Does anybody else see the relevance here?
One would have to be very blind, stupid, or both not to see it.
How many years were we, and Dr. Paul called loons, conspiracy theorists, etc. for making such a claim?
Therein much of the value. The deniers have had the rug yanked out from beneath them. They have NOTHING left. The truth is out, unequivocal, and apodictic. It is now the intelligent man's turn to roll his eyes at the candy-asses whose masturbatory vigor has heretofore been focused on the maintenance of their bunnies-and-light version of the world.
Not in their eyes. No way such people will acknowledge our superior analysis and perception. They will always contrive a phony baloney pretext upon which to attempt to invalidate us in their own shriveled, twisted, and little minds. But we can at least now rub their noses in something against which they will have no defense, at least until the day comes when they drop all pretenses of interest in actual human liberty - and mark my words here that for many of them that day will come and I suspect not too far down the road. They will openly proclaim the State in ways they never before dared. But now they are painted into that particular corner and face the age-old "shit or get off the pot" dilemma. Such people almost never choose the path of responsibility and accountability for themselves and their actions, opinions, and thoughts. I am tempted to assess them as being constitutionally averse to such things. In such people the corruption is the deepest, their stench the foulest, and the danger to the good and righteous man the most clear, present, and profound. Those people will one day before much longer shed the last vestiges of claiming to stand for "human rights" in any sense that the truly liberty-oriented man would ever be able to recognize as such. Their definitions of "freedom" will only spiral ever further away from the right and true meaning of the word. They may continue to use the words "freedom" and "liberty", but their versions will hold diametrically opposing meanings to the same terms as we use them. This is Orwellian operation in its truest and most immediate form. Love is hate. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Liberty is bondage.
I submit that these days are the most dangerous of all in the entire history of the human race, thus far. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst as best you are able because the tinfoil hats have been assayed as golden, rather. We ARE in the Orwellian police state with the superficiality of Huxley's Brave New World pasted on for good effect upon the vast masses of dull-witted and cow-eyed Meaners. It is here. It is now. It ain't "coming", save perhaps for the virtually inevitable amplifications we may expect.
And we should, ALL of us, in ALL our diversity, be out 'there' talking about this every chance we get, with every person we meet.
We should be doing more than just that, but yes - this too.
With each passing day my remaining hope that we can turn this around by conventional means fades a bit more. I cannot say I have the answers because the Meaners are still hopelessly entrenched in their bunnies and light. I have an old queer friend from NJ - a real sweet guy, but heaven forgive him for his mindlessly psychotic view of the world. He loves Obama and thinks that government is here for our benefit - health, security, prosperity, freedom. His notion of liberty is the ability to get wood up whomever he chooses without being "discriminated" against or ending up in prison. I swear to you this is an intelligent person, and yet look at the choices he makes in terms of what he sees and believes! He is, in this sense, a textbook Meaner and it saddens me to think that no matter what befalls this nation, as the walls of his house burn down around him he will to his last breath blame Republicans for the result. He simply refuses to look beyond this shambled fence.
He is so typical of Meaners and it is this set of characteristics that render them so endlessly dangerous to the rest of us. It is precisely the fact that Joey Mean will ultimately become the whipmaster's tool that leads me to the bottomlessly uncomfortable suspicion that the choice soon enough to confront all of us will be to fight (physically) or lay down. There will be no middle grounds available to us. The Meaners are so helpless, so corrupted by the lure of free stuff, and generally of so timid a weave that when things are jarred toward what for them will be the immediately frightening, they will have no capacity nor inclination to stand tall for themselves and those whom they love and respect - I wonder if they love and respect anyone, themselves included - they will turn to their savior, the whipmaster, with beseeching eyes as they wait for instruction. When the instruction comes, they will carry forth with grim and narrow purpose and the rest of us will be painted into the corner of having to decide whether to get on our knees or start shooting.
But in the meanwhile I agree with Deborah - this is an opportunity we cannot afford to pass up. When you're out, strike up conversations with strangers. I have found over the past 30 years that people are most often eager to talk. I have also been very surprised at how many people shared my views. Joey Mean may not be what I think he is; it may be that my opinion has been too strongly influenced by the time I've spent before the television, so beware of that as well - it is very possible that everything I have written here is wrong in some manner and degree. Therefore, keep and open and fluid mind and reach out - it is the only way you will be able to see what is REALLY out there in terms of mindsets.
Would it not prove funny to ultimately find that there were far fewer Meaners than we thought - that there are far more intelligent and better clued-in people out there? We need to start talking with each other more and developing relationships. This distance between us serves Themme. We should remove that advantage as best we can because we are all behind the largest imaginable 8-ball.
Good luck to us.