I had lunch today with an old friend, a fellow American expat, who is of the considered political opinion that we are, not to put too fine a point on it, fucked.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever. O'brien to Winston Smith in 1984
Of course, exhibit A is the lock ’em up and throw away the key act which just breezed through congress, which essentially says “Forget the constitution, if the prez doesn’t like you, he gets to call you a terrorist, have you arrested and thrown in jail forever. Trial? Hah! No trial for you, terrorist.” But we also discussed Guantanamo Bay, Obama’s apparent willingness to give the Republicans whatever they want and the completely unreasonable objection on the part of almost all politicians to legalizing marijuana, even though the vast majority of reasonable people favor it.
Although I found it hard to prove him wrong when he said that there’s no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, that all power is in the hands of a few evil oligarchs who will never, ever relinquish it and we are bound for a global totalitarian dictatorship. I felt obligated to try.
Here are my 7 reasons why such a dictatorship cannot last forever (sorry, that’s the best I can do. In the short term, we probably are well and truly fucked).
1) The evil oligarchs are not all powerful. Sure, they can spy on you in your bedroom but they can’t look into everybody’s bedroom at once. They can’t control the weather. They can’t prevent earthquakes or volcanoes. Of course, they can make sure that poor people suffer from these things worst, but still, an element of anarchy is introduced. If an asteroid strikes the earth, the terrorists who have stocked up on food and bottled water up in Idaho have a better chance of survival than the evil oligarchs in their Manhattan penthouses.
2) The evil oligarchs are not all on the same team. The Rothschilds would just as soon screw the Rockefellers as anybody else. Monsanto doesn’t particularly care if Halliburton makes a profit. Of course, they usually work together against the poor, but once the poor are totally subjugated, they’ll turn on each other, because….
3) Greed is limitless. No matter how much they have, they will always want more, and at some point the tower collapses.
4) The U.S. is no longer the world’s dominant economy. Sure, China is not exactly a shining beacon of human rights, but as long as they are keeping the evil oligarchs from total global ownership, and the evil oligarchs are keeping the Chicoms from total global dominance, there’s some wiggle room for those of us on the bottom.
5) The evil oligarchs are still mortal. They will grow old and die, some of them childless and that wealth will be dispersed. It’s a slow trickle, but I’m talking in abstractions here, anyway. Also…
6) Some of them (Andrew Carnegie, George Soros, Bill Gates) grow a conscience at some point in their lives, when they realize that their names will be listed in future encyclopedias as “greedy, heartless bastards” and start to do good deeds. My friend did not agree that Bill Gates was worthy of being included in this category.
7) and this is my favorite: Since the human race has been at a technological level where we could easily feed, clothe and house everybody on the planet in relative luxury probably since about the 1920s or so, and technology is advancing exponentially, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the evil oligarchs to keep the majority of the world’s people in poverty. As Buckminster Fuller pointed out, W (wealth) is a product of R (resources)xE (energy, including labor)xT (current state of technology, which is always increasing.
Eventually, it will be impossible.
www.gurukalehuru.com 
No doubt. However, the bigger question is: will there be enough of us that realize what’s going on and be able to rally others to do something about it before its too late?
“All that’s necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Can’t cite author, at the moment.)
Eventually they have to realize that consumers and workers matter to them. Technology might be part of the problem rather than the solution as technology seems to be eliminating jobs.
I’m disgusted that they passed that law and I’m disgusted that Obama backed down on his veto threat. Can we vote “none of the above”?
we will say things like the top percintile is keeping us down by paying only substinance wages,and why cant they see how hard it is for the common man,and both are completely true. when the answer is simply human behavior nobody wants to hear such a “simple” answer,but its true. many of the people at the top come from generations of people at the top you could go back into thier geneology, in some instances the wealth could trace back a couple hundred years. so although they hear about it and pass by it from time to time or see it on tv they really have no clue what its like to live “our way” they are comfortable in thier lives and happy and that makes most of them blind to it. those left in the majority find themselves trapped in a web of thier own making. i mean that the “middleclass” was kept comfortable and happy with ever-growing salaries and benifits three bedroom two cars three kids the big tv and so on. and then inevitably fate steps in or luck or whatever you call it. and throws a monkey wrench in the works. the rich lose lifetimes worth of cash for us and panic,so they squeeze a little harder until survival no longer seems like a distant game show on tv that they call “reality” but worst of all it becomes actual reality and you cant even support yourself so what do you do keep going down or do you fight back?