by robertdreed » Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:37 am
a Latin-American style military coup? fuggedaboudit.<br><br>I don't see anyone on the Joint Chiefs of Staff as being anywhere but squarely in the center of the phalanx of the Bush Team. I think they've all been carefully pre-selected for hatpin-through-the-frontal-lobes loyalty to the Commander-In-Chief, and they're able to talk themselves into thinking that any problem is a nail, if only they can hammer hard enough with the world's biggest hammer. <br><br>The usual situation in the militaries of coup-happy nations is that there's politicization and factionalism. For better or worse, the usual situation for the top ranks of the American military is fealty to the chief executive, and a predisposition to "have a job to do." For all of the fearsome power they have to order armies around, they have no more desire to turn on the president than the hounds have to turn on Mr. Burns, in <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>The Simpsons</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->.<br><br>The typical pattern for dissatisfied military people in this country- - and there are all too few of them at this point, I think- is to resign, not to form cliques and orders barracks revolts. <br><br>Man, living on the East Coast is really bringing me down. I can tell how many people are browbeat, from not having a positive alternative paradigm to draw energy from. People are really suffering out here for their patronizing dismissal of the Sixties. In Northern California, that energy still infuses things- to the point where people take it for granted, I realize in retrospect. Out there, it's natural to be casual and open-hearted and mellow. <br><br>Here in D.C., the quiet desperation is palpable. It's like what I used to imagine Eastern Europe was like, only with more Stuff, and abysmal, claustrophobic traffic...what sort of culture would do this to themselves? An inertial one, running on empty, relying on Fear to sustain its drive, repressing and suppressing anything that speaks to Transcendent Novelty. Which is, evidently, just another thing to be Feared.<br><br>The prevailing social zeitgeist hereabouts looks really grim to me. For instance, I've noticed how many of the officially issued "school spirit" t-shirts and other garb worn by the high school kids utilize militaristic symbolism and sloganeering. It looks so...commie, to me. <br><br>But I digress...<br><br><br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=robertdreed>robertdreed</A> at: 9/30/06 2:00 am<br></i>