"… In what way in the modern world can networks of young men pour endless hours into Maoist Struggle Sessions, demonstrations of loyalty, ideological radicalization, wargaming of tactics and weapons, physically demanding group outings, and political purification… All without attracting the interests of Feds or Women? All without being observable by the NSA? All while actually interacting with their fellow human beings IN PERSON?
It was an impossible question… With the most extraordinary of answers.
It reminds me of short story “Someday” by Isaac Asimov:
“… We can go down right after school and start learning.”
“Sure!” cired Niccolo. “We can be club officers.”
“I’ll be president of the club,” said Paul, matter-of-factly. “You can be vice-president”.
I read that( although I’m kinda turned off the site after Kulak’s “Screw Holocaust Education,” rant a few days ago…). Thought it was funny, but at first I thought maybe she was describing something that’s happening now. Poor young white guys. Now if they’re from wealthy families, they’re kinda cushioned from the worst of it, but working class , or what I’d call “upper working class”guys, whose parents are blue collar but made a nice life, comfy home maybe even two—those guys are kinda…gobsmacked. . Bewildered. And so are their parents, on their sons’ behalf. It is so tragic.
The book club is a clever idealized approach to permit survival of even the smallest effort at resistance (anything larger or more easily surveilled will be strangled in the crib). Like most of us here, I think, I find myself constantly revisiting and amending my beliefs about the nation in which I grew up. I even used to wholeheartedly subscribe to the notion of “American Exceptionalism”. No longer, sadly, as I am seeing the many ways I was fooled. My overriding sense as I approach my exit is betrayal.
You see, I thought humanity - represented by the post- WWII US - had turned a corner, such that certain horrors could not ever happen again. How wrong I was; all I need do to be reminded is quickly take in the headlines of any day. Even worse is the a-historicism of progressivism. Nothing they undertake in pursuing their unique received wisdom, is rooted in the past. Every moment, they fervently believe is a clean slate, awaiting their uniquely sage inscription.
I am about half way through reading The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: The Final Analysis: Forensic Analysis of the JFK Autopsy X-Rays Proves Two Headshots from the Right Front and One from the Rear by David W. Mantik MD, PhD. This stunning and strictly scientific book makes it painfully clear that (our representative state, we then believed) there is no doubt that President Kennedy died as a result of a conspiracy involving two assassins.The assassination and subsequent coverups and massive propaganda have successfully obfuscated the truth, to this day.
If the state’s functionaries at the highest levels can lie with such impunity, so effectively, for so long, how can we ordinary people have any hope of understanding the reality of the times in which we live. At every level (mainly state + mega-corporation), we are fed “curated” facts and “analysis by experts”. This has been elevated to Rococo adornment by those in power, whose only goal is to retain and expand their power - their homiletics notwithstanding - and to crush any possible words of opposition, however ethical, peaceful or reasoned.
Perfectly said, CW. About the JFK assassination, really?? Does the book have anything to say about who and why? The mafia? The CIA? And did Marilyn Monroe really off herself?
Golly it’s like in the movie Sleeper. Suddenly we’re waking up to find out that everything we took for granted was false.
I’ve long had a theory that this happens to everybody. We all have prejudices and assume paradigms we live by; things we call “common sense” ( which inevitably the passage of time always reveals to be neither as common nor as sensible as they once seemed). And as we get old the paradigms crumble. And eventually we can’t negotiate the world any longer, we withdraw, and we die.
When you have finished that, I would recommend reading “Mortal Error: The Shot That Killed JFK”, by Bonar Menninger (1992). It is a thorough review of the available information, especially forensic, that reaches a different conclusion.
In Menninger’s analysis, Kennedy was hit by two shots, each from an entirely different weapon. The shot through JFK’s neck came from Oswald’s WWII weapon – a full metal jacket bullet which was recovered. The second shot that blew off the back of JFK’s head was from a then-modern AR-14 rifle – with a bullet which disintegrated. The AR-14 shot was fired in mistake in the heat of the moment by an (identified) Secret Service agent in the vehicle behind JFK’s limo.
In this interpretation, VP Johnson was quickly told that the Secret Service was responsible for JFK’s death. Johnson decided to squash the evidence – thus creating the uncertainty that continues to this day. But Johnson thereafter prohibited the Secret Service from following his car.
Menninger’s hypothesis is that, yes, there was a conspiracy – just not any of the ones we think.