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The Founding Fathers Would Be Proud of the People of Egypt ... And Disgusted With the People of America
America's founding fathers stood up for their freedom, winning it from the British (with the help of the French).
The
Egyptian people have stood up for their freedom, winning it from the
Mubarak dictatorship (with the help of the army, which refused to fire a
shot at the people, and may even have helped convince Mubarak to leave.
See this and this).
The
Egyptian people found their courage even when Mubarak's thugs flew
fighter jets low over their heads, beat and murdered protesters, and
otherwise threatened violence.
But the American people today have been cowed into passivity by an irrational fear of terrorism, laziness and mindlessness.
Comparisons
But obviously, the American government is nothing like the Egyptian dictatorship, right?
Let's compare:
- There is a stunning amount of inequality in Egypt. But America is even worse
- Mubarak stole billions from his people, while the American oligarchs may have stolen trillions. See this, this, this and this
- Egypt have been living under a state of emergency for 30 years. But Americans have been living under a continuous state of emergency for 10 years straight
- Mubarak was supported by the military. But the military -industrial complex has taken over America
as well (moreover, there is a tradition in countries like Turkey for
the military to ensure that religious fanatics do not take over the
country)
- Mubarak ignored the wishes of his people. But the American government hasn't been listening to it's people either. For example, a 2010 Rasmussen poll found
that "just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government
enjoys the consent of the governed". A 2010 Gallup poll determined
that nearly half of all Americans believe "the Federal government poses
an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens".
Poll after poll shows that "both national parties are deeply unpopular with an electorate looking for something new and different". Polls reveal
that 82% of all Americans wanted Wall Street to be reined in in a
substantial and meaningful manner, and yet nothing has really changed,
and the government has let Wall Street have it's way on all the
important issues. Polls find that Americans want the big financial
players who acted with fraud to be punished, and yet the government has let all of the big fish off the hook. And the government has ignored many other desires of the American people, including investigations into torture and spying on Americans, impeaching George W. Bush if he lied about Iraqi WMDs (which he did)
- Mubarak repressed his people and stifled dissent. Bush and Obama have haven't been all that protective of liberty either
- Mubarak murdered and tortured people without following the rule of law. America hasn't been wholly saintly in this regard over the last 10 years either (and see this)
I'm not saying that America is Egypt. I am saying that America today has a lot
of problems also. (And if you think those problems started on 9/11,
remember that virtually all of the current domestic and foreign policies
were already in place or planned before 9/11.)
But unlike the Egyptian people, Americans have become scared of their own shadow. We have forgotten that courage and hope are choices
- which do not have to come from John Wayne levels of testosterone, but
can simply arise from loving something enough to want to protect it.
How Did We Turn Into the Oppressor?
England oppressed America. We were the downtrodden who broke free. But now, America has helped to repress the Egyptian people (and see this and this).
How did we get on the wrong side of history?
The Egyptian People Have Changed the World
Minister Jim Wallis writes
in an open letter to the Egyptian protesters today entitled "The
Egyptian People Have Changed the World -- It's Their Turn to Lead":
You have changed the world.
***
Remember,
the United States was not talking about democracy in Egypt, not
advocating it, not saying a transition is necessary and urgent, UNTIL
you risked your security, safety and lives for the sake of democracy.
You changed the conversation, and the conversation would be the same as
it has been for decades if you hadn't done what you did. Your
generational peers are now watching what you are doing in countries
across the Arab world, and beyond. This is the moment for you and for
us.
***
You
represent a new generation, a new leadership, and a new hope for the
possibility of real democracy. Keep leading. My government, which still
calls itself the beacon of freedom, has sacrificed democracy in your
region of the world (and many other places) for American "interests." And
our foreign policy around the globe has put our interests before our
principles. But they are not really the interests of the American
people, but of oil companies, big banks and corporations, and rich and
powerful people. Their interest in stability is very different from ours in democracy. So
don't be fooled, don't listen to the so-called "wise" voices that have
been part of the old reality and want to now thank you for your
service to democracy, but are offering to take it from here.
Don't
let them. Keep demanding democracy -- real democracy. Because, for the
rest of us, democracy is the best defense of our "interests," and the
best path to genuine "stability." And, for our part, we will do our
best to stand with you. That will likely take sacrifice from all of us,
because real change always does.
The Founding Fathers would be proud of the Egyptian people, just as they supported the French revolution. They would be disgusted at the spineless sheep that the American people have become.
Note:
I love America and have lived here all my life. I criticize my country
because I want to save her from the self-destructive, anti-American
path that Bush and Obama have put us on. Just as the Egyptian people
felt a need to speak out, so do I.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
-Thomas Jefferson
"Patriotism
means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the
president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in
which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him
insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to
oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he
fails in his duty to stand by the country."
– Teddy Roosevelt
"To
announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we
are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American
public."
– Teddy Roosevelt
"This
country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.
Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can
exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their
revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
- Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural
"These
economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the
institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek
to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions
requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide
behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget
what the flag and the Constitution stand for."
- Franklin Roosevelt
"Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Ben Franklin
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What's more tortured: the people of Egypt under Mubarak or the analogies in this post?
Discuss.
Proud of what ? Replacing a civilian dictatorship with a military one ?
I just watched two BBC documentary series, both widely available on Youtube;
The Century of The Self & The Trap
Pretty compelling stuff, with parts of The Trap relevant to Egypt. They explore concepts of freedom and give a history of using people's unconscious desires to sell them things.
The high level concept I got from them was that much of the last hundred years has been a giant mindfuck.
Maybe it's because Americans have more entertainment than Egyptians, a six-pack superbowl celebrity big brother etc. and an endless unemployment benefit (just wait till that runs out) than you might have a revolution
correction george. we have lived under a state of emergency since the civil war thanks to the communist dictator lincoln.
also george, do you think it was by accident that the french revolution came after our revolution. the masons here supported the french revolution wholeheartedly because it was being undertaken by some of their lodge buddies.
things are heating up in pakistan. keep an eye on this story.
http://nakedempire.wordpress.com/
The founding fathers would have been so proud they would have kissed the Sphinx and taken a bath in the Nile. Then drunk tea in a casbah with Sister Emmanuelle's ghost to celebrate Coptic alleluia. The pursuit of happiness would have taken them to Luxor and then to Abu Simbel. To the mouth of the white Nile where they would have declared that government of the people, by the people and for the people, was why Nasser built the Aswan dam. They would then have crossed the Suez canal like Moses and after having extinguished the burning bush in Gaza, have declared Israel a true sister of the land of the Pharaohs; to ensure that they all came under the same flag like the thirteen original states.
To secure that Egypt became once again the land of milk and honey they would have then captured Libya and declared every Libyan son of evil knievel, Juba al-Gaddaffi, Numidian slave to work on the cotton fields, financed by Wall Street and Saudi surrogates, in the Nile valley fed by the mega salt water desalination plant feeding Egypt with fresh water like the new Mississippi of the promised land.
Then old glory would refind its true story like Harry Potter the game of quidditch and girl friend. Ain't that a sweet story to tell your grand sons?
France had a revolution. They overthrew their monarch and got Robspierre, the Jacobins, then Napoleon and they had the advantage of Christianity and the Enlightenment before it even started. The odds are stacked against Egypt becoming another Turkey, look to Iran.
By the same measure, they would NOT have snapped pics of the sphinx with their Japanese cameras or Chinese iphones.
Then haggled over the price of a plaster pyramid with a local as a 'aid package' F16 flew overhead to go and patrol the border with best buddy Israel.
That was truly inspired.
It remains to be seen what becomes of Egypt. I supsect another Mubarak is waiting in the wings even now. Also, people do not revolt until they have nothing left to lose.
Having seen their bravery bring about change that no one saw coming, I think they probably won't wait 30 years "next time".
Good point SnowBall. These things gain momentum.
Maybe the time has come for the US establishment to realize they will be unable to hold Egypt in line with fiatscos for much longer --> fiatscos that are worth anything will be harder and harder for the USG to come by.
The PTB have an urgent need to try to migrate to a new control mechanism that doesn't rest on a wealth transfer of the current, unsustainable scale.
Maybe not cowards but brainwashed. Fox News especially is pure propaganda, playing with people's fears. All they could see in Egypt uprising was the Muslim Brotherhood. The suicide bomber Islam fanatics, taking over any minute now there, according to them. A lot of Americans believe in that kind of crap.
A lot of Americans believe that a woman can give virgin birth, that Fred Flinstone had a pet dinosaur and you just might win the lottery when you pray hard enough.
Personally I don't care whether I am repressed by a political or by a religious/social tyranny, looks pretty much alike to me
+1 So very true.
Most beliefs aren't silly until you examine them with some objectivity. The problem lies in the fact that most of us are incapable of objective self-examination. I sure as hell don't know how to do it well enough to believe I know anything.
I hold out hope that we'll all get so sick of the exponentially compounding daily bullshit that we all throw our hands up in the air and run from anything that looks, tastes, feels, smells like, or reminds us of monopolistic governmental authority. Hey, a guy can dream can't he?
Oh don't forget the world was created 7,000 years ago. I live here in buttfuckegypt otherwise known as the midsouth. I hear Ph.D.'s explain that geologic evidence is meaningless because the bible is inerrant. Be sure to visit the creation museum in kentucky so you can see how dinosaurs and people lived together peacefully.
Like democrat & republican, christian (a derivative of catholicism) and islam are two heads of the same tyrannical beast.
Dude, this is a small percentage of the population, of the richest country on the planet, which got that way by permiting people freedom to believe whatever they want to. In Egypt on the other hand over 80% of the population believe that anyone who rejects his Muslim faith must be put to death, you know, like their religion calls for. Over 80%. Versus what, for the bible thumpers. How many in the US are calling for the systematic execution of all who might leave christianity? Any at all? Wake up.
Oh yeah? How about the abortion issue, TBT? Do you know how hard it is for a woman to get one now? It's an abomination of men telling women in the USA how they can choose what to do with their bodies and it's bullshit! And why is this so????? C Street. The Christian right. Fucktards!
There are enough abortion doctor killers to go around in the name of God in our lovely Christian land. And people here complain about the welfare state all the time. But if women had access to easy abortions as they did in the 70's and 80's, there would be a great many less unwanted children.
The Christians put lists of the doctor's up on the web with pictures and encourage people to kill them. Had a good friend that was an OB/GYN that performed the service and feared for his life.
Personally, these "men" that think it is such a crime should have been abortions, IMO. I'm all for choice and kind of like the thought of retroactive thinking on that matter. Doesn't mean I want to hurt those people now, just wish their mothers had better judgement and/or choices.
thank you mr beale. i had four abortions. one had to go across state line to get a coat hanger up me. but the legal ones, they made me wait for 3 months before getting an abortion. those first three months are hell on earth. that is when you just puke all day and night and feel just horrible.
Are not all of the above at least as ridiculous as the belief that all men are created equal?
Stop posting these worthless articles. Please.
Ditto that.
I heartily agree.
Too much complaining about what your masters are doing to you and not enough energy spent in actually reclaiming your sovereign rights and liberties.
Learn how:
http://republicfortheunitedstates.org
http://missourirepublic.org
Herding the Sheep?
I agree with the gist of certain of the analogies, but I don't think we should pass judgement on what Americans are willing to do until unemployment reaches 40% and you, me and the rest of us are rotting in a cell somewhere.
As far as I know we have not reached the point where the government has infiltrated every meeting of five or more people. Give it a few months...
In the meantime BTFDs baby!
Word, Banzai.
BTW, I apologize for not visiting your work Things are too seriously fucked and art makes the point too deeply for me these days.
Out here in Fruitopia (San Francisco), we a higher than normal number of folks in their twenties and an informal survey of the 30 or so that I see fairly regularly we have about 40% un or under employed. Of that many two have mfa's and one is a talented, drug free electrician that now lives in his van, only two that I know have sustainable careers. If the US continues to follow in the footsteps of CA I hear the fat lady warming up.
electricians still do well in the smaller southern areas. But we have no need for an MFA. Maybe she could get a job as a nanny.
I forgot to mention, the song is Nina Simone's version of Pirate Jenny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCcKBc4gwAQ
Sounds like a riot in the making...see you at H & A St. ;-)
They certainly have been building up that component of the security state apparatus. They know what is coming.
Great OBS GW, the people of Egypt do not have snaps, Micky -d's, 50" tv's, fat asses and dancing w/the stars. We are screwed.
Food Stamps / Un-employment Checks and Jerry Springer keep all the fat, stupid and otherwise engaged Americans entertained while the World ignores Gravity all around them. So yes our fore-father's would say we have ignored the obvious and will suffer the consequences of doing so.
fore-fathers........ why do they call it fore-skin?
I agree with you this time JW. I think it is pretty clear what our founding fathers thought of oligarchy and tyranny.
Then there is the anti declaration of independence : http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/10/markets/dollar/index.htm
Your "Push Back The Fed" T shirts are waiting in Aisle 3 of the Banzai shop ;-)
Typo in the article.
Big propaganda as well. The US has a story of oppression from the start.
That is why real politik is a nasty thing: it reveals a country as it is, the set of principles it is used to working on.
The US has been exposed constantly from its inception.
A steady trend that requires ground anytime a prediction is cast against it.
The US in the egyptian story is as US, as American, as the US was in FF's times. No difference.
Oh yes, the founding fathers would be "proud" of the Egyptian people sitting still for Herr Field Marshall taking charge. Stop stretching GW you will snap something.
Faber said it right, "Obama is a whore".
The Founding Fathers believed that freedom, i.e. a functional society with minimal government, depended on the moral and self government capacities of the indviduals and their families within their own sphere. The morality of the american people at the time was as much conscience based as rule based, and those rules as moral models were judeo-christian ones, not islamic ones. Egyptians are largely islamicm, which is to say entirely rule bound in their behavior, with conscience playing little role. Their rules define a tyranny spanning all aspects of life from the most private, to the familial, to trade, to justice, government, and the very vision and purpose of it all, submission to allah in every way, all the time. Islam means submission, i.e. tyranny. There is little to be proud of in that.
James Madison explained that the point of the Slaver's Constitution he wrote up was to protect the "minority of the opulent" from the masses.
I think he wrote that right after he raped one of his slaves and exterminated an indigenous civilization.
Let's see, the union of the thirteen colonies would not have been possible at all without putting off the end of slavery to the future. But it was a contentious issue, big time, in the wranglings over the final content. It just barely came together, even with the concession to the slave states. The "three fifths of a person" line that ignoramuses and dishonest modern speachifiers use to tar the Founders and the very origins of the U.S. represented the first important victory against slavery. You see, population determines representation in the lower house of Congress. Read the last sentence again. For the anti-slavery folks the ideal would have been to have slaves not counted at all, so as to empower non-slave owning states. They got it cut down to three fifths against the wishes of the slave dependent states that obviously wanted it each slave counted entirely, the better to empower them in the lower house of Congress. Those disparaging sounding words are the mark of a contentious debate against slavery that nearly prevented the Constitution to come together. But the Constitution needed to frickin come together if the union was to survive in the face of the superpowers of the continent. Recall that the British succeeded anyway in burning the White House in the war of 1812. To survive, it had to include the southern states, with slavery, in the meantime.
I don't understand the junks, this is one of the best most succinct comments I've seen in a while.
... except the "judeo-christian" part. Founders weren't relying on judeo-christian ideas when they drafted the DOI and federal constitution. They were relying on principles of individual liberty / sovereignty and limited government.
And thankfully so. Relying on judeo-christian ideas would have resulted in a theocracy ...not unlike islam.
No,they weren't relying on judeo christian ideas directly in the DOI or federal constitution, but they were conscious that it couldn't work without a moral people, which at the time meant guided by christian, mostly protestant ethics. Limited governement can't work without a people capable of governing their own pulsions. The conscience based system of self restraint and charity of the Founders time was critical to the program's success, and this they wrote about explicitly.
Can you please stop islamophobia propaganda.How mamy muslims are in Congres and how many Jewish or Christians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamophobia
Sorry dude, Islam is Islam. It is not just here to stay, it is on the march, and everywhere it takes over you have poverty, tyranny, human regression writ large. Correlation isn't always causality. I go that, but in this case the causality is easily studied. The practice of Islam has barbaric results out there on the ground.
Yea, well, the Christianists would have us living the same kind of life if they came into real power in the USA. Any kind of theocracy is bad news for progress and civilization. Look what the Catholics did with power, created the Dark Ages.