Paradocracy

Interesting news on Martin Luther King, Jr. has been released this week; though unverified, recently-uncovered FBI documents indicate that political activist Martin Luther King was allegedly involved with a rape in a Washington, D.C. hotel room in 1964, where he reportedly “looked on, laughed and offered advice” to a fellow preacher who committed the act.  It is precisely this sort of behavior that apparently caused Jackie Kennedy to describe King as a "terrible man" and a "phoney" back in 1964, after she reported that King had bragged of being inebriated at JFK’s funeral, that he had been caught attempting to arrange an orgy during the event.  This news comes with the release of FBI documents — including audio recordings, which will remain sealed at the National Archives until January 31, 2027 — which have, for some odd reason, been included in the latest "JFK files" release.  These recordings were likely obtained through bugging and wiretapping ...

There are several subjects in modern America that have become icons for the masses, whose merits are believed to be self-evident and therefore beyond reproach. Two of those subjects are women's suffrage and the civil rights movement. Throughout our adolescence, our well-intentioned teachers prepare us to accept that the political evolution that has transpired within the United States has expressed the manifest destiny of righteousness and divine providence.  We are made to believe that policy changes and movements have expressed the undeterred courage of humanity toward progress and the shaping of a better world.  It's easy to think this way, because we are so desperate to believe it is true; we are so desperate to shut our eyes at night under the warm blanket of blissful ignorance. Unfortunately, the machinations of politics have much more in common with sausage-making than with any stairway to heaven, and still the results are not nearly as satisfying, let alone ed...

Across the United States, residents appear to have ceded increasing authority and, concomitantly, responsibility to the power structures of government.  Whether at the local, state or federal level, residents appear increasingly prepared, or more likely groomed, to accept government as the universal answer to all social problems; likewise, they appear more prepared than ever to embrace government as the legislator of all things moral and ethical. Where there arises any sort of discomfort, threat or discord within the community, individuals appear more likely than ever to consult law enforcement or, more broadly, the word, suspected word or conscience of the law; they incorrectly assume that the law has a conscience, that its agents are properly incentivized, or even authorized, to promote — or even begin to understand — the interests of the community.  Moreover, where there appears to be no obvious violation of the law, many members of the community have almost robotical...

Taxes serve as a wicked form of indefinite indentured servitude  — a sort of access fee  —  levied against newcomers and existing residents alike who failed to get a stranglehold over the property and the population, then passively relented when the fledgling power structure claimed some rights and privileges over them. The insulated ruling class — the power structure — then cultivates its power with the fertilizers of struggle, silence and stupefying sophistry, which bear the fruit of complex institutions that only the insiders understand, which collectively serve to benefit those who know how to navigate the growing and obfuscatory web, while the stupefied majority and the passive rule-followers look the other way or find reasons to avoid any conflict.  What their principles demand of them, their fear and laziness overcome.  They wishfully assume that justice will come into being on its own, that the world will sort things out — or they otherwise warp th...