Ever reviled, accursed, ne’er understood,
Thou art the grisly terror of our age.
“Wreck of all order,” cry the multitude,
“Art thou, and war and murder’s endless rage.”
O, let them cry. To them that ne’er have striven.
The truth that lies behind a word to find,
To them the word’s right meaning was not given.
They shall continue blind among the blind.
But thou, O word, so clear, so strong, so pure.
Thou sayest all which I for goal have taken.
I give thee to the future! Thine secure.
When each at least unto himself shall waken.
Comes it in sunshine? In the tempest’s thrill?
I cannot tell — but it the earth shall see!
I am an Anarchist! Wherefore I will.
Not rule, and also ruled I will not be!
– John Henry Mackay
I draw your attention simply to the first nine lines of this quote, and have included it in it’s entirety for a full perspective.
I believe we have suffered this current Global / American Recession in a large part to the economic strategy of ‘greed is good’ and more specifically the enactment of Anarcho-Capitalism in our banking, mortgage and credits markets the United States of America.
A lack of sound order and a lack of logical policies, will only ultimately lead to a lack of accountability from authority.
A populist does not reject authority, or rule, outright. Rather a populist is prone to ask:
“By right to do govern? Whom do you serve?”
While I will express a degree of fondness for Pure Anarchism in which all property is outright theft … I find the whole ideology unworkable and only expressly attainable in small, sustainable, isolated communities. Much like Marxism is all looks good for an intellectual discussion and quid-pro-quo debating but in a real world setting the whole underlying concepts quickly become revealed as nothing but an ideologist’s dream work.
America of 2009 needs real solutions and not simply an outpouring of sentiment to ’make AIG pay you back’ but rather a hopeful outpouring of people willing to listen. People willing to engage.
The Presidency of Barack Obama is a stepping stone in a much larger and much longer road.
We must begin to demand the highest standards of our leaders on both Wall Street and Capitol Hill.
It is not not wrong to want justice. It is not wrong to want fairness. It is not wrong to question authority.
I am a Populist! Wherefore I will.
Not to rule, but to question the value of our rulers to us.
Eric Lightborn's Blog 