Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

History is always written by the winners.  Native Americans know it, African Americans know it, Latinos know it, working class people in every country in this world know it, every union member who has ever lived knows it.  Everyone who has ever been beaten into submission by the power of armies, by the power of economic might, by the power of entrenched conservatism, entrenched conformity, and entrenched bigotry knows it.

When two cultures or belief systems clash, the loser is slandered and condemned by the winner, who writes the history books, books which glorify their culture or belief system and sanctify it as inherently superior.  The truth is ignored.  As Napoleon once said, “What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”

And what is the history of corporate capitalism, but a fable agreed upon?  

Agreed upon and proclaimed as the best of all possible systems, as the sacred foundation of modern civilization.  By the bankers, by the corporatists, by the polluters and the exploiters and the weapons makers, by the reciters of fables in both corporate parties, by the corporate media, by the Republican base and too many Democrats, by average Americans.  But more and more Americans no longer believe that fable. They’ve seen too much to believe it any more, they’ve lost too much to believe it any more, they’ve bled too many times to believe it any more.  

Chris Hedges: Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt . . .

The game is up.  The clock is ticking toward internal and external collapse. Even our corporate overlords no longer believe the words they utter.  They rely instead on the security and surveillance state for control.  The rumble of dissent that rises from the Occupy movements terrifies them.  It creates a new narrative.  It exposes their exploitation and cruelty.  And it shatters the absurdity of their belief system.

They know the protests are only beginning.  They’ll try to control them, they’ll use force, and the bigger the protests are, the more force they’ll use.  Clubs.  Tear gas. Pepper spray.  Rubber bullets.  Real bullets.

What is going to be written here when the first protesters are killed?  

What is going to be said?  

What is going to be done?

I haven’t seen any those questions asked anywhere, at any time, on any progressive website.  Not by even one of the deep thinkers featured on the front pages of websites like Daily Kos and FDL. They’re too busy analytically analyzing much more important topics, such as political stragedies and the tactical tactics of attack ad gurus, the trending and untrending trends of the latest polls, and the most vitally vital and crucially crucial issue of all, which corporate hacks of which corporate party are going to control the corporate government once this pig circus of an election campaign is finally over.    

We’d better start asking the questions that need to be asked, because protesters are going to be killed.  It’s just a matter of when and how many.

What are we going to write about it, what are we going to say about it, what are we going to do about it?  That’s what needs to be asked, that’s what needs to be answered, in times like these . . .

I see the storm clouds rise above me,

The sky is dark and the night has come,

I walk alone along this highway,

Where friends have gathered one by one.

I know the storm will soon be over,

The howling winds will cease to be,

I walk with friends from every nation,

On freedom’s highway, in times like these.