What do you call it when our form of government seems like a dumbshow that conceals the shadowy machinations of money behind the scenes? Oligarchy is one word. Empire is another.
In the sense that Bill Gates or T. Boone Pickens or Warren Buffett control empires, we are an empire.
And I know it's bad form to say it in public, but we got aristocracy in America.
If you're not sure whether you are an aristocrat or not, you're not.
i'm not childish or silly regarding business, and guys like you and WC should never be taken seriously. you two care more about your selfish needs than you do about what has happened to your country.
i don't live in dallas, but it's very impressive how you attempt to stereotype by using geography.but of course i don't live in Dallas.
see what i mean about you and WC?
FWIW clambake, I don't put 2centsworth and WC in the same bin. They may have clambake persecution in common, but they share little else from what I can tell.
You say that as if the US Armed Forces would blindly obey orders to shuffle people into detention centers en masse, or fire on US citizens.
I think people tend to forget the volunteer nature of our military and the fact that our military is composed of thinking individuals who are, as a whole, capable of demonstrating a degree of self-autonomy and independence unheard of in the history of standing armies.
That is not to say that they won't follow orders when given, and that some will blindly follow any order, but one has to consider the unique character of the US military.
Consider the case example of the Tiannanmen massacre.
The locally stationed unit of the People's Liberation Army would not fire on the civilians there and essentially tried to simply keep things from turning violent.
The massacre happened when the central government ordered outside troops in from other provinces, with the same orders to suppress the uprising that the local unit (the 27th Army if memory serves) would not obey.
Culturally there is a bit of a difference between the Chinese army and the US army, in that the Chinese army as a whole takes on a role analogous to the National Gaurd, in terms of helping people in disasters and such.
This example is useful in this case, though, because the soldiers perception of their mission and their willingness to follow orders that violate the perception of that mission is roughly similar.
I took an oath to uphold the cons ution, and protect our nation, and that oath was pretty important to me.
That feeling was/is not unique to me. Our soldiers/sailors/airmen/marines take that oath in general just as seriously in my experience.
This is partly the reason I tend to take with a grain of salt conspiracy nuts who claim that the military is getting ready to, or ever would, really use much deadly force against civilians.
There is actually a brigade or so of some unit that has been drilled and is on standby to deploy within the US in case of some wide-scale attack/disaster in order to secure an area hit by a storm or nuclear/chemical/biological attack, but this is ONE brigade with a limited and clear mission scope, and not the entire military.
A good example of this difference happens when the US military does exchanges with foreign militaries.
I remember some of my buddies telling me stories about exchanges/exercises done with the South Korean military.
The South Korean intel officers were astounded by the fact that enlisted privates and NCOs (sergeants) were doing jobs that were only trusted to officers in the ROK army, because they required both training and a degree of autonomy that was/is unheard of in the ROK army.
The only US ins utions capable of leading and surviving a coup are the US armed forces. No other American ins utions have the necessary prestige or are as beloved.
You can win a revolution in the USA. But you have to get the armed services on board.
Last edited by Winehole23; 02-04-2009 at 12:50 PM.
I believe that is the point.
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