Will They Come for You?

As I have said here repeatedly, we in the progressive community need to be building the institutions of the future today. We know this system is unsustatinable both economically and ecologically and in it's collapse, we need to have something in place. But progressives aren't the only ones preparing for that future. The ruling class has their blackshirts in training to supress us and maintain thier feudal power. Make no mistake, with the addition of the Military Commissions act and the extended Patriot Act, the legal framework for fascism is in place. It has not been implimented in practice because it has not been necessary to do so as long as the system, such as it is, holds out and remains largely unchallenged. When that changes, the "War on Terror" will come home to roost and the truth that we are all Iraqis, Palestinians, al-qeada . . . will be inescapable.

Liberal's may have thier illusions be we must face the facts and do what we can to undermine their ability to form these storm trooper brigades and to prepare for them. As the poet Robert Edwards wrote in a back issue of the Blue Collar Review:

Liberal's Epistle to the Intelligencia

So we'll explain it to the raving crazies,
and when they lunge at us with a knife,
we'll argue that violets can't possibly
grow on the moon. We'll work our way
through every ward west of Manifest Destiny
where the Hitlers and Napoleons greet
therapy with threats. Therefore, the Angel
of Reason will be ready and well exercised
when the Army of God comes marching
in million dollar boots over the last hill
and brandishing the cold steel of His Love,
We'll sing them a poem, dance them a song,
and show them an award-winning documentary
about the misery of the starving poor,
which I'm sure will stop the burning of books.
We'll say, amen, Brothers, Sisters, let us break
bread together, and invite them to a gallery
opening of abstract art -- with wine & cheese!
Just after they've bombed all the museums,
and just before they kick our teeth in,
they'll tell us, there never was a Holocaust--
and we'll say, but I don't need a shower.
Of course, such a hypothetical misunderstanding
could never really happen because we'll quote
Lao Tzu, Chief Joseph and all the Golden
Statistics when they put on the smiling mask
of the latest Presidential candidate and crank
up the chainsaw. I'm sure they'll listen
to the facts when they've got us on our knees
and are loading laws into their guns. Yes,
I know there are some who would advocate
that the time to stand up is always NOW,
and that the best argument to make is with
a brick upside their heads. Not to worry,
gentle citizens, or disturb your rational
luncheons and debates. Let us suppose
that they will accuse us with a sentence
that will take an encyclopedia to defend,
and we fall asleep in the intricate middle
of our own innocence. Justice will prevail.
We have cool logic and common sense
on our side. What if they sic their hounds
and hitmen on us and raise the bloody
banner of corporate jihad over the Hoods
and barrios and ghettos? In that case
we shall whisper sweet formulas of Peace
to counter the loud faith of their hate.
Giggling into their surgical masks,
scalpels and bonesaws gleaming on a tray,
they'll turn on the anesthetic and tell us
to breathe deeply, to count backwards,
all the way to the Middle Ages,
and we'll express our hope and good-
will for
the world just
before
the
lights . . .
go. . .
out. . . .