How to Turn the Inevitable into Evitable

As Mr. Blunt and Cranky has been ranting all week, we in America are in danger of a revolutionary civil war so horrifying, it would put Edgar Allen Poe off his lunch.  Said conflict seeming inevitable due to the determined lack of action amongst America’s new (and not entirely Constitutional) ruling class of Politicians, Plutocrats and Pundits (three buckets of Pee running the country. And we wonder why things stink).

There are things we, the citizens of the United States can do to make this an “evitable” conflict. Simple things that require us to open our hearts and minds, work together, and stick to our task. Things that, alas, we have not been doing of late:

Thing Number A: Recognize that we are being played. Taken for a ride. Conned. Used like a crack whore at a biker party. Yep, that’s America in 2012: the Three Pees have been doing all that and more to us for decades now, and until we admit it to ourselves, we cannot do anything about it. Our media is largely comprised of biased, fact-challenged profit-centered pundits, and far too many of us listen and believe without question. Our employers are piling up cash that they have removed from our paychecks, pensions and benefits. Our elected “representatives” are mostly bought-and-paid-for tools of whichever lobbyist has the biggest wads of cash.  All of these people are screwing us, laughing behind their faces the while.

Almost NONE of our major institutions currently have the best interests of the American People at heart. Until you accept this reality, you are trapped.

Thing Letter Two: Money has infiltrated and corrupted virtually every institution in America. That means only people with money get what they want. And since most of us don’t have lots of money, the majority of taxpaying Americans get bupkis for our contributions to the system. We need to yank the snouts of our Politicos out of the money troughs in which they currently grunt and snuffle. We need to demand that our media give us fact-based news coverage by taking away the profit motive that currently drives the “content” we are being fed. We need to insist that people earn a living wage: that alone could take a big bite out of the deficit, as well as helping to stabilize our society.

Thing The Third: Hold our “Representatives” to account. Currently, we keep re-electing these slimeballs regardless of how corrupt they are, how they screw us, and how little they accomplish. If the electorate would simply vote out the worst of the bunch, that would help “induce” the remainder to, you know, actually work for us for a change.

None of the above ideas is rocket science; in fact, they are not original. They are things we all say we should be doing. But we haven’t been doing them, and since we have been lazy, things are rapidly heading towards an increasingly bleak and potentially nation-wrecking crisis. But if we actually do the needful, we can turn that “inevitable” cataclysm into a renewed, strong, peaceful and prosperous nation.

Mr. B & C

Another Inevitable Conflict ? (If the American Ruling Class Doesn’t Get a Clue, We Will All Be F***ed)

As an avowed Radical Centrist and student of history, Mr. Blunt and Cranky is of the belief that no revolution is “inevitable”. Looking at example after example throughout time, we can see that if Leader So-and-So had paid attention and done the needful, Revolution XYZ need not have occurred.  As Isaac Asimov phrased it, conflicts can be “evitable”.

Such was the case in the French Revolution: the monarchy was informed by their ministers and experts of the steps that had to be taken to avert catastrophe, but said royals did not take the required actions. Result: a very bloody and damaging revolution that killed and despoiled the innocent along with the guilty. Read up on the Terror to see how bad things got at that time.

Bad as that was, a breakdown in 21^st-century America would be far worse. Reasons:

Number A: At the beginning of the French Revolution, there was a clear pair of sides – the 1% of the day, versus everybody else. Not so in 2012 America; we are fractured across lines of ethnicity, religion, income, geography and culture. If things go to Hell, we will find ourselves in a confusing, cluster-f***ed multi-sided conflict that would make our previous Civil War look tame by comparison.

Letter 2: Not that many people in 18^th-century France had firearms, and those they did have were primitive. Modern Americans own millions of sophisticated weapons. Add in related hardware and other supplies, and it is clear that we can pretty much kill anyone and everyone in the nation if we think we “have to”.

Thirdly: We live in a society that is more interconnected than any other in the history of Earth. Our banking, food, shelter, safety, transportation, health care; these and many more essential elements of modern life are dependent on a stable society. Any breakdown in society would cause us to lose the most basic tools we need to secure the essentials of life. That means that millions upon millions of us would die.

And this need not happen. Our new ruling class of Politicians, Plutocrats and Pundits (a load of Pee, as it were) may be too stubborn, vain, stupid, narcissistic, greedy and deliberately myopic to see beyond the next media cycle, but We The People have the power to change things. Power vested in us by the Constitution.  No guns required.

Folks, it is just this simple: if we keep our heads buried in the sand, our asses will be kicked in. Only by pulling our heads out and working together can we avoid yet another “evitable” revolution.

Tomorrow: some peaceful, bipartisan actions we could take to save our national a**es.

Mr. B & C