Why the "Reset Button" won't work

After all the buzz about the "tea parties" has died down, we can calmly assess what happened, and more importantly, what DID NOT HAPPEN.

Let's go back and look at what happened in Boston on 12/16/1773.

The colonists were unhappy with their government. Similarity to today? Check.

Most of them wouldn't have dreamed of raising a finger against that King and government. Similarity to today? Check.

They wanted to do some symbolic act that sent the King and Government a strong message. They did that, sort of. We just did that, sort of. Similarity, check.

The Government to be clued in, was NOT clued in. Similarity? Definitely.

OK, what happened from that point on into the history books back then in 1773?

Revolutionary war happened. The much-and-oft maligned "reset button".

Will revolutionary war happen this time as a result of those stalwart 300,000 around the nation participating in the "tea parties"?

In a word, no.

Will revolutionary war even get a smidgin closer as a result of the demonstrations? NO (emphatic "NO").

This is going to disappoint some people very badly. It will disappoint Janet Napolitano badly. She was keen on proving up her creds as an anti-insurgency leader, but there's no insurgency, and isn't likely to be, so she gets egg on her face which doesn't quite cover the drool issuing forth from her mouth as she slavers over the possibility of declaring an insurgency and forcibly disarming the US citizenry at the head of her SS battalions.

It will disappoint the Pauloons, who probably were most responsible for getting the word out on the Tea Parties so that they were well attended. The paulistas wanted a ready made force to lead their hero, Dr. Paul, into the position of Number One Conservative, to make him as inevitable as Hillary tried and failed to make herself in 07-08 and as our Dear Leader Obama DID make himself in '08. For that to happen for Rep. Paul, he would have to build on the success of this past week, and do it quickly. People have short attention spans, and the Tea Party Phenomenon will be old news by May Day, and forgotten by Memorial Day, unless some plans are immediately forthcoming to play on it's relative success.

But, we've strayed from topic here. I was supposed to speak of the "reset button", that magical quality that will instantly transport us to the reality of our forebears, who knew that they didn't want a large, overbearing government in their daily lives.

That "reset button" won't happen. Oh, we might invent or buy a grapical model of it and put it on our blogs, but the reality is that unlike in 1773, in 2009, the reset button is not connected to the Reset Mechanism, so when pushed, nothing starts. Historians argue, successfully to my mind, that the Revolutionary War started on 12-16-1773 in Boston Harbor, and not on Concord Green on April 19, 1775. Pamphleteers, the "bloggers" of their day, had been urging demonstrative action against the Crown that would force King George to either admit the Colonists to self-government, or lead directly to war which would be aimed at achieving the same result. Those pamphleteers passed the word that the Tea Ships would be a good target for their forceful demonstration, and when they arrived, the ships were set upon, and their cargoes hijacked and destroyed. We would consider such an action today to be criminal mostly, but back in that day, the colonists knew that such acts would be considered an act of war.

A strong minority of the colonists were fully prepared to go to war with the Crown, but we are not prepared to go to war with the Federal Government.

Here's why.

It's all about the dummies. Yes, THOSE dummies, the sheeple who voted for Obama, the half of our society who have been well-taught to expect AND REQUIRE their Federal government to provide for every facet of their meaningless lives. THOSE DUMMIES, the ones who agreed, despite history, that the US Government should go into crushing debt to try to buy it's way out of the business downturn which the government itself had created by demanding that banks provide credit to non-creditworthy people.

THOSE DUMMIES. Yes.

Yet, they are the same folks that any would-be revolutionary has to convince that a "reset" to the basic and conservative values of our Founders would be appropriate for these times.

Today's American is not going to see any revolution, peaceful OR bloody, through to the end, no matter how much logic it might be supported with.

First of all, the average American IS a dummy, analysis-wise. Our educational institutions have failed, in the last THREE generations, in their primary mission of teaching CRITICAL THINKING and independent thought. Our Public Schools haven't done that since before World War Two.

Second, the same average American HAS successfully been taught that the American Dream consists of more and newer cars in their garages, more and better televisions on which to watch meaningless entertainment, and less and less burden of actual Life intruding on their cozy existence.

To sum up, the Average American has neither the capacity to understand the need for pushing the "reset button", nor the spine to take the deprivations which would go with it.

From a purely military point of view on "regime change" then, there is no possibility of winning over the indigenous population, or of even the minimum for a military revolution, having them stand out of the way while you do your work of unseating the present government.

Nope, no "reset button" for us. The bitter reality is that we do not have the stomach for what has become known as "ethnic cleansing" or genocide.

Genocide?

Yep, to succeed, any revolution in this nation would have to remove most average Americans, because they have tasted the Kool-Aid of "gimme mine", and as converts to the "gimme mine" philosophy of life, are worse for the revolutionary's cause than the most die-hard, jack-booted Homeland Security gauleiter.

It's an impossible set, so let's just quit pretending that the "reset button" can be pushed and make it all go away. When we do that, we have lost OUR ability to think critically and conduct OUR lives on the basis of reason.

So, just like the foolish Grandma down in TX who failed to read her Federal Law and sent envelopes with tea-bag tags, nothing else, to all her elected politicians and got a "visit" by the local gendarmes for her trouble, or the other fool down there who has been yelling "reset button" at the top of his lungs and was finally adjudged to be a threat (got what he wanted, didn't he?), the Government will just pick off the loudest among us one at a time, knowing that we don't have it together enough to rise up and defend these Joans of Arc.

What I want everyone to take away from this long-winded Sunday lesson is just this: lead your own life, make your own peace with reality. Try to convince others to do the same, and if you're successful, you may, just MAY, reverse the "gimme mine" entitlement mindset a bit.

Best of luck.

Comments

[bobby b]

C'mon. We're just cycling through the Stupid Times again.

Think back to the late sixties, early seventies. A rather large mob of well-meaning, self-reverential, oversimplistic "progressives", alienated by a society that, in their minds, served all of the wrong values and gave short shrift to the right values (which, in a happy coincidence, turned out to be their values), banded together in the hundreds of thousands to stop our participation in a murderous war that seemed to them - okay, sadly, I mean "us" - to be the centerpiece for an entire table full of evil and selfishness that Amerikkka had become.

Only later, when we started to view knowledge as being of some importance to a decisionmaking process - when we realized that the facts of the situation maybe didn't quite lead to the conclusions that we'd drawn - did we start to realize that we'd been conned. We'd essentially fought for the empowerment of a class of people who had no sense of honor, who felt no internal pressure to be truthful as long as their lies served their empowerment, who, in the end, had no feeling or concern about the very "underclasses" they'd noisily championed. Their common dream had nothing to do with "we can make their lives better" and everything to do with "I should be in charge."

So, back then, we listened to lying SOS's like Fonda and Kerry and Elsworth, we avidly read the Pentagon Papers and never suspected the huge and dishonest editing job they did on them before we saw them, and we laughed at the straights' expressed fears of what communism might mean for peasant life. (Later, as millions were exterminated by those same innocuous (to us) communist leaders, we pretty much looked the other way and pretended that it was just the growing pains of new freedom in SE Asia. God, we were self-absorbed shits.)

And now, that same cycle has started up again, only they've swarmed all over this two-bit con man from Chicago as their new mantra. (People used to carry or spread mantras. Now, people ARE the mantra. It's just easier, I guess - skip the middlemen.)

[Dan Hamilton]

Rivrdog, I am sorry that I did not make myself clear. The Revolution will not be FOR anarchy.
It will be to reestablish the Constitution. The Government will know what they have done and what they need to do to stop the Revolution.

Yes the fighting will be uncontroled but that has nothing to do with anarchy.

There will be no need to form a NEW Government. The Revolution will have taught the Government that the WORDS of the Constitution have meaning. Words that the Government officials can't change the meaning of anytime they want to.

The Revolution will basicly kick the Government in the ass and force them to abide by the orginial meaning of the words in the Constitution.

ED. NOTE: Yes, that IS the correct goal for a revolution, but the Government will devote considerable time and resources to painting all the revolutionaries as terrorists, not as restorers of the Constitution, and for a time, they will succeed. Only when the Government's atrocities used in suppressing the Revolution become clear to the average American (and HUGE effort will be made to hide them) will the Government lose the support of the dummies and then lose the war.

It looks to be a VERY tough row to hoe.

[Rivrdog]

Dan, your definition of revolution is the classic definition of anarchy. Revolutions with no leadership are rather rare, simply because winning one is an instant loser for the successful anarchist, who doesn't want to form a new government, lead the old government, or any of the usual motivations for insurgencies. You are correct in your forecast of the use of terror, however.

Any anarchists who said they wanted to tear down the society and not replace it with anything but chaos would immediately find themselves in EVERYONE'S gunsights.

[Peter]

I didn't think of this myself, but the idea that the gatherings this week are closer to the reaction to the Stamp Act than the Tea Party make some sense.

The protests of the mid-1760's are closer to what happened this week. The "indians" who boarded that ship were much better organized and did indeed have the proto-bloggers (pamphleteers) set up and running.

Here's a thought: the very beginning of the American Revolution was in January of 1629 when Charles Stuart dissolved Parliament and started the 11 year Personal Rule. Both Oliver Cromwell and William Penn were unknowns then.

[Dan Hamilton]

First and formost I hope and pray that the revolution is NEVER needed and can be avoided.

You seem to misunderstand how the revolution will be fought.

1. It will not touch the sheeple. The Dummies that you talk about. Simply because there is nothing to be gained by getting them involved, or by doing anything to them. They simply don't matter.

2. The military really doesn't matter. Nobody is going to attack them. No reason to. The Government may try and use them but that would be a mistake on their part. The Military serves the Constitution not the Government. What orders will they obey and what orders will they only seem to obey. You could end up splitting the Military not a good idea. if they do get involved it will only help the revolution. The Military will not be effective in this type of revolution. there will be no GROUPS for them to go after. And having them go from house to house doing searches is a realy realy BAD idea. Having them disperse or shoot demonstraters is also not a good idea.

3. The police only as they get in the way when they support the Feds.

4. The Feds will be involved in trying to find and bring to justice the people revolting. The Feds will be targets. People will be caught and charged with murder. It will be intersting to find out what juries will do.

5. The Politicians Judges, and Government workers. They will be the targets. Very few bombs will be used. Some higher officials and officies where all are Feds may get bombed but something like McViegh is unlikely. The revolution will care more about the bystanders then that. The revolution will not be by terrorists. That would be stupid and ineffective.

The Revolution will be done this way.
The Politicians, Judges, and Government workers targeted will be unwilling to continue the actions that are the reason for their targeting. They will rollback what the revolution doesn't like simply to stay alive. It may take years but the supply of Liberals willing to die to become the Politicians, Judges, and Government Workers imposing what the revolution doesn't want will dry up. The Dummies will not have Liberals to elect because Liberals will not run.
The revolution will have almost no leadership. Individuals will decide the targets and carry out their own plans. It will be unlike any other revolution. The leaders will be leaders of the peacefull demonstrations not of the active revolution. There will be no connection between the talkers and the shooters.

The revolution will be bloody and dangerous. Again I hope and pray that it never happens. That it is never needed.

[PawPaw]

I would submit that, allegorically, we're not in the 1770s yet, but sometime in the 1760s. I doubt that our current president will even be in office when we decide to push the reset button. His administration will be gone and we'll be dealing with the aftermath. We'll cite him in a long train of abuses and usurpations, but he'll be a political footnote.

ED. NOTE: Yes, the grisly aftermath, or whatever History decides to call it. I've long thought myself that the "dummy issue" would be sorted out by the Laws of Survival, and so have a lot of other writers and thinkers.

[Letalis Maximus, Esq.]

Empires and Great Societies collapse from within. It happened to the Ming, it happened in Greece, it happened to Persia, it happened to Rome, it happened to the Ottoman, it happened to the Brits and Europeans.

It is happening to us.

[Merle]

In my humble opinion, the educational system has NOT failed.
They have accomplished exactly what they set out to do.

Dumb-down American kids and make them more amenable to the "new world order".

Merle