“The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.”
― Vladimir LeninSometimes I wonder about dissent in modern culture and whether or not its brought on by the powers that be so that it inevitably fails and teaches the rest of us how dissent will not work. I sometimes think something like Occupy Wall Street was created precisely to fuel people's rage against the system into something utterly futile and pointless. In that manner the average Joe can say to himself, heck, if Occupy couldn't do anything with its hundreds of thousands of protesters and worldwide spread, how the hell can I?
Empires have indeed evolved over time. Their basic modus operandi is fairly similar: imperial and hostile takeover of outsiders to pillage their resources. Domestic control via subtle use of force and distraction, suppression of dissent, growth of the state and insurance that the vast majority of your population is dependent upon the state so as to ensure its survival (and growth).
Eventually however the state runs out of cash, can no longer fund any of these endeavors and evaporates.
However when a central bank controls a state and can print money at will to keep propping up that country's imperialist and propagandist goals, and when that bank can also in conjunction with a crooked finance industry try to minimize the real felt effects of this constant paper being printed, perhaps things can remain in this twisted manner in perpetuity.
Someone once said markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent, it means that even if mathematically something is supposed to collapse and go under, it can be propped up and given the appearance of solidity. This principle I think applies to the western white man inhabited world.
Standards of living go down.
Real wages for the vast majority of people (85% and up) stay the same or go down ... (mostly go down).
The state becomes slightly fatter and more bloated each year. Infrastructure gets worse. Culture declines, marriage failure goes up, as does depression incidence, suicide, crime, premature death etc.. Look at the indicators for the US in terms of teen pregnancy, violence, etc.
And people become more and more disconnected from the political process as they slowly discover voting is somewhat useless and that corporate interests will always win out whenever it really matters and that the only issues discussed will be largely useless, I live in Quebec and language laws are at the forefront of what people are talking about, basically the QC government is in full fascist mode trying to impose french language onto everyone, in a place where the anglophone community has been not only giant, but ever present, and EXTREMELY productive and profitable for the economy. Many anglophones are moving out of Quebec because of this, a brain and skill drain of sorts.
In some ways this language law issue is really about reducing the economic strength and size of the middle class in Quebec, in other words the point is to impoverish it while at the same time trying to convince people via the media that the goal is to preserve french culture in Quebec (which I don't believe at all).
So I come back to dissent, and how this is being so very well controlled at present.
It's hard to dissent when you're living from paycheck to paycheck, or when the government is supplying you with income in between jobs (which they have to do because the economy sucks). It's hard to dissent when every move you make is digitally foot-printed and can brand you a traitor or extremist, all but eliminating your chances of fitting back into the borg collective we call the job market.
It's hard to dissent when you see endless riots being reported by small media outlets, whereas the large media outlets are still drowning out the actual sequence of events with the corporatocracy's agreed upon interpretation of events. Over time, because the mainstream media has greater reach and repeats its message with greater frequency, the corporate interpretation of events is the only thing people remember. The true history of events is lost. This is perhaps the most subtle and pernicious way of silencing dissent, unless the agent dissenting makes the ultimate victory, you will never have heard of them in 20 years.
It's hard to dissent if you have kids and fear for their safety, survival, and integration into said system.
Enough of this for now, I could discuss this topic until my fingers wither from typing on the keyboard. It's a fun pastime but a meaningful solution to the problems outlined above has yet to materialize.
