The Time of Deceit

[andyOsalek]

David Bowie and Trent Reznor 'HURT'

Ron Paul 2012

[pooper189]

force internet service providers to turn over records of our surfing habits, and tap our phones and record our calls. It can deny us the right to travel without certain government approved "papers." It can send its agents into our homes without warrant and remove whatever it wishes, without ever notifying us even. The president claims that he can seize anyone, including American citizens, and turn them into non-persons.

[pooper189]

The Soviet Union is gone, and America. . . well, if you had told us in the 1970s or 1980s what America would be like today, and where it seems to be heading, I don't think we would have believed you.

You see, today the American government tells us that it can spy on us whenever and however it likes. It can read our e-mail and postal mail, track our financial records, pry into our medical histories, force libraries to turn over lists of the books we read,

[pooper189]

But we were still the "land of the free," and our institutions and daily lives backed that claim to a high degree, certainly in comparison to the Soviet Union.

This is the dream that was America versus the nightmare that was the Soviet Union.

Now, fast-forward in time. As I write this, fewer than twenty years have passed since the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War specter lifted.

[pooper189]

Americans could say what they wished, engage in whatever peaceful political activities they wished, with no fear of violent reprisal. Americans did not disappear into gulags. If the government accused you of illegal activities, it had to give you a day in court and prove its case before a jury of your peers. Sure, America had its problems; virtually everyone admitted that.

[pooper189]

We called this oppressive, militaristic mega-state "the Evil Empire," and we prided ourselves on being everything that the Soviets were not.

In America, the common man had enforceable rights, even where the government was concerned. Americans were not the property of the state. You could travel where you wished, and most of the time the government didn't care about what you were doing.

[pooper189]

Government agents could kick your door down in the middle of the night, drag you away to a state prison, torture you and even execute you. Your family would never know where you were. More than likely, you would not have legal council or ever see the inside of a courtroom. You were the property of the state, which was free to do whatever it liked with you.

[pooper189]

And it wasn't just government agents that you had to be concerned about; you also had to live with the fear that your own friends, co-workers or family members might report you for "suspicious activities" or "politically questionable statements," sometimes for no other reason than to endear themselves to the communist party bosses. You had no enforceable rights where the state was concerned.

[pooper189]

I clearly remember being taught that, in the Soviet Union, fear ruled with an iron fist. Spies were everywhere. The secret police could listen in on your phone calls at any time. They could read your mail. They could search your home and other property and seize whatever they liked. You could never be certain that you weren't being watched, no matter where you were. You had to carry identification papers everywhere you went, and many times you had to have permission to travel very far at all.

[scottliberty]

You need to turn the background music down just a titch, But it looks very interesting.

[pooper189]

definitely. I'm a huge Ron Paul fan... We need a revolution.

[PVJared]

To pooper189,

How do we spread this message to blacks and hispanics. They're too fooled to think that a man of color is going to challenge the status quo.

What do we do now? If we don't approve of Obama we're automatically racist. We're automatically homophobic, we're automatically terrorists.

What do we do now?

[pooper189]

Actually, I'm struggling with this very problem with some of my white friends. Even those with the same Judeo-christian background, same school teachers, etc.

Actually, I posted a very interesting article (i'll forward it) on my facebook profile, and my republican friends who were very against Obama's ideals from the start were not very open. Actually one friend's response to me was "Why doesn't agree to your political posts?"

They think I'm an extremist: I look at the whole picture.

[pooper189]

I just want to say that I didn't write this, because I cannot put the problem that we're facing today this eloquently. However, I do believe that the message is there- we can't keep this up anymore. We need to change, the American people know it, yet no one has done anything about it. Written by Robert Hawes, The Dream That Was America.

[pooper189]

In Ridley Scott's film Gladiator, the ailing Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (portrayed by the late Richard Harris) travels from the comforts of Rome to the muddy battlefields of second-century Germania on a mission.

[pooper189]

The Roman army, fighting under the capable leadership of General Maximus (Russell Crowe), has finally defeated the Germanic tribesmen, and Aurelius now longs to turn his attention from the maintenance of an empire to the restoration of a republic. The chief obstacle that stands in his way is his own failing health. Rome needs a young, strong and vigorous leader to take it down the path that Aurelius envisions.

[pooper189]

His son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) is weak and spoiled, full of base ambition, not at all the man for the job of relinquishing power. Maximus is the man Aurelius wishes to succeed him to the imperial seat, but Maximus is tired of war and strife, and more than anything else he simply wants to return home. In the following lines of dialogue, Aurelius struggles to convince Maximus that Rome still needs its finest soldier:

[pooper189]

MAXIMUS: "5,000 of my men are out there in the freezing mud. 3,000 are cleaved and bloodied. 2,000 will never leave this place. I will not believe they fought and died for nothing."

AURELIUS: "And what would you believe?"

MAXIMUS: "They fought for you and for Rome."

AURELIUS: "And what is Rome, Maximus?"

MAXIMUS: "I have seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark. Rome is the light."

AURELIUS: "Yet you have never been there. You have not seen what it has become.

[pooper189]

I am dying, Maximus. When a man sees his end he wants to know that there has been some purpose to his life. How will the world speak my name in years to come? Will I be known as the philosopher, the warrior, the tyrant? Or will I be remembered as the Emperor who gave Rome back her true self? There was once a dream that was Rome, you could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile. And I fear that it will not survive the winter."

[pooper189]

Most of you probably know the story. Commodus learns of his father's intentions, kills Aurelius and tries to do the same to Maximus, who barely escapes with his life. Maximus is sold into slavery, becomes a gladiator, and eventually fights in the Colosseum under the eye of Commodus. At one point in the film, Maximus points toward the bloodthirsty crowd awaiting him and exclaims, "Marcus Aurelius had a dream that was Rome... And this is not it. This is not it!"

[pooper189]

Say whatever derogatory thing you will about Hollyweird; chances are, I'll see your insult and raise you a little righteous indignation. But every once in a while a film comes along with a message that rings true in a powerful way. Braveheart was such a film. And while Gladiator isn't quite on the same level (the story it depicts is fictional), it carries its own impact. The struggle it portrays, that of a good man battling against evil in high places, has universal appeal.

[pooper189]

And every time I hear Richard Harris speaking as Marcus Aurelius I can't help but think: there was once a dream that was America too, and I fear that it may not survive the next election.

For a moment, set aside your party affiliation and whatever special interest you might have and travel back in time with me. We won't need to go far; the seventies and eighties will do just fine. This was the era in which I grew up.

[pooper189]

It was also the latter part of the Cold War. The Soviet Union was our great enemy. Why? Because the Soviets were communists, and communists were the sworn enemies of freedom. They were not merely authoritarians but totalitarians. They believed in absolute state control over every aspect of an individual's life, and they were intent on spreading their system throughout the world.

[brder4ev]

It is astounding what we are putting up with I am simply ashamed.

[PVJared]

What do we do now?

We're still bitching about wedge issues about gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research and flag burning. Why can't we get off of that?

Obama doesn't deserve my support. Neither does anyone of color or gender. He's just a new face of an old oppressor.

So what do we do?