This morning I finally gathered the courage to sit down and listen to Caligula’s speech to the Imperial Senate. I was prepared for the worst, but what I actually saw was even worse than what I had expected.
What should I have expected to hear from the most incompetent President in US history speaking in front of a Congress even more despised by the American people? Should I have had any hopes for at least some references to reality? I now see that this hope would have been quite misplaced.
Listening to Caligula one would think that all was well in the Empire and watching his barking seals jumping up and down after each triumphal pronouncement of the Emperor one could be forgiven for believing that we were just one minute away from finally reaching Communism, the 1000 year Reich or the ‘end of history’ (pick your choice – they all mean the same anyway). To give credit where credit is due, C-SPAN did a truly magnificent job of showing the appropriate person at the right time, the right angle of enthusiastically applauding Imperial Senators, etc. They would have made Goebbels proud, if not envious, of their skills.
For the first time I noted that each Imperial Senator’s seat was flanked by a star of David on each side (check the video on YouTube if you missed that) and I wondered – is that a sign of support, or power, of vetting or of allegiance?
But my overwhelming thought watching all this buffoonery was that truly the scum of the earth had gathered under the Congress’ dome and that there is no possibility at all to reform this system, to hope that the USA will change from within, or to ‘vote them out of office’. To hold on to any such thought is, I think, the height of delusion. No, change can only from outside.
To paraphrase George Orwell, “if there is hope it lies in the aliens” (to use the American expression for non-Americans). The control of Caligula and his minions over this country is simply without limits and if the Emperors’ speech yesterday shows us anything, it is that the US political ‘reality’ can exist in a vacuum in which facts, the reality on the ground, simply does not matter.
You can be the worst President in US history, the most hated man on earth, the most conspicuously stupid, ignorant and arrogant political leader on the face of the planet, but you will still get the Imperial Senate to give you more standing ovations than Hitler or Kim Il-Sung could ever hope for. The deafening silence which greeted this Kafkaesque performance in the US media and in the street is a sure sign that the vast majority of Americans have been brainwashed beyond repair by their corporate media.
Sure, some like Ron Paul or Cindy Sheehan, will object to every single thing Caligula said and denounce him for the fraud that he is. But they will also work within the system, hoping to change it from within. That is, I truly believe, an absolutely misguided and futile hope.
The US Empire is probably the most arrogant empire in history. No Empire I can think off was so deeply imbued with a messianic ideology defining its every policy (although the early Soviet Union and Nazi Germany came close). The ‘manifest destiny’ doctrine has now reached a quasi religious apotheosis which makes the US polity look more like some bizarre doomsday cult “a la Jim Jones” than like a normal imperial administration.
The Empire, in its final stages, is very much like a sinking “Titanic” with all its passengers dancing and drinking on the elegant decks and halls, sure of the omnipotence, impunity and invulnerability. The Islamic iceberg has already ripped the ship’s hull, the freezing water is already gushing in, but the crew and passengers are still celebrating their magnificence, utterly oblivious to the almost inaudible sounds and tremors from below the deck which the music of their orchestra so successfully drowns.
Yesterday’s speech was truly a historic moment. We witnessed an act of collective denial and folly: Caligula’s last speech to the Imperial senate. It will, no doubt, go down in history as one of those baffling events which future generations will struggle to understand and to make sense of.
I was stuck on a train and didn’t see it, but Bush never talks about substance in these hoe-downs.
I would like to as the Saker if about the Rupert Murdock articles about Sybil Edmonds in England. I can’t distill this into a single line. I thought that the Neocons, Mossad, etc acted based on fifth column Israeli manifest destiny motivation, but now, this picture of Israel and Turkish agents seemingly acting for personal profit, to spread/sell nuclear tech to anybody who wants to buy. This contradiction makes it hard to focus a sound byte to people concerned about the Israel lobby, because crooks in high places just seems like business as usual “yawn” to most people, and the thesis contradicts the other thesis of a militant pro Israel lobby operating for Israeli national interests. It leave the whole thing without a coherent theme. I’m just afraid this effort is engineered to do just that. Without evidence, how can one explain to a national greatness addict what your fears are when the heart of your argument seems schizophrenic and full of internal contradictions. Is the story-
crooks or a fifth column of true believers in the Israeli settler movement?
Oh, come on VS! You actually listened to this??! I can’t even stand to hear the guy’s voice, let alone listen to whatever BS he feels obligated to broadcast.
. . . watching his barking seals jumping up and down after each triumphal pronouncement of the Emperor one could be forgiven for believing that we were just one minute away from finally reaching Communism . . .
Don’t we wish. The Congress is pathetic. They disgust me as much as the administration.
Sure, some like Ron Paul or Cindy Sheehan, will object to every single thing Caligula said and denounce him for the fraud that he is. But they will also work within the system, hoping to change it from within. That is, I truly believe, an absolutely misguided and futile hope.
Agreed. The System is what cause the situation. The System is the problem. Smash the System. Smash the state. It’s the only hope.
Serkeftin!
Great post VS. I didn’t watch it but saw some clips on democracynow today. I just look at the whole thing as some sort of Goebbels/Big Brother wet dream. PR, propaganda, and show business used to create a new religion or something like it(Americanism?)
I think it’s worse than Orwell’s 1984 in alot of ways in that the people joyously choose it like they are at a parade or the superbowl, whereas the 1984 folk were more numbed out and zombified. People will look at this speech in the future like we look at those old speeches of Hitler screaming his brains out to the cheering masses and just shake our heads in disbelief. It’s no coincidence that the patriarch of american propaganda, Edward Bernays, was worshipped by Goebbels.
I always get severe allergic reactions to agitprop, so i decided to pass on the curious george carnival. I was hoping to see you attack some of his content, like hidden/obvious iranian beligerence etc.
I was hoping to see you attack some of his content
Sorry to disappoint you here but the actual content of his speech were so out of this world, so utterly nonsensical that I just decided to ignore it all assuming that most of my readers would have the same gagging reflex I do when I hear this kind of nonsense. Besides, I do not expect this pathological idiot to come up with anything else but the most stupid baloney. What really had me appalled was the reaction of the Imperial Senators, jumping and down like well trained monkeys at each idiocy uttered by Dubya.
Also – the contents were really nothing new” “the USA is doing great, the ‘Surge’ is working, Iran is bad, let’s have more wars”.
Dying empires cling until the very end to the outward trappings of power. They mask their weakness behind a costly and technologically advanced military. They pursue increasingly unrealistic imperial ambitions. They stifle dissent with efficient and often ruthless mechanisms of control. They lose the capacity for empathy, which allows them to see themselves through the eyes of others, to create a world of accommodation rather than strife. The creeds and noble ideals of the nation become empty cliches, used to justify acts of greater plunder, corruption and violence. By the end, there is only a raw lust for power and few willing to confront it.