“It can’t happen here” is a political cliche in the United States. Regardless of your personal viewpoint, there is a vast swath of the American population who simply do not believe in the possibility of any kind of totalitarianism in the United States.
It’s worth noting that throughout history, in virtually every place that totalitarian regimes have arisen, the residents of these countries felt the same way. Russia was seen as too traditional and backward, the power of the Czar too entrenched to be defeated. Germany had been viewed throughout most of the modern period as the home of Goethe, Schiller, and Mozart, a place where the local Jewish population had largely assimilated.
Because totalitarianism emerges differently throughout history in different countries, it’s crucial to take a broader view of how totalitarian regimes arise. For example, when we’re discussing the rise of communism or the rise of fascism, we see different trends in Russia than we do in China, different trends in Italy than we do in Germany. When we examine multiple, somewhat lesser known examples of the rise of socialism throughout the world, we paint a picture of the different ways in which socialism originated and its possible resurgence.
This case study of terror analyses three examples of totalitarianism throughout history. In Czechoslovakia, the Communist Party was able to establish the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic by leveraging little more than a strong showing – but not a victory – in the parliamentary elections. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of Communist China in the 1960s, Chairman Mao came out of relative isolation to radically remake an already communist country. Lastly, we will look right in America’s backyard at the rise of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
More than perhaps anywhere else, the rise of totalitarianism throughout the world is an excellent example of the quote often attributed to Mark Twain, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” If you are looking for a mechanical repeat of the past, you are looking in the wrong place. Our point is not to show you that the exact same things are currently happening here in the United States, but to highlight similarities.
The Czechoslovak Coup d’Etat of 1948
Standing on this side of history, it’s easy to take Soviet domination over Eastern Europe as a given. However, at no point during the early transition from Nazi domination to the post-war period was it a fait accompli that the formerly occupied nations of Eastern Europe wouldn’t go back to being free and independent nations. Czechoslovakia is perhaps one of the best examples we have of a country that was by no means “destined” to go communist.
The situation on the ground in Czechoslovakia was very similar to that of Italy and France – all three had been occupied by the Germans and had large Communist Parties enjoying broad, if not a majority, support. The Communist Parties of each country had a track record of cooperation with non-Communist Parties. What’s more, the Communist Party was able to get a little clout based on the role of the Red Army in liberating Eastern Europe.
The broad support of the Communist Party should not be overlooked, as it is a major factor in the rise of a Communist government in Czechoslovakia. In 1945, the Communist Party had a scant 40,000 members. By 1948, this had ballooned to 1.35 million, with several fellow travelers and supporters whose strength is difficult to estimate.
This numerical strength formed the basis of their participation in the National Front, a “big tent” parliamentary front composed of Communists, but also conservative agrarians, social democrats, Christian democrats, and liberals.
Before going any further, we should take a minute to examine just what the Communist Party was doing to create such mass support. As is often the case, true aims were concealed or cloaked in doublespeak. Rather than presenting themselves as the vanguard of the international socialist revolution, the Communists instead positioned themselves as part of the broader nationalist and democratic traditions that had informed the Czechoslovakian body politic since the country’s founding.
This branding exercise paid dividends in the 1946 parliamentary elections. The Communists garnered 31.2% of the vote, the strongest showing by a Communist Party in a free election, far and above the 22% showing the Hungarian Party was able to get the following year. This meant a gain of 63 seats for the Communists.
They held 93 seats in the parliament; however, they were still short of having a majority of 151 seats, which was needed to form a government. Regardless, due to the National Front and the broad forces that it was host to, the Communist Party was able to form a government with the support of lesser parties. As a result, the 1946 Czechoslovak election was the last free and fair election held in the country until 1990.
The Communists of Czechoslovakia were very shrewd. They did not attempt to control the whole of the government and were even content to let most of the ministry positions be occupied by members of other parties. Nine of the cabinet positions were occupied by Communists, with the remaining seventeen were held by non-Communists. What was crucial for their eventual success was that the Communists controlled the Ministry of the Interior, which was in charge of the police forces in the country.
There were other areas of communist dominance that were crucial to their takeover of the country. Key positions were held in agriculture, propaganda, education, and social welfare. Soon after the 1946 election, the Communists dominated in the civil service. Most of the government bureaucrats that average people encountered daily were now members of the Communist Party.
The Communists, despite being in the minority, wasted no time in pushing the envelope and moving the ball forward for their side. The police quickly started acting like Communist goons, collectivization was openly discussed and farmers were told to produce more food without any increase in wages. Even so, people still assumed that once the elections were held in 1948, the deeply unpopular Communists would be shown the door by the Czechoslovak electorate.
The original plan was for the Communists to push their advantage in the parliamentary elections, but with the defeat of Communists in France and Italy after the war, Stalin scrapped this plan. Still, forces on the ground knew that a revolutionary coup d’etat wouldn’t work in Czechoslovakia and that an approach that, at least on the surface, respected the democratic forms of government needed to be employed.
To this end, the Communists decided that demonstrations and protests were the way to flex their muscles in the streets. At the same time, the Interior Minister began purging the police forces, replacing the existing police force with as many Communists as he could. The practical result is that the Communists were able to use the National Police Force as a wing of the Communist Party — punishing their enemies and rewarding their friends.
Several non-Communist ministers resigned in protest, believing that their resignations would not be accepted and that this would be humiliating for the Communists. However, Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš decided to remain neutral. This is when the Communists struck.
Massive Communist demonstrations were held throughout the country. Non-Communist ministries were occupied, the relevant civil servants were fired and the army, who were, at least in theory, non-partisan, were confined to their barracks. “Action Committees” (a Communist euphemism for street mobs and shakedown rackets) and militias within the Communist-allied trade unions were established by the Communist Party. The Communist Party threatened a general strike unless the President agreed to form a new government, this one dominated by the Communist Party.
Fearing both a general strike and the Red Army at his borders, the President capitulated. The new government was composed almost entirely of Communist, pro-Moscow Social Democrats. Only a single anti-Communist minister, Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, remained. He was found dead two weeks after the formation of the new government under mysterious circumstances.
On May 9, the parliament approved a new constitution declaring Czechoslovakia a “people’s democratic state.” Although the new constitution didn’t mention the Communist Party, it was so similar to the Soviet Constitution that the President refused to sign it. On May 30, elections were held with a single list provided by the National Front, which garnered 89.2% of the vote. The Communists were able to win 214 of the 300 available seats, giving them majority control This majority continued to grow in the year following as the Social Democrats merged into the Communist Party.
Following this election, no political parties were allowed to exist outside of the National Front – a wholly owned subsidiary of the Communist Party. The President resigned on June 2 and was succeeded by the head of the Communist Party. The country remained under Communist domination until 1990.
What We Can Learn From the Czechoslovak Coup
The Czechoslovakian Coup is an important historical lesson for a couple of reasons. First, the Communists were able to use a strong showing in a single election to dramatically remake a country of millions. They did this by controlling key ministries within the government, astroturfing mass rallies, and replacing a politically neutral police force with a politically motivated goon squad.
It all happened rather quickly, but it didn’t happen overnight. It’s important to note that none of the democratic forms of Czechoslovakia, which prided itself on being a pluralistic democracy, were violated. Everything was done according to “the rules.”
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was not the imposition of socialism on a country, as that had already happened in 1948 at the end of the Chinese Civil War. However, it is an important example to include in this analysis.
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution marked a dramatic change in the tone of political life in China. At its root, the Cultural Revolution was an attempt by Chairman Mao to reassert himself in public life. After the debacle of the Great Leap Forward was hung squarely on his head, he was put out to pasture. While the People’s Republic of China (PRC) remained a Communist nation, it was one run by moderate pragmatists – men who were much more interested in leading China to prosperity than they were with preserving every jot and tittle of Marxist dogma.
In 1963, Mao began the Socialist Education Movement, generally seen by historians as the precursor to the Cultural Revolution. This is where the modus operandi of the Cultural Revolution began to take shape. Mao would identify an enemy and have one of his political allies attack the rival for being insufficiently orthodox in public newspapers. An example of this was General Luo Ruiqing, the Chief of Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Mao felt he was too interested in military training and not interested enough in political indoctrination. He was denounced, performed a self-criticism, and eventually committed suicide. This resulted in the PLA falling into the hands of Mao and his loyalists.
The next stage of the Cultural Revolution began on May 16, with the May 16 Notification. This outlined Mao’s thesis of the political lay of the land for the PRC. Capitalists and those seeking to return China to capitalism had infiltrated the Communist Party and were pretending to be Communists in the name of restoring the old regime to China. It was only through “the telescope and microscope of Mao Zedong Thought” that these secret interlopers could be identified.
The first major purge was Peng Zhen, First Secretary of the Beijing Committee of the Communist Party of China because he disagreed with Mao’s position that all literature should be in the service of the state. With Zhen removed, the political leadership of the capital fell into chaos. This created the perfect environment to stage “independent” mass demonstrations that were effectively Mao’s faction of the Communist Party attacking all of his opponents.
Mao was able to leverage popularity among Communist youths to create massive demonstrations throughout the country. These youths were later organized into the Red Guards, paramilitary groups fanatically loyal to Chairman Mao. They first got wind in their sails during Red August, which saw 1,772 people who were mostly teachers and principals killed by the Guards and their supporters. An additional 33,695 homes ransacked and 85,196 families were forced to leave Beijing.
Red August was effectively a series of politically motivated riots; however, the riots were not stopped by the police force of China. The Red Guards often received official protection from the police, who instead enacted harsh measures against anyone who dared to resist Mao’s Red Guards. Red August is generally considered the beginning of the Red Terror in China. Red Guards from Beijing No. 6 High School famously wrote “Long Live Red Terror!” on the wall with the blood of their victims.
It is easy to get bogged down in the various details of the Cultural Revolution, but it is the broader points that are most important. The Cultural Revolution was, at least ostensibly, wages against “the Five Black Categories:” landlords, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries, bad influences, and rightists and “the Four Olds:” Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Customs.
The Five Black Categories can be further described as follows:
- Landlords: Anyone owning any amount of land, especially anyone who derived rental income from their land.
- Rich Farmers: As students of Soviet history will already know, “rich” is a very relative term. It could mean owning one cow or many cows.
- Counter-Revolutionaries: This refers to an alleged cabal of Chinese people who were actively working to restore either the Emperor or the Nationalist government. In reality, nearly all of these had fled to Taiwan by 1966 or else were killed.
- Bad Influences: Generally used when describing school teachers and other intellectual workers considered insufficiently enthusiastic about Mao.
- Rightists: Another secret cabal, this one within the Communist Party, looking to use the Communist Party as a tool of counter-revolution.
These groups were treated as if they were entrenched, oppressive forces some two decades after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The short version of all of this is that Mao wasn’t simply looking to reassert his power in the country, he was looking to radically remake China in such a fashion that the past never really existed. Everything from the days before the People’s Republic of China that was not tied directly to Mao’s strident brand of Marxism was meant to be destroyed.
This meant that priceless cultural artifacts were destroyed by rampaging mobs of Maoists. Individuals were targeted for holding opinions that would have been entirely uncontroversial even just a few months before the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution. People were violently victimized – dragged into the streets by rioters and forced to denounce themselves, friends, and family in what were called “Struggle Sessions.”
The Chinese government believes that the total number of people who died as a result of the Cultural Revolution is 20 million, with another 100 million persecuted.
What We Can Learn from the Cultural Revolution
The important thing for contemporary Americans to understand is the mass nature of the Cultural Revolution. It was carried out by literally millions of Chinese youth, with the official sanction and encouragement of the state. The Red Guards were protected by the police and the military, while the victims were prevented from taking any measures to protect themselves.
What’s more, the damage was not limited to the lives lost directly in “struggle sessions” or in forced relocations. The 1975 Banqiao Dam failure is considered to be the direct result of China’s best and brightest being more concerned with divining the correct revolutionary line than with making sure the dams were in good repair.
Finally, it is worth noting the ferocity with which people were attacked for holding opinions that were until very recently uncontroversial. There was a massive, hysterical push to destroy symbols of Chinese history that had become unfavorable due to the current political climate. Those who were being persecuted by the government were, somewhat perversely, painted as if they were an oppressive class being uprooted by a revolutionary government that was going to equalize society by addressing historical injustices.
All of this should sound extremely familiar to contemporary American audiences.
Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution
Venezuela, at least among those in the know, is the symbol of 21st Century socialism and its catastrophic consequences. Venezuela teeters on the brink –its citizens are often incapable of obtaining adequate health care or even basic consumer goods, such as quality food and toilet paper. Such is the track record of socialist governments throughout history.
The so-called “Bolivarian Revolution” of Venezuela, named after Latin American liberator Simon Bolivar, began in 1998 when Hugo Chavez was elected President. He received 56.4% of the popular vote in an election that had the lowest voter turnout of any in the history of Venezuela. Chavez ran on a moderately left-populist program, railing against corruption, entrenched oligarchs, and widespread poverty.
Once elected, Chavez was unable to make good on any of his promises due to the weakness of the Venezuelan economy. Unwilling to risk scaring away foreign investors with radical wealth redistribution, beefed up regulations, and increased social spending, Chavez decided to put the military in charge of various anti-poverty and infrastructure projects, instead of defending the country.
In April 1999, there was a referendum on whether or not Venezuela should adopt a new constitution. The measure passed with 71.8% in favor. In July 1999, an election was held for delegates to the Constitutional Assembly, with Chavez loyalists receiving 95% of the delegates despite receiving only 52% of the vote. Over half of eligible voters stayed home.
The Assemblea Nacional Constituyente (ANC) was charged with drafting a new Constitution of Venezuela in six months. The ANC quickly became an alternate center of power to the official government of Venezuela. Chavez publicly supported the ANC over existing organs of the elected government.
On November 20, 1999, the new constitution was unveiled. With 350 articles, it was one of the longest and most complicated constitutions in the world. President term limits were extended from five years to six years, presidents were now allowed to run for consecutive terms, and the President was given the power to dissolve the National Assembly, which was turned into a unicameral house and stripped of most of its powers. The new constitution included several positive rights, such as the right to housing, employment, and healthcare.
In the 2000 elections, Chavez and his allies tightened their hold on the government. Despite receiving 44.38% of the votes, Chavez’s party received 55.75% of the seats. The election was the subject of widespread accusations of fraud, with the Carter Center refusing to certify it as a free and fair election. At the same time, the government began demanding that all union elections take place under government supervision.
After his stunning victory in the 2000 elections, Chavez rammed an “enabling act” through the National Assembly. This allowed Chavez to rule by decree for one year. It was towards the end of this year that Chavez began making sweeping changes to Venezuelan society. This included “land reform,” where squatters were given title to other people’s land, as well as encouraging the formation of pro-government paramilitary groups. Crime also began to balloon around this time.
In 2002, there was a failed military coup against Chavez. In 2004, there was a recall attempt that Chavez survived, though the vote was marred by accusations of fraud. In 2009, Chavez successfully removed term limits, allowing him to become President for Life. He died in 2013 and was replaced by Nicolás Maduro, who continued many of Chavez’s policies and overall socialist direction of the country.
The economy and living standard of Venezuela continues to decline.
What We Can Learn from the Bolivarian Revolution
Hugo Chavez was not considered a far-leftist when he was inaugurated. It was only after the fact that he became an open admirer of Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba. What’s more, the elections that put him in power were marred by accusations of fraud.
Venezuela stands as a powerful example of how quickly a country can be changed when the wrong person gains power and uses it for their ends. The Venezuelan Constitution dramatically remade the nation, going so far as to rename it from the Republic of Venezuela to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The power of the Chavez movement is now so firmly entrenched that it’s not clear if there’s a road back to normalcy for the people of Venezuela.
It is crucial for Americans to see an example of how fast a fraudulent election can enshrine into power a radical leftist agenda. Venezuelan politics demonstrates how quickly a “center-left” politician can move to the radical left and how a politician can spin up a mob to act as enforcers for their agenda on the street.
What We Can Learn From Three Red Terrors
The three Red Terrors explored in this article provide valuable lessons about how the rise of totalitarian socialism occurs differently, in different places, at different times. Americans who are concerned about socialism should resist the temptation to mechanistically look for “history repeating” and should instead look for broader strokes that are common in the examples analyzed above and the rise of totalitarianism in general. These include:
- The demonization of political opponents.Totalitarianism doesn’t see its political opponents as misguided or even good faith people with disagreements. Rather, it sees groups of people as obstacles to be overcome or destroyed. Oftentimes, groups are scapegoated because of who they are rather than what they think, but typically both types of “dissent” are repressed.
- The formation of political mobs. Ironically, totalitarianism requires some kind of mass support on the ground to get going. These political mobs, which are effectively goon squads, are somewhere between conformity enforcement and an end zone dance. Political mobs not only demonstrate that the totalitarian movement has meaningful social power on the street, but they also consolidate and increase that power by victimizing individuals who oppose them or groups who have been chosen as a scapegoat.
- Support from allies within the state. In each of the above cases, militias and paramilitary groups operated with impunity because they were protected by sympathetic members of the state apparatus. This need not be over political sympathy. It can simply mean looking the other way while people are victimized, while at the same time attacking anyone who defends themselves against politically motivated violence.
- The politicization of everyday life. The personal is not political. Most people are simply trying to live their lives as best they can, without political considerations. Totalitarian groups, however, believe that everything a person does has a political character. This forces all of society to walk on eggshells.
- Rapid change of social values. When opinions that were very recently considered completely acceptable and normal are quickly and radically viewed as something one dare not express publicly, there is a cultural revolution underway that might well be a prelude to a political and economic one.
- Electoral chicanery. While it’s certainly true that totalitarian ideologies enjoy mass support, they rarely if ever, win at the ballot box without some kind of chicanery. This could be outright fraud, voter intimidation, voter suppression, or other dirty tricks designed to marginalize opposing views.
One certainly can see elements of each of these in the current political climate in the United States. Hopefully, we will not have to update this article anytime soon to detail how the American people were the latest victims of the death march known as socialism.
The most important thing to remember is that the enslavement of a nation is never inevitable. The lessons above are not meant to create a sense of helplessness in the face of American totalitarian impulses, but rather to arm our readers with the knowledge they need to successfully oppose such.
How Totalitarianism Rhymes Throughout History: Czechoslovakia, China, & Venezuela originally appeared in The Resistance Library at Ammo.com.
10 pages of capitalist propaganda from start to finish. Capitalism is the handmaid of Communism.
That’s why the original Marxism failed in the West. Sure. The Frankfurt School changed economic-centric Marxism to culture-centric Marxism. Your progression is textbook historical materialism, comrade.
Thou doth presume vainly.
I admit I skimmed. I have studied more than my share of history.
“the Communists instead positioned themselves as part of the broader nationalist and democratic traditions that had informed the Czechoslovakian body politic since the country’s founding.”
The problem I see is that Americans want to keep incorporated authority alive as long as possible. They don’t see that these institutions are not themselves. In effect, they worship institutions rather than themselves, which is to say organisms without self-interest are failures by definition. Americans see the enemy as a life boat. They don’t have a sense of self and doing for themselves, and I mean from our animal foundations of violence, which brings me to my next point.
” but rather to arm our readers with the knowledge they need to successfully oppose such.”
Armed with knowledge? Are you effing me? At some point the abstract must become flesh or it does not truly exist. So let’s play defense with words alone. It’s stupid. Sorry, it is. Men who maintain their freedom maintain their sovereignty, and men who maintain their sovereignty are pressing a continuous revolution of control maintenance.
Patriarchy.
You would have nothing to fear from the purified police if the ruling thugs of the land were us, as it was in the United States before there was adequate infrastructure for police to control everything. It will take a major collapse of infrastructure to make you give up the toxicity of incorporated patriotism and safety.
Lots of you fucks would defend the free speech of Marxists and assorted others who share our freedoms to take them away. Lots of those who defend this status quo are abusers who live by the abuse but will be outdone by the globalists. Useful idiots become useless eaters. In other words, most of you lack healthy bigotry and perhaps also have unhealthy bigotry, if first-world function matters. There is a season for ugly solutions, turn, turn, turn.
Fantastic, and totally new insight.
Now you only need to “solve” the follow-up problem: who determines what ‘Marxist speech’ is?
ME!
If sarcasm, Coward #2
Coward #1
Stopped reading at jewish assimilation. Thanks for putting it up front.
Find anything about Herbert Hitch and the Dixie Delegation with Mao. Herb’s son is a good friend. Married to the 30 yr+ most beloved member/treasurer of some golf course in Augusta.
OH. Herb is a “Hero Of The Chinese People”.
Sounds like it’s rhyming here.
I hope this article gets much attention.
I will now ramble a bit…
This is a bit difficult to read and understand because of the words used. It would be great if an article like this could break it down with more, either, understandable words or more descriptive wording.
Man o man did I see many parallels to our own situation. We have all the above happening right now. What is the 1 last thing needed for us to experience our own Red Terror moment? Is it right around the corner? It seems to be. Personally, I would think any attempt to disarm America is a STRONG signal the time has come. If rioters are continually supported by the government and protected by the popo, that, to me, is a STRONG signal as well.
I don’t understand the first 2 commenters here.
“Capitalism is the handmaid of Communism.”
REALLY? I believe companies are totalitarian in nature. A strong leader is needed for the success of a company. Is this what you are referring to? Maybe once monopolies become politically dominate?
What allows communism/socialism to gain traction? Othering? Simply by government groups sowing discontent (for what purpose?)? Diversity used against the people? I think once income/wealth inequality gets to a certain point, anything can happen. When enough people believe the only way their lives can/will get better is for the government to step in, it starts there. I guess that could mean in any way…socially, economically etc.
It’s a political strategy is all. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the ONLY thing”.
A former reader used to quote this frequently. It’s meaningless by itself but with some impartial thought and research it is the only way to make sense of this article. Capitalism is not the innocent bystander Libertarians and Keynesians like to pretend and communism is not bred of poverty.
https://www.henrymakow.com/geneva_versus_peace.html?_ga=2.112685188.1696982376.1622060204-1070338146.1619446863
Why not go further, and state ‘families are totalitarian in nature’?
Or God for that matter. He ordained not only families but also the order of them.
God gave us free will.
I’m sure some families are.
The very first thing the Communists put in place is control over voting. Then, they tell the people who they are allowed to vote for.
That’s the Voting Rights Legislation in our Congress now.
Thanks, Sam. Three very good examples.
The very first thing the Capitalists do is tell you everyone is equal and then the tell you who you can vote for.
LOL… you are close, but no cigar. The first thing Capitalists do is tell you your labor is worth money to them and then they enslave you and pretend to let you vote for the things which will give you more money for your labor.
I like your version better.
Good article, Stucky. Your description of what happened in Czechoslovakia could be the USA. Just change a few names and dates. USA is Czechoslovakia 1948 as I write this comment. We are screwed.
My dear sir, I did not submit this article. I did not write it. I did not. No. No. No. I did not even read it. I do not know what happened in Checko Slovakia. I can not even spell it.
Sincerely,
Can you spell Licka Wania?
SAMIAM Jacobs submitted this one…
His style is dissimilar to Stucky’s in that Sam almost never mentions diseased donkey dicks.
How a Ship having passed the Line…The Wedding-Guest stood still, & listens like a three years’ child…The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, yet he cannot choose but hear…And now the STORM-BLAST came…And now there came both mist & snow, & it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, as green as emerald…At length did cross an Albatross, through the fog it came; as if it had been a Christian soul, we hailed it in God’s name…the ice did split with a thunder-fit; the helmsman steered us through!…And a good south wind sprung up behind…
‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the feinds, that plague thee thus!-
Why look’st thou so?’- With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.
~Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Rime salt rubbed into we-wounds from ancient then to modern now. Frozen fog dementality.
Albatross, hung by its neck, kills a night king rime. But not the rime. ::
Am so glad you posted… I’d wanted to comment to this and sort of forgot where you put this, i forget.
I don’t know if you view the albatross’s fate through the eyes of its mate. You are obviously biased against albatrosses.
“We have met the albatross, & the albatross is us.” ~ Pogo Possum
The scorpion & the albatross….
The on my toes stance viv a vis the perverse weus is no mere bias. Weus is “for the birds.”
As for feathered friends, I like them a lot. I’m for the birds.
Put out the nectar feeders, the seed feeder, the thistle feeders every morning, bring them in each night (bears, raccons…which I also like, but they make messes, break things, including, occasionally, people. A woman got mauled dead by a bear recently while walking her dog.)
Nyjer is what the thistle seeds are called. Right on the bag. So has not been categorized racist, yet. Trying, unsuccessfully, so far, to get some goldfinches to visit; I don’t think the backmen’s johnsons nixon’d the finches, or has anything to do with it – the finches just haven’t noticed, yet, & prefer lower elevations, but they do pass thru from time to time.
And the hummers are noticeably fewer this year than in previous years.
Silent Spring was Carson’s warning. Overdone some, I suppose. But sounds of Spring were surely muted, all around. The well-Pogoiled spring doesn’t squeak much when compressed.
Too bad the helpful Albatross needed, could have used, an airwing of Hitchcock’s birds. Or just didn’t know about the nature of the beast, & just how often no good deed goes unappreciated & unpunished. Albatrossocial, meet “the social animal.” And his, or her, mate for life will never know what happened.
Would it were that quid pro quo karma, at least, were as common as the stories cry white wolfhat to the rescue of cosmic justice would lead believers…Arya Stark is the fabled contrast to much cooler, icy even, reality of life amongst the Pogos.
Oops, more white priv-racism. Has Moby been cancelled, yet? Or has Ahab been adopted by peglegged BLMasochists, yet?
“Instead I wondered if I was looking at the controlled future, men & women being subordinated, willingly or not, to some form of centralized command. Mannequined lives. Was this a facile idea? I thought about local matters, the disc on my wristband that tells them, in theory, where I am at all times. I thought about my room, small & tight but embodying an odd totalness. Other things here, the halls, the veers, the fabricated garden, the food units, the unidentifiable food, or when does utilitarian become totalitarian.” ~ Zero K, Don DeLillo
Wow, i forget! Convergence! That’s a spooky idea.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/15/zero-k-by-don-delillo-digested-read
DeLillo’s Zero K is enjoyable. And current eventual. Hit the shelves in ’16. The clips you’ve pasted don’t match the book. Paraphrased condensate. Kind of close, but not the book, which is better. If you like good writing, novel form, you might check it out.
I might do so… even so badly paraphrased, I found the concept interesting enough to research further.
i forget, you make me remember el coyote. I mean that nostalgically and kindly. My bitchiness is almost completely cured.
Ghost…el coyote’s ex nihilo ex natchez bitchez club meets here… well, now I’m smiling, too.
Smile Traces back as far as you’d like to go, but Natchez, with it’s “great awakening spiritual development” via Methodists & Baptists & Presbyterians, on the one distinguished hand, & bandits & highwaymen on the other indistinguishable hand, make for a good toothy grin fit here, I think.
Convergence. The singularity. Flash on V’ger, from Star Trek. Flash on single combat – real, literal, single combat – from Fight Club. This is the craziest party there could ever be, don’t turn on the lights cuz I don’t wanna see ♪♫♪….
Today’s Jon Rappaport is part 2, Data Banks & Collective Delusions (P1 was Data Sets, Fraud, & the Future). Religious virology-science, wrapped in layers upon layers of converging singularities, analogies, metaphors, similes, vanities, inanities, & MIA sanities.
((“The site is fixed. We are not in a zone susceptible to earthquakes or to minor swarms but there are seismic counremeasures in every detail of the structure, with every conceivable safeguard against systems failure. Artis will be safe, & Ross if he chooses to accompant her. The site is fixed, we are fixed.”
“Those who eventually energe from the capsules will be ahistorical humans. They will be free of the flatlines of the past, the attenuated minute & hour.”
“And they will speak a new language, according to Ross.”
“A language isolate, beyond all affiliation with other languages,” he said. “To be taught to some, implanted in others, those already in cryopreservation.”
A system that will offer new meanings, entire new levels of perception.
It will expand our reality, deepen the reach of our intellect.It will remake us, he said.
We will know ourselves as never before, blood, brain & skin.
We will approximate the logic & beauty of pure mathematics in everyday speech.
No similies, metaphors, analogies.
A language that will not shrink from whatever forms of objective truth we have never before experienced.
The universe, what it was, what it is, where it is going….
“It’s only human to want to know more, & then more, & then more,” I said. But it’s also true that what we don’t know is what makes us human. And there’s no end to not knowing.”
“Go on.”
“And no end to not living forever.”
“Go on,” he said.
“If someone or something has no beginning, then I can believe that he, she, or ithas no end. But if you’re born or hatched or sprouted, then your days are already numbered.”
He thought for a moment.
“It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a man to tell him that he is at the end of his nature, or that there is no further state to come.”
I waited.
“Seventeenth century,” he said. “Sir Thomas Browne.” ~ Zero K, Don DeLillo
The fix is in. Francis Fukuyama’s Fukushima end of history is sought. Besottedly sought. No more surprises, muses Francis Wolcott/Jack McCall – who hanged in both crazy iterations:
Cy: Ready to receive currency, Captain, in exchange for titles.
Wolcott: Yes. (Tosses down a thick billfold, still not looking up.)
Cy: And as I’ve learned to sustain discourse while counting, I’m gonna ask you to take counsel with me.
Wolcott: In what regard?
Cy: Well, first, let’s agree them chink whores make a poor appearance.
Wolcott: Yes.
Cy: And as far as locales for fucking, them cribs they’re in lack allure.
Wolcott: They might attract the intended clientele.
Cy: Now that’s an attitude right there I want us to counsel on. Smart-alecky sorta attitude and almost with a quality of…fucking anger to it. I-I-I don’t find exact fucking words for it, but it fucking disturbs and concerns me.
Wolcott: By my lights, I feel I manage well.
Cy: Well, you can say that, Mr. Wolcott, yet I hear accounts that you’re a dangerous lay, (Wolcott looks up at Cy) and that adds to my feeling of disturbed. Are you inclined, Sir, every so often to…ride one off the cliff? Girls, I mean?
Wolcott: I am disturbed at my private conduct being spoken of.
Cy: Well, I should think you fucking would be. And to think of Mr. Hearst’s disturbance if he was to fucking know. Because…that’s a dangerous habit to indulge when you’re not among friends.
Wolcott: Are you my friend, Mr. Tolliver?
Cy: (laughst) And as someone past surprise at habits or inclination, or turns of events, and who don’t confuse himself far as sitting in judgment with our Lord in fucking heaven.
Wolcott: I see.
Cy: And who would never tattle to your employer or jeopardize what’s gotta be a handsome fucking income. Goddamn right, I am your friend, Mr. Wolcott. All I can’t provide for the party is the cliff.
Wolcott: Believing yourself past surprise does not commend you to me as a friend. A man inadequately sophisticated, or merely ignorant or simply stupid, may believe himself past surprise, then be surprised to discover, for example, that Mr. Hearst already knows of my inclinations and finds them immaterial. Suggesting, as a corollary, that your skills for blackmail and manipulation no longer are assets to you, and for your fatuous belief in their efficacy, in fact have become liabilities. In short, you’ve overplayed your hand. Now I should think in consequence, now recognizing yourself as a man past his time, that during this last transitional period you would devote yourself with grateful and quiet diligence to such uses as others may still find you suitable.
Cy: Oh, you bet I’m grateful. A man like yourself, warmed at Mr. Hearst’s bosom, secure in his confidence and trust, taking the time and spending the energy to persuade a relic like me.
(Wolcott gets up, pushes in his chair, takes the claim papers and leaves, slamming the door. Cy takes the cash and puts it in his pocket.)
Wolcott: Past hope. Past kindness or consideration. Past justice. Past satisfaction. Past warmth or cold or comfort. Past love. But past surprise? What an endlessly unfolding tedium life would then become. No, Doris…we must not let you be past surprise.
(He arrives at the Chez Amie, enters, slamming the door behind him. Maddie is sitting in a chair, Doris sits nearby)
Maddie: Carrie’s napping. I’ll awaken her.
Wolcott: You needn’t. (Crossing the room to Doris) I would like to see this young lady just now.
Maddie: All right. Doris?
(Doris gets up from the desk, she looks scared. Wolcott grabs her arm and escorts her into a room.) …
Maddie: Where are the other girls?
Joanie: Mooning over a dress at that store. What is it?
Maddie: (pauses) He’s in a room with Doris – Wolcott.
Joanie: Why is he with Doris?
Maddie: I don’t know.
Joanie: Well, why ain’t he with Carrie?
Maddie: Carrie’s napping. I can’t imagine what—Carrie might have told Wolcott about Doris to make him wanna fuck her.
Joanie: Maybe that she reports to Cy Tolliver? To keep Wolcott from bouncing Doris off more walls? Look up from your fucking magazine, Maddie. (Maddie looks up, Wolcott comes out of the room.)
Wolcott: I would like to see Carrie now.
(Maddie stands slowly, she looks very nervous)….
(Chez Amie, Joanie and Maddie are sitting, nervous.)
Joanie: I’m going in there.
Maddie: No, you aren’t.
Joanie: He ain’t the type to be with two women.
Maddie: I never took his full history.
Joanie: I’m saying he ain’t!
(Inside the room, we see Carrie sitting, crying and clearly frightened. Wolcott is behind her.)
Wolcott: What are we to do here, Carrie?
Carrie: Get rid of her. (We see Doris on the bed with her throat slashed, dead.) They’ll let you.
Wolcott: I suppose they will, but that won’t dispose of the problem.
Carrie: What’s the problem?
Wolcott: I don’t know. I can’t say. I don’t want you to have seen me.
Carrie: I don’t care you killed her. She must have done something to you.
Wolcott: I mean something different. I don’t want to have been seen.
Carrie: (long pause, she’s crying, nose running) Then you’re fucking crazy. (pause) And you’re gonna kill me in this fucking shithole.
(Wolcott puts his arm out, resting it on a chair behind her, we see the flash of his razor. Carrie is resigned, gazing at the bloody Doris.)
Do you know how to make it not hurt?
(He pauses, seems touched by the remark, we see the glint of the blade behind Carrie. She jumps up to bolt out of the room He catches her, putting a hand over her mouth and slitting her throat with the other. He guides her down into a chair with him, gazing at her face – we hear him emit a low groan.)
Wolcott: Now, I could cut off my arm.(He lifts her head gently and takes his arm out from under it. He kisses her forehead. Sitting alone, he fingers his razor.)
(Back to the outer room)
Joanie: I’m going in. (She walks to her desk, Maddie pulls out a gun, stands, pointing it at Joanie.)
Maddie: Your gun isn’t there! (gasps) I’ve got it. (Joanie silently walks away from the desk, making her way to the front door, looking back at the closed bedroom door, back to Maddie) Go on, get out!
(Joanie leaves. Maddie – trembling & sobbing, lowers the gun. Joanie is walking down the street, sobbing.. Charlie spots her and tips his hat to her.) ….
(Wolcott comes out of the room. He turns to Maddie, she is now sitting.)
Maddie: What did you do, Mr. W?
Wolcott: (pauses, seems confused) Something—very expensive.
Maddie: (Stands, suddenly pointing the gun at him.) 100,000. For now. (Advancing) And more when I want it for as many years as I live! For all the years of my life. Do you understand!? (She has the gun in his face now, waving it. He grabs the gun hand, and in a single fluid move with the other hand he slashes her neck She gasps for air as he eases her – still holding her hand – to the floor. He sits, looking at Maddie as the blood pours out of her.)
~ Deadwood, indeed
But “very expensive,” what does that mean to banks (getting back to Rappaort)?
Like, what does individual life mean, if it’s infinite, a printpress that never stops impressing the prints following “its” princes over every cliff, into every abyss?
It’s banks that overflow for 40 days & 40 nights. Central banks, especially, whatever the currency. Now the technatch under-the-hill gang is professing to be Knowa’s Ark, gonna save the world, build it back better, in their own image. Again.
Well…the funnest, fastest, wildest corners on the MX track are bermed. Banked. Just like rails on a pool table. And the shortest distance connecting two different directions is the richochet. There’s the right way to use singularity points, & solipsism, & then there’s all the other ways, which are mass manufactured, in China, & the other central banks, of the consensualists, by the consensualists, for the consensualists…amen…& awomen.
Adit:
There’s the right way to use singularity points, & solipsism, & then there’s all the other ways, which are mass manufactured, in China, & the other central banks, so that of the consensualists, by the consensualists, for the consensualists shall not perish from the parish earth…amen…& awomen…& amenorrheic, cuz exsanguinated, menstrufalse wo/men….
Is there a falser end than “send”?
(This is the end, my friend, the end ♪♫♪ I remember Linda Ronstadt saying the Doors would be a pretty good band if they could just get – or polish-perceive? – a singer. But symplesyrup lyrics & simplysloshed singer aside, it works, in Apocalypse Now, & Apocalypse Now works in it.)
How about Return To Sender?
(Didn’t that take 3 times, 3 circuits, or so? And if Elvis has left the building, where’d he go?)
Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the seconds to hours?
(Not to mention we•us•our•oborospinnin’wheels o’ sweep-second-hand self-licking timex snakeflesh that prolly tastes just like chicken cuz reptiles, rep tied & otherwise, & fowl’s are of a feather. All the archy’s & ocracies & isms that get chewed on, semi-digested, regurgitated into children-are-our-future mouths & gullets, but you don’t hear much about archosaurs, “ruling reptiles.” And Sauron, & *that* ring, well that’s just Imagine there’s no heaven, hell, possessions & you will be happy, ain’t it? WthEF does Santa Claus(es, clause, clauses…) Schwab look like, sound like, if not a snakeskin jacketed hollowpoint?)