No, No, No. Don't Talk About Joe.
February 21, 2010
Those who have studied revolutions and imagined starting their own have no doubt been following these types of stories:
Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits.
Roughly 2.7 million jobless people will lose their unemployment check before the end of April unless Congress approves the Obama administration’s proposal to extend the payments, according to the Labor Department.
Warm, outgoing and prone to the positive, Ms. Eisen has worked much of her life. Now, she is one of 6.3 million Americans who have been unemployed for six months or longer, the largest number since the government began keeping track in 1948. That is more than double the toll in the next-worst period, in the early 1980s.
See also, "How a New Jobless Will Transform America." Millions of desperate people whose problems are not largely their own fault? A looting overclass of Goldman Sachs bankers and Wall Street politicians? A feeling of hopelessness caused by Barack Obama's betrayal of his every promise to bring home, and effectuate change?
Check, check, check, check, and check.
Revolutions are always started by one seemingly-smart event that is understood as material only in hindsight. Joe Stacks lit a match, but he didn't set the powder keg off. Or did he?
Has anyone else noticed that the government and corporate-controlled media have begun burying the Joe Stacks story? The government doesn't want people talking about Joe Stacks. Corporations don't want people talking about Joe Stacks. Too many people sympathize with Stacks, and are beginning to realize that we live in a fascist state.
Fascism is the merger of the corporation and the state. When Goldman Sachs gambles with taxpayer money, is that not fascism? When the CEO of General Motors - a government-owned company - earns $9 million a year, is that not fascism? When the same union corporations who bankrupted the car companies are given billions more from taxpayers, how is that not fascism?
We live in a fascist state. Whom we vote for is irrelevant. Many voted for Barack Obama, who ran on a platform of hope and change. Many have realized that voting for Obama was a meaningless act, and that we live in a fascist state rather than a democracy.
What happens when millions more people realize that democracy has failed them?