Most of Them Are not Terrorists at All

We describe terrorism in lazy terms. It shows neglect, which can lead to abuse.

“Terrorists” have been called unintelligent. Terrorists are not unintelligent. They are smart.

Terrorists are said to be suicidal. They’re not.

Terrorists do not kill themselves. Successful terrorists live for many, many years. They have no wish to die, go to Paradise, and enjoy the love of virgins forever. They prefer to stick around, consume their favorite libations, and enjoy virgins in the flesh. True terrorists love life and cling to it. They are killed, but not on their own terms. They are killed by stealth bombers.

The pawns of terrorism, the ones who kill themselves, lack in many ways. Intelligence may be one such lack, but many are quite intelligent. Very intelligent people who come to feel that they lack a place in society, a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, acceptance, or in extreme cases, a reason to live, imagined or otherwise, can and do become pawns of terror.

True terrorists lack for nothing. They have a place, a purpose, a sense of belonging, and acceptance, all of these. They enjoy life. The pawns are not terrorists and should not be called “terrorists.”

We have to quit doing that. Call them what they are!

They are the uninformed tools of terrorists - they could be called “UTOTS” - or “suicidal pawns of terrorism” - “SPOTS,” for short - or just “pawns.” Terrorists they are not. (I like “UTOTS” best.)

UTOTS are told that they’re martyrs. They are not.

There’s your next misused word: “Martyrs.”

Martyrs don’t kill themselves, and they certainly don’t die for the purpose of creating violence. True martyrs die at the hands of authority figures. People beheaded by UTOTS are much closer to martyrdom than UTOTS themselves will ever be.  Martyrs are people who die for the sake of all peace loving people. They don’t kill other people. They are usually executed by some society that fears the voice of reason. And that is the one thing terrorists fear most. (UTOTS don’t. They don’t see the significance of reason, and they are usually unwilling or unable to participate in a reasoning process.)

Still, we let the UTOTS call themselves “martyrs.” We have to quit doing that.

The purpose of terrorism is often argued. Sometimes, we say that terrorism has no purpose.

We have to stop doing that too. Their purpose is simple: Find UTOTS to die. Tell the world you and the UTOTS are acting on behalf of people of a certain ethnic and/or religious and/or racial group. Provoke the targeted society to retaliate, become irrational with fear, and eventually fall to decay from within.

The clearest sign of success for terrorism is retaliation. If a terrorist act can provoke an outrageous war upon some nation, the terrorists rejoice.

But the ultimate purpose of terrorism is precipitating the downfall of a society through instillation of irrational fear deeply into its citizens. A targeted society embraces fear and plunges itself into the pit of terror and violence, weakening it from the inside. Shake up the society enough, and you get them into a position where you can steal away their power.

Terrorists know exactly what they’re doing. It has to do with ethnic, religious, and/or racial prejudices to begin, but quickly devolves into something that has nothing to do with them. Here are the stages:

1.     1. A peaceful, free society perceives a threat and turns its prejudices and suspicions upon people who can be identified by their ethnic, religious, and/or racial identity.

2.      2. Ordinary but slightly irrational citizens of the free society, uneducated, unreflective, easily motivated by fear, easily influenced by prejudices that sound like slogans of wisdom, begin to wage violence upon those same people. The society begins to resemble the early stages of Germany prior to World War II, in which the Jews were targeted.

3.     3. Some of those disturbed citizens begin to wage violence upon law enforcement officers who are bound by law to protect all citizens, including those of the targeted population.

4.     4. Now the purpose of terrorism begins to blossom on its own, far removed from strange notions of Holy Wars and religious affiliations. Numerous ordinary, well-meaning but deeply rattled citizens begin to devolve. They take comfort in buying assault weapons and ammunition, preparing for the ominous, ultimate, seemingly unstoppable confrontation.

5.     5. People shoot each other. Some are shot by mistake. Fearing any imagined danger, terrorized individuals kill weaponless suspects who seem to be reaching for something, anything. To an imagination so devolved, anything begins to look like a gun.

6.     6. The feeling of personal terror grows. People begin to fear the unfamiliar. People begin to stay home.

7.     7. Some of the terrorized citizens now fully devolve into UTOTS. They saunter and boast. They begin carrying concealed weapons of their own. Doing so helps to sway their fears. They defend themselves with very loud talk, ignoring the voice of reason, and clinging instead to every platitude, every prejudicial remark, any rationalization, to justify their personal terror and their decision to prepare to wage violence.

8.     8. UTOTS get more and more willing, as time passes, to shoot first instead of shooting back. Still more common people, and more law enforcement officers, get shot because of imagined threats, or by accident. The urge to kill builds up, and some kill large numbers of people, and then commit suicide, for no apparent reason.

9.     9. When the majority of Americans, or British citizens, or French citizens, or Germans, begin to fear for their personal safety enough so that they feel a need to carry weapons, shoot first, and ask questions later, the terrorists have succeeded. The society is eating itself away from the inside.

I think we’re at about stage 7 or 8. There may still be time to stop this nonsense, but watch for another rounding up and incarcerating. We’ll be looking for people of Persian descent, and/or Muslims. It will look a little like post-911, when quite a number of innocent people were arrested, held without trial, and shipped off to GITMO. Our soldiers who do that work will wear special uniforms. Perhaps they will look a lot like the SS Troops who ferretted out and shipped off Jews.

Many still cling to their platitudes: “Guantanamo Bay? They should have kept them there. They must have been guilty of something!” That’s the way UTOTS talk, unknowingly furthering the terrorist cause. I wonder if and when we’ll build a second and a third concentration camp in Cuba. I wonder if Cuba will become the next Auschwitz. I wonder what our “final solution” will be.

Republicans In Disarray? Not to Worry.

The Republicans seem to be having a family feud. Fortunately for the very rich, it will not matter. The Redemopublicrats have things well in hand.

We Americans have two simple lessons to learn.

Lesson 1: Money is not wealth.

Lesson 2: The class war is over.

That’s it. That’s the end of this blog entry. You can stop reading now. But if for some reason you need convincing, I’ve added a little more. Here is the rest of it:

Lesson 1: Money is not wealth; those who control money don’t control “wealth”; they control you.

Money is merely the symbol of wealth. It is meant to circulate among those who work for a living. Redemopublicrats want you to believe it is synonymous with wealth. They want you to respect those who remove money from circulation and hoard it.

Nowadays, most of the extravagantly rich don’t do hard work at all. Many have few talents and fewer skills. Many have next to none. When a rich man’s water heater goes out, he doesn’t normally grab a wrench and go to work on it, partly because he doesn’t have to, but mostly because he can’t. He may not even know how to use a wrench.

But rich people also don’t want you to grab a wrench and start fixing your own water heater. In fact, the rich man will remind you that, unless you’re a plumber, you really have no right to mess around with your own water heater. There are state and county and city codes and rules and regulations that require a licensed plumber to fix water heaters in most areas of the country. (The rich man has had a hand in creating these “rules.”) And when you defy his codes and rules and grab your wrench and successfully fix your own water heater, the rich man feels cheated.

He owns stock in financial firms that use his money to purchase indentured servitude from plumbers. Another way to put it: Rich people collect profits from loans issued to those plumbers, who earn their money through hard work.

The knowledge and hard work that gets things done is the real wealth of this nation. Money is merely a symbol of that work. You pay for such work, not with wealth, but with symbols of your wealth. Your wealth, your real wealth, is the knowledge and skills you have developed and use to produce materials and services for yourself and others.

Capitalism is a barter system, through which real wealth of all kinds is exchanged throughout society. Most Americans, be they mechanics, carpenters, electricians, doctors, lawyers, or plumbers, work very hard to obtain money to give to fellow mechanics, carpenters, electricians, doctors, lawyers, and plumbers.

That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

But those who control financial institutions don’t work very hard. They pay others to run those institutions; they collect interest on debts. They buy low and sell high, and in this way, they drain money from the system. They remove dollars, the symbols of wealth, and hoard them. Money collected as interest on what the plumber borrows from the rich man’s financial institutions is not necessarily essential to the rich man’s life. The filthy rich already have everything they need and almost everything they want. So these symbols of other people’s hard work are just stored away in Swiss bank accounts, or in less sinister, domestic tax-sheltered accounts.

Working people, all of us working people, including the aforementioned plumber (I have this overwhelming urge to call him “Joe.” Where did that come from?) are taken for fools in this country. I’m sorry to say it. Most of us feel a sense of freedom in this nation. Most of us feel we’re doing what we want to do, and we certainly don’t think we’re fools. And I’m sorry, but Redemopublicrats see us as fools.

Of course, the filthy rich want this redistribution of wealth to continue. They don’t need more money, but they want it anyway. That is why they resent you doing your own plumbing. When you fix your own water heater, you produce true wealth by utilizing your true wealth, the knowledge and skills you possess. The filthy rich believe they have rights to a piece of that action. They have purchased indentured servitude from Joe the Plumber and others (sorry – just had to do that) to have those tasks done, and they want more of the money that can be drained from the endeavors of those indentured servants. They believe it is one of their entitlements.

Redems believe strongly in entitlements, their entitlements, that is. They are even so bold as to say it out loud: “What wealth we have, we should be able to keep,” they are fond of saying.

But we must all remember Lesson 1: What they have is not real wealth; it is money, and it has not been obtained legitimately (lawfully, yes, but not legitimately). What they have are symbols of other people’s wealth, which they have drained from the system. They who have the money already, and the power and influence that go with it, have learned the art of taking more money from you, and they continue doing so. You also must remember that true wealth, which feeds and clothes us all, you already have. The symbols of your work, unfortunately, have largely been drained out of circulation.

The filthy rich don’t deserve our respect, but they want it anyway. That’s not the way it should be.

Now let’s take a closer look at Lesson 2.

Lesson 2: The class war is over. It has been fought and won.

Democrats, Republicans, and many others often spout off about how naughty it is for people like me to express these sentiments. They warn us all about the terrors of an impending class war.

I have nothing against Democrats who make such accusations against me. They don’t know what they’re saying. Democrats are not responsible for the current state of the country, and I do not hold them responsible.

Nevertheless, some want you to think that Democratic policies have limited the opportunities of the middle class over the past two generations by taxing them heavily and wasting the funds on lazy, poor, undeserving people. While condemning the “redistribution of wealth,” the true culprits (who have already been named) engage in the redistribution of wealth themselves by draining money (the symbol of wealth, remember) and hoarding it, removing it from circulation, thus stifling economic growth. They are also the very people responsible for easing legal restrictions on such practices. While accusing others of living off government entitlements, they claim the right to drain and hoard money as their “entitlement.” These people are not Democrats. Real Democrats would be ashamed of doing such things.

I have nothing against Republicans who accuse me of starting a class war. Republicans are not responsible for the current state of the country.

Some want you to think that Republican policies have trampled the middle class over the past two generations by chipping away at your health plans and pensions, wasting it on high risk investments, and reducing tax obligations of industry and business toward the common good, thus increasing profit margins of big business while stifling wage growth. Many politicians and people of influence have, in fact, been purposefully doing so over that time, but not Republicans.

True Republicans want everyone to prosper in a free economy. They want poor people to get less poor. They want the working poor to lift themselves into the middle class. They want members of the middle class to become rich, and even play golf with some of them. Real Republicans would be ashamed of purposefully draining dollars out of circulation.

But Redemopublicrats only smile at such nonsense. They scoff at the notion of middle income earners playing golf with them.

Redemopublicrats have already fought and won the class war. It’s over. They fought the class war for several generations. I’m not starting anything. I’m only informing you of something that has been going on for a long time. The class war has been fought. They’ve beaten us. We don’t have functional labor unions anymore. Our health and retirement benefits are just about gone. But still, they fight. They’re starting to chip away at Social Security and Medicare now.

Some Redems call themselves Democrats. They preach the party line, about raising taxes on the rich and helping the poor. But they don’t really believe what they’re saying. When “push comes to shove,” they will find ways to excuse themselves from supporting such nonsense.

Some Redems call themselves Republicans. They are fond of saying, “Better to give you a hand up than a hand out,” meaning, it is better to give people the opportunity to control their lives and keep their wealth than to put them on food stamps. But they know better. They know that real prosperity can only be enjoyed by an oligarchy. When “push comes to shove,” they will make certain that wages remain low, and only the rich are allowed to obtain real power to rise to the top.

You see, Redemopublicrats know that many members of the middle income and working poor enjoy being active and busy. As I’ve already stated, they take such people for fools, and Redems are happy to let fools feel happy while producing wealth for the oligarchy.

Well then, can you let the fools have large wages and take time off to spend with family and enjoy the comforts those wages might provide? No. Better to give them “more jobs,” jobs that pay minimum wages or less; then you can give them “opportunities” to take multiple part-time jobs, and they can be forced to work extensive hours without having to pay them time and half for anything over forty hours a week.

Redemopublicrats know that there’s a balancing trick to it all. You can’t deprive the working poor fools and middle class fools entirely; best to keep their wages just a little above stagnation. Best to let their lot in life improve in extremely small increments, preferably small enough that they all but disappear with inflation.

That’s the way it is. And don’t you think for a moment that the way it is comes to us by accident. A segment of society with power, influence, and dollars, are guiding and directing policies to maintain it.

Occasionally, one of the Redems might develop a guilty conscience over all the money being drained and hoarded from 90% of the population. She or he might want to relax the vacuuming of it away from the producers of wealth and allow more to remain in circulation among those who labor so hard for it. You could cut ridiculous interest charges, overdraft fees, ATM fees, or pay a half percent more in taxes while relaxing the tax burden on the rest of the country, if for no other reason than to ease the guilty conscience just a little. But most of those who hoard and hide their dollars (and call it “their wealth”) will insist that they keep a tight rein on the fools, and they will proclaim their “right” to do so.

Nowadays, the "class war" is usually just such a little skirmish among the Redems, brought on by some weird pity attack one or more of them is having, or by some idiots who want to make a big power grab. That’s what’s happening among the Republican leaders. What you're witnessing among them is all that remains of the so-called "class war."

But never fear. Cooler heads normally prevail. Republican disarray will eventually fade. And even if Republicans lose control of Congress and the Presidency, the Democrats will be in, and that will matter for nothing. The Redemopublicrats, who control all political matters, will prevail. There will be no class war. The ship of state will continue on its way, no major course corrections required. And friends reassuring one another over a round of golf and cocktails will soothe the shame of it.

Is Socialism Bad? 'My Bad?

I was an English teacher. I resent the way Redemopublicrats distort English. Consider the term “Socialism.”

Many citizens condemn Socialism – all Socialism. However, many of those same citizens also live on Socialism. They collect Social Security, or they receive Medicare or Medicaid. They receive Government disability payments. We all drive on roads built and maintained through Federal, State, and local taxes. That’s Socialism, folks!

Sometimes we demand more and better Socialism: “Why aren’t those snowplows clearing off my roads? What’s the matter with the water quality in this town? When is the garbage getting collected? They shouldn’t charge me for hauling my stuff to the dumps!”

Do we want all those programs eliminated? Well, probably not. Some might say so, but they are people who are used to talking without thinking. What all of us are really afraid of is Socialism pushed too far, to the point where it intrudes upon our lives and limits our freedoms. But that’s hard to say. It’s simpler to say, “Socialism is bad,” even if it’s not quite what we mean.

Honest, highly principled, intelligent Republicans certainly would not distort our language to the point where we are fooled into using prejudicial terms to attack our own way of life. Honest, highly principled Democrats certainly would not. But some people are served by misinformation that plays on the ignorance and frank stupidity that is evenly distributed throughout politics and the general population, and holds our Government in a state of gridlock and impotence. They are Redemopublicrats, and they are purposefully intruding upon our lives and limiting our freedoms.

Redemopublicrats encourage a lot of noise that drowns out intelligent conversation about what we can do together to solve problems. Redemopublicrats adore politicians who push their so-called “principles” into the realm of prejudice. They like name-calling that causes division, because division preserves gridlock, and gridlock keeps money and power flowing to the one percent among us who want their prosperous, profitable times to continue.

That is why Redemopublicrats have made certain that we also live in a time of resurgent prejudice. Far too many simple-minded people accept simple-minded assertions that Muslims and immigrants are bad, Christians and guns are good, skinheads and radicals are evil, shock and awe is very cool, Liberals are wasteful, Conservatives are clowns, and the best way forward is to go to war because we must always fear those “unknown unknowns.”

Beware predicate adjectives or predicate nominatives that are placed after linking verbs and forced into modifying or renaming subjects requiring more attention. Oops! Sorry. Talking like an English teacher again.

Let me have another try: Beware candidates who tell you that the truth is usually very simple. They are intruding upon our lives and limiting our freedoms. No matter what they claim to be, they are either Redemopublicrats themselves, or they are dishonest, unprincipled, and/or stupid politicians repeating prejudices authored by Redemopublicrats who want you treated like an ignoramus.