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Praise for Bush and a Foolish Country
One of my favorite television series of all time, now thoroughly
enjoyed at my leisure on DVD, is I, Claudius, the stellar BBC
production of the late 1970s based on the early days of Rome's imperial
rule in the first century. It is hard not to draw parallels between
what was portrayed on that series and what is happening now in early
21st century America. I draw your attention to this in the chance that
our story might turn out differently than our historical cousins.
One episode in particular, Old King Log, had the elderly Claudius plotting his conspiracy to restore Rome to the Republican principles it had been founded upon. Claudius, like many heroes (according to the story anyway), was a walking contradiction. He believed strongly in the now dead Roman Republic but was himself an imperial ruler. The popular perception of him as a fool and a stammerer offers yet another parallel to today's political situation. To be brief, Emperor Claudius' plan was to announce that his insane stepson and grand nephew Nero succeed him on the throne, instead of his more capable and deserving son, Britannicus. When his closest advisor asked him why the brilliant emperor chose to do such an incredibly stupid thing, he simply replied, "Let all the poisons in the mud hatch out!" Claudius had hoped that the spirit of good and decency in Rome would be so shocked at the incompetence and outright evil of Nero's government that the people would surely rise up and demand the restoration of the Republic and the rule of law instead of rule by the elite and personal fiat. Claudius' hopes died with him, however, and despite Rome's political prominence for another few hundred years, the West eventually plunged into a darkness that lasted over a thousand years. Nero's politics of "bread and the circus" ruled Rome into oblivion while the Christian religion, still suckling at the Pagan tit, prepared to guard the new age of ignorance. The ultimate lesson to be drawn from this analogy is that we should rejoice at all the scandals breaking in the alternate news networks the-world-wide-web-over instead of crying over them like so much spilled milk. We are in a potentially healthy period of withdrawal. Rejoice that George Bush stole the election again! What better way to illustrate that republican democracy is dead in this country? You are much more of a fool than you think if you believed that John Kerry would have made a difference in restoring freedom to this country and the world. Rejoice that we are fighting a phony war on terror! What better way to illustrate to ourselves and the world that we are the terrorists? As long as we continue to fund our corrupt and wasteful government by sheepishly acquiescing our hard won earnings to the IRS, we are as criminal as the deviants in D.C. who use that money to fund the rape of the world. Rejoice that we are fighting a phony war on drugs! What better way to show the hypocrisy of a society that fears the benefits that wholesome nature provides while seeking comfort in the toxins produced by our warped "scientific" laboratories? Grow in power as the society around you medicates itself into an ever more numbing reality. Rejoice that our education system sucks! What more will motivate you to change than the love for your children? Only when we start to measure our success by the quality of life rather than SAT scores and over-priced degrees will we finally see how poor we are doing and summon the will to correct it. Rejoice that the major media is so corporately controlled! What better way to divorce yourself from the consensus reality? Take the time you used to spend being programmed by Madison Avenue and put it towards the creation of your dreams. Rejoice that we are on the brink of Armageddon and the New World Order! What better way to wake up humanity than with a global Near Death Experience? We should give every country nuclear weapons! Only then can we remove the racist thinking that Caucasians are the most civilized people on the planet, for we are the monsters who invented such weapons of mass destruction. Rejoice in it all, fellow unlearners! Live these days in happiness. Live these days with all the meaning you could ever put into your precious breath. As all the poisons in the mud hatch out, we are presented with perhaps our last opportunity to detoxify the global human body or else succumb to yet another self-inflicted end. Old King Log's plan may yet succeed! Whose Life are You Living? |
