ve descended into authoritarian rule. The
Constitution is no longer a valid document. The President is free to
send boys to their death in foreign countries without the approval of
Congress. He is free to ignore laws and use executive orders to
implement his agenda. Any doubt regarding whether we are still free was
obliterated by the police state crushing of the OWS protests and more
recently the door to door illegal searches conducted by heavily armed
American “peacekeeper” thugs in Watertown, Massachusetts searching for a
wounded 17 year old kid.
“The
risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into
insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to
authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum
risk and effort – in other words, a total war. Every Fourth Turning has
registered an upward ratchet in the technology of destruction, and in
mankind’s willingness to use it.” – Strauss & Howe -The Fourth Turning
Defiance – Catching Fire
“At
some point, you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever
wants you dead. The hard thing is finding the courage to do it.” – Katniss Everdeen – Catching Fire
“The
great fear that I have regarding the outcome for America of these
disclosures is that nothing will change. [People] won’t be willing to
take the risks necessary to stand up and fight to change things… And in
the months ahead, the years ahead, it’s only going to get worse. [The
NSA will] say that… because of the crisis, the dangers that we face in
the world, some new and unpredicted threat, we need more authority, we
need more power, and there will be nothing the people can do at that
point to oppose it. And it will be turnkey tyranny.” – Edward Snowden
Now we get to the most important theme of the Hunger Games trilogy and a theme that will drive the regeneracy stage of this Fourth Turning – Defiance.
There can be no change unless someone has the courage to make a stand.
Generational archetypes will need to play their assigned roles, just as
they did in the Hunger Games novels. The Boomers should be seeking a new
vision of a better future; Gen-X should be seeking realism and
implementable solutions; and the Millennials should be seeking the power
to change the course of a terribly misguided country.
It
will not take a majority to prevail during this Fourth Turning, just an
inspired courageous minority willing to sacrifice themselves for the
greater good. Suzanne Collins may not have meant to place her characters
into their proper generational roles, but they played their parts as
would be expected during a Crisis. Plutarch Heavensbee, a 50 something
Prophet Generation visionary, is the leader of the rebellion who
exploits the power and courage of Katniss Everdeen, from the Hero
Generation, to inspire and lead the rebellion. Haymitch Abernathy, the
40 year old drunk from the Nomad Generation, is the brains behind the
plan to spur rebellion and defeat the Capitol. He made it his purpose in
life to protect and support the young heroes who were required to do
the heavy lifting during the Crisis.
The
theme of defiance and its ability to undermine an evil, yet fragile,
authoritarian regime is portrayed through the symbol of the mockingjay
in the novels. The
mockingjay is a surveillance state blunder, accidently fashioned by the
hubristic Capitol. After the first rebellion, the Capitol left the
jabberjays, a bird they created to spy on the districts and relay whole
conversations to the Capitol, in the wilderness to die off. Instead, the
jabberjays mated with mockingbirds and a species called the mockingjay
was born. The mockingjay was a signal of weakness in the armor of the
Capitol.Mockingjays
had the talent of being able to relay any song or tune they hear to any
species. Katniss’ father used to love to sing songs in the woods while
hunting and loved to hear the mockingjays repeat his tune back to him.
Katniss and Rue used the mockingjays to communicate during the Games.
Mockingjays were a hardy resilient species that could survive in the
harshest of environments.
The
mockingjay becomes a symbol of defiance, rebellion and hope among the
districts. Before the Games, a friend of Katniss’ from school gave her a
gold mockingjay pin as a token from home. The television audience sees
the pin on Katniss’ clothes during the Games. After the Games, the
symbolism of the mockingjay becomes a rallying point for the subjugated
masses in the districts. As the rebellion gathers steam, the rebelling
districts use the mockingjay symbol as a primary method of
communication. The rebels bake the bird symbol into breads, crackers,
and other things that could easily be eaten or hidden quickly. The
mockingjay becomes sign of resistance, a sign of uprising, and a sign of
hope. The brush fires of rebellion are glimpsed by Katniss during the victory tour and celebration before the 75th
anniversary Games. Plutarch Heavensbee, supposedly a high level Capitol
apparatchik, attempted to win Katniss’ trust by showing her his watch,
which viewed in the right position you could see the symbol of the
rebellion – the mockingjay.
The
defiance of a young girl versus the façade of an all-powerful state,
through her humanity, the mockingjay symbol, and the willingness to eat
poison berries as the ultimate act of rebellion against the rulers of
the game, is the defining motif of our time.
“The
bird, the pin, the song, the berries, the watch, the cracker, the dress
that burst into flames. I am the mockingjay. The one that survived
despite the Capitol’s plans. The symbol of the rebellion.” – Katniss Everdeen – Catching Fire
What
is not immediately apparent to the vassals of a totalitarian regime is
the internal rot, infighting among the lieutenants, and superficial
level of support among the citizenry. A government racked by corruption,
dependent upon financial gimmickry and massive levels of debt to give
the appearance of solvency, only able to preserve domination through
brutal police state thug tactics, monitoring its subjects with intrusive
surveillance machines, and led by sociopathic paranoid egomaniacal men,
is sickly and rotting on the inside. President Snow spitting up blood
throughout the novels is symbolic of this disease. Like a gigantic 224
year old oak tree that appears imposing, robust and indestructible, but
has been decaying within, a strategically placed lightning strike or
sudden gust of wind is capable of toppling the once mighty tree.
Sometimes
all it takes is for one person of good conscience, with the courage to
accept the consequences of revealing the truth, to strike down the
mighty oak and ignite brush fires of freedom in the minds of men. Edward
Snowden is that person.
“I
can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy,
internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with
this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building. I
do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is
recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.
Everyone everywhere now understands how bad things have gotten — and
they’re talking about it. They have the power to decide for themselves
whether they are willing to sacrifice their privacy to the surveillance
state.” – Edward Snowden
In the Hunger Games
trilogy Katniss Everdeen created a problem for President Snow when she
pulled out the poisonous berries and foiled the game being orchestrated
by the cruel sovereigns of Panem. She refused to be a pawn in their
game. She had the courageousness of spirit to illustrate to the
suppressed citizens in the locked down prison-like districts that she
was not owned and enslaved by the state. She was a human being who
deserved to be treated with respect, not like an animal or a specimen in
their malicious man made game.
“I
want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make
them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us
to do there is a part of every tribute they can’t own. That Rue was more
than a piece in their Games. And so am I.” – Katniss Everdeen – The Hunger Games
Edward
Snowden has created a problem for President Obama, his surveillance
state apparatus, and the banking cabal that pull the strings in this
empire of consumerism, by revealing the dirty secrets of a paranoid
tyrannical ruling party. We are late in the game and pleading ignorance
regarding how technology is being used by evil men for evil purposes is
inexcusable. Snowden refused to remain a pawn in the NSA game and
decided his fellow citizens needed to be warned about the dangers of an
omniscient, secretive, malevolent state whose powers were unchecked and
whose motives were geared towards oppression and coercion. He was a
brilliant young cog within the government machinery, making good money,
with a bright future if he conformed and obeyed, but he chose to be
free. A free man can’t be bought, controlled or conquered. Edward
Snowden decided someone needed to make a stand and that someone was him.
“Secrecy
is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship.
When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its
subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not know,” the end
result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty
little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this
fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose
mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You
can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”- Robert Heinlein
The
explosive disclosures of government criminality, mass spying,
cover-ups, lying to Congress by government apparatchiks, and conclusive
evidence of a surveillance state completely out of control confirmed
another truth for those not captured by the red/blue party propaganda.
Snowden was declared a traitor by Obama, Romney, Schumer, McCain,
Pelosi, Boehner, Reid, McConnell, Feinstein, Rove, and of course, the
blood thirsty, hate spewing, dark-lord of the neo-cons – Dick Cheney.
The immediate and united venomous response from the slimy politician
snakes should have removed all doubt there is really one ruling party
and the rest of us are nothing but pawns in their game. We live in a
corporate fascist warfare/welfare surveillance state run by
ultra-wealthy unelected men with evil intentions.
“We’ve slipped away from a true republic. Now
we’re slipping into a fascist system where it’s a combination of
government, big business and authoritarian rule, and the suppression of
the individual rights of each and every American citizen. When it comes
to any significant differences on foreign policy, economic intervention,
the Federal Reserve, a strong executive branch, a welfarism mixed with
corporatism, both parties are very much alike. The major arguments in
hotly contested presidential races are mostly for public consumption to
convince the people they actually have a choice.” – Ron Paul
Snowden’s
response to the murdering thug Cheney calling him a traitor makes me
proud to call him a hero and a patriot, on par with George Washington,
Samuel Adams, and Thomas Paine.
“Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give to an American.” – Edward Snowden
Obama
and the Party are continuously being made fools of by a 30 year old
Millennial, as he periodically releases information damaging to the
government’s surveillance efforts on the American people and foreign
leaders. Each revelation further erodes the trust people and countries
once had in the moral leadership of the United States. Snowden is our
mockingjay, a creature the NSA never intended to create. The predator
drone happy Obama would like nothing better than to have Snowden
eliminated, but he is faced with the same dilemma as President Snow in
the fictional world of Panem, captured in this dialogue:
President Snow: I
have a problem, Miss Everdeen. A problem that began the moment you
pulled out those poisonous berries in the arena. If a girl from District
Twelve of all places can defy the Capitol and walk away unharmed, what
is to stop them from doing the same?
Katniss Everdeen: It must be very fragile, if a handful of berries can bring it down.
If
the mighty American empire can be embarrassed by a sole young patriot,
proving to the world they are in decline financially, morally, and
militarily, it must be very fragile. Snowden’s revelations did not
immediately spark rebellion, but an attitude of defiance is gaining
traction, as the mood in the country darkens like the sky before a
blizzard whose full fury will strike with a vengeance lasting for
several years. Since our entry into this Fourth Turning
in 2008 there have been sparks of rebellion (OWS & the original Tea
Party movement) but they were immediately subverted, discredited and
crushed by the Party and their propaganda media machines. The attitude
of defiance can be seen in the rise of Bitcoin, citizens buying physical
gold and silver despite the Federal Reserve/Wall Street efforts to
discredit it, the efforts of hackers like Anonymous to disrupt the
corporate fascist state, the tireless efforts of websites like Zero
Hedge, Washington’s Blog, Charles Hugh Smith, and Mike Krieger to
uncover the truth, and the relentless pursuit of liberty and freedom by
Ron Paul and his army of patriots. It is time for more leaders and
heroes to step up and act.
“I
had been looking for leaders, but I realized that leadership is about
being the first to act. I understand that I will be made to suffer for
my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks
my end.” – Edward Snowden
Despite
the monetary manipulations of the Federal Reserve arm of the Party,
supported by the propaganda efforts of the corporate media arm of the
Party, the extreme level of criminally induced wealth inequality will
ultimately result in a second far worse financial crash that will topple
this teetering edifice of corruption. The violent stage of this Crisis
will then erupt.
“But
as the Crisis mood congeals, people will come to the jarring
realization that they have grown helplessly dependent on a teetering
edifice of anonymous transactions and paper guarantees. Many Americans
won’t know where their savings are, who their employer is, what their
pension is, or how their government works. The era will have left the
financial world arbitraged and tentacled: Debtors won’t know who holds
their notes, homeowners who owns their mortgages, and shareholders who
runs their equities – and vice versa.” – The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe
The
first American Fourth Turning was a rebellion against a foreign empire.
The second American Fourth Turning was an internal rebellion that
killed 700,000 young men. The third American Fourth Turning resulted in a
foreign conflict that resulted in the deaths of 65 million people. Do
these once every 80 year turnings alternate between external and
internal conflict? If so, we are on the verge of events that will tear
the fabric of this nation apart. The debt, civic decay, and heinousness
of those in power will lead to the disintegration of our existing social
order and sheer chaos, as forces battle for the soul of the nation.
What it is replaced by is unknown at this time. It could be something
far worse, or it could be a rekindling of our nation’s founding heritage
of liberty, freedom and civic duty.
Linear
thinking old timers are likely to scoff at the notion that some trilogy
of novels for teenagers could capture the mood of the time in a way
that explains how the people of this country will respond to the current
worsening Crisis. I’m sure the works of Steinbeck and Tolkien were
scoffed at during the last Fourth Turning. History is cyclical and we’ve
returned to a time where leaders step forward to lead and brave heroes
step forward to fight. The future of the country hangs in the balance.
“The
original American patriots were those individuals brave enough to
resist with force the oppressive power of King George. I accept the
definition of patriotism as that effort to resist oppressive state
power. The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility and
out of self-interest for himself, his family, and the future of his
country to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that
patriotism means obedience to the state.” – Ron Paul
Do you reject the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state? Know your enemy.
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