Donald Hank
US vs us
By Donald Hank
Groping about in a thickening fog of cognitive dissonance, Americans absurdly refer to two antagonistic groups as the "US," namely, (1) the American people (We the People) and (2) the American political class. These two classes are divided by a vast gulf, which is only growing wider, to the extent that an increasing number of voters are staying home on election days. The term "US ally," in the vernacular of the media and politicians, is de facto only an ally for the political class, although they will insist that their allies are our allies (if you are not for us you are against us – meaning US (2) but slyly suggesting US (1)) because they want to deceive us into thinking we and our "leaders" all have the same interests at heart, when in fact, the interests of the elites are wholly antagonistic to our interests. Thus, as counterintuitive as it may seem, the arch enemy of the American people is truly not a foreign power, as we are led to believe, but the political class in Washington, DC, as I attempted to show here.
While ISIS is certainly no ally of the American people, the US political class created them and currently uses them as a de facto ally, while pretending to oppose them. Why and how do they use them? To defeat Bashar al-Assad and leave the Syrian Christians on the lurch, while dealing a blow to Russia, cementing their financial and political interests by weakening countries that refuse to endorse the elitists' agenda. Unfortunately, many soft-headed Americans are falling for this, just as they always do each time the elites conjure up a new enemy out of whole cloth. The truth is that, like all enemies of US (2), Russia is a natural ally of US (1).
I sent the first draft of this commentary to a correspondent in Eastern Europe who is non-religious but also is unusually perspicacious. I was pleasantly surprised at his response:
We now have available an established reference point to use in understanding the chasm that exists between the US political class and the US people, ie, middle class, and that is the peer-reviewed joint study between Princeton and Northwestern, which shows beyond a doubt that the US government has become a full-fledged oligarchy that almost completely ignores the will of the people.
In light of this study and the feeling of alienation most ordinary Americans harbor toward their political environment, we can no longer in any way speak of a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Unless We the People come to grips with this fact and act accordingly, there can be no return to rule by the people in the US. That is, if we continue to be led around by the nose by the elites we have no hope of restoring our freedom. Nor can we righteously assert any claim to said freedom, for while we continue to clamor for it, we unwittingly forfeit it at every turn.
Thus, the above-sketched dichotomy between definitions (1) and (2) is a fairly straightforward concept as objectivized by the Northwestern-Princeton study, but emotionally and psychologically, few ordinary Americans are ready to face it head on subjectively and work toward overthrowing the tyrant.
In light of the above-established definitions of the two groups that we, in our cognitive dissonance, think of as the "US," let us review the current geopolitical landscape.
The world is divided essentially into 2 geopolitical axes:
Axis 1:
Syria-Iran-Russia-China and the rest of the BRICS-Hezbollah, and the rest of the Eurasian union
Axis 2:
US-EU-Israel-Saudi Arabia-ISIS (created by the US political class and supported by Saudi money) and minor US allies like Japan, Korea, etc
Jordan, Libya, Syria and Egypt are not allied with anyone in particular and for this reason, have independently fought ISIS (a US creation), much to the chagrin of Washington, which refuses to take out ISIS because to them, taking out Bashar al-Assad, a well-educated, soft spoken secularist whose ilk is rare and desperately needed in the Middle East, is their main goal, and in truth, ISIS is the only ally (yes, ally!) of the US political class that can take out Assad without political repercussions. So they need ISIS, even though they pretend to be horrified by its rampages and random murder. Remember that both political parties fought hard for congressional permission to attack Assad's troops with missiles last year. Note that Assad is their hated enemy even though (or rather because) he protects Syrian Christians. It was Russian president Vladimir Putin who spoiled their fun by intervening successfully to persuade Assad to destroy chemical weapons (in fact, the US-backed "moderates" had reportedly used such weapons and blamed this on Assad). But that made Putin persona non grata in the Washington oligarchy, which then backed a Neo-Nazi regime in Kiev to provoke him into using his military means to protect fellow Russians in Eastern Ukraine. Since the Russian speakers were being bombed from the air by said US-backed regime, he had no choice. Yet a large percentage of Americans could not see this obvious and transparent subterfuge on the part of Washington and bought into the elitist-generated narrative that Russia was "expansionist" – the same accusation that the British had hurled at Russia in the Russo-Turkish conflict, even though Britain was itself the most expansionist country in the world at the time, with around 2 dozen colonies extending from rising to setting sun. Thus much of US (1), ie, the people, began hating Putin and Russia on command from US (2) without question. (Ask yourself: Is this the path to freedom?).
Now you may be shocked that I so unflinchingly put ISIS in the same axis with the US (Definition (2), political class only, of course), but consider that there are only a little more than 30,000 ISIS fighters in Syria and Iran and if US (2) and allies were sincere, ISIS would be roundly defeated by now. Further, please note that while Israel apparently has the chutzpah, the trained military and the weapons to go after Iran, many times its size, it has not raised a finger to help in the fight against ISIS, instead fanning war sentiment against Iran, which has not slashed a single throat in Syria or Iraq, and has helped fight ISIS (unlike the Suunis of ISIS, Iranian Shia do not condemn other Muslim sects or non-Muslims). Absurdly, while accepting and even applauding Netanyahu's fear-mongering speech in our Congress, the US has never pressured Israel to help fight ISIS, which is clearly in the Western axis, though no one dares to say this, except me. And this is due in large part to the fact that whenever we speak of a "US" ally, the public has been trained like circus animals to think of US as the people of the US, ie, definition (1), just the opposite of the reality.
Therefore, most of us accept the absurdity that resisting the will of our enemies in Washington is unpatriotic, when in fact, resistance to tyranny is the most important value taught by our Founders.
Many rejoiced last election cycle when the GOP won the Senate and House both. They thought that "we" had won. The wakeup call came just now as we realized that "our" Congress had granted Obama funding for a wholly illegal amnesty for millions of undocumented immigrants, most of whom will become voters in a few years and many will go collect welfare and receive food stamps.
But many of us had warned that this would happen and that there was no palpable difference between the two main parties.
So now ask yourself: If we allow ourselves to be duped so easily by such transparent tactics on the part of such an obvious enemy in matters of foreign policy, as outlined above, do we really deserve to be free?
Or are we getting our just desserts?
© Donald Hank
March 5, 2015
Groping about in a thickening fog of cognitive dissonance, Americans absurdly refer to two antagonistic groups as the "US," namely, (1) the American people (We the People) and (2) the American political class. These two classes are divided by a vast gulf, which is only growing wider, to the extent that an increasing number of voters are staying home on election days. The term "US ally," in the vernacular of the media and politicians, is de facto only an ally for the political class, although they will insist that their allies are our allies (if you are not for us you are against us – meaning US (2) but slyly suggesting US (1)) because they want to deceive us into thinking we and our "leaders" all have the same interests at heart, when in fact, the interests of the elites are wholly antagonistic to our interests. Thus, as counterintuitive as it may seem, the arch enemy of the American people is truly not a foreign power, as we are led to believe, but the political class in Washington, DC, as I attempted to show here.
While ISIS is certainly no ally of the American people, the US political class created them and currently uses them as a de facto ally, while pretending to oppose them. Why and how do they use them? To defeat Bashar al-Assad and leave the Syrian Christians on the lurch, while dealing a blow to Russia, cementing their financial and political interests by weakening countries that refuse to endorse the elitists' agenda. Unfortunately, many soft-headed Americans are falling for this, just as they always do each time the elites conjure up a new enemy out of whole cloth. The truth is that, like all enemies of US (2), Russia is a natural ally of US (1).
I sent the first draft of this commentary to a correspondent in Eastern Europe who is non-religious but also is unusually perspicacious. I was pleasantly surprised at his response:
-
"I second you on this. The principal reason why they hate Assad is because he protects Christians. It has nothing to do with religion per se. Christianity is an icon, a symbol and a red flag for them."
We now have available an established reference point to use in understanding the chasm that exists between the US political class and the US people, ie, middle class, and that is the peer-reviewed joint study between Princeton and Northwestern, which shows beyond a doubt that the US government has become a full-fledged oligarchy that almost completely ignores the will of the people.
-
Quote: "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens" analyzed extensive data, comparing nearly 1,800 U.S. policies enacted between 1981 and 2002 with the expressed preferences of average and affluent Americans as well as special interest groups.
The resulting data empirically verifies that U.S. policies are determined by the economic elite.
"The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence," says the peer-reviewed study.
In light of this study and the feeling of alienation most ordinary Americans harbor toward their political environment, we can no longer in any way speak of a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Unless We the People come to grips with this fact and act accordingly, there can be no return to rule by the people in the US. That is, if we continue to be led around by the nose by the elites we have no hope of restoring our freedom. Nor can we righteously assert any claim to said freedom, for while we continue to clamor for it, we unwittingly forfeit it at every turn.
Thus, the above-sketched dichotomy between definitions (1) and (2) is a fairly straightforward concept as objectivized by the Northwestern-Princeton study, but emotionally and psychologically, few ordinary Americans are ready to face it head on subjectively and work toward overthrowing the tyrant.
In light of the above-established definitions of the two groups that we, in our cognitive dissonance, think of as the "US," let us review the current geopolitical landscape.
The world is divided essentially into 2 geopolitical axes:
Axis 1:
Syria-Iran-Russia-China and the rest of the BRICS-Hezbollah, and the rest of the Eurasian union
Axis 2:
US-EU-Israel-Saudi Arabia-ISIS (created by the US political class and supported by Saudi money) and minor US allies like Japan, Korea, etc
Jordan, Libya, Syria and Egypt are not allied with anyone in particular and for this reason, have independently fought ISIS (a US creation), much to the chagrin of Washington, which refuses to take out ISIS because to them, taking out Bashar al-Assad, a well-educated, soft spoken secularist whose ilk is rare and desperately needed in the Middle East, is their main goal, and in truth, ISIS is the only ally (yes, ally!) of the US political class that can take out Assad without political repercussions. So they need ISIS, even though they pretend to be horrified by its rampages and random murder. Remember that both political parties fought hard for congressional permission to attack Assad's troops with missiles last year. Note that Assad is their hated enemy even though (or rather because) he protects Syrian Christians. It was Russian president Vladimir Putin who spoiled their fun by intervening successfully to persuade Assad to destroy chemical weapons (in fact, the US-backed "moderates" had reportedly used such weapons and blamed this on Assad). But that made Putin persona non grata in the Washington oligarchy, which then backed a Neo-Nazi regime in Kiev to provoke him into using his military means to protect fellow Russians in Eastern Ukraine. Since the Russian speakers were being bombed from the air by said US-backed regime, he had no choice. Yet a large percentage of Americans could not see this obvious and transparent subterfuge on the part of Washington and bought into the elitist-generated narrative that Russia was "expansionist" – the same accusation that the British had hurled at Russia in the Russo-Turkish conflict, even though Britain was itself the most expansionist country in the world at the time, with around 2 dozen colonies extending from rising to setting sun. Thus much of US (1), ie, the people, began hating Putin and Russia on command from US (2) without question. (Ask yourself: Is this the path to freedom?).
Now you may be shocked that I so unflinchingly put ISIS in the same axis with the US (Definition (2), political class only, of course), but consider that there are only a little more than 30,000 ISIS fighters in Syria and Iran and if US (2) and allies were sincere, ISIS would be roundly defeated by now. Further, please note that while Israel apparently has the chutzpah, the trained military and the weapons to go after Iran, many times its size, it has not raised a finger to help in the fight against ISIS, instead fanning war sentiment against Iran, which has not slashed a single throat in Syria or Iraq, and has helped fight ISIS (unlike the Suunis of ISIS, Iranian Shia do not condemn other Muslim sects or non-Muslims). Absurdly, while accepting and even applauding Netanyahu's fear-mongering speech in our Congress, the US has never pressured Israel to help fight ISIS, which is clearly in the Western axis, though no one dares to say this, except me. And this is due in large part to the fact that whenever we speak of a "US" ally, the public has been trained like circus animals to think of US as the people of the US, ie, definition (1), just the opposite of the reality.
Therefore, most of us accept the absurdity that resisting the will of our enemies in Washington is unpatriotic, when in fact, resistance to tyranny is the most important value taught by our Founders.
Many rejoiced last election cycle when the GOP won the Senate and House both. They thought that "we" had won. The wakeup call came just now as we realized that "our" Congress had granted Obama funding for a wholly illegal amnesty for millions of undocumented immigrants, most of whom will become voters in a few years and many will go collect welfare and receive food stamps.
But many of us had warned that this would happen and that there was no palpable difference between the two main parties.
So now ask yourself: If we allow ourselves to be duped so easily by such transparent tactics on the part of such an obvious enemy in matters of foreign policy, as outlined above, do we really deserve to be free?
Or are we getting our just desserts?
© Donald Hank
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(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
