Face it, there is nothing left to protest
What happens when there's nothing left to protest, nothing real anyway? Well, for one thing you get protests like the one currently happening on Wall Street where the protesters don't seem to know why they're there and for the most part they don't have a clue. They are being used by organizers, professional organizers who do this sort of thing for a living, like Barack Obama before them they make a living by stirring up trouble where none exists. Don't get the Skeptic wrong, there's plenty wrong on Wall Street and the Skeptic would love to make some changes but getting a bunch of clueless kids and union workers down there to protest is pointless. There is a real sickness in our society that the Skeptic is not entirely sure we can ever recover from before it kills us and as much as it hurts the Skeptic to say this the sickness is on the right as well as the left. We have become a nation divided in more ways than the Skeptic could have ever imagined twenty years ago. Things have gotten so out of hand that it's difficult to imagine that we'll ever get back to the days when we could, at the very least, agree on a few things. Believe it or not there was once a time in America when the left and right weren't nearly as far apart as they are today. There was a common enemy, the Soviet Union, and people were doing business with each other instead of demonizing each other. It was almost as though we liked each other but disagreed on a few big issues but something has clearly happened and it's ripping this country apart. Once upon a time the issues were big but there didn't seem to be as many of them, we argued about civil rights and in the end did the right thing but we didn't disagree on everything like we do now. The last time the country was this divided we ended up killing about six hundred thousand of our fellow citizens. It's hard to imagine that ever happening again but the Skeptic doesn't rule out the possibility that people could die before this works itself out.
In the twenty-five years after the Second World War there were plenty of legitimate causes that, let's be honest, needed to be addressed. The number one issue of course was that a large segment of the population was being treated like third class citizens and it had been going on for almost a hundred years with no real action by the government to put a stop to it. The Skeptic is surprised that blacks put up with it as long as they did, especially given the fact that they'd put up with two hundred years of slavery before they were allegedly freed after the Civil War. But after a hundred years of being insulted, being lynched, being forced to live in poverty along side their former masters, these descendents of slaves finally rose up and demanded to be treated equally, it was long overdue and well worthy of protest. But we are now forty plus years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act and almost sixty years after Brown vs Board of Education, blacks no longer have to put up with that sort of treatment. You'd never know it to listen to Al Sharpton and others but if you're honest with yourself you can't honestly say there is much overt discrimination anymore but that doesn't stop Sharpton, the race hustler, from looking for trouble where none exists. And why not, it's been very good for Mr. Sharpton but not so much for the people he professes to help. Are there instances of discrimination? Of course but it's not institutionalized and it's not widespread, overweight people and old people are discriminated on a regular basis, it happens, it's not right or pretty but we can deal with it without widespread protests.
Then there was the war, back in the sixties we were involved in a senseless war in Vietnam that no one could justify to the Skeptic's satisfaction, there was a vague notion that if Vietnam fell to the communists other countries in the region would fall as well, the Skeptic doubts it would have happened but if it did he wouldn't care, the Skeptic isn't that interested in poking our collective noses into other people's business unless it truly means something here in this country and Vietnam didn't qualify, the Skeptic cares about what is happening here, not elsewhere. If we ever figure things out to the point there are no problems here we can start worrying about other countries and other people. We can't live in peace together and solve our own economic problems so the Skeptic thinks we should keep our advice to ourselves, after all, if we can't get along and run a prosperous country how much is our advice really worth? Today, well, over the last ten years we've been poking our noses all over the place and the Skeptic still isn't convinced that is in our best interests but no one protests our forays into Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, why? Maybe there's no money in protesting wars?
So our plethora of professional protesters can't be bothered to raise their voices against three wars where American men and women are dying for reasons still unsatisfactorily explained but they can still stop traffic in New York over...the Skeptic isn't exactly sure why they're protesting and apparently neither are they. When asked by reporters why they were camping out on Wall Street none of them seemed to have an answer, the Skeptic thinks if you're going to take time out of your life to protest something you ought to know why your doing it but this crowd chants meaningless phrases in unison and thinks we ought to pay attention to them.
Protests like this one and all the causes embraced by the likes of Al Sharpton are undertaken because they promote dissension and they're succeeding, they want to divide us more and more every year until it gets to the point where utter chaos rules the day.
So why would anyone want chaos? Chaos means riots, death and anger but it also leaves a power vacuum and that's what the radical left wants in the end because nature abhors a vacuum and someone will inevitably step up to fill it. Who would that someone be? Well not Sharpton, that's for sure, he's a buffoon who has learned to profit from hate but he's not the type of individual who could step up and lead the country. No, it won't be Sharpton...it could be Obama, surprisingly, enough people still take him seriously and he already has his hands on the levers of power. Something like this, if it truly gets out of hand could turn the president into a virtual dictator, he's indicated enough times that he'd prefer it that way so it shouldn't surprise anyone if it were tried.
I know all this sounds a little like one of the Skeptic's least favorite people, Mr. Beck, but that's not the case. Mr. Beck will freely tell you he knows all the answers and he thinks this has all been orchestrated by some dark, mysterious force, the Skeptic thinks it's just one of those times in history when events coincide that make it it possible for bad actors to turn up and try to take advantage of the situation. Beck claims he has all the answers that will save us all from this chaos if we pay for his TV channel, sounds remotely like Maxwell Smart, doesn't he? KAOS, the evil organization Mr. Smart was always battling in the old television show?
So what to do? There's no point to protesting the fact that there aren't enough jobs, that's a colossal waste of time because it won't create a single real job. A lot of these morons are college graduates but they don't seem to understand that simple fact. Do they think that their protests will force banks and corporations and rich people to create jobs out of thin air? Do they understand they're being used? Probably not, if they're so ignorant that they think protesting will make jobs where they don't exist they certainly won't grasp the very old concept of useful idiots.
No, we need to come to grips with the fact that there are no more big issues to protest, there are no more slaves, Jim Crow is dead and gone, gays can serve in the military and can openly get married, maybe we could protest a war now and then but no one seems to care about that anymore, hell, the most liberal president we've ever just murdered an American citizen and no one complained, not even the liberal press, so lets forget the foolish protesting and get down to business. Let's get serious about getting along, the right can stop protecting CEOs who openly loot the companies they lead and force some serious reform there. The left can give up on single payer healthcare and move on something that will give some basic insurance, like a catastrophic plan, to everyone and let the issue alone. We need to face the fact that we are a seriously divided country and that if one side gets their way the rest of the country is going to be seriously pissed off. You don't believe the Skeptic? Just think back to when a Democratic congress and president forced their version of healthcare on the country, it led to the creation of the Tea party and one of the biggest election routs ever. For my Republican friends, don't think it couldn't go the other way if we push through something equally offensive to the left. Let's forget all the conspiracy theories from the likes of Glenn Beck and let's act in a way that would make 80% of us happy....well, maybe happy isn't the right term but the Skeptic would like to live in a place where which party runs the country doesn't determine how happy he is at any given moment.
The Skeptic believes with a little cooperation the middle 70-80 percent of us could return the country to a time when people had real personal liberty, not just liberty in name but liberty in the sense that a man or woman could do just about anything they wanted without first asking permission from the people we elect to serve us. There is real joy in that, just like the joy people experience from creating something with their own hands, it's something you'll never get living in a world where government bureaucrats oversee every aspect of your life. So, stop protesting and look to solve your own problems, nothing you manage to attain through mass protest will ever surpass the sense of satisfaction you'll get by growing up and taking personal responsibility for your achievements and your failures. Try it, build something, restore something, create something, start a business that does something meaningful, you might be surprised how it changes you...and your country.
In the twenty-five years after the Second World War there were plenty of legitimate causes that, let's be honest, needed to be addressed. The number one issue of course was that a large segment of the population was being treated like third class citizens and it had been going on for almost a hundred years with no real action by the government to put a stop to it. The Skeptic is surprised that blacks put up with it as long as they did, especially given the fact that they'd put up with two hundred years of slavery before they were allegedly freed after the Civil War. But after a hundred years of being insulted, being lynched, being forced to live in poverty along side their former masters, these descendents of slaves finally rose up and demanded to be treated equally, it was long overdue and well worthy of protest. But we are now forty plus years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act and almost sixty years after Brown vs Board of Education, blacks no longer have to put up with that sort of treatment. You'd never know it to listen to Al Sharpton and others but if you're honest with yourself you can't honestly say there is much overt discrimination anymore but that doesn't stop Sharpton, the race hustler, from looking for trouble where none exists. And why not, it's been very good for Mr. Sharpton but not so much for the people he professes to help. Are there instances of discrimination? Of course but it's not institutionalized and it's not widespread, overweight people and old people are discriminated on a regular basis, it happens, it's not right or pretty but we can deal with it without widespread protests.
Then there was the war, back in the sixties we were involved in a senseless war in Vietnam that no one could justify to the Skeptic's satisfaction, there was a vague notion that if Vietnam fell to the communists other countries in the region would fall as well, the Skeptic doubts it would have happened but if it did he wouldn't care, the Skeptic isn't that interested in poking our collective noses into other people's business unless it truly means something here in this country and Vietnam didn't qualify, the Skeptic cares about what is happening here, not elsewhere. If we ever figure things out to the point there are no problems here we can start worrying about other countries and other people. We can't live in peace together and solve our own economic problems so the Skeptic thinks we should keep our advice to ourselves, after all, if we can't get along and run a prosperous country how much is our advice really worth? Today, well, over the last ten years we've been poking our noses all over the place and the Skeptic still isn't convinced that is in our best interests but no one protests our forays into Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, why? Maybe there's no money in protesting wars?
So our plethora of professional protesters can't be bothered to raise their voices against three wars where American men and women are dying for reasons still unsatisfactorily explained but they can still stop traffic in New York over...the Skeptic isn't exactly sure why they're protesting and apparently neither are they. When asked by reporters why they were camping out on Wall Street none of them seemed to have an answer, the Skeptic thinks if you're going to take time out of your life to protest something you ought to know why your doing it but this crowd chants meaningless phrases in unison and thinks we ought to pay attention to them.
Protests like this one and all the causes embraced by the likes of Al Sharpton are undertaken because they promote dissension and they're succeeding, they want to divide us more and more every year until it gets to the point where utter chaos rules the day.
So why would anyone want chaos? Chaos means riots, death and anger but it also leaves a power vacuum and that's what the radical left wants in the end because nature abhors a vacuum and someone will inevitably step up to fill it. Who would that someone be? Well not Sharpton, that's for sure, he's a buffoon who has learned to profit from hate but he's not the type of individual who could step up and lead the country. No, it won't be Sharpton...it could be Obama, surprisingly, enough people still take him seriously and he already has his hands on the levers of power. Something like this, if it truly gets out of hand could turn the president into a virtual dictator, he's indicated enough times that he'd prefer it that way so it shouldn't surprise anyone if it were tried.
I know all this sounds a little like one of the Skeptic's least favorite people, Mr. Beck, but that's not the case. Mr. Beck will freely tell you he knows all the answers and he thinks this has all been orchestrated by some dark, mysterious force, the Skeptic thinks it's just one of those times in history when events coincide that make it it possible for bad actors to turn up and try to take advantage of the situation. Beck claims he has all the answers that will save us all from this chaos if we pay for his TV channel, sounds remotely like Maxwell Smart, doesn't he? KAOS, the evil organization Mr. Smart was always battling in the old television show?
So what to do? There's no point to protesting the fact that there aren't enough jobs, that's a colossal waste of time because it won't create a single real job. A lot of these morons are college graduates but they don't seem to understand that simple fact. Do they think that their protests will force banks and corporations and rich people to create jobs out of thin air? Do they understand they're being used? Probably not, if they're so ignorant that they think protesting will make jobs where they don't exist they certainly won't grasp the very old concept of useful idiots.
No, we need to come to grips with the fact that there are no more big issues to protest, there are no more slaves, Jim Crow is dead and gone, gays can serve in the military and can openly get married, maybe we could protest a war now and then but no one seems to care about that anymore, hell, the most liberal president we've ever just murdered an American citizen and no one complained, not even the liberal press, so lets forget the foolish protesting and get down to business. Let's get serious about getting along, the right can stop protecting CEOs who openly loot the companies they lead and force some serious reform there. The left can give up on single payer healthcare and move on something that will give some basic insurance, like a catastrophic plan, to everyone and let the issue alone. We need to face the fact that we are a seriously divided country and that if one side gets their way the rest of the country is going to be seriously pissed off. You don't believe the Skeptic? Just think back to when a Democratic congress and president forced their version of healthcare on the country, it led to the creation of the Tea party and one of the biggest election routs ever. For my Republican friends, don't think it couldn't go the other way if we push through something equally offensive to the left. Let's forget all the conspiracy theories from the likes of Glenn Beck and let's act in a way that would make 80% of us happy....well, maybe happy isn't the right term but the Skeptic would like to live in a place where which party runs the country doesn't determine how happy he is at any given moment.
The Skeptic believes with a little cooperation the middle 70-80 percent of us could return the country to a time when people had real personal liberty, not just liberty in name but liberty in the sense that a man or woman could do just about anything they wanted without first asking permission from the people we elect to serve us. There is real joy in that, just like the joy people experience from creating something with their own hands, it's something you'll never get living in a world where government bureaucrats oversee every aspect of your life. So, stop protesting and look to solve your own problems, nothing you manage to attain through mass protest will ever surpass the sense of satisfaction you'll get by growing up and taking personal responsibility for your achievements and your failures. Try it, build something, restore something, create something, start a business that does something meaningful, you might be surprised how it changes you...and your country.