Left-handed Complement

MUDGE’S Musings

I remain in a perpetual state of astonishment at the depth and breadth of simply fascinating commentary one finds on the web.

Here’s a wonderful entry from a newer member of the blogroll:

Maybe I stayed in the news business for too long after my radiation badge turned red. Maybe I’m suffering from Post-traumatic, Restless News Syndrome, or something. But I have this notion stuck in my head lately. It’s kind of like when I get an annoying tune stuck in my head, this notion pops up and up again, especially after I read the news.

Okay so, at the risk of exposing myself as the nut I have always secretly suspected I would someday be proven to be, here it is – my notion:

How long before before they get it? It can’t be far off. So when will day arrive when America’s once vibrant and hyper-patriotic working class wakes up and realizes they’re at the receiving end of one of the greatest screwings in human history?  And then,  rather than reaching for their car keys to rush off to their second low-paying job of the day, they reach instead for one of their many guns.”

Okay, this is Stephen Pizzo. He seems the real deal, an investigative journalist of the highest caliber, so to speak. We collected an earlier post of his last week, and just haven’t gotten around to working it. This one will do, however.

The man writes like I wish I could (WIWICWLT), and makes connections of disparate facts (purportedly a MUDGE specialty) that I’m frankly jealous of.

So, here’s his thesis:

US Most Armed Country With 90 Guns Per 100 People

A Sobering Census Report: Americans’ Meager Income Gains

Wealth gap widens

The U.S. today – an oligarchy with inequality growing worse

Fortress America
: Gated Communities in the United States
Brookings Institution: Americans are electing to live behind walls with active security mechanisms to prevent intrusion into their private domains

Okay, enough quoting (don’t want to violate any copyrights). Just read this, please:

[Per L-HC’s reformed process, please click the link below for the complete article — but then please come on back!]

News For Real

So, did you get to the punch-line?

Which brings me back to that first story.. the one about how many guns are out there. Who do you figure holds most of those privately owned firearms? I’d wager that 99.9% of them are owned by working stiffs. Ironic, isn’t it? For decades conservative politicians have stroked working class voters into a trance with Second Amendment chants. After all, they insinuated, when the commies came, who will fight them off? Well all those patriotic, semi-automatic toting Joe and Jane Sixpacks out there, of course.

I wonder if those right wingers might be having second thoughts about that strategy? After all, millions of those now-well armed Joe and Jane Sixpack are suddenly struggling with entirely non-commie-generated problems

Problems? A horrifyingly costly and increasingly pointless set of wars in the Middle East. Mortgage defaults. Credit cards maxxed out. Crumbling infrastructure that’s been killing people. Wal-Mart reporting to the investment analysts that “clearly our customers are running out of money…,”

And, Pizzo’s logical conclusion?

In the short term those walls and gates may keep the riffraff at a distance. But I doubt they’ll do much good when those millions of Wallmarters grab the guns they bought dirt-cheap at WallMart and turn into angry Walmartatistas.

Wow!

Pizzo’s thesis is closely reasoned. Impeccable quotations and statistics. Exaggeration? Maybe a little. But…

Is this person paranoid? Of course; but, shouldn’t we all be?

I’m simultaneously glad I found this story, and very disturbed also. Aren’t you?

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Business, Civilization, Economy, Global trade, History, musings, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.