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Guest Post: Why You Are Powerless Against The Government
Via Lance Roberts of Street Talk Live,
Have you ever felt powerless? That no matter what you do it just won't make ANY difference. You cast your vote for people to represent your best wishes but are repeatedly let down. What can you possibly do? This is a great video from Larken Rose that clarifies the problem that we face today in our economy. It is a situation that is just too weird for 99.99% of the people to adequately explain. No commentary is needed.
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Jews represent 1% of he worlds population... What percentage of your so called 'ELITE' is represented by Jews?... Therein lies your mathematical & statistical anomaly (by an AVALANCHE of numbers)...
~~~
Extrapolate conclusions acordingly...
Hey idiot. I got an entire city in court right now. There's issues regarding financial malfeasance, violation of city code, emminent domain abuse etc...it's a damn soap opera with something for everyone.
There's not one "Joo" in the whole bunch of fucking theives...most of the lawyers aren't "Joos" as best I can tell.
It's garden-variety WASP power hungry political pricks with a sprinkling of Italians trying to gut the taxpayers of their tax dollars and real property.
Get a clue.
Oh... so it's the 'garden variety WASPS' that are at fault... Many thanks for refraining from the 'COLLECTIVIST' claptrap...
How much you wanna bet that his case is not titled Flattrader v. Protestants. Way to miss the point, francis.
But Moe, Larry and Curly are pure evil. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.
Moe, Larry, & Curly all HAPPILY cashed their checks... As do YOU I suppose...
Is that confirmation that you blame The Three Stooges for the machinations of the Federal Reserve? The only thing I can say to that is: Niagara Falls!
The 3 Stooges had nothing to do with my comments until you brought them up... Evidently you watch a lot of 3 Stooges... If we're going to devolve this conversation into a 3 Stooges metaphor, then I'm afraid I'll have to surrender because I'm clearly not as much of a 3 Stooges 'expert' as you are...
The Three Stooges were Jews. I'm trying to understand their connection to your so-called "joobux."
Moe, Larry, cheese!
So are the vast majority of the people in:
~~~
- banking & finance
- political lobbying
- the legal profession
- entertainment
- publishing
The "nodes" of power & influence (as I have described them many times before)...
How is that mathematically possible?... How many 'Moe, Larry, & Curlys' never made it to the big time?... Notwithstanding the 'yuk, yuks', weren't there any other viable candidates?... It's yet another LEGO PIECE in the large construction...
Is Billy Crystal really that funny?... Is Lloyd Blankfein really the best guy in finance?... Are Bernanke & Greenspan really the best central bank chairs?... Are Paulson, Geithner, Lew, Summers, & Rubin really the best Treasury Secretaries?... Bloomberg & Feinstein for mayor [then Senate]?... Corzine for governor?... Or is all just a big club (& you ain't in it)...
Correlation is not causation. The tricks played by today's bankers were pioneered by John Law who was not Jewish. Maybe we should call fiat money Scott toilet tissue.
<== all of todays probems can be traced back to John Law
<== there's something LARGER & more organized at work
Jews are also doctors, scientists, manufacturers and every other profession you can think of. Are you going to stop using the medicine and scientific breakthroughs they created?
BTW, they can also be thieves (Madoff et al), traitors (Rosenbergs, Pollard), & dickheads (Liberals in general) like everyone else--including the Aryan Brotherhood and the Klan.
You might want to read Mark Twain's Letter to The Jews for an interesting perspective.
DOCTORS = oh great, we have a wonderful pharmaceutical industry to show for it... & don't forget to line up for your flu [eugenics] vaccine
SCIENTISTS = thank God we know about the perils of "global warming" so we can SAVE THE PLANET... & I don't know where we'd be without nuclear fission & moon landings
MANUFACTURERS = say wha?... What's that?
~~~
ARABS invented algebra... Nobody is much interested in that... I know because I read it in a history book somewhere...
You really need to put away the H8erade, step outside, and get some sun.
Stop paying.
The first and most important step is being settled within. If I am filled with righteous indignation and anger then I am easily manipulated. This is also the most difficult thing to accept when someone feels compelled to respond.
People just hate to hear me say this, but the mind must be right before the body can effectively act. And this is precisely why our "FEAR" buttons are always pushed.
Think of Judo, where one uses the other person's weight and momentum against them. This is how we are disarmed and disempowered.
judo works through the principle of kuzushi. It's a judicious application of force. Don't argue.
"Don't argue."
Yes sir. I can see you are an expert at judicious application of force. :)
<Blunt force trauma anyone?>
"judo works through the principle of kuzushi. It's a judicious application of force. Don't argue"
~~~
Amazing!... Similarly JOO-DO works through the principle of usury & debt money... It's a JOO-DICIOUS application of force...
It's a veritable 'fractal of nature'...
For most folks, being "settled within" means acceptance of the status quo. It's a self-imposed acquiescence to being the sheep, thereby sidestepping turmoil. "Why can't we all just get along?"
Love ya, CD, but you aren't up to your usual argumentative self.
Busy trying to fend off a particularly feisty Mrs. Cog this morning. :>)
<We got a bleeder here.>
but you aren't up to your usual argumentative self
lol Rocky - I have it on good authority that his piss and vinegar is about to let loose... Maybe if we're lucky he'll come up for air and hit the little "publish" button?
It's about goddam time. I was having withdrawals.
Mrs Cog has been threatening the withdrawal of certain favors if I did not post something new on ZH. The message was not lost on me. :>)
<Working the problem. Please hold.>
And that's exactly what Ayn Rand was talking about we she said that the mystics of spirit and muscle convince individuals to sacrifice themselves for some fraudulent representation of the so-called greater good.
The first and most important step is being settled within.
That is a necessary thing, Cog, no argument. But nothing changes in the outer world until we ACT. And, truth be told, most people make endless excuses to avoid acting. (FWIW, I don't think this is necessarily true of you.)
I agree. I follow the 80-20 rule. 20% of the people do 80% of the work.
<There is also the 80-20 rule inside the 20%.>
And those same people who initially refuse to act, find themselves much later reacting. It is the difference between an offensive and picking your battles, and a defense and potential death by a thousand cuts, or worse yet a train ride to the gas chambers...............
The Ten Bulls
See the pictures!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Bulls
People view fighting a behemoth as impossible because they will have to step way outside of their comfort zone and possibly make serious sacrifices. It's also hard work and it may have nasty unforeseen consequences. All of these items reside at the top of the 'Things I Hate To Do" List for most Americans. Hence the ability of the fascist state to slowly take more and more while the herd accepts more and more from them.
Compared to the people the rapacious class is small as shown in the video. We are the behemoth.
True, but it isn't perceived that way by most people. The government is perceived as the behemoth by most as they all see themselves as individuals. But I may be wrong.
You're correct that most people's perceptions regarding the power of government versus the power of the governed is faulty. If only they could be awoken gently and convinced to throw off their bonds in a calm and considered manner society might progress in a better fashion. But instead people don't usually wake up until a bitter crisis is upon them and then it's all bloody revolution followed by the tyranny of a new gang.
That small class has, what else can you call it, subjugated? captured? coopted a great number of "us", who are therefore no longer "us". Divide and rule. These will fight just as hard to maintain the status quo as their masters fought to establish it and as any may struggle against it.
KillDozer
Here's how the CIA recommends you do it:
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-feature...
My compatriots and I got city hall in court right now. It will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Us, virtually nothing.
And while the govs expenses will be covered by their legal liability insurance, the current carrier will likely opt not to reinsure and their rates with any new company will quadruple...and if they lose, which they likely will, perhaps quintuple. It's the "stupid" penalty.
This case has laid bare corruption on a variety of levels. Most of the electeds will lose their seats in the next two cycles. Regime change is on the way.
Occasionally, you hit a home run.
" It will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Uh... those are your dollars. Or did you forget that part? Unlike the Fed, there is no printing press in the basement.
That's what they tried to convince us of when the whined, snivled and pleaded with us like scared little bitchez not to bring suit.
"You're only suing yourself...the government is YOU..."
We didn't fall for that crap. Surprisingly, you did.
Oh and by the way, they do have a printing press in the basement...it's "us" taxpayers...and we are shutting it down.
I wish you all the luck in the world. I'll even chip in by paying my taxes (reluctantly).
My compatriots and I got city hall in court right now.
Try to envision this: You are asking one wing of the state to hurt the other wing of the state. Think about that for an hour or two.
Could win this one in court...but, we have already "won" where it counts.
The majority of these jackasses will never see the inside of this city hall after the next election.
There is more than one way to "win." Get it?
Sometimes you can use the power of the state against itself and bog down the system. Where it works it works and I applaud those who make the effort.
How To Gum Up Any Institutionby Gary North
In his book, To Build a Castle, Vladimir Bukovsky provides one of the finest descriptions of institution-jamming ever recorded. He organized it.
What you are about to read is like nothing you have ever read. I have spent over 45 years studying bureaucracies in theory and practice. I have seen nothing to match it.
Bukovsky spent well over a decade in the Soviet gulag concentration camp system in the 1960s and 1970s. He was arrested and sentenced in spite of specific civil rights protections provided by the Soviet Constitution – a document which was never respected by the Soviet bureaucracy. But once in prison, he learned to make life miserable for the director of his camp.
He learned that written complaints had to be responded to officially within a month. This administrative rule governing the camps was for "Western consumption," but it was nevertheless a rule. Any camp administrator who failed to honor it risked the possibility of punishment, should a superior (or ambitious subordinate) decide to pressure him for any reason. In short, any failure to "do it by the book" could be used against him later on.
As the 75,000 complaints became part of the statistical record, the statistical record of the prison camp and the regional camps was spoiled. All bureaucrats suffered. There went the prizes, pennants, and other benefits. "The workers start seething with discontent, there is panic in the regional Party headquarters, and a senior commission of inquiry is dispatched to the prison."
Finally, in 1977, they capitulated to several specific demands of the prisoners to improve the conditions of the camps. The governor of the prison was removed and pensioned off. Their ability to inflict death-producing punishments did them little good, once the prisoners learned of the Achilles' heel of the bureaucracy: paperwork.. The leaders of the Soviet Union could bear it no longer: they deported Bukovsky.
http://lewrockwell.com/north/north1108.html
>>>Sometimes you can use the power of the state against itself and bog down the system. Where it works it works and I applaud those who make the effort.<<<
Yes. Exactly.
Looks to me like the actual premise of "Why You Are Powerless Against The Government," is that we need not be powerless if we look at the reality of the ramshackle protection scheme that is government.
YOU ARE SPARTACUS!!!
Just a second, half of that gang does not pay taxes and they wiill side with the tiny dot against us. Obama will make sure of this.
No...not pictured was the 200+ million (double the size of the throng) that are niether the tiny dot nor contibutors to society, er, taxpayers.
swarms of 3rd worlders GUARANTEE permanent power for that dot and his gang.
primitive people create primitive cultures.
"primitive people create primitive cultures."
Yeah, about that...
half of that gang does not pay taxes and they wiill side with the tiny dot against us. Obama will make sure of this.
It doesn't matter: If the producers stop paying the parasites... the parasites crawl away and the producers thrive.
(Not that any of the producers have 1/5th of the guts required to say No.)
or better yet, producers stop being producers, or rather, internalize their production primarily for the sake of their own consumption.
I AM SPARTACUS!!!!
Bingo. Localize your economy, and cut out the grifters.
It is the audience, not the content, that is televised; television, mesmerized.
I shout at peonples; You've been televised!!
(channeling Bill Cosby: You idiot turn the thing off ...)
Their look tells me I'm the crazy one.
Microdots can be dangerous.
Not if you have a case of Bud, a pack of 'Boros, and a lot of Hot Tuna...
If you drink Bud and smoke 'Boros, you have already been thoroughly conditioned. "Row well and live!"
The legion of enforcers are backed up by more than half of the 320 million people that don't care what the dot does as long as they get their share too.
Uhhh . . . Who's share is it in the first place? The Issue: Larceny in the heart.
Minus the "too" in "get their share too". There's not enough cheese for everybody, the majority just wants theirs, and screw the "too" in a rat race of government munchkins and citi-peons chasing a couple of pieces of cheese. We are the dot:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/opinion/brooks-why-hagel-was-picked.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0
Make a really really small black dot and have it use an executive order to try and get rid of the throngs rifles. Lets see if anything changes.
you dont need your second amendment rights , until they try to take them away
But it's a government, of, by and for the people; Lincoln said so.
Fuck Lincoln too.
Fuck that dot.
Fuck Bardot
Although I totally agree with the general idea of the video, it's a bit simplistic by assuming that the throng is united in wanting lower taxes.
What's needed in the video is another tiny shitty dot, representing the MSM, which is brainwashing the a large portion of the throng (the good ol' divide and conquer tactic) into thinking that the throng lives in a free world and that without high taxes our society would collapse into anarchy. :-S
it's a bit simplistic by assuming that the throng is united in wanting lower taxes.
Not at all - they ALWAYS want lower taxes for themselves. It's just that the immoral (who, admittedly, are many) want taxes on someone else.
I agree. Maybe I missed it by not watching the whole video, but it would have been appropriate to show the dot throwing money back at 47% of the throng and getting that 47% to back up everything the dot demanded.
so the MSM lies? But I bet they tell the unvarnished truth about some things, right?
I have a friend who works for the IRS and he told me about how the call center in Cleveland has about 200 collectors that each day take a minimum of 10 INCOMING calls from people that volunteer to enter into a payment plan. These callers owe anywhere from $1,000 to $25,000 in taxes "owed". The $25K plus mark is when the IRS starts to place liens and such. Each state has about 10 IRS call centers of about the same size, so some 500 offices times 200 IRS thugs times 10 calls a day for some 230 days of work a year give you 230,000,000 a year. It would seem to me that voluntary compliance is working just fine, but people are neglecting the inept ability of any government entity being able to truly keep track of all of this shit if a fraction the population would stop volunteering their offering to the state.
Fortunately this is a government operation so even though there is capacity to do 230 million calls per year they probably pull off 2 or 3k calls per year. I worked part time for a gov crew when I was in college and the public servant motto is "Don't kill the job" which means leave some for tomorrow, next week, next month, next year.
I'll try to remember this presentation when 12 little dots kick my door down at three in the morning armed with MP5's, tear gas, flash bangs, and German Shepherds.............
What do you have left for them to take.
If it's just a grain of rice, that's enough. The point is... it's not theirs to take.
My Honor. But it comes with a heavy pricetag...........
TIME TO HANG THE GANG!
...it's b/c the dot is organized and protected, and we're not. Even and especially a corrupt and fraudulent organization is more powerful than what we got!
You say you want a revolution, weeeeellll, you never know.
The dot IS the throng. The reelection of Obungler should tell you that. The people get the government they want and deserve.
"A crummy commercial? Ralphie
Here's a scene from A Bug's Life that explains the conversation the "dot" has when the many aren't looking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlWZZSD4irM
ever had that little gray dot rein down on you if you refuse to obid by the rules of that very little black dot? yes...then you understand.
no...give it a try, see what happens!
Acquire invisible assets, rent, and be self-employed.
oh, and never give your land address, just po box.
I don't believe I am powerless. I've made all kinds of choices in my life that run 180 degrees counter to what my government wants me to do.
On the other hand, those choices mean I no longer receive the material and social rewards built into our system.
Give up materilism and status, and you can pretty much be as free as you want.
Maybe you really can't have it all, after all.
I agree Rex. I have found the same thing. I buy what I need and that's it. Screw the rest it does nothing but enslave me to " my possessions".
We are imprisoned by our confusion of "want" and "need" - this is intentional, of course.
It has taken me a long time to understand this.
I'm not sure "freedom" is what most people are looking for.
+100 for this string--the Dr and Rx get honorary title of co-Buddhas. There would be a revolution if most people figured this out as you have.
Summary of the video in one single picture for Your visual pleasure:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZFZizRGeHY/TzJm59NHJ5I/AAAAAAAAVPM/0dz2SnUEd2...
Power - when we understand this is how it works, and not the other way around, we'll have found the beginning of a solution to our problems
(Thank You 1.bp.blogspot)
What we don't see in the picture are those at the left side who have their feet nailed to the board. They are holding onto some others who aren't nailed down, etc. It's a wicked matrix!
I have comment on the article as I haven't read it. All I want to say is I was a faithful believe in this site even though I started to become frustrated at its rightward turn away from criticizing banks and mulch-nationals (I'm not saying they don't do that at all, they just do it no in any highly technical articles the layman can't understand, so doesn't read). but I still found some stuff informative. Then I challenged the new status quo here and openly defied Tyler's over-the-top reaction to Piers Morgan saying he shouldn't be deported and to want to deport him is fascist. Well, I also made some other comments. MY ACCOUNT WAS DELETED. So, if you think this is some oasis that believes in freedom to the death think again.
Most sites don't delete people, they just delete comments. This site went the extra mile and had my account disappeared. That action my friends completely destroyed any lingering affection i held for this site that it is some oasis in a sea of shit...no no no it is a mirage. Take what you want from this, believe me or not, but go ahead keep letting Tyler use his chart magic to get you to look at poor people as the problem which happens all the time while we are raped by banks, defense contractors, multinational. I'm sure a bunch of dittoheads from Rush will rush to thumb me down, as if I care, I'm 30 not 13, and I could care less what they think. I hate brainwashed thugs. BTW, I'm a moderate republican. Or as the far-right says, a RINO.
Well, I have felt good not reading this treatise on imminent destruction that will happen any day, and everyday. This is no way to live. I suggest at least some of you stop reading cause if you don't think being apocalyptic is bad, think again. Save yourself from this. This is mainly an appeal to those that are 25-40. I say that because from the commentors who seem older, they seem to far-right and stringent in their views to change. Again: this site is not what you think it is. They delete people they don't like so your entire history vanishes. What type of people delete commentors on a site that says it is all about free speech. Think about it. Then again so many of you spend so much time here and it is basically your version of TV (though many of you say TV is bad and don't own one) this is no different. It's entertainment, not economic analysis. That was so 2009. I'll look at comments for this post, but that's it. I'm gone. Say whatever you want it does not hurt me, so whatever. I feel free, like I escaped something holding me down, like being brainwashed that it was an economic apocalypse.
I'm sure you've read Neil Postman's Entertaining Ourselves to Death. ISBN13: 978-0143036531. Though written 25 years ago, it applies directly to today's media landscape of the Internet working side-by-side with television, as an "infotainment" hub.
What was your old name? Being deleted isn't all bad as I have said some fucked up shit I hope stays anonymous, but alas, I do not expect that. It's the interwebs. I agree there is a lot of doom and gloom here and I have to check myself, but they do post some insght you will see nowhere else that is usually fairly prescient. I do get the "Apocalypse Now" feel here. I swing over to Marketwatch to get a dose of "hope and change". Then I read some comments and come right back. Take it all with a grain of salt. It's just a website.
" . Well, I also made some other comments. MY ACCOUNT WAS DELETED."
If your account was deleted, then why does it show that your account is a "Member for 2 years 34 weeks" ?
suspect
sorry if this is true 'poster, but i've never heard of anyone being "terminated here at zh, although there are a few that maybe should be, like 'MDB' and his ilk. we like dissension, anarchy, and every nut case that comes along, we like to vent, cry, laugh, and even get mad as hell, but we put up with it cause it's freedom to vent against the machine. if what you say is true, then your account should be re-instated so you can be punished by the "masses" like the rest of us, unless you threatened to kill someone, and that happens here often enough too. you can always sign up again of course using another alias like "the terminated", or "honey I'm home!", or even "no repentance". we need all kinds here. thanks in advance.
After all the shit i've read on this site, good and bad, it is a mind-bender to project what written words would get one kicked off; that would go against the very ethos of the Tylers.
My old name was rick masters. The reason my account say 2 years and 33 weeks is because this was an account i was going to use but then i wanted to change my name to rick masters as he was a counterfeiter in "To Live and Die in LA" I thought it was a glitch but when i went to try to get a new password as i thought that might be the problem, it said email not registered or something. Maybe it is still some glitch but i doubt it since the email it was listed under didn't work. And I used my password tens of times, then i thought maybe it was one of my other passwords, nope. Tried everyone of them too. I tried every password and still no go. And again, email not on file. What else am i supposed to believe. I had been very adamant lately about stopping this two, three times a day attacks on people who collect unemployment. Guess what: they aren't the problem. Must have worked their entire lives. They are not lazy slobs. Also, just like we shouldn't take away guns from people cause one bad apple does something horrendous, neither should we strip unemployed people from their meager benefits and some people actually need welfare, though they shouldn't get it for life and they don't, its a five year lifetime program Section 8 housing is another thing. Welfare moms with five babies should not live rent free in three room condos in nice areas in effect destroying those people's property values. That is wrong. Look at the lines for applications for it, its chaos with a bunch of ingrates punching each other for a spot. Section 8 should be reserved for the homeless and mentally ill to get them off the streets (and so they stop begging me for change).
So on this account that you have had for 136 weeks you've made 4 posts, all after 1/6/13, all of which bitch about content here on ZH, but you had another account you were posting on?
Yeah, see ya Rick Masters.
15 total posts in 136 weeks. None before 12/25/12.
How did you know my old name was rick masters. i NEVER said that in the first post, as the other post i submitted five seconds ago? AND BTW i had way more posts then the ones the search option is showing and I'm sure someone else remembers. So now it is even creepier since you know who i am? How is that? I want to know. ITS FUCKING TOTAL BULLSHIT THAT THE DELETED MY PREVIOUS COMMENTS IN ORDER TO MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A FOOL. But someone remembers. Someone has too. In fact, I had multiple conversations with people about silver. This makes this site even more creepy that they would delete most of my posts except the ones t=where i start to get fed up. It's a campaign. I hope at least some of you believe me as this is wrong. You are not commenting on a free site. This is why they had behind masks. Not cause they are Batman, but because its a far more insidious agenda. I will make it my work to find out and unmask them, as 10,000s are being duped. I'm going to do something to show not just this site's commentors but the country at large who care about these issues that this site is a fraud. My first stop will be NakedCapitalsim then i will write Glenn Beck. Whateve you think about him, he loves freedom and he isn't insane. he's a good guy. I"M SO PISSED IT"S NOT EVEN FUNNY
How do I know? No other account in that thread shows access denied.
In what thread? What are you talking about? How about you start thinking and stop following.
What a fitting metaphor for the herd-oriented behavior of humans, sometimes called 'sheeple'. Political systems - along with various corporate interests that have produced the homogeneous corporate-state (globalisation) - have succeeded in getting people to organize themselves into opposing herds. These multitudes are placed under the leadership of persons who function like “Judas goats,” a term derived from the meat-packing industry. Judas goats are trained to lead sheep to the slaughterhouse, slipping safely away as the others are led to the butcher. Political leaders take their flocks to the deadly precipice, depart to the safety of their bunkers, and allow herd instincts to play out their deadly course. With the help of the media, Bush, Blair, Sharon, et al., perform the Judas goat function quite well, rousing the herds into a “let’s you and him fight” mindset without occasioning the loss of their own blood. You will not see any of these smug, arrogant creatures in the front lines of battle: that is the purpose served by the “masses” (i.e., the “herds of sheeple”).
But what happens when this herd-hustling game begins to break down; when the consequences become so destructive as to threaten the herd itself? What happens when the sheep begin to suspect that there are alternatives to their present condition; that their lives might have a greater purpose than to be part of a pile of corpses? What if they should learn of greener pastures elsewhere, entry to which is not restricted to a privileged few, the enjoyment of which requires only a breaking away from the restraints of the herd? What if word of such life-fulfilling options begins to spread among herd members?
This allegorical reference seems apropos to modern society, in which vertical structures continue their collapse into more horizontal networks. One cannot grasp the meaning of the established order’s admittedly endless war on “terrorism” without understanding the much deeper question: how is a free and creative society to be organized? Under what sorts of systems will men and women live, work, play, cooperate, and raise children? The institutionally-centered forms with their command-and-control mechanisms that have long represented Western societies are eroding; and the established interests that have benefited from such systems are in a life-and-death struggle to resist their own demise.
Understand, also, that there exists many contemporaneous, non-exclusive subsets of identity, eg. man, woman; white, balck; socialist, communisy; Muslim, Jew, Hindu; rich, poor; etc.
Institutions - particularly political systems - depend upon people developing a collective identity for themselves; associating their very being with the herd of which they are part and to which they are subservient. While organized behavior is both natural and beneficial to us as social beings, institutions invert the role of social systems: organizations that began as cooperative tools to foster the interests of individuals, get twisted into organizations that become their own reasons for being (i.e., an institution).
Having become ends in themselves, institutions must resist behavior that threatens their interests. Once men and women have been conditioned to accept the supremacy of institutional interests over their own, it is an easy matter to get them to sanction the use of state power to protect and promote established interests. Corporate interests become synonymous with societal interests; concerns for “security” - whether “national,” “homeland,” “job,” "food supply", “social,” or “airport” - justify governmental restrictions on individual liberty and other processes of change that threaten the status quo.
Usually, unfortunately, business firms have been the principal forces behind the promotion of governmental regulation of the economic life of a country. Through competitive and trade practice standards; licensing and other limitations on entry into the marketplace; tariffs and taxation policies; government research subsidies and defense contracting; and various other uses of the coercive powers of the state to advance private interests, the business community has fostered rigidities that help to insulate firms from the need to remain creatively resilient and adaptive to change.
A number of historians have shown how such institutionalizing practices contribute to the decline of civilizations. If a society is to remain creative and viable, it must encourage - not simply tolerate - the processes of change. At this point, the creative interests of society (as people) come into conflict with the structuring interests of institutions (as organizational systems). Whether the autonomous and spontaneous processes of change will prevail over the preservation of established institutional interests, may well determine the fate of civilization!
The forces of institutional dominance - with their centralized, vertically-structured, coercive systems of control - have encountered the decentralized, horizontally-connected, voluntary methods of cooperation. Mankind is in a life-and-death struggle not simply for its physical survival, but for its very soul. The contest centers on the question of whether human beings shall continue to be servo-mechanistic resources for the use and consumption of institutional interests, or whether they shall be their own reasons for being. Will institutional or individual interests be regarded as the organizing principal of society?
For instance, it is this confrontation that underlies the so-called “war on terror.” “Terrorism” - like “international communism” that preceded it - is but another specter held up to a gullible public to enlist their continuing support for institutional hegemony. “Terrorism” is a tactic, not a competing political institution; a tactic that reflects the inability of the state to predict and control events.
The good news.....In numerous ways, humanity is slipping out of the grasping hands of the state, a prospect that does, indeed, “terrorize” institutional interests. Parents are increasingly turning to home-schooling and other forms of private education as alternatives to government schools; alternative medicine and health-care systems continue to prosper; the Internet - with its myriad and interconnected web and blog sites - is increasingly relied upon by men and women for all kinds of information, with a corresponding decline in newspaper readership and network television news viewing. These are just a few of the more prominent examples of a world that is becoming increasingly decentralized, spontaneous, and individualized.
To my mind, institutional, governmental and heirarchal systems are an anachronism grasping at straws for their survival. All of these systems developed when the fastest speed of communication was the speed of the horse and the boundaries of the system were set by the speed and the range of the horse. Now, world-wide communication occurs at the speed of light. As scientists come to more understanding of Einstein's quantum theories, or Ruberert Scheldrakes, "harmonic resonance", communication will become instantaneous.
The difficulties we face often arise from our failure to ask relevant questions. This may help explain the institutional establishment’s apparent lack of awareness of its apparent fate. As main stream media reports on the increased popularity of Internet blogsites, explaining their growth as a public demand for getting news out more “quickly,” - then urging viewers to continue watching mainstream media for the fastest reports. However, it is not information speed that attracts people to the Internet, but increased options in what is reported. Main stream media generally report favorably on government policies. If one wanted to find thoughtful criticism of government policies, one needs to go to the Internet.
The latent forces of complexity and chaos, coupled with the adverse consequences of increased organizational size, will doubtless continue these decentralizing trends. Secession movements, along with an increased willingness of local governments to openly challenge central government policies, reflect a growing interest in decentralizing political power.
The institutional order could, of course, try to adapt to such changes. Many business organizations have, in fact, discovered the enhanced productivity to be found in the adoption of more decentralized managerial policies in which day-to-day decision-making is more widely distributed throughout the work force. But few have been willing to extend the logic of centrifugence to broader social environments such as the marketplace. They - and most of the rest of us - fail to understand that the spontaneous and autonomous processes that enhance the creativity and profitability of a firm, also foster the viability of society itself.
Creativity" has always posed a threat to those who refuse to adapt themselves to more productive alternatives. Because we have learned to regard institutions as ends to be preserved, rather than tools to be utilized, fundamental changes that threaten the institutional order must be resisted. Such is the case with the worldwide shift from vertically-designed and hierarchically-structured systems of centralized control, toward more decentralized, horizontally-networked social systems. Feudalism - grounded in politically-defined privileges, rights, and status - was unable to sustain itself in the face of an industrial revolution that rewarded people on the basis of exhibited merit in a free marketplace. So, too, the neo-feudal, politically-structured institutionalized order will be unable to resist the oncoming liberalizing trends.
Like the Luddites who fought the industrial revolution, the established order will not give up its privileges without a fight. Efforts to revive the dying corpse of centralized power structures have taken on paramount importance. With the demise of the Soviet Union as its symbiotic partner for the rationalization of state power - itself the victim of decentralist forces - the United States has had to find a new threat with which to keep Americans as a fear-ridden herd of sheeple. The statists believe they have found this eternal danger in the specter of “terrorism,” which they hope can be manipulated to justify endless wars and unrestrained police powers.
If you can cut through the veneer of propaganda as “news,” and begin to ask such questions as how US-supported persons and organizations (e.g., Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban) could suddenly became threats to America, you will begin to understand the nature of the herding game being played at your expense.
Vhat government officials and the media have labeled the “war on terror” has, I believe, a more encompassing target: the decentralizing processes that are eroding institutionally-controlled social behavior. “Terrorism” is the state’s new scarecrow, erected to ward off the changes that threaten the interests of the rigidly-structured political establishment. What is now drifting away into diffused networks of freely developed, alternative forms and practices, must be resisted by a state system that insists upon its central control of the lives of us all. As has always been the case, the life-sustaining processes of spontaneity and autonomy are being opposed by the life-destroying forces of coercive restraint.
With its newly-concocted perpetual war upon an unseen enemy - combined with greatly expanded police powers - the established order seeks to force free men and women back into the herd upon which its violent control over life depends. That we may take our places in the serried ranks set out for us by the state so that we remain subservient to the state, is the purpose underlying the present “war on terror.” As with the sheep in Turkey, the consequence will be that we will follow one another over cliffs leading to our mutual destruction. In the tapestry of human history, it is but the latest expression of the state’s continuing war against life.
sheep don't wake up; that's what makes them sheep.
I don't see the trends you speak of. There is no general awakening.
The population responsible for the last great awakening has dwindled to a world minority...groups are ascendant who have no heritage of awakening or what we think of as progressive civilization.
Surely, the herd will stampede me for suggesting such a nonconformist thing.
...---... SOS:)
Your "right" of self defense and protection of your life and property is already ILLEGAL!
Self defense is God given.
When Should You Shoot a Cop?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ9w1HHRMQw&list=UUFeK8ZdHbCqAq3gekWs8aEQ...
This video needs a few more dots to represent states, municiaplities, localities, special tax districts, sales and excise taxes, regulatory agencies, and, did I leave anything out. There are actually a bunch of dots, and they are populated by members of that "throng" and represnt more "enforcers" and individuals and corporations that benefit from being in cahoots with the dots.
That's the real picture. The throng is actually surrounded on all sides by dots and within the throng are agents of the dots. That's why we're really fucked.
What I have always failed to understand is how people can allow their labor to be taxed. I spent a few of my younger years in the "labor force" before venturing out into my own business. I have paid few taxes beyond those which I simply could not avoid, like those appended to phone bills, sales tax, gasoline tax, etc.
This kind of system, wherein the "government" steals from us all, should make all of us thieves. I tell people with pride that I haven't paid income tax or contributed to Social Security or Medicare in many years, and, usually, I get a response like, "what about your retirement," or "what if you get sick."
Well, I've maintained pretty good health and have more than enough put away not to worry about those things. Besides, I plan on working to some degree until I'm too sick to do so, and then I'll die.
Fuck them.
Wise up, Americans. The tax codes are so full of exemptions and deductions only a fool would not at least start a business and file a schedule C, show losses or barely make a profit. It's pretty easy to do, and if more people did it, the government would be out of business in no time (or, more likely, they'd alter the code).
Americans, by and large, are ignorant.
"Every nation gets the government it deserves."
-- Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821)
Oh well, maybe one day people will understand democracy ain't more democratic than fucking North Korea !
All you need is a state that protects your from each others and thus grants some security (not total control like we're having). Very few law and no fucking administration !!!! Jeez what an imbecile invention ! You're paying freeks to waste your time. Think about an IRS officer, you're paying the guy to take your money !
Only "down side" : if the state's asking you very little don't ask him much more ! Are peasants ready for this ? Naaaah all they want is to lay down on they cauch watching reality tv shows or sports, getting fatter and more disgusting everyday eating junk food ! So my answer to the question "why are we in such a mess ?" BECAUSE WE GRANTED THE RIGHT TO VOTE TO THE PEOPLE WHICH ESSENTIALLY ARE A BUNCH OF LUNATICS !!!! Jeez take a look around you ! Aren't people so dumb you just want to kill them all ? Coz I DO ! Hopefully i live in europe and got no access to guns ;-)
I often wondered what would happen if everyone claimed 9 dependents on their Tax Return. Even for one year and starved Washington of Money. Yet, we all would have to make sure we had the Money the next year for Taxes to avoid the Enforcement arm. But, it would cause a crunch in the monthly revenues for the Government for a year.
imagine the american refuses to pay taxes. What would they do ? Jail everyone ? Would the unpaid cops run after you ? LOL
If americans stop paying they'll immediately be free, no need for a violent revolution, no need for a gun !
When you think of it the American Citizens (at least those who pay Taxes) are the ones that hold the Purse strings of this Country.
i claimed 14 last year, changed to 10 this year to reflect the 2% payroll tax hike. gets me almost breakeven at tax time...I don't want to provide the govt with an interest free loan, i'm not in that business.
History has shown that one needs a few good men to inspire a nation into action. Say, '300'.
The question is are we ZH'ers even one of them?
doubtful
I sense/suspect the same.
Too many raised on the Milk/Kool-Aid of the 'Myth of the Lone Hero'.
People might want to read that book by the famous Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
And we all know what happens to 'Heros' without a small but real following, that leads to a mass-following, don't we? --> Red Dot --> No Dot.
This ain't no party. This ain't no disco... http://shutupnsing.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/from-soft-to-hard/
Dont play their game.
Play your own game.
What I want to know is how this video relates to that "tyranny of the majority" thing.
It's almost like people are inclined to believe one thing one day, and then something quite opposite the next day - you know, if there's profit to be realized.
My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor , allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.
One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.
So here goes.
I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.
I can’t figure out what country you are the president of.
You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:
” We’re no longer a Christian nation”
” America is arrogant”
– (Your wife even
announced to the world,” America is mean-spirited. ” Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our
war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)
I’d say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.
After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”
Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.
I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.
Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.
Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue . You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.
And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.
One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.
You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.
You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That’s not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.
And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle…
Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes
derp derp derp, old man yells at cloud.
.
300 +/- million Americans...
-More than half pay no income tax.
-More than half rely on some form of government welfare.
-More than half continually elect/re-elect self serving, self interested bozos to "represent" them.
Helpless my ass!
Just plain old fashioned stupid.
too bad. I'd bet 95% of people over the age of 18 can't name their 2 senators or their representative for their district...and i'd bet 50%-80% can name the last winner of dancing with the stars, american idol, the bachelor/ette, etc. Until a much larger percentage of people over 18 yrs old get involved, informed, etc...ain't nothin gonna change for the better.
I have family members that complain of the current state of affiars but are clueless of their reps and rarely vote. Eff em.
Nantucket - I don't know who the two senators from my state are (not "my" senators, to be sure). I also can't name the rep.
But you'd be well advised not to construe that as anything other than the obvious result of my belief that the system is rigged and that Democrat=Republican. After all, while I may be forced to learn the names of the Bozos on the top of the crap heap due to osmotic exposure alone, I am not forced, and nor am I willing, to issue any sort of recognition to the system by even taking the time to absorb which local puppet is currently on the bus to the precipice.
The problem is much deeper than the ignorance of the populace. The representatives are already chosen by the special interests long before they are presented to the public so voting makes no difference whatsoever.
The problem, as best as I can discover, is the total takeover of America by special interests (banks and foreign governments). The media is not just complicate, they are also owned by the same interests so the majority of people have no chance whatsoever of discovering the truth. The media, pharmaceutical companies and public school system has deliberately dumbed down the masses to make certian of that.
The problem is much deeper than the ignorance of the populace. The representatives are already chosen by the special interests long before they are presented to the public so voting makes no difference whatsoever.
The problem, as best as I can discover, is the total takeover of America by special interests (banks and foreign governments). The media is not just complicate, they are also owned by the same interests so the majority of people have no chance whatsoever of discovering the truth. The media, pharmaceutical companies and public school system has deliberately dumbed down the masses so make certian of that.
That video's analysis is highly incomplete. The 100 million dots put up with the tiny dot because as Frédéric Bastiat clearly said, “Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.”
Lovely, litle essay,on eternity.
It has always been like this,ones, there were even two of these litle dots,Chuch and Fed/up.
Fed/up,divided the loot,with Gods boys,to not be controled by Gods boys.
Mass hypnose,is a master art,and none better than God,has performed it,thus far.
Its not the Dot,running the show,its the ones behind the Dot,the Pin kings,?King oh he was alone,jolly but had,mass deluted peasants,to control????,Why do i fell like i am in a merry go round,is it the Free of Jail card,to the Dots freinds,the club we aint members in,but elect the members to!
When blue team bugs us we elect red team,why do i think of a stupid game like football,oh yeah the salery,is it, Gladious,what say you Brutus,can you please take the Knife out of my back,gota run and: VOTE AGAIN, Dot Vomit S/cums.Life is fantastic,destroying it,is beoynd reason,what so ever.They do/t it,because some body let them,wonder Who that might be.
An Anonymous could learn a thing or two from this guy.
He's got that 'blobbing up' thing going on big time.
The things to learn from 'americans'
-'americanism' and what it means
-how to excell in the values associated to 'americanism'
That Lance "where's the syringe?" Armstrong guy, what a fine 'american' he is.
The life and deeds of Lance Armstrong will be a good book for anyone interested in becoming a better or simply 'american'
Great way to sell a book..Kudos
When did selling a good book become evil?
Not ZeroHedge worthy.
The missing piece is the MILITARY behind the dot.
The dot has forces to KILL the masses and when pressed does it readily and frequently.
If Americans refused to vote for these creeps from the so called two party system, which is in fact a one party dictatorship of the big monied interests, we could make some inroads against the missrule of our present bribed government. Why one might ask do this enemies of Americans keep getting miliions upon millions of people's votes?
Unless or until American revolt against the present fake two party system, then we deserve what is being crammed down our throats. Also, I hear many Americans brag about the many wars we fight and all the enemies we kill, the nations we conquer in a few weeks, etc. etc. This costs, if you add in the national security state, like CIA, NAS etc, well north of a trillion US dollars a year. WHY do we support this? When did we stop defending America and invading nations across the globe.
Right now, I blame the people, for buying what the corporate liars in the MSM tell them, for supprting the military industrial complex and for allowing a fake two party system to deliever the same politicians for decades upon decades. WE take much of the blame, it is US who refuse to use the few deomocratic tools left, like the vote, to get rid of everyone of the politicians who respond to bribes by big corporate interests and are black mailed by liberal do gooders who want half the population, mostly minorities to be handed their living without going to work, and blaming whites for all the problems of the soon to be majority minotriy US population.
I hear support all the time on ZH for republicans, very little for democrats, since ZH is a fiscally conservative site. Yet, are these Republicans doing anything but adding to the war crazed police state? Doing anything but handing all power to corporate interests who bribe the political classes?
Nope, until WE Americans refuse any support at all for Democrats and Republicans then we are doomed. Screw the two party system! It offers the same amount of choice as the former Communits Party of The Soviet Union did. Andwe are heaed to the same end as the Soviet Union. The economy will collapse, and the empire will implode. It is only a matter of time. Why do WE vote for enemies? I will never ever cast a vote for either party. Any honest politician should denounce the parties is public, vow to never answer to them or to take bribes. I bet a politician like that could get elected, even though the corporate media would attack them at every tuen.
It's up to US people, kill the two party system, it is a giant lie and a hoax, it is killing America and Amerrican business and industry. All it is good for now is for war and taxation!
The problem goes a lot deeper than "the two party system". The framers of the Constitution originally had U.S. Senators elected by the states’ assemblies; thus diminishing the possibility of outside influences (foreign bankers) to bribe and corrupt the election process of the Senators. However, in 1913, the same year The Federal Reserve Act was passed, Congress also passed the 17th Amendment, which had Senators elected by direct vote of the citizens of a state. This allowed for lobbyists to bribe; blackmail, and corrupt the elections of the U.S. Senators. Today, our U.S. Senate is the most corrupt political body on the face of the Earth. Yes, 1913 was an active year. That year saw the creation of the 17th Amendment, the Federal Reserve System, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Get the picture?
This shits been going down for decades before obama or bush only now theres a black guy running the show, so disillusioned repubs have joined disillusioned dems, stick a white guy in and watch the ZH readership switch back to supporting the status quo.
At its best its a great site to read intelligent debate, at its worst its full of white power boys giving each other reach arounds and saying nigger a lot.
I only really come here to read the comments which are usually better than the articles themselves.
Please ignore the 300 US troops given cancer in iraq due to KBR's negligence, they will get compensation as soon as haliburton sues the govt for the money to pay for KBR's negligence.
www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/oefoif/qarmat-ali/
Sick sad world.
-1
I get it now. But, Kim Kardashian still wants to know why none of the dots are pink.
The Legendary Pink Dots meet the Savage Planet.
Kim is a slut, or at least that is what I have heard.
The Dot can't even pass a budget, but they have no problem taking my money - 'nuff said....
Itty Bitty Throng Gone Wrong.
I am in the camp where I agree with size of the tiny dot against a large population..but unfortunately, the number of enforcers is a lot larger than is represented by the enforcers dot.
there are c. 2.65 million federal workers http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/09/how_many_federal_wo...
there are c. 1.5 to 1.7 million state and muni workers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_of_State,_County_and_Mu...
there are c. 120,000 armed police and correctional workers plus an unknown number of air marshals and CIA http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/fleo08.pdf
117 million peple turned up to vote for the trillion dollar deficit man obama. that is less than half the voting population. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/07/270958/voter-turnout-in-2012-us-...
given that around 120 million people din't give a shit about who got to be president, the number of dots needs to be dropped by that amount. you could also argue that less than 25% of those elegible to vote, cast a vote for the trillion dollar deficit man obama, leaving 3/4 who did not. Probably that 25% who voted for obama's mobocracy were on benefits and rightly fit on the "enforcer" side of the equation also, i.e. give me my loans benefits or food stamps and they will vote for a trillion dollar deficit dolphin!
what is startling is that the "enforcers" is not just tax collectors, but the praetorian guard that supports the current mobocracy is 60 million beneficiaries plus 4.5 million government employees = 64.5 million (a lot of them armed) against 58 million who actually bothered to vote against the trillion dollar deficit man.
that makes it more enforcers than people .. bleh
Let me see if I can answer some of you "why" questions. If you know the answers, then don't be condescending and treat us as if we don't know the answers.
1. WE obey because we are civilized, law abiding, citizens who just want to live our lives and get along.
2. THEY are more than just that little dot and you know it. Many of the WE work for the THEY. THEY have the police, the military, the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, DEA, AFT, Border Patrol, DHS, all the Indian Tribes, and even Seal Team 6. I of course could go on but.....YOU get the picture.
3. THEY also have the Fortune 1000 corporations that millions of WE work for. THEY also control the banks that have all of WE's money.
I think those three glaring points make you illustration just a little childish. I guess you could say that is 1776 it was just one person (king George) against the millions in American, right? Didn't think so.
The problem here is more complex but centers around a contract (the Constitution) that we (the states) agreed to agree upon. That contract created the Federal Government. From day one of that contract, the feds have been looking for ways to take the power from the states. Lincoln finally accomplished this in 1865. Since then, state governments have cow-towed to the feds and taken the state citizens with them. WE the people believe in government and the rule of law. It is the gov that has become the law breakers and this goes way beyond our money. WE have allowed them to break the law time and time again and now after over a hundred years we want to revisit the issue because it is becoming unbearable. WE did not get this way overnight and it will not be fixed overnight. WE did not get this way peacefully and we will not fix it peacefully.
If YOU are going to educate, then give your student some credit of basic knowledge. You have oversimplified and distorted terribly the situation.
The article misunderstands what is happening:
50%+1 of the mass has hired the few hundred to exhort money from the other 50%-1.
Standard Democracy in action.
You are not even remotely correct. This is the propaganda they want you to believe. They pit the classes against each other and you've fallen for it.
The entire social services/welfare program adds up to an insignificant portion of the budget.
The obvious error in this example is the definition and estimate of the number of the enforcers. The IRS is nothing more than a paper agency with little more than intimidation a tool. The real enforcers are the governors, mayors judges sheriffs and police who are all controlled by whoever it is that controls things ( banks?)
The problem is the tiny minority have the laws and judges behind them. The pure numbers are stacked against them but the power and money is on their side. Nothing short of a real revolution ( if there can ever be such a thing) will change things. That's why they need to take the guns. Frankly I don't think there are enough smart and or brave people in America to ever organize and challenge the establishment. Most people don't even think there is a problem and the vast majority of gun owners will likely whimper as they hand over their guns.
That must be true.
The gun stores can't even give the guns away because everybody's too afraid of confiscation.