“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.” -James Madison, U.S. fourth president, 1751-1836
I start this with a persian proverb and my own translation of it.
هرچه بگندد نمکش میزنند وای بر ان دم که بگندد نمک
We use salt to prevent spoilage, Pity us when our salt spoils!
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When an empire that was once a cradle of modern democracy gets involved in endless struggle for world domination that leads to bankruptcy, death and destruction of innocent people, larger global conflicts-possibly WW III and the return of slavery, it is time for real concern for all those who are entitled to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness on this planet.
The sad reality is that America has a deep problem that it can no longer deny and the Ethiopian saying that “Those who hide their wounds will never find a cure” applies to us.
The deep wound I am referring to is the gradual deterioration of our pubic education system and public awareness that has been making the government of the the people less meaningful and has made America a fertile ground for proliferation of an extremist faction that destroys this nation under the guise of protecting it. No, I do not mean the terrorists and Alqaeda. I am referring to the extremists who fuel the flames of wars by giving rise to such groups only for profit. I also call this the undoing of the American Revolution.
There are at least four major reasons for the futility of the so called “War on Terror.” Briefly, this war:
Ignores the continuity of struggle of humankind from bondage
Defies the objectives of the American Revolution
Prefers and prepares a misinformed public and government of a few
Promotes more terrorism under the guise of stopping it.
Let us elaborate a bit further on each of these and extract their take-home lessons:
Ignores the continuity of struggle of humankind from bondage. Let us have a quick glance at the beginning of recorded history and show how a relatively few extremists have always aborted the potential of the public for being in charge of their own destiny even after the American Revolution and during our Information Age.
For centuries People were treated as mushrooms-mostly kept in dark and fed horse manure, as the saying goes! The public was only allowed to master their traditional trades to support the state. Later this system became automated and in relatively recent times this kind of controlling people was called propaganda machine-today’s version of our loudest voices of popular media, if you will.
Pecking order, bullying and competition for people’s bodies, minds and pocketbooks was the name of the game. Stronger kings robbed the weaker ones in the name of God and the kings’ men robbed the people in the name of kings! Slavery was common, and even many “respectable people” were for sale if the price was a match for their ambition.
Ordinary people were treated as flocks. Like sheep, they were meant to be herded rather than to be heard from. In doing this, ends always justified the means. In a relatively recent time this was given a modern name, Machiavellian theory-a sort of plagiarism, if you will. It was this fear of government that, deep in their heart, people were reluctant to entrust it with more power than they needed for a specific mission. As an example the Greek city-states did not form a federal government until they felt a strong need to confront the Persians.
The following passage, attributed to Julius Caesar, albeit not verified, summarizes the universal feeling of tyrannical rulers if their vises are not balanced with their virtues by a vigilant public.
“BEWARE THE LEADER WHO BANGS THE DRUMS OF WAR IN ORDER TO WHIP THE CITIZENRY INTO A PATRIOTIC FEVER, FOR PATRIOTISM IS INDEED A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD. IT BOTH EMBOLDENS THE BLOOD, JUST AS IT NARROWS THE MIND. AND WHEN DRUMS OF WAR HAVE REACHED A FEVER PITCH AND THE BLOOD BOILS WITH HATE AND THE MIND HAS CLOSED, THE LEADER WILL HAVE NO NEED IN SEIZING THE RIGHTS OF THE CITIZENRY. RATHER, THE CITIZENRY, INFUSED WITH FEAR AND BLINDED BY PATRIOTISM, WILL OFFER UP ALL THEIR RIGHTS UNTO THE LEADER AND GLADLY SO.”
Take-home lesson: Regardless of significant achievements of freedom-loving people, the extremists still cling to the same antiquated, illogical and oppressive measures. To them, the more things change the more they must stay the same and time is at stand still.
Defies the objectives of the American Revolution. Although there were sporadic attempts all over the world to change the tragic course of bondage of human beings, it was the American Revolution that took the first large-scale step in that direction.
Briefly, some 250 years ago only a handful of American Revolutionaries-extremists managed to free the American colonies from the yoke of the most fearsome colonial power on earth. Nothing short of complete victory of good over evil weakened the resolve of these colonized men, not even the brutal massacre of their innocent fellow citizens, destruction of their libraries, hospitals and even burning the White House by the brutal colonial power they deposed. Another almost forgotten fact is that prior to its humiliating defeat, the colonial power arrogantly called the revolutionaries “terrorists” and had set price on their heads! On Heads of people like Thomas Jefferson for saying, “Enlighten people and tyranny of body and mind will disappear like evil spirit in the dawn of a day” ; Thomas Paine for saying, “The mind, once enlightened, cannot again become dark,” his ushering the people from the bondage of organized religion into the age of ration and reasoning.
Perhaps the greatest single contribution of the American Revolution was its First Amendment-I call the jewel of the American Constitution that was meant to put an end in crusades and other attempts for exploiting the public. This made America the first safe haven in the world for the people of all religious persuasion to coalesce and make the Nation of Immigrants at least by the rule of law. Here is that jewel:
“ Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. ”
Since the American Revolution was devised with the sincere intent of putting an end to miseries that had plagued humankind, it is worthwhile to spend a few minutes to analyze it further.
I attribute this achievement first and foremost to the founders’ relatively much deeper belief in education, ethics and exemplary life- I call 3e’s. More importantly even though they were mostly self-taught and home-schooled their sense of responsibility, ethics and their ability to integrate knowledge into wisdom are still unmatched by products of our “modern” education system. As a natural science educator and advocate of love of nature, I also believe a major reason for the founders’ healthy outlook and their defense of the rule of law was their direct inspiration from nature. Recall that these men were full time farmers, more in tune with nature and part time politicians and relatively far less inclined to be corrupt like most of the succeeding generations of politicians from unnatural urban environments with more dazzling and less meaningful lifestyles. As Joseph Campbell said, “Life is without meaning. You bring meaning to it,”- obviously by being informed and educated.
There are at least two valuable historical lessons to be learned from this major event. First; all great changes are initiated by a small number of people. Second; the few men effecting the change are called extremists-a source of fear for the public that, by default prefers status quo. However, the truth is that like coin, extremism has two sides-good and evil, depending on one’s depth of education, ethics and conviction. When Samuel Adams said, “It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men,” he meant that we should never underestimate the power of the minority extremists with evil intention who keep bombarding the minds of the unaware public with sugar-quoted falsehood.
The great founders of America knew that an effective public education, enlightened and informed public was the best antidote and buffer against the return of colonialism and replacement of government of the people with the government of a few. This was also the founders’ idea of laying the foundation of the cheapest and most effective Homeland Security!
Obviously, the founders of America impressed the world with their marvelous ideals in no time. That great movement indicated that the world then and now have a great thirst for education. I am forever indebted to America and its Thomas Jefferson for my public education and my becoming an advocate of effective pubic education.
Many foreigners who found it futile to tolerate their repressive regimes flocked to America in drones in search of freedom, opportunity and pursuit of happiness denied to them in their own governments.
The founders of America called this new and unique republic “An Experiment in Democracy,” meaning that their words were not final and were subject to the test of time and questioning, interpretation, revision and upgrading, in an environment of freedom of expression. In fact, the word democracy is not even mentioned in American Constitution because America’s founders feared that democracy, too, had the potential of leading the nation into chaos by the extremists. In fact, devising Electoral College on top of popular vote was from that fear of mob rule that was inevitable in free society. That was the reason that American system of government has always been a compromise between oligarchy and democracy or a republic, as is known. This was a compromise between the Jeffersonian philosophy of believing the people to govern themselves with minimum government control and the Hamiltonian philosophy of maximum government interference.
Of course, America committed some atrocities while building itself as a nation. As an example, no impartial person would forgive America’s massacre of non-yielding and “hostile” Native Americans and the use of other forceful means for capturing more territories.
What is important is that most unique feature of the America’s revolutionaries or the secret of their success was their relatively far more reluctance in getting involved in other countries’ affairs and the fear of becoming another colonial power. We should never refrain from admiring George Washington’s refusal to be named a king or Thomas Jefferson’s humility in handling his presidential responsibilities even though many believed that he qualified to be the “philosopher king” that mankind had always dreamed of and never achieved.
Nevertheless, the prerequisite of an educated public was never disputed by those founders who believed in preservation of America against tyranny and oppression of any form. Here are some of the most energizing and most powerful basic tenets of that noble revolution:
“Resistance to tyranny is obedient to God”-Motto on Thomas Jefferson’s ring
“The condition upon which God has given us liberty is eternal vigilance.”
-J.P. Curran, 1790
“Those who expect to be ignorant and free, expect what there never was and never will be.”-Thomas Jefferson
Take-home lesson: It is most ironic that even the miracles of the American Revolution have fully survived the test of time in terms of respecting the will of majority. We have gradually forgotten to stop the assault of extremists on freedom and democracy. Specifically, we have underestimated the fact that An enlightened public is the best defense against extremists.
Prefers and prepares a misinformed public and government of a few. The extremists placed the country on a wrong path by destroying our public education system- spending more and educating less. In fact gradual deterioration of the public education system did not bother the government until the wake-up call of Sputnik era in 1957 while other nations even the developing ones improved their public education system and even contributed to scientific poole of America. After doing too little, too late the public education system continued to suffer again. This time by resorting to fancy titles like “Education Czar,” “No child left behind” and making them fail by not allocating enough funds or even allocating the funds and making sure that the fund is misused. Public education system has been a tug of war between those who prefer ignorant public that can be manipulated and the dedicated teachers, parents and civic minded people who preferred otherwise. The massive prevailing power of bureaucracy and the extremist faction of media that used all their might to detach the young from receiving the kind of education that makes them effective citizens instead of getting them addicted to sensationalism and out of parental and school control that deprives them of truth and the ideals of this nation. Obviously the blank minded young is not capable of questioning and making the right choice is the best candidates to become yes-person and serve in ever-expanding military-industrial complex. Here are some examples of what extremists have managed to get away by creating an uninformed public and doing away with public scrutiny:
Protecting our assets when they are wasting it and encouraging us to do the same by creating bubble economy and forcing us to buy what we do not need and we can do without. Falsely claiming that we are the richest nation instead of the most debtor nation on earth. Heaven forbid if this game of Russian Roulette and illusion of wealth with printed money becomes more wide-spread and adopted by the whole world. How can we blame the foreign terrorists for our economic meltdown and bankrupting of America? Only an informed public would know the best way to bankrupt ourselves is the creation and then fighting such enemies of our own making.
How do these falsifications jive with one of original America’s claim to fame, “but the truth made us free? Public apathy has led us to not only fiscal, but moral poverty as well.
Combatting substance abuse by appointing “drug czars”, spending our resources to fight drug lords and ignoring the simple rule of supply and demand-as long as there is increasing demand inside America for drugs there is no way to stop the supply. Alienation from their government has much to do with the fact that the Americans are the heaviest substance abusers in the world and wrongly thinking that drugs are their best refuge from facing the the runaway hypocrisy and harsh realities of life such as lack of transparency in their government’s domestic and global overt and covert operations in the back of the people.
Pretending to promote peace, but demonizing other peoples and religions and in effect resorting to more Crusades and the archaic colonial ‘divide and conquer’ policies. Fighting undeclared wars by the Congress and invading other countries that is even abandoned by the dictatorial regimes.
Capitalizing on weak points of the people, religions and cultures of countries we invade and portraying them as terrorists and haters of freedom and democracy with almost no emphasis on the historic fact that most of those problems are remnants of Western colonial rules from Alexander the Great to British Empire and Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Much worse, misinforming a large segment of the American public to take pleasure from the fact that we are fighting the war on terror on the streets of those countries rather than on the streets of America! This is noting short of using other countries for testing our military ware.
Saving American jobs while they are encouraging job outsourcing by not educating the public to live with less and competing for jobs with foreign workers who do. Resisting to devise and enforce a sound immigration law instead of using seasonal guest workers, denying them health care and ignoring the threat they pose to our pubic health.
Protecting America from disasters by allocating more money for disaster relief and knowingly and unknowingly making it fail so that their cronies reap the benefits.
Denying the basic decency of human beings and practically taking the whole world as hostage to justify trampling on the rule of law both domestically and globally. Worse yet, this is done in a country whose scientific advancement is capable of educating the wildest beasts to become our best friends, protectors and friends! Who could ever believe that some human beings would not even be accorded the dignity of the animals? Much worse, in America!
Using our resources to give green light to the extremist Zionists in tiny state of Israel to commit all kinds of atrocities to a vast majority of Palestinians against the opposition of decent Israeli public and intellectuals who are against that perpetual conflict that actually destabilizes the region for maximum exploitation, ironically under the disguise of New World Order! Jews, Moslems and Christians had started to live in relative peace and harmony after the end of Crusades because continuation of that trend became a threat to the greedy warmongers.
Finally, where is Osama Ben Ladin and how long are we going to hold the whole world hostage and continue bankrupting America to capture this allegedly master terrorist? I recall our defense department’s claim many years ago about the most sophisticated surveillance capability of detecting a cigaret box from several miles above the ground. Why haven’t we used that old technology to detect and capture a terrorist out in the boonies some six years after 9/11? Also how valid were the thirty second sound bites in 1998 presidential election in which the candidates were to say how quick they would respond to terrorist attack if awakened at 3 A.M!
Is our failure to apprehend a terrorist after six years due to the weakness of our military or a make-believe scheme to keep the wars going and to keep the world hostage forever?
We have failed in being the policeman of the world because in global arena we act as a teacher who breaks all the rules and lets a few our favorite students do the same, and when the rest of the class asks him why, his best arrogant answer is “just do as I say, not as I do!”
It is difficult to believe that a nation that claims to be a haven for the rule of law reverts to being outlaw and from ‘you are innocent unless proven guilty’ to ‘you are guilty unless proven innocent’ and wonder why the world does not believe we are ‘promoting freedom and democracy’. We arrogantly think that other nations are naïve enough to believe us that we intend to help them when we do not even care about our own country-America. Why can’t we understand that if we are a good example we can win the hearts and minds of the whole world at no cost like we once did?
The only way to avoid the stress of what is done to this nation seems to be watching Jay Leno’s Jaywalk that can make you laugh when you really need to cry. Or, as Jay Leno says, hello-anybody there? Or think of Judge Judy’s book title, “Don’t Pee On My Lap And Say It’s Raining.”
We can easily utilize our sophisticated technology to educate not only our public, but also the entire world with a cost that would be a pittance as compared with what we spend on amassing weapons of mass destruction that is already sufficient to annihilate the world several times over.
Why don’t we want to admit that most of the world population is young and thirsty for education and the best way to win their heart and mind is to meet their needs. If America takes the initiative to quench their thirst they would willingly support America with all their might as effective as or even more than the American citizens would. If the extremist warmongers ever had the insight they would know that an enlightened world would, in the long run can bring them more profit than from selling weapons of mass destruction. Have we become an upside-down nation by being more scared of education than ignorance? We cannot let the people to blame Corporate America, but we be sure that an educated public with more sophisticated demand would give rise to more corporations with human face that would concentrate on the real needs rather than wants of the people. What we need is more corporations such as Microsoft and less of AIG.
All we have to do is to revive the American Ideals from further derailing by those who do not believe in enormous potential of human beings to do more good than evil . Ironically if we have proved this to be true with wild beasts, why don’t we extend it to humans?
By not aspiring to build on the hard-earned ideals of the founders of America we are reverting back to the reign of terror as practiced by all repressive regimes such as those of Pharos of Egypt that did not subscribe to government of the people. We are, in effect taking the humanity back to stone age. Don’t we have better things to do than creating conflicts and justifying wars?
Take-home lessons: Depriving the public of effective public education is equivalent of subduing the bull by twisting his tail and preventing it from standing up and exerting his individuality.
Promotes more terrorism under the guise of stopping it.
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” -Albert Einstein
“The end of human race is that it will die of civilization.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Civilization is a race between education and catastrophe.”-H.G. Wells
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”-Martin Luther King, Jr.
America has never ceased to be one of the most unique wonders of the world in terms of harboring both the best and the worst groups and individuals. The question is what we should do when the balance tips in favor of those extremist groups who do more harm than good.
The irony is that the extremists are destroying America under the guise of protecting it. Worse yet, they are doing this against the will of most of the world and the decent Americans who are opposed to the notion of one-world government under any name such as Nazism, Fascism, Communism or New World Order or possible future military rule. Such ideas are so hard-sell and the extremists are so determined that they may lead us to World War III and the end of the end of civilization as we know it.
While all nations think they have value systems that could protect them, only America possesses both the destructive and constructive power to make or break the world. However, since the extremists have been instrumental for arrival to this point by misleading the public and the subsequent relinquishment of their civic responsibility and the failure of the government of the people, only an informed and involved public can make the this nation on the right track. I have shown that the best strategy is to fix what is wrong with America with what is or has been right with it. We can only do that by;
Utilizing our wherewithal to launch a no-nonsense virtual public education system both in America and every remote corner of the world at a cost that would be a pittance as compared to stockpiling weapons of mass destruction as prescribed by the extremists to launch wars for profit rather than for a just cause.
Not aspiring to be the world’s policeman, because once we do that every other country would consider it their right and rightly so, to do the same in regional or global level and that would lead to chaos and continuation of wars, arms race and struggle for power and domination.
Using our clout and technology to create a no-non-sense representative world body to monitor trespassers, arms dealers and human traffickers and deal with them decisively and quickly.
Letting every country be in charge of their own affairs within the framework of human rights and its application within the confines of their culture. Let them ask for help when their system fails and they fall flat on their face. Democracy is not an exportable merchandise.
Banning outside interferences such as financing regime changes, supplying arms and ammunitions to the warlords and warring factions by the use of multiple standard. These are the longest, costliest and the most futile ways the continuation of which only gets us closer to long term self-destruction.
Heeding the founders wisdom that informed people whose educational needs are satisfied are the the best citizen soldiers who outperform the mercenaries, corporate soldiers and soldiers of fortune. By winning the hearts and minds of people on national and global scale we can make the our best friends and allies to defeat tyranny and terrorism.
America’s best gift to humankind was knowledge, truth and moderation to resist exploitation and erosion of our freedom and not Ignorance, arrogance and greed and the return of colonial mentality and repression, no matter by what name.
I supported Candidate Obama wholeheartedly in the hope that he would introduce the long overdue change in self-destructive course of America and the world, but I yet have to see a drastic change in our most basic need-public education. However, what definitely bothers me the most is continuation of invasion of other countries at the cost of ignoring America’s fundamental problems.
It is my wish that the American public perceives the present economic downturn as a blessing rather than a curse and wakes up to the reality that this state of bankruptcy is the true state of our nation that was thus far mostly hidden behind the thick veneer of deception and hypocrisy. Our future depends on whether we admit this reality and relearn the art of living within our means.
Considering everything, American system of government-as proposed by its founders is more compatible with human nature than any other system. We have to admit that the world still emulates America even its present destructive course in justifying more local, regional and global conflicts. Continuation of extremist agenda and distancing from lifestyle of moderation will make us more vulnerable to forces of oppression by the extreme right or extreme left. The assumption of our Homeland Security that we, the decent public are all terrorists unless we prove to be innocent with no questions asked, is a small example of how easily the public could be intimidated at larger scale.
Obviously it is much easier and cheaper for the government to apprehend a few criminals as it did in the past than holding all of us hostage to its own inability or unwillingness to respect the rights of the public to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
A Chinese saying goes as “You do not need an ax to kill a gnat.”
Those needing a Christian justification of ending the futile wars should know what Christ said, “He who lives by the sword shall die by it.” One of the best testament to futility of our war on terror.
It is past the time to recall this Thomas Jefferson’s recipe for saving America from self-destruction:
“An empire collapses more from within than from without.”
Living its ideals and living by example, a “Government of the People”will never have to worry about domestic or international terrorism. Only an enlightened public will have the wisdom to understand this and only a War on Ignorance will give us the that wisdom. Any other course of action including our present one will only promote rather than prevent terrorism.
Wisdom is perceiving what you see,
So you won’t go on a binge or spree.
You are slave if you’re not enlightened,
Even if you live in the “Land of the Free”!
For more detail, please visit the author’s website:
http://www.TerrorismAndHowToStopIt.org
