From Above
The Junta, as we all know, is the polar opposite of the New Deal. Where Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal told people not to be afraid, and that 'the only thing to fear is fear itself,' the Junta is built on fear. Where FDR told us we are all in it together, the Junta tells you to look out for yourself and nobody else.
But why have we taken such a turn away from good government? Why did we sell out our humanity to these thin blooded (financial) elites?
One answer, of course, is that we never did. The 2001 election was stolen from Gore, that much is clear. And the widespread voter fraud (much of it through denial of access) was well-reported but never aced on in 2004. Funny, that. The other answer is a 180 degree shift in the media, with everybody but Knight-Ridder (now up for sale) turning into a propaganda arm of the Junta.
But there are more answers to be found in history. One interesting model is the Meiji Restoration in late 19th century Japan. Before Admiral Perry opened Japan to Western influences (and economic and military dominance), Japan had been a feudal state run by the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Diamyos (nobility). Nobles owned the wealth, with agriculture being the staple of the economy. Samurai were the warriors who enforced the system, keeping peasants in their place and holding down the growth of the merchant (middle) class.
But after the West started showing what a little industrialization could do, the Japanese noble class and growing middle class realized their way of life was unsustainable. A 'restoration' of Imperial power flattened the Shogunate and Diamyos, creating a strong middle class. Industry was created almost overnight - a feat reproduced half a century later in Stalin's Russia.
It was a 'revolution from above.' Where most revolutions were a pact between workers and the middle class, Japan saw a revolution of elites joining the middle class to continue putting the screws to the working class, but in a different way. Those early factories chewed people up and spit them out. They worked day and night for slave wages, men women and children, and often were worked to death.
It succeeded in making Japan a modern state when other Asian nations were still under Western domination. But the people never stood a chance. There has never been an effective union movement in Japan - how could there be? Traditional values, putting the elites first, have never been seriously challenged. Even in the aftermath of WWII, their system has thrived because the central role of their societal elites has never changed.
Which makes them exactly the system that the Junta strives for. They are racially and culturally homogeneous, they are aggressive and unapologetically for their historic wrongs, and they put economic success before all else.
All of which led directly to their war of aggression in Asia and their downfall at the hands of FDR and the Greatest Generation.
How far will we need to go before we can restore sanity? Will the Junta press for a 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere' to call his own?
I'll develop this idea more in later posts, but the similarities are shocking.
Rove for Shogun?
But why have we taken such a turn away from good government? Why did we sell out our humanity to these thin blooded (financial) elites?
One answer, of course, is that we never did. The 2001 election was stolen from Gore, that much is clear. And the widespread voter fraud (much of it through denial of access) was well-reported but never aced on in 2004. Funny, that. The other answer is a 180 degree shift in the media, with everybody but Knight-Ridder (now up for sale) turning into a propaganda arm of the Junta.
But there are more answers to be found in history. One interesting model is the Meiji Restoration in late 19th century Japan. Before Admiral Perry opened Japan to Western influences (and economic and military dominance), Japan had been a feudal state run by the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Diamyos (nobility). Nobles owned the wealth, with agriculture being the staple of the economy. Samurai were the warriors who enforced the system, keeping peasants in their place and holding down the growth of the merchant (middle) class.
But after the West started showing what a little industrialization could do, the Japanese noble class and growing middle class realized their way of life was unsustainable. A 'restoration' of Imperial power flattened the Shogunate and Diamyos, creating a strong middle class. Industry was created almost overnight - a feat reproduced half a century later in Stalin's Russia.
It was a 'revolution from above.' Where most revolutions were a pact between workers and the middle class, Japan saw a revolution of elites joining the middle class to continue putting the screws to the working class, but in a different way. Those early factories chewed people up and spit them out. They worked day and night for slave wages, men women and children, and often were worked to death.
It succeeded in making Japan a modern state when other Asian nations were still under Western domination. But the people never stood a chance. There has never been an effective union movement in Japan - how could there be? Traditional values, putting the elites first, have never been seriously challenged. Even in the aftermath of WWII, their system has thrived because the central role of their societal elites has never changed.
Which makes them exactly the system that the Junta strives for. They are racially and culturally homogeneous, they are aggressive and unapologetically for their historic wrongs, and they put economic success before all else.
All of which led directly to their war of aggression in Asia and their downfall at the hands of FDR and the Greatest Generation.
How far will we need to go before we can restore sanity? Will the Junta press for a 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere' to call his own?
I'll develop this idea more in later posts, but the similarities are shocking.
Rove for Shogun?
posted by fiduciary at 11:35 AM
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