Friday, March 27, 2009

Prophesy or Deja Vu?

I recommend everyone reading this article by Pat Dollard, author,
professor and historian.

Prophesy or Deja vu
by Pat Dollard

I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in
six languages, and have studied it all my life. I think there is
something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a
banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these
exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that
is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I
know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to
it.

Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening
within our country that has been evolving for about ten - fifteen years.
The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make
massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?

We learn just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no
real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is
$2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to
whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine.
And that is three times the $700B we all argued about so strenuously
just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why
are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I
thought this was a government of "we the people," who loaned our powers
to our elected leaders. Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our
economy. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and
no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why
we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think
critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are
not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election
(now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial
that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you
ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago? We have corrupted
our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws
that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist
groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana
republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free
fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge
of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our
entire government, our education system is worse than a joke (I teach
college and know precisely what I am talking about) - the list is
staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x
ten. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of
offending people of the same religion, who cannot wait to slit the
throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never
run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla,
Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in
their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him,
drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have
heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian
defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No?
Oh of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and
then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000
wardrobe is more important.) Five (and counting) sitting members of his
cabinet are recently convicted (or admitted) tax cheats!

Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am
now. This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has
never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will
divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to
realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is
indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation
again. And that is only the beginning.

And I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary,
moral German felt in the mid-1930's. In those times, the savior was a
former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the
average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was
associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people
with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage
through great oratory. Conservative "losers" read it right now.

And promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he
was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even
newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts"
would bully them into submission. And then, he was duly elected to
office, a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression].
Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department
by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy.

The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught
what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it
promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money less, and goodies for
the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the
children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages,
better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the
country, across Europe, and across the world.

He did it with a compliant media - did you know that? And he did this
all in the name of justice and.... change. And the people surely got
what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.) Read
your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down,
called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill
pointed out the obvious in the late 1930's while seated in the House of
Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his
seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.

Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in
Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and
universities. And in less than six years ~ a shorter time span than just
two terms of the U. S. presidency - it was rounding up its own citizens,
killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents,
and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of
course. The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I
have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of
evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can
believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven
decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another
latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me.

Some people scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or
both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the
eye and tell them exactly what I believe ~ and why I believe it. I pray
I am wrong.

I do not think I am.

God Bless,

"In all your getting, Get understanding"

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