The Revolution Continues blog is news, views, opinion and other expressions of hope from a leftist point-of-view. (We are not affiliated with any candidate, political party or organization. All are welcome.)
Have
you ever experienced an “earworm” or a “sticky tune”? An earworm is a
song or melody (or part of one) that gets stuck in your mind that you
can’t seem to shake for days on end. You keep hearing it over and over
again during the quiet parts of your day. You’re not even sure how or
why it happens, but somehow it does. There’s nothing you can do to shake
it loose, either. I know—I’ve tried!
I
was infected with an unusual ear worm this past week. It’s from the
chorus of a pop hit from 1999 that I must have heard playing on my car
radio recently. What makes this earworm even more unusual is that it’s
not from a song that I particularly like. I’m not even a fan of the
group that recorded it. In fact, I don’t think either one of my
daughters were a fan of the group or the song back when. So why are
these words repeating constantly in my head?
All you people, can't you see, can't you see How your love's affecting our reality? Every time we're down, you can make it right And that makes you larger than life
Chorus from the 1999 Backstreet Boys’ song Larger Than Life, written by Brian Littrel, Kristian Lundin, and Max Martin.
The one line that really haunts me is Can’t you see how your love’s affecting our reality? Yeah,
it’s part of a catchy lyric and tune, but there’s something about that
question that keeps bugging me. I really want to know what the answer to
it is. It’s driving me crazy.
How is your love affecting our reality?
According to the song lyrics, we can’t see it. We can’t actually see or know how our love
(and this could mean anything from romantic love to neighborly love to
compassion and empathy for all humankind and the earth itself) affects
the reality of the universe itself. But the next lines show us that our love does indeed hold tremendous power: Every time we're down, you can make it right/And that makes you larger than life.
Deep stuff, huh?
All
I can guess at this point is this earworm is the universe’s way of
telling me that all is not lost. So, when it comes to how we can end the
horrible genocide in Gaza, all is not lost, even if it looks like it
is. I don’t know why I’ve come to this conclusion, but I feel it in my
bones. Call it intuition or a gut instinct. Even when things seem down (or impossible) for us, we can make them right (or at least better). Perhaps that’s what makes us all larger than life—wehave more power than we could possibly dream of.
We need to start using our power for good and to save lives. Right now.
A
lot of Substack commentators embrace various creeds and belief systems
and tell us to think positive, but I’m not going to assume anything I
write here will change your mind. Others are much more persuasive and
eloquent than I am. But I implore you to keep an open mind for just a
little while longer...
To see where I'm coming from and how this could make the world a better place, please continue reading the rest of this
article on Substack. Just copy or click on this link:
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This
article is the 533rd blog posting of The Revolution Continues. We began
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In these weird times, sometimes it's good to take a break and look back into our past and see what all we can learn from those who came before us. Sometimes, it's just good to take a look back and see where we went wrong and do our best not to take the same or similar path again.
This week, during the big wind up to the coronation of King Charles III, I had a conversation with our resident historian and British person, Coast Watcher, about who's really the power behind the throne. We both agreed that Charles has no real power outside of his billions in the bank and his ability to boss around (and fire) his household staff. But is the power in the UK really in the hands of the so-called Prime Minister, either?
The same could be argued about who is the power behind the American presidency in the twenty-first century. Who really manipulates and control the president's agenda? Nowadays no matter who is in office, no matter what part of the "uni-party" the president claims to be a member of, it seems that the same ol' things occur.
Wars are started on the flimsiest of excuses in order to take resources (oil, natural gas, lithium, etc.) from other countries. This is particularly true of nations that try to disengage from doing international trade using the petrodollar, such as Libya and Iran. These countries eventually wind up being either bombed and/or economically sanctioned. Millions die. US banks and big corporations are bailed out of debt, but the working classes aren't.
The Princeton Study clearly shows how corporations own everyone and everything in the US, but who exactly pulls the strings on a daily basis? Who are those "men behind the curtains" worldwide? Let's take a peek...
Behind the Curtain by Coast Watcher
Back in the 1980s there was a hugely popular BBC TV comedy series called Yes, Minister. It portrayed the bumbling antics of Jim Hacker (played by Paul Eddington), Minister for Administrative Affairs, as he negotiated the labyrinthine pathways of British government. Working behind the scenes was the Machiavellian Sir Humphrey Appleby (played by Nigel Hawthorne), the Permanent Secretary attached to the ministry.
Minister Hacker was frequently left in the dark by his supposed civil service underling, Sir Humphrey, who always had an eye for maintaining the hegemony of the British Civil Service while enhancing his own position and prestige wherever possible. As the character of Sir Humphrey says, "Ministers may come and go, but the Civil Service goes on forever."
And so it is with most Western governments. Like that of the UK there’s always a solid core of apparatchiks determined to advance their own cause and feather their nests, often at the expense of government transparency and efficiency. Like Sir Humphrey these people may be permanent fixtures in the civil service, but there are always some who come and go over the course of years, taking advantage of the revolving door between government and industry.
The elected politicians are not really of any consequence to these non-elected career civil servants. Many politicos don’t last the course, either losing voter support or doing just enough for long enough to earn all those lovely benefits that come with holding public office. Sir Humphrey definitely knew of what he spoke of.
Such an environment is fertile ground for deep conspiracies which are seldom in the best interest of the public. Of course, the elected ones can always proclaim they had no idea what was happening behind the curtain after these heinous deeds are exposed to the world by a whistleblower like Julian Assange, whether or not their professed ignorance is real.
For instance, it was revealed recently that the CIA had recruited and operated two of the 9/11 conspirators. Whatever the reasoning behind this spectacular self-centered goal, there’s no denying it was certainly not in the interests of the American public—nor that of the citizens of Iraq, whose country the Western coalition invaded by using 9/11 as a pretext under the false flag that it held WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction).
It’s no secret, either, that the intelligence services have their hooks deep into the body public. The CIA began as the OSS—Office of Strategic Services. Drawing many valuable lessons from the British Special Operations Executive, the OSS morphed into a powerhouse organization with virtually unlimited budget and almost zero accountability to the public.
The first head of the Central Intelligence Agency was John F. Dulles. A personal friend of President Eisenhower, Dulles’ influence enabled the CIA to set almost all elements of US policy toward the Soviet Union and Communist China. Such influence is still apparent today, with the operations against Russia in the current conflict in Ukraine and the wind up to start a war with China over Taiwan independence.
There’s no denying the woeful impact the manufactured war in Ukraine has had on the peoples of the European Union. They are paying through the nose for natural gas to heat their homes after US Navy divers sabotaged the NordStream II pipeline. In many ways, it’s turning into a defeat for America, as the supposed stringent sanctions against Russia are backfiring in spectacular fashion following the creation of the BRICS initiative set to sideline the petrodollar. And one can't deny that China's diplomatic initiatives to bring about a peaceful resolution to several disputes--including the one between Ukraine/NATO and Russia--makes the United States look even more hawkish than usual.
Of course, as with any Western government, capitalism can’t be ignored. Capitalists must be served! The UK saw the Industrial Intelligence Bureau created in the early 1920s by British businesses to "acquire intelligence on industrial unrest arising from the activities of Communists, Anarchists, various secret societies in the UK and overseas, the Irish Republican Army and other 'subversive' organizations.'" Its founder, Sir George Makgill, was close friends with Desmond Morton, Head of the Special Intelligence Service.
Another revolving door between government and private industry existed between the Industrial Intelligence Bureau and MI5. Agents from one would work for a time in the other organization. No conflict of interest there! The British Fascist movement had its own followers and fellow-travelers inside the intelligence agencies of state and industry, a state of affairs that lasted well into World War II.
With America and, to some extent, the UK sliding ever closer toward fascism, I’ll end this article with some pertinent words from that granddaddy of all fascists:
Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day.
Democratic regimes may be defined as those in which, every now and then, the people are given the illusion of being sovereign, while the true sovereignty in actual fact resides in other forces which are sometimes irresponsible and secret. ~ Benito Mussolini
BIO: Coast Watcher uses the power of history to see the patterns of what's happening in the present to predict the future. What could possibly go wrong with intelligence agencies dictating foreign policy and domestic surveillance? Nothing to see here... Move along now.
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