Our leaders are channeling the spirit of Nero – fiddle on you fools!
Rather or not emperor Nero actually played the fiddle while Rome burned is a hotly contested debate among historians, but what is not contested is that he was fabulously wealthy, and a ranking member of the upper ruling class; someone who had nearly no personal knowledge of what life was like for most Roman citizens living in Rome at that time. He was apparently quite condescending, and given to platitudes, and meaningless gestures – simply put, he was someone grotesquely out of touch with the real world of real working class people.
While reading about Attorney General William Barr’s recent interview where he basically nuanced the whole Durham investigation – babbling about how the “wheels of justice turn slowly” and other such pointless platitudes designed to deflect attention from the fact that it is going no where and is clearly not about justice at all – I could not help but think of the many times throughout history that leaders, kings, emperors, generals, and others in high ranking positions have always “fiddled away” while the system that supported them was falling apart. Does this man not see that the nation is collapsing into civil chaos? And that a HUGE part of the reason this is happening is because we are now ruled by “legalize”, where justice is nothing of the kind, but nuance and endless paperwork rule the system.
This police officer who killed George Floyd is a classing example of raw bureaucratic malfeasance. This man had so many strikes against him – and over so many years of time – that he should NEVER have been allowed anywhere near a gun and a badge. If we had an honest system of real justice he would have been removed from the police department years ago – and others would have understood that this type of brutality is simply not acceptable. But no, the “system” let him continue on because it wasn’t able to function in a rational reasonable way. Is it any wonder than that he felt “above the law?” -- that he felt he could “get away with murder?”
And while I am on this subject I want to ask – WHERE THE HELL WAS THE MAYOR, AND THE REST OF THESE SO CALLED OUTRAGED LEADERS? I lived in Minneapolis for several years (not far from the epicenter of this mess) and I can tell you that this incident did not happen in isolation. The police in the twine cities have had issues for a LONG time – and it isn’t just Minneapolis either it is the surrounding communities also. But the “system” – and remember William Barr and others are telling us that we need to “let the system work” – didn’t do much of anything, it let this happen, and now they are OUTRAGED? No they aren’t, they are, instead, deeply worried that “we the people” are about fed up with their endless talk, and empty promises, and their “pandering” – we need LEADERSHIP! Not more worthless “managers”.
If it had been me interviewing the good Attorney General when he said that “these things take time” I think I would have been forced to ask him if he meant sometime in this decade or did he mean this century? Dear god, Hillary Clinton should have been serving three life sentences by now!
And by way of wrapping up this tirade I would like to point out to these “fiddling fools” that even as I sit here writing these words these insurgents have established an “autonomous zone” in downtown Seattle. An “autonomous zone”? What the hell does that even mean – that they are now claiming to be a separate governmental entity? What is next – diplomatic recognition? Calls for the United Nations to come to their aid? They have apparently erected barriers to signify their “boundaries” and are reported to be giving “orders” to the government officials from the state of Washington. Isn’t the state of Washington an integral part of the United States? Isn’t decaling yourself a sovereign independent place an act of insurrection?
Or are we now so far gone that we have to “nuance” this – we have to “let the system work” – we have to “fiddle while the nation burns”? It sure seems like our so called leaders are doing that.
