In The Alley Newspaper April 2017 issue, nestled between front page columns authored by good neighbors, a letter from the President of the United States was found! If overwhelming disdain did not prevent the reading, the ensuing wall of cognitive dissonance was likely to cut it short. Yet, I read on and on”¦to discover, deep on page 8, the credit to a former president, Dwight Eisenhower.
“Hey, that was his ”˜beware of the military industrial complex speech,”'” replied the editor. Okay, I sort of get that. Bush-type presidents have big investments in arms production, so we fought Osama in Iraq, or something like that, making jobless generals to build an Isis with enough poison gas to create false flags in Syria (see what Daddy can do!).
However, check out Ike, line 1: “Throughout America”'s adventure in free government”¦” Oh, gosh, golly. In the beginning , white property holders convened to establish the rule of law (in preference to the practice of gun duels). Such was the origin of “bourgeois-democracy.” Then later, in stages, more or less the rest of us won the right to vote, even as the money power ruled on, more or less. So, to make my point, a modern capitalist state unfettered by democratic constraint, would be a fascist state”¦yes then, we would have a “free government!”
Philosophical note: A “workers”' state,” bound to the consent of elected workers”' councils, would constitute a higher form of democracy.
Then, after throwing down “liberty,” “dignity,” and “integrity,” Ike continues: “Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world [1961] ”¦we face a hostile ideology”¦atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method.” He was referring to advocates of socialism, such as myself.
BLOODY SUNDAY”¦
The year of 1905 had just begun, when a socialist priest named Father Gapon led a mass of Russian workers to the Winter Palace. 110,000 had signed the petition”¦hundreds were cut down by the Tsar”'s troupes in the massacre. Sadly, for many, God died that day as well.
Note: March 2, 1917, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in favor of a “provisional government.”
Note: November 17, 1917, given their failure to disengage from WWI, the “Provisionals” were expelled by the Bolsheviks via a bloodless coup.
Note: In 1918, the United States of America invaded Russia, thereby fomenting the counter-revolution with all its consequences.
Hmmm”¦
Lastly, regarding the atheism of my character, I do believe that consciousness evolved from matter. Therefore, I love the planet of my birth and most of the living beings upon it.
