In the prior sections we’ve explored how the United States Government has ruthlessly tyrannized and exploited the Latin American countries in our hemisphere at the service of Corporate Profit. Further we’ve seen how this horrifying information has been hidden from the American Public by an incredible system of Propaganda furthered by the National Press, a tool of the Establishment, i.e. the International Military, Banking, and Industrial Alliance that is devoted to War as the ideal way of generating obscene Profits. Rather than let this disgusting manifestation of greed driven by the quest for worldly power, overwhelm our sensibilities, let us search for the foundation of this System of Exploitation.
Was it something new that had just arisen in Modern Times? Or has it always been this way? Was it ever any different? Is it worse or better now than under previous dictatorships? When did it begin? Has there ever been a break? What is it?
The ‘it’ we are exploring seems to be the exploitation of third world countries and their indigenous populations by the Military-Industrial-Banking Complex of the Global Establishment and the associated brainwashing of the Public. How did this situation arise? What is the context of this situation? Is it something new - a product of modern times - or is it something timeless - part of the human condition itself? Is there a solution for it? Or is it something that we must resign ourselves to? Do we expect it to get worse or better? These are just a few of the questions we are trying to answer.
To this effect we are going to focus on the period between the Roman Empire’s conversion to Christianity early in the 4th century via Constantine through to the American Democratic Revolution in the late 18th century. This millennium and a half duration of European political and religious history could be called the Era of Religious Intolerance and Social Castes. Both of these millennia long institutionalized tendencies – the monolithic religion combined with the elitist caste system – were broken by the American experiment, which promised religious tolerance and equality under the Law as a basic human right. Prior to this widely successful venture into a brand new political technology it was written into the underlying law of the land that justice was determined by the hereditary social caste into which each human was born – a tendency that is almost global. We shall only examine the European manifestation of these outmoded tendencies, as it is most pertinent to the American experience.
Unfortunately this era of religious bigotry and inherent caste system did not come to an abrupt end with the Democratic Revolution, as witnessed by the American political corruption – examples of which are chronicled in the Spanish American papers, regarding Panama, El Salvador and Colombia. While the old ways persist these ideas of religious freedom and the equality of all humans has spread to virtually the entire globe, including the bastions of conservatism, Russia, China and Japan, and all the countries in Europe. So we Americans have a genuine right to be proud of our heritage of freedoms.
Further it took no military aggression on the part of the US Government to make this happen. The political transformation occurred and is occurring rather naturally and spontaneously around the world with virtually no assistance or intervention by the US. The power of our example alone was enough to transform the political landscape of the world powers. Although the England’s transformation into a democracy was relatively seamless, the social revolutions that occurred elsewhere were frequently internally violent - for instance the French and Russian Revolutions and the Spanish Civil War, as only the most notable examples. Reiterating, the US Government did not play a military role in these conversions. Our inspirational example, not force of arms, transformed the world’s political technology. The citizenry seeing what was possible elsewhere began demanding basic rights. This vision of human equality continues to spread inevitably throughout the globe.
The last and perhaps the final battle, or at least the most recent battle, for supremacy between the opposing cultures, egalitarian vs. hierarchical, was WWII. Germany, Italy and Japan asserted the philosophy of a deserving-to-rule superior race against the forces claiming that all humans are equal. The US again rose to the challenge, acting as a key and essential player in this destructive war of philosophies. The vitality of our country – manifesting as manufacturing capability and human power – was employed to turn the tide and defeat the powers of Evil on 2 fronts. Inspired by the fresh American vision, the people of the world rose up together to throw off tyranny.
With this victory for freedom and equality a new round of social revolution occurred, this time with the colonies of the European superpowers, notably England, France, and the Netherlands. The populace of these countries-to-be demanded the same human rights as those taken for granted by the citizens of the countries that ruled them. This frequently manifested as self-determination under the same institution of democracy that was the political technology of their former rulers. This occurred all over the globe, notably Southeast Asia (see SEA Papers), India & China (see China Papers). Of course China took the ideals of human equality to the extreme and turned it into Communism, as did Russia. However the ball was definitely rolling down hill and gathering speed – inspired by the ideals of freedom and equality based in the American Revolution and embodied in the idea of basic human rights introduced by Jimmy Carter.
Unfortunately, the infection of the past era refused to go away. Like an alien parasite it slipped from the colonial powers to the neo-colonial mega force, the US of A. As usual the Military Aristocracy co-opts a religion or philosophy and uses it to forward their ends. The rich and powerful have regularly employed this general mechanism throughout the ages of humankind. Christianity, Islam and Democracy are notable examples.
Let’s explore the example of Athens, as their city-state is considered to be the first experiment in democracy and their situation has many parallels with the US. The multitude of Greek city-states united behind Athens to defeat the Persian Empire. This victory was entirely unexpected. Although the Greeks had been warring against each other, they consolidated briefly to combat a common enemy. The Greek Histories chronicles this inspirational war, where a small independent city-state stands up to the belligerence of an enormous empire and wins against all odds. Herodotus, the author, attributes the victory to divine intervention.
Unfortunately following the war the Athenians refused to relinquish the military strength their allies had granted them for common defense. In fact they employed their augmented power to force the weaker city-states into a tributary relation to them. Once voluntary, now mandatory. A brutal civil war erupted when certain city-states refused to comply with the Athenian demands. Sparta, a military autocracy, led the resistance. Consequently the Athenians framed these wars as the struggle between freedom versus repression in their appeals to their wavering allies. Both sides committed atrocities and massacres to enforce their way on the populace. Sound familiar?
Eventually power hungry Athens decided to invade and conquer Sicily with disastrous results. Alcibiades, Socrates’ aristocratic student and the primary reason for his eventually being ostracized – which led to his suicide, was chosen to lead the Athenians. While campaigning overseas his enemies at home convinced the authorities to order his arrest for treason, when the erections on the guardian steles, the herms, were chopped off unexpectedly. Although no one knows who really did it, many suspect that the wealthy Athenians orchestrated this mutilation of public property and symbol of masculine strength and pride to discredit Alcibiades. However, the populace had every right to believe the deception – the propaganda – because of the disrespect for tradition espoused by Alcibiades’ group, presumably due to Socrates' instruction. When Alcibiades discovered the charges against him he defected to the Persians for protection and became one of their successful generals – fighting against the Athenians. (Thucydides chronicled these struggles in his first hand account, called the Peloponnesian Wars.)
For this ultimate treason a reactionary war time counsel – stressed out by this external attack – which they believed could have been called upon them by the gods for not following traditional values – ostracized Socrates because he had instructed his students, including Alcibiades, to question tradition and authority. This was a relatively reasonable response under the circumstances – akin to the modern charges of rabble rousing or inciting a riot. Socrates chose to take the poisonous hemlock rather leave his homeland.
Instead of fighting for human rights Athens chose to employ the strength of arms to force their way upon the surrounding city-states – an ancient example of a democratic government based in human equality and intellectual freedom transformed into a tyrannical power based in militarism. This proved to be their undoing. Substantially weakened in their attempt to invade Sicily, the Persians conquered their once proud city. This ended the Greek’s democratic experiment.
In the following centuries the Greeks behind Alexander the Great counterattacked the Persian Empire – establishing the first European Empire (chronicled by Plutarch in his Greek and Roman Lives.) Note that the government was a military autocracy like Sparta with no relation to an Athenian democracy. Alexander’s Greek Empire morphed into the Roman Empire under the Caesars – still endlessly battling the Persian Empire.
To consolidate the sprawling Roman Empire Constantine connected the Christian Church with the State. This was the beginning of religious intolerance in the West associated with the merger of Church and State. However this enforced internal unity enabled the Roman, now the Byzantine Empire, to survive.
Rome and the Persia continued their endless wars of attrition and devastation. In response to these murderous wars based in the elitism of the warrior cult – the patriarchy – the Moslems inserted the fresh vision of Islam and prevailed. (See Why the Meteoric Rise of Islam?). Eventually the sophisticated administration of the defunct Persian Empire assimilated and co-opted the Moslems, who had conquered them. The wars continued - now between the Christian West and the Muslim East. Same war, different names. The merger of Church and State proved to be the most powerful political technology – persisting for centuries as the dominant form of government.
The East and West battled to a standstill until the emergence of the American democracy – based upon religious tolerance and social equality. This immediately became the most powerful political technology in the world. Evidently the citizenry of a country based upon equality and freedom are inspired to fight even harder to protect their freedom than the monolithic countries based in a caste system with one mandatory religion. The uniformity of institutions seems to be no match for the diversity of flexible institutions.
But then, after playing the role of the hero against the forces of Evil in WWII (my bias is showing through) - the reactionary powers employed the new found military power and vitality of the Americans to dominate the world. Instead of employing this energy to help the citizens of the world they followed the pattern of Athens. Immediately after the WWII, as the colonial powers were divesting themselves of the their colonies (not without struggle mind you), America, the major neo colonial power, stepped into the vacuum to prevent the spread of freedom and equality. The examples are nearly endless. The French gave up Indochina, i.e. Vietnam and Cambodia – the Dutch Indonesia – and the English Malaysia and Burma. In each case the US moved in to assert political and economic control by establishing military puppet governments that would allow them to exploit the respective countries. Further the US government employed these same strategies to reassert control of Latin America in our own hemisphere. (I am happy to say that Latin America has thrown off the yoke of American Imperialism in the decades since the earlier papers were written – at least to some extent.)
Simultaneously we the American public were experiencing rightfully-deserved pride for our role as the hero in WWII and for providing an example of freedom and equality that has inspired many countries throughout the world to throw off the chains of oppression – starting with the French Revolution. The Masters of War seized upon this pride to manipulate us into thinking that the US Government is actually promoting the cause of freedom and equality, when it has actually been the reverse – not unlike employing a ring to lead a bull around by his nose. Copious amounts of this propaganda have and are being used to brainwash the public into thinking that the US government is still playing the role of hero.
The Era of Religious Intolerance and Social Castes ended with the American Revolution. However reactionary forces have seized control – co-opted the movement. As such this work shall explore the forms of this past era to understand the core essence in order to resist the force of evil in this new era.
Perhaps these many words are just a call to avoid complacency. We must continue to work on the relationship rather than take it for granted. Although the American Revolution succeeded politically, the ideals must be continually refreshed and reasserted, to prevent the forces of elitism connected with militarism and intolerance from reasserting their values. Like water their force is continuous and insidious in the attempt to sneak past our defenses. To resist the subversion of the original ideals of the American democracy, the Revolution must continue. This is neo-patriotism.
A neo-Patriot is proud that we, the people of the USA, in throwing off the yoke of England in the Revolution of 1776 also overturned the millennia and half era of religious intolerance and social castes. The first was based in the dogma of the Christian Church. The second, a foundation of the feudal system of Europe, was inherited from the Germanic tries that ruled Europe for a millennium, which has as its underlying belief that a certain class of humans are naturally superior to others and that another class of humans is naturally inferior to the others from birth. A neo-Patriot is also proud that our form of government based upon the mutual consent and the power of the people has spread throughout the globe to become the dominant political form – not by force of arms, but by example alone.
Firmly rooted in the values of tolerance and human equality a neo-Patriot is outraged that the US Government commits atrocities under our name, as our representative. As such a neo-Patriot’s duty is to stand up whenever possible for tolerance and equality, the original values expressed by the American Political Revolution. Indeed due to the insidious behavior of reactionary elements belonging to the Military Aristocracy it is mandatory to be ever vigilant in maintaining the forward progress of this movement, as the neo-Patriot also realizes that the intent of the original Revolution has not yet been accomplished, but is instead a work in progress. Neo-Patriots of the world unite to throw off the chains of the military oligarchy that rule the political world – not by force, but by example – through passive resistance to their foul directives – the only way – wu-wei.
Let’s start our exploration with the Germanic tribes that conquered Europe from the Romans and brought their caste system with them. Tolerant they adopted the Roman political institutions, which included the marriage of the Roman Catholic Church and the State. The combination of social caste and religious intolerance was the most powerful political technology until the advent of Democracy. The intent of this work is to inspire the true Patriots to continue fighting for freedom and equality for all – defending human rights versus cultural/tribal rights.
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