All Things

I refuse to believe that nothing changed that day. That everything could remain the same or that they would be the same but better after that day. Everything had to change. More people had to be awake, jarred from their coma by the event. More people had to realized that all of their assumptions, their comforts, and their securities are for naught. Further, that the government and the security that it promises in the homeland is vulnerable to the simplest of plans. Since that day, all bets were off.

Of course, the day I'm speaking of is the day of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. At 9:02 am, Timothy Mc Veigh solemnly demonstrated that the American homeland is susceptible to attack by a small, yet disciplined force. Several school shootings, office shootings, and other such terrible non-terrorist attacks later, the vulnerability of the American homeland was rocked again at the foundation by 19 men armed with box-cutters.

Six years, and three American military engagements, later the crucial impetus that emerged from that time has fallen apart. "They hate US and our freedoms." It is on this basis that America TM undertook to expand, diversify, and secure its interests.

Any who sought dissent or expressed reservations about the new righteous path were, initially marginalized. Now, the dissident voice is much more the mainstream, even in the face of a lack of divergence in the centres of power and authority. The mass is turning against the leadership, the proletariat against their betters, and, despite the police checks and gross imbalances, the revolution that was promised in 1964 may come to pass in 2009.

What has changed? Oh, its the little things. The expansion of executive authority, the corruption of justice, the demise of constitutional rights and freedoms, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, warrantless wiretaps, extensive monitoring of internet traffic, war profiteering and the privitization of military intelligence, puppet governments and client states upholding corporate interests, and the use of deadly force against alleged terrorists -- you know, the little things.

Since terrorism became an American reality in 1919, and a recognizable one in 1993, precious little was done to combat it until after 2001 when there were enough people in enough of the "right" places to make profitable decisions from it. Nothing preventative was undertaken to ensure that the forces that culminated in any of the past attacks would result in a future attack. And, now that these forces are better understood and prove even more concrete examples of the, pardon the pun, bases for terrorist attacks, what changes will be made.

The message from on high remains the same. None. Nothing will change. The world itself will continue to be exploited. The people in the world will continue to be impoverished and offered only a fragment of freedom. Justice will follow only the mighty. The purposes of life will be commerce, consumption, and capital.

The battle lines are drawn.