As I wrote earlier today, once people understand that American society not only isn’t even remotely fair or just, but is today primarily structured for the continued benefit of the bankocracy at the expense of the taxpayers, they’re not going to continue playing any longer:
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.
While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!
There is something deeply sick about a society that manages to transform intelligent, successful, productive members of society into felons and murderous suicides. The irony is that the more a man genuinely believes in justice and law, the more he truly believes that America is the Land of the Free, the more shattered he is when he is forced to confront the reality that the entire legal system is a facade designed to conceal the complete absence of justice and rule of law in American society.
A society whose leaders are foolish enough to willfully destroy its structural foundations should not be surprised when madmen increasingly begin to appear in its midst. But the problem is that insane actions such as Stack’s are merely a symptom; what is ultimately much more problematic is all the talented individuals who simply won’t bother to create wealth that is only going to be taken away from them. I suppose it may be possible to maintain a wealthy and stable society that consists of nothing more than government employees and a vast horde of unemployed individuals supporting a small financial elite that generates enormous profits by playing complicated gambling games with itself, but if it is, I have to confess that I understand neither the economics nor the logic that makes it viable.
We can quite reasonably describe Joseph Stack as a madman, categorize his suicidal actions as insanity, and ignore his rantings as the last angry words of an embittered failure. He was, after all, the very antithesis of a hero and his actions were as stupid and evil as they were futile. But I think we should also ask two questions before we forget the episode entirely entirely. Was the man always a lunatic? And if not, what was it that turned him into one?
More thoughts on the matter at the Market Ticker.