Posted on 12/09/2001 2:44:19 PM PST by brityank
The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority; it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind; it is the appeaser's intellectual abdication that invites them to take over. When a culture's dominant trend is geared to irrationality, the thugs win over the appeasers. When intellectual leaders fail to foster the best in the mixed, unformed, vacillating character of people at large, the thugs are sure to bring out the worst. When the ablest men turn into cowards, the average men turn into brutes.
Pharisees and Environmentalists (of the wacko sort). Not a lot changes in two millennia. It's just a matter of morphing, of a sort.
This guy Buchal (an attorney, no less) has my vote for any office he chooses to seek. :)
During the past five decades we have indeed become a nation of appeasers. And we were made that way through indoctrination which took place on two fronts:
So we have become a nation ruled by apathy/sedation/appeasement. It's easier to go along than to think critically, or to investigate....or even (God forbid) rebel. (Bill Bennett devotes an entire book on this subject in The Death of Outrage). And when good and able men resort to indifference, the cream no longer rises to the top. The sludge does (witness the Clinton years).
I would go one step further than Buchal's 'When intellectual leaders fail to foster the best in the mixed, unformed, vacillating character of people at large, the thugs are sure to bring out the worst.' America's (so-called) intellectual leaders are in cahoots with the thugs (in many cases, they are one and the same). They are not only failing to foster 'the best' in the people at large. They are deliberately suppressing 'the best' in favor of the intellectual mediocrity of the masses. Our (so-called) intellectual leaders are a part of the master plan to dupe the masses. And how better to do so than to cultivate mediocrity, refuse to reward excellence, and elevate Buchal's 'average men' (even 'thugs') to positions of power.
The 'Dark Forces' to which Buchal refers are self-appointed people (and self-appointed groups of people) who have decided that they know what is best for the rest of us. And Buchal's 'we are always just one generation away from the Dark Ages' is right on the money. Our (perhaps subliminal, but no less dangerous than if it were realized) collective policy of appeasing the would-be tyrants blazes that very path back to the Dark Ages. And right now the only thing standing in the way of that reversion is the handful of thinking people who are screaming from the rooftops (and who, thus far, have made enough noise to keep the ship from sinking). But the proportion of screamers is becoming smaller every day, and it won't be long before the apathetic appeasers' I-don't-want-to-be-bothered attitude is the rule of the day.
Our nation was (temporarily?) awakened by the holocaust of 9/11. But, as heinous and foreboding as that day proved to be, in the long run, it is intellectual abdication on a national/global scale, of the sort that Buchal is describing as occurring in Oregon, that at least 'invited' that very holocaust. If America is to 'fall,' it will be the intellectual abdication of her people that removed her underpinnings.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand... It never did... and it never will... Find out just what the people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.....Frederick Douglas
What "leadership" we witnessed among Clinton-dumb, there is not much difference found in the board room which actually supported him.
Presently, we face what was once remarkable growth built upon technology, but is instead, now, stymied by debate which, by whatever politico- or corporate-speak it may pass, escapes the technical requirements of reliability, durability, maintainability and the willingness to both invest and support same.
Meaning that the "higher-ups'" methods, when faced by a "zirk fitting" which requires grease, is to have the "zirk fitting" removed, and all the grease guns removed, and the grease contracts canceled, and the guys who protest "canceled" --- in order to serve corporate or gov't appearances of "being on top of things" . . . while at the bottom of the pile of aluminum, now compressed, by the failure of the aircraft's rudder, it required grease.
That says it all, pretty lady. We have wandered quite far--in the wrong direction--in the last 225 years.
It's the nature of the deal these two forces would one day merge in a symbiotic union straight from Hell.
Interestingly, the scheister who advocated, by penultimately driving the rural people broke via various mechanisms, laws et al?
*Their* agenda would ultimately be realized in totality?
This very mentality provides important & invaluable insights (if not confirmation?) into just what tack these forces have decided to take for dealing with those who'll remember, witnessed their usurption of an entire culture's sanity & (once) common sense?
The plan's a simple one; outwait the witnesses as they grow older, wander-off and/or die.
While in between, simply ignoring whatever's said in defiance of their action(s)?
It appears it's been clearly understood a broken spirit's an equivalent to a broken wallet in a Republic; in that both present the least amount of resistance.
Makes maintaining one's tenacity & a clear head more important now, than ever before in our Republic's history.
...as such the old quote is truer now than ever before, too; "Growing old ain't for sissies."
Grange Leader Joins Protest Against Western Water Shut-Off
Robert Clouse, National Grange Executive Committee Chairman, took part in a community rally that drew more than 15,000 people to protest the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation decision not to supply irrigation water this summer to 1500 farmers and ranchers in Northern California and Southern Oregon. Clouse, of Orangevale, California, was actually representing the District of Colombia in the “Bucket Brigade” of 51 individuals representing the 50 states and the District of Colombia who each dumped a bucket of water into a dry irrigation canal to illustrate the nationwide impact and consequence of the Bureau’s decision.
Under the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, the Bureau of Reclamation will allow the water that would have gone to irrigate crops and pastures in the valley this year to flow to the Pacific Ocean in order to protect the habitat of several fish species that have been found to be endangered. No one disagrees that this region of the country is suffering from the second worst drought in 100 years. The controversy comes from the decision by the federal government to place the entire burden of dealing with the low water levels on the backs of farmers and ranchers, many of whose families homesteaded the area at the encouragement of the federal government and the Bureau of Reclamation following World War I and World War II. As a result of this decision, direct and indirect economic losses to the farms, ranches and agriculturally related businesses in the Klamath River Valley could exceed $400 million this year.
Addressing the rally, Clouse stated, “The National Grange recognizes that the protection of the environment and the conservation of our natural resources are vital priorities. However, the zealous pursuit of unrealistic and unnecessary environmental goals is causing severe economic damage to the farms and industries that are important to our country. And more importantly, these uncompromising environmental edicts seriously endanger out liberty. We do not believe that Americans must sacrifice their prosperity or surrender their constitutional rights in order to preserve our environment.” His remarks were met with hearty applause.
The National Grange, the nations oldest rural advocacy organization with 300,000 members in 3600 grass roots organizations across 37 states, has for more than a decade petitioned Congress to amend the Endangered Species Act to restore proper perspective to the law by requiring public hearings and economic impact statements on the affected areas before a species can be listed. According to Clouse, all Americans must share the burden of preservation, not just those unfortunate enough to live in the vicinity of an endangered species.
Sorry to say, but the only mention I knew of the Grange is the Four-H Clubs; I suspect most other city-folk are the same. I know from searching on the web that the Grange is a good and needed organization, but it seems that it only preaches to the choir. I am glad you are here to give us the info on what they do, but the Grange needs to get out in front of the sheeple and show just how much damage is being done to the rural way of life. Sorry if that seems harsh, but for ten years and 300,000 members in 37 states there's not a lot of visibility.
I've been to several County and State Fairs around the NorthEast, and always stopped at the 4-H displays, mostly 'cause I like the animals and the kids and the pride they show in telling you about them. I do not recall ever seeing any info about the problems such as those on Property Rights is not just a Western problem. Until I saw the bits about the TVA I had no idea just how overbearing and illegal that whole debacle had become.
Any way you cut it; it's downright depressing and maddening. Take care, FRiend.
"A New Century, A New Grange."
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