What I Want from This Year’s Circus

What I Want from This Year’s Circus

Year’sCircus

Years ago, Alvin Toffler convinced me that elections are merely reassurance rituals, and so I take no part in them. But these blaring spectacles – and especially the “every fourth year” variety – do have effects in the world, and so I peek in on them from time to time.

This year’s circus is more interesting than most. Whatever else comes of it, things are clearly being shaken up. And that’s something I very much welcome. I’m not interested in violent shakeups of course, but I’d welcome almost any nonviolent break in the Western status quo.

I do understand the appeal of regularity, especially to older folks. Regularity has a good deal of comfort value, and I don’t want to rip that away from people. But on the other hand, regularity turns too easily into a deathly stasis. And we must escape that.

Shake-ups, contrary to most opinions, are healthy; here’s a line from C. Delisle Burns’ wonderful history of early Europe, The First Europe, that makes this point:

[I]n times of social transition there is greater vitality among ordinary men and women than at other times, precisely because the displacement of ancient customs compels them to think and act for themselves.

I want more of that… much more of that.

The Contenders

Here’s what I think will follow this year’s circus. Bear in mind that I’m ignoring the “my team wins!” euphoria and focusing on what happens after the chariot races are over and the drunken Roman throngs stagger home to their hangovers.

In the red corner… In the red corner we have New York Donny. Donny is really good at working the crowd; he knows what they’ve been waiting to hear and he gives it to them. Furthermore, he knows how to hit all the instinctive buttons, and he never admits an error. Whatever his personal failures may be, he’s really good at self-promotion. He’s spent half a century at it, after all, and Donny is not stupid.

As president of all the red, white, and blues, I think Donny will actually try to keep his promises. To do that, however, he’ll have to make some pretty questionable deals with members of the Blue party, but I think he’ll do it. The scary part involves what he deals away.

The wild card in a Donny presidency would be his relationship with deep state elites. I suspect he’ll make deals with them too, but sooner or later, giant egos will collide and Donny may go “New York” on them. If that happens, we may find ourselves watching news stories about a three-named assassin with obscure ties to an intel agency. Or less dramatically (and perhaps more likely), a variety of quagmires in which Donny’s feet will become stuck.

In the blue corner… In the blue corner we have Just Because Hillary. Everyone knows that Hillary’s morality has more holes in it than a window screen, but lots of people want her elected because… well… just because. She’s a woman, after all, and all those aging ’60s and ’70s babes pledged their lives to political solutions, and a woman president is their big payoff. We had a black guy last time, so now it’s their turn.

Once in office, Hillary will be the same as she’s always been. More than likely, she’ll drag the “grand old flag” into more wars than Donny would. She doesn’t enjoy negotiating like he does. She’ll do whatever the State Department (read Deep State) wants, and that means trying to enforce stasis on the entire planet. One or more of those wars may be an embarrassing loss.

No Matter Which Way…

So, no matter which way the big circus turns, I think we can expect some cracks in the Western facade.

If Hillary gets to live in the big, impressive house, the clock may run out on millions of Americans who want to believe in a God-blessed government. They’ve struggled 15 years to maintain the illusion and its expiration date may be close.

Hillary will do approximately what Obama did, which was approximately what Bush Jr. did. If nothing else, people will become bored with it; more and more of them will admit that the entire exercise was a waste.

If Donny gets to live in the big, impressive house, he’s likely to break things, and that means change, whether people like it or not.

And Then?

It’s hard to say exactly how much JFK’s assassination affected the 1960s and early ’70s, but I think it cracked open the stasis of the previous era. On its heels came a “time of social transition,” to use Burns’ words. This wasn’t nearly as profound as the fall of Rome, but it had its results: The decade that ran from roughly 1965 to 1975 was a time of open futures.

I lived through that decade, and even though it featured a lot of stupidity, I’d take it back. Its new ideas were often ridiculous and sometimes damaging – open space allowed every whack-job with a reheated lunacy to trumpet his revelation – but at least people were thinking something beyond the mundane.

We had Communists and objectivists, free-lovers and Jesus freaks, nature-worshippers and NASA nerds, all mixed together. It was a confused mess, but the people holding these ideas put their hearts and souls into them. For better or worse, they were alive.

Since then, we’ve had endless images of “living loud,” but very little actual life. We’ve been submerged in the mundane. The decade of 1965–1975, as goofy as it was, looks pretty good by comparison.

And so, if we’re very, very lucky, the Donny and Hillary circus may break the stasis of our time. That’s what I want.

 

* * * * *

If you’ve enjoyed Free-Man’s Perspective or A Lodging of Wayfaring Men, you’re going to love Paul Rosenberg’s new novel, The Breaking Dawn.

It begins with an attack that crashes the investment markets, brings down economic systems, and divides the world. One part is dominated by mass surveillance and massive data systems: clean cities and empty minds… where everything is assured and everything is ordered. The other part is abandoned, without services, with limited communications, and shoved 50 years behind the times… but where human minds are left to find their own bearings.

You may never look at life the same way again.

Get it now at Amazon ($18.95) or on Kindle: ($5.99)

TheBreakingDawn

* * * * *

Paul Rosenberg

[Editor’s Note: Paul Rosenberg is the outside-the-Matrix author of FreemansPerspective.com, a site dedicated to economic freedom, personal independence and privacy. He is also the author of The Great Calendar, a report that breaks down our complex world into an easy-to-understand model. Click here to get your free copy.]


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Persnickety
Persnickety

Killary: everything bad about neocons, but worse, with mind-boggling corruption. 100% guaranteed disaster.

Drumpf: think of that high school classmate who was a brawler and not quite smart, but not dumb either. Drag him through one of the more corrupt industries in a huge and corrupt city and yet he somehow rises to near (but not at) the top. Not a neocon, and not as visibly corrupt but may just be better at hiding it. 95% guaranteed disaster.

So, let’s all rally around behind 95% guaranteed disaster! WOO HOO!!!

Weedhpper
Weedhpper

I think Trump is smart enough to surround himself with very smart people and I believe he listens to their input. Decisions are his own, but I think he values the opinion from his inner circle.

Hillary listens to no one and goes ballistic if a differing opinion is offered.

I give Trump a 72% chance at success and Hillary a 0.0004% chance at success.

Just my opinion.

Rdawg
Rdawg

Snickster, so which is it: should we all rally around, or behind?

Persnickety
Persnickety

both, you simplistic binary thinker. :b

Stucky

The real circus is this assclown Freeman and his 8th-grade level “analysis”.

Homer
Homer

Stucky–Remember when you point a finger at someone else. Three fingers are pointing back at you.

I’m going to re-read it to see if it is at an 8th grade level. It maybe elementary to you, but there are readers who aren’t quite at the level of wisdom that you have.

My judgement is whether it provokes thinking regardless of how elementary. We all have to start somewhere.

Stucky

oops

Homer
Homer

Random Thoughts!

Let’s face it. Even the Kardashians get boring after the first year. Work get boring. Driving on the freeway get boring. The kids crying for the millionth time gets boring. Life is boring! Boring, boring, boring I say! That’s why we need a war every so often. That’s why we need the presidential election every 4 yrs. It’s the salvation of the mundane existence that we all live.

We seek stimulation. It is our mantram. We live in a Cookie Cutter world where everyone is the same, lacking in individuality at the soul level. Zombies repeating the same actions, the same thinking, over and over again. Our souls are crying out for relief from the insane human governmental environment impinging upon our very understanding of what is right. It is Orwell’s Newspeak over and over dulling our ability to make sound judgements. Giving us a choice where no choice really exists. Have we become less than human? Callous to the pain and suffering we inflict on other peoples. Perhaps, even losing our Birthright given us by the Great Creator, our individuality and relationship with Him.

But…A Birthright can never be lost. It may be given up, but it can be reclaimed at any time. We just need to reclaim it. It is like the Rights embedded within the Constitution. They can be given up, but reclaimed at any time, Obama’s decrees notwithstanding for the Constitution is not of the government but of the people.

As I watched the DNC and RNC, although not the whole of the conventions as I have a life to live, I sensed the excitement in the crowds. It was a grand show! Come December, it will be forgotten, discarded like yesterday’s newspaper, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. I watched HiLlARy as the crowds cheered, the smile on her face grew with the growing loudness of crowd. It was stimulating to her as her expression revealed. Much like heroin is to a druggie, I thought. I didn’t see that with Trump, I sensed a seriousness in his expression.

I sense that Hard Scrabble Farmer is an authentic being living life and not viewing it vicariously.
A life well lived is stimulating in its own right. No need to seek it outside of one’s self in the reflections of other peoples lives. Nature is more stimulating than any circus that government can put on.

We need to stop being distracted from our life by illusions and start living it. We as Americans need an Ideal not ideas to heal us as a nation. We all need to embrace an Ideal common to us all. Something that we can respect in all of us. That Ideal is the Ideal that is embedded in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. If there is agreement to be found, I believe, it is to be found there.

mark
mark

Hillary in charge of the IRS.

Just think about it.

kokoda
kokoda

mark….didn’t need to think too hard; the IRS is conducting an investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Nothing like an outside impartial investigation – the Fox is guarding the Hen House.

nkit
nkit

Yes, having the IRS investigate the Clinton Foundation is a bit like appointing the Congressional Black Caucus to investigate the finances of Al Sharpton. Worse yet, the Exempt Organizations Program, the branch of the IRS that was once run by Lois “Fuck the Tea Party” Lerner is leading the investigation which, you have to figure, will come to the conclusion that the Clinton’s pay-to-play criminal and treasonous enterprise is truly an honorable, dedicated and noble charity – just in time for the election, and to make that shit sandwich, that is her election, go down a bit easier.

The Foundation was originated to create the Clinton Presidential Library, but obviously has expanded well beyond that point despite not filing the necessary and appropriate paper work to do so. I know, paperwork schmaperwork, those are rules for the “little people”, but it has never gotten IRS approval to become a tax exempt organization either. Shoot, why bother which such trivial matters?

As I said, I expect the investigation will throw the Clintons a life ring and bathe them in the sweetest of perfumes just in time for the coronation. Most Americans are well aware that Hillary is covered in more shit than a septic tank, but most are unaware of the depth of the filthy morass that she has remained afloat in for the last few decades as regards the operation of the Clinton Foundation. Unfortunately, this IRS investigation will do little, if anything at all, to change that fact. And Al Sharpton ain’t saying shit either.

Homer
Homer

As is the FBI! I wonder what will become of it? Hmmm!

Westcoaster
Westcoaster

Here’s the way I look at it, for what it’s worth:

Hillary = Oblunder’s 3rd term and guaranteed wars because she’s a neocon, which is why the GOP neocons are groveling at her feet.

Trump = Big question mark but that might be good in the sense that he might shake things up. And oh my God does the U.S. need that.

Stucky

“Remember when you point a finger at someone else. Three fingers are pointing back at you.” ——Homer

Incorrect conclusion based on insufficient data on your part. You see, in Austria, we point with all five fingers. So, there!

Maybe I would like him better if he wasn’t selling that same fucking book in each and every article. Or, at least gimme a picture of a naked WOMAN with nice big titties.

Homer
Homer

I’m going to ask my Austrian friend if that’s true. He was born in Austria and served in the great war as a baker and survived, fat and healthy.

I didn’t know that you live in Austria.

You can’t blame a guy for trying to make a living. At least he’s not out making it with a gun.

Rdawg
Rdawg

He’s from New Jersey, I believe.

I doubt the Eastern Realm would have him.

Rdawg
Rdawg

I always thought that Rosenberg’s book cover was slightly homoerotic…

TL2
TL2

Obviously, the Anschluss never ended, perhaps at least in your worldview.

fear & loathing

assuming JFK intended to exit Nam and he dumped LBJ all the changes of the 60’s and 70’s would have been gradual yet they were in the cards. LBJ destroyed many lives and his policies continue to destroy lives. i suppose hillary can out do him in conduct that may well do us all in. the bushes are the world/s largest drug dealers, with bubba and the king of the mosque taking their cuts and cues. the zinka outbreak could be a pretense for actions that may undercut the elections. no action is too outrageous to retain power.

rhs jr
rhs jr

I’d like to get it over and just skip to the part where a mob of pissed of Democrats bury her at the stake.

rhs jr
rhs jr

oops, burn her first

Walt
Walt

It’s rude to point. Observe sometime, for example, how a police officer or military person ‘points’. That’s how it’s done.

Boat Guy

Man or woman black or white or “other ” , apparently this is the best we can do . I admit I will always vote sadly knowing it’s an effort in futility . George Carlin had the best descriptions of our politicians and our system , yes with a humorous quip of describing what a bunch of pathetic individuals find their collective ways to the top . I want to believe we still have men and women with honor and integrity coupled with the intellect to assume command . Sadly people of this stature don’t waste their time listening to the “BAT SHIT CRAZY NONSENSE” that is spewed out of our nations capital like a broken sewerage main ! We can pray for the wind to change perhaps from the direction of the land fill anything would be an improvement .

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