Potter's State of the "Union"

This very second on television, a virtual goddess reads a newscast headlined by war and terrorism. Every other sentence contains the currently obligatory Al Qaida reference and/or strings of Arabian sounding names like Akhmed Akhbar-Akhmad, Sheikh Omar Whatabooti, or Yusef Mohammed Ali-baba whatever, in connection with yet another Moslem plot to highjack commercial airliners in terror-suicide strikes. Yes, in every cave these days, it seems, behind every dark corner, there is something dire and sinister poised to wreak the next horrible holocaust or other on helpless Americans. "Undisclosed official sources" reveal that "intelligence reports" indicate more plans (though never time or target specific) of fanatical Moslem extremists who dangerously threaten innocent American's, the "American way of life," and the very fabric of Western democracy!

I guess folks are used to the message by now, if not completely numbed by the constant repetition. The propaganda seems to be working, too, by cracky! It looks like most everyone is just pretty much quietly going along with Washington City's imperial march to Armageddon, with an occasional grumble perhaps, but going along nonetheless.
{except us "whacko-libertarian nutcases," of course!}

Is this ironic? The news reading goddess on the Empire channel is Rudi Bahktiar. She is the daughter of gen-u-wine, honest to goodness Iranian parents. Actually, there's a whole province named Bahktiar where they come from, directly adjacent to the Iraqi border, very near Baghdad, no less. It just doesn't get much more Persian than that, brother!

The irony is watching this stunningly beautiful, young Iranian-American, Cally-fore-nee-ah girl, effortlessly spinning the Empire's Middle Eastern adventurism and it's attendant murder and mayhem, in such a detached, matter-of-factly casual manner, almost Borg-like, all in her ear-pleasing, perfectly grammatical and uninflected, homogenous American English.

She's damn near the perfect talking head/public personality/government tool: mythically beautiful and linguistically competent all at once, and strikingly ethnic, too. That ethnicity is distracting, though, at least to us "really" whacko-libertarian nutcases. Do Borgs/does Borg have blood, I forget? Maybe Borg's blood can't be thicker than water, but it's really a moot point, in any case. Bahktiar's smouldering sex appeal trumps all. It's surreal!

The state of the "union" is surreal, too. Increasingly onerous and totalitarian "union" policy emanating from the ivory towers of Washington City is effectively fomenting class warfare in America, and indeed, by extension, around the whole tech-shrunken and volatile, smaller modern world. The two basic warring classes don't ever change and are as old as the hills: "Us" and "Them."

"Us" are poor folks just trying to provide for themselves and theirs as best they can, working hard and saving frugally, respecting human dignity and dealing honestly with others.

"Them" are the elites and eltists (there are lists), the bureaucrats (it's a long list) and the welfare/warfare beneficiaries (it's a long, long list), who feed and worship at the altar of state, praying, as it were, for the machine to ensure their continuing comfort . . . extracted from "Us."

"Us" is expected to pay for everything by "Them." If "Us" doesn't work hard enough and pay for everything, "Them" will somehow be wronged because the incompetent servant, "Us," didn't bring out all of the free lunch "Them" has ordered.

Once "Them's" appetite is whetted, "Them's" avarice seems appreciably diminished only in death. To say that the current pernicious excesses in Washington City are inherently pregnant with the seed of a new revolution is probably not shockingly revelatory, but that revolt's gestation seems much nearer it's natural term than ever since the Spirit of '76--that is surreal!

That government in Washington City is waging de facto imperial warfare, not only around the globe, but even within the "union's" own borders, against its own civilian population--that is surreal! Why, this is the historical stage in the life of a typical empire/nation/state often classified in text books as "Period of Decline," or "Period of Despotism/Tyranny," either of which generally immediately precedes "Fall of the State." That is surreal.

That we folks living on Earth in the first few years of the new millennium may well live to witness an epic and fantastic power struggle, after a fashion eerily reminiscent of a Heinlein novel--that is surreal!

Yes, the state of the "union" has become disconcertingly surreal. Just look at Mr. Bush on any empire tv channel, if you can stand it. The president of the "union" is but a trained monkey, . . . a puppet on a string. Is this really the most convincing marionette the king makers could muster? You just can't get good help anymore! Alas, the president of the "union" is pitifully close to being a clown . . . a very sad clown.

Now, that is surreal!