BORDERS ONE

COMMON SENSE REVISITED - 2022

Forward

Today I post a slightly rewritten version of something I wrote in April 2022. It takes on fresh meaning for me and I hope for readers. Today is 05 December 2022.

Thomas Paine once wrote “These are the times that try men’s souls.” It’s difficult to imagine a better phrase to describe how many of us feel today. the borders we inhabit stretch all of our limits. 

In my case as the mother of six grown children - Musicians, tech executives, psychologists, teachers - I walk the line - carefully. Our children, their families, and our ten grandchildren are the focus of our lives. We live in a house fashioned into a recording studio and live gratefully among the baking of bread, the patter of little feet and the sound of great music.

In 2022 we Americans find ourselves in limbo. More than a year after our former President was hounded from office by a corrupt political establishment, a corrupt media and corrupt institutions, we are in curious bind. We may or may not been in favor of having this man as our president but that is not the main issue.For it is not the first time in American history or in our lives that a President or Candidate was forced out of consideration by corruption or other violence. Few of us are content to keep the status quo and yet finding our way out will be intensely complex and dangerous.

As American citizens we question our role in a war now taking place ostensibly between the Ukraine and Russia. Most of us realize how quickly it could explode into dire, nuclear conflict. Do we support the Ukrainian people or their corrupt leadership? Can we truly understand the reasons why Russia is fighting. Those complicated but real issues are at the heart of this and important to be answered.

At a time when we are under intense propaganda from all sides, when we cannot even send our children to school without worrying over their safety and the harmful influences they may be exposed to, how do we see our way to any truth. Many of us have asked why common sense appears to be dead. Any of the topics I raise here can use a full discussion and yet this is only one quite limited one.

Here I hope to open a discussion of all this, based on common sense and common purpose. Seems a great deal to expect but as a Mother & Grandmother I see with loving eyes the peace we all can embrace under a common cause. As simply an ordinary person I can say I’m in no way qualified to write this. As a citizen of the once Revolutionary Republic of America I argue that I have no other choice. Many others with more education and talent write and discuss this, offering far superior advice and I am indebted to their work.

We are not alone in feeling lost and confused amidst the topsy turvy history of our country. After all, our perhaps distant ancestors - Native Americans - have always been the original inhabitants, themselves descendants of many thousands of years of rich history. Our European Ancestors, be they Vikings or not, were latecomers, arriving as explorers or as immigrants or both. 

In the late 1700’s as Thomas Paine wrote his “Common Sense” pamphlet Colonists were facing a daunting stew of dissatisfaction with British rule. This resembled civil war since many of the participants were directly British or in close alliance. It was different than a civil war in that they would be fighting their oppressors both at home and around the planet.

Many colonists were of British origin and all were technically British subjects, regardless of national origin. In this they were all united in being subjects of the British monarchy. The King was levying unfair taxes and imposing dire punishments on any perceived rebellion. The penalty for going against the King was death. In fact, many of their friends and relatives had perished in this way. Going into open rebellion against the British Empire was unthinkable and yet many did. 

It wasn’t as if these colonists weren’t already engaged in conflict. The Native Americans of these colonies were not happy with  the invasion of European settlers and there were frequent deadly conflicts, harmful to both sides. The distinction between the wars between the colonists and Native Americans before, during and after the Revolution was a gray area. Wars between the Native Americans and Americans would intensify after the Revolution and continue until the Native Americans were killed or imprisoned in circumscribes areas.

Although once the Revolution was over the Founding Fathers would borrow important parts of the Constitution from the governments of the Native Americans they would in fact fail to guarantee Native Americans the same equal rights.  Also there were many African American enslaved people who would find it necessary to endure many years before they would gain their freedom. Women, too, were relegated to the status of 2nd class citizens. Some of these painful issues have improved slowly over time but are still present.

Although those who created and finally saw the US Constitution begin to guarantee “unalienable rights” to many Americans the clear-eyed radicals such as Paine, Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Madison, Franklin and their compatriots are often criticized for their short sightedness - they were well aware the union was imperfect. As in anything we do in life there are always unwelcome tradeoffs.

So where does that leave us today? Undoubtably we have inherited an imperfect union. Were it perfect we wouldn’t be facing these issues. We must accept responsibility as citizens however our founding ancestors understood that it was solely citizens who create a perfect union. Without the meticulous, constant review of our government by we as citizens, governments fail. So we have a constant responsibility to insure we have sufficient access and information to carry out our duties of review and a process for correction when necessary. Big,big job. The first refuge of scoundrels is lies and invariably they attempt to cover their lies by the prevention of free speech.

Thomas Paine argued that America should be the land of the free. We still believe this today although it is difficult to argue that it is still true, let alone even possible. Governments, any government, attract those who desire power above all things.  Although our union was formed with the idea of cultivating educated, wise citizens who would elect representatives motivated by public service the opposite has happened. In most cases we have elected representatives to Washington, D.C, who are motivated by greed and corruption.

We learn that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is true of any powerful organization - governments, institutions or corporations. In fact Thomas Jefferson once warned:

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around (these banks) will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Today it is happening differently than Jefferson’s careful, precise description. Currently we have private banks, corporations, and institutions forming the problem - in synergy with governments that appear to believe they have the authority to act as a private entity - divorced from the will of the people. 

In other words we have an autocratic government working in synergy with privately controlled corporations, banks and institutions to institute policy. This is completely backwards and upside down. In America we the people are supposed to have the power to apply our will to the government who is in turn expected to control the power of corporations, banks, institutions. And yet today the major threats we face to freedom come from this synergy of the US government with formerly private and regulated entities. 

To this diabolical synergy I apply the term Corporatocracy. It is from this we must extract ourselves. Over two years ago as I used this term Corporatocracy my spell checker balked. But I came to use it more and more often as awkward a term as it is.

This Corporatocracy is very powerful, extending their control into every facet of our daily lives. Those of us who wish to discuss views alternative to the so-called mainstream are largely out of luck. We must use current communication vehicles such as the internet but are censored at every turn.

Pain wrote:

"This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still."

To what safe haven are we going to flee to today? There may be a few refuges remaining but by and large the entire planet is endangered by this tyranny of the Corporatocracy.

In 2022 there are many immigrants in America seeking freedom and fleeing repression from many parts of the world. We face today in America however a tyranny similar to that which drove us from Europe to North America in colonial days. No longer threatened necessarily by monarchies, we seek economic opportunity, and a promise of the human rights,  including free speech, guaranteed by the US Constitution. After all we can make a good case for noting that it was a bunch of European Corporatists who ruled over colonial enterprise. We ask - has the East India Company, deeply invested in The Thirteen Colonies, ever lost its grip?

To make matters worse, the Corporatocracy is well entrenched everywhere. To understand this we must study an entity known as the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF is still unknown to many despite the fact they have existed for years, have an open website detailing their aims, associates, and intent. On the surface this group is closely aligned with Davos, Switzerland - the geographical location of the WEF annual meeting, attended by world corporate and government leaders. The existence of this group is interestingly often decried as a conspiracy theory, despite their open website and their well-publicized meetings.

The best introduction to WEF is their own website. With the stated goal of achieving “digital inclusion” they go into detail on the Metaverse - this is similar to the Meta dreams of the formerly known Facebook corporation. it is best advised the reader do their own investigation of this group to decipher the stated purposes and goals. There are quite a few books written on it and many articles and commentary. Many take a strong exception to the WEF’s claims to be working toward a more inclusionary world. 

Led by the colorful Klaus Schwab, they have thousands of trained and dutiful supporters located through out both national and small regional governments across the planet. These leaders are not known for their support of the intent of documents like the US constitution, nor do they appear to encourage free speech. Furthermore these supporters are entrenched in nearly all of the large corporations we interact with frequently. The list of corporate WEF members manages to be frightening in its scope. The WEF is associated with something called the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It may be helpful to remember here that the First Industrial Revolution was marked by the American Civil War.

In 2022, considering the above, i might rewrite Jefferson’s concerns like this:

If the American people and/or the people of the world ever allow governments, organizations, corporations, banks, and institutions to control any important aspects of they or their families lives, the entities that will grow up around these will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers fought and died for.”

Obviously in this instance organizations would most definitely include the World Economic Forum.

As far as free speech goes the First Amendment says: 

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Here we all recognize that no law is necessary to curtail free speech, only the implied threat that free speech may get one into trouble or cause one to be rejected by others. Additionally it is not only Congress, but now corporations, who have the capability of limiting free speech.

Our Revolutionary ancestors likely never imagined the internet although early awareness of the use of something called an “Analytical Machine” was underway in Britain. Augusta Ada King (1815-1852), daughter of Lord Byron, was a mathematician and early innovator. By the 1830’s the idea was popular in Europe.

We may have come a long way, babe, but we seem no closer to sanity.