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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Mad Rant: Riots and Unions

Unrest is spreading in the United States, making larger trends harder to ignore, beginning in Wisconsin but rapidly moving beyond. They are being driven by trade unions, in the case of Wisconsin by public workers unions. That is mostly because private workers unions have driven most businesses out of Wisconsin, and many other states, by making the cost of production too high. Why pay a king’s ransom to hire unionized American workers when you can get slave labor to do the same job in Communist China? So, today, most of the union members in America are public sector workers, government employees, in other words, people who are paid by the government with tax money rather than business owners who pay from their own income. This includes everyone from low-level bureaucrats and pencil-pushers to teachers and police officers. In the old days, factory workers were the backbone of the union movement. Today it is anyone who does not produce any sort of product but is paid with money forcibly taken from those who do.

Looking back, we can see a common thread here. Riots in France, Greece, Spain, even Egypt and the United States have all been largely driven by unions. Most especially in Greece it was public workers who were the most outraged at the bankrupt government being forced to cut back on their benefits. It is also very telling that in the coverage of every one of these protests that red shirts and red flags are always visible. Lest we forget, the Bolshevik plague that brought down the Tsar in Russia came to maturity in the bosom of the labor unions. The bulk of the Russian population consisted of the rural peasantry but Lenin purposely wrote off the peasants as potential Bolsheviks because they were too religious, too loyal to the Tsar (their “Little Father”) and too individualistic from living by the sweat of their brow. Instead, he purposely went after the urban industrial workers and their unions because they tended to be less religious, less loyal to traditional authority and more given to the ‘mob mentality’ or collectivism. Their survival, after all, did not depend on individual initiative in a factory but on being just one part among many, depending on all others doing their job.

This is revolutionary subversion at its heart, plain and simple, dressed up with the usual catch-phrases of “the workers”, “the people” and “democracy”. The last, of course, is the most farcical. In Wisconsin union protesters were marching and shouting, “This is what democracy looks like”. Of course, the flight of the Democrat senators from Wisconsin in order to stop all business in the senate betrays the truth that this is a slap in the face to the democratic, republican model they claim to be upholding. After all, the Republican Governor and Republican majorities in the senate and the assembly were all democratically elected and yet, rather than accept the outcome of the election, the Democrats abandon their state in order to suppress majority rule. They have done the same in my own state more than once in the past. A group long in power, loses that power to a new majority (democratically elected) and because they can no longer have their way they refuse to participate and run away. How is that for democracy? How is that for the idea of majority rule?

What we have here has nothing to do with helping the poor or downtrodden. The people being affected by the cutbacks in Wisconsin have far more generous pay and benefits than most of the taxpayers in the private sector who pay their salaries. Nor are even all public sector unions targeted by the cuts as the Governor, not surprisingly, excused the police and fire unions as they had supported his candidacy for governor. The teachers unions did not -hence they are called to sacrifice while the policemen are not (though just to show you what loyalty is worth, many police and firemen have joined the protest anyway, simply to show solidarity with other union members). So, putting aside the usual cases of ‘you do for me and I do for you’ we see that these protests are yet another case of the privileged revolting while claiming to carry on the struggle of the “common man”. And, as icing on the cake, there were shout-outs of support to the unions at the Academy Awards and there are few things more certain in life than that whatever spoiled, leftist Hollywood elites are for I will be against.

These are the same people who live in vast palaces in California but only part time in order to avoid the high taxes enacted by politicians the Hollywood types support. They make tens of millions of dollars for very little work while at the same time condemning people in business who make an equivalent amount of money while at the same time providing valuable and even essential goods and services rather than simply providing entertainment. They are no different at heart than the French aristocrats and high-ranking clerics who championed the revolution “for the people” which brought nothing but ruin to those people; and do not be fooled, it was the common people who suffered most because of the revolution. It was the same in Britain where the wealthy parliamentary elites championed “the people” and called King Charles a “tyrant” when the burden of taxation began to fall on them and their vast fortunes. It is the same story going back to ancient Rome; political elites condemning Julius Caesar as a tyrant, in the name of “the people” whereas it was Caesar who provided peace, stability, jobs for the citizenry.

Alexander Hamilton, the most maligned yet imitated American Founding Father, famously said, “…for it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of ensuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion”. This is why unions and the whole social welfare state they are part of are bringing down the economies of the western world. This is why liberal, (often elected) republican governments around the world today hold far more power and exercise more control over their peoples than any tyrant, dictator or absolute autocrat in history. King Charles I of Britain cared for his people and their rights, his enemies that fought in their name tyrannized them as never before. King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette had real compassion and concern for their subjects while the revolutionaries butchered them in record numbers. It was the same in communist revolutions from Russia to other countries all around the world. When a prince, king or emperor holds his people in his hand, they are sensitive to every twitch of a muscle but when wrapped in the coils of republicanism they all too often sleep soundly while being slowly squeezed to death. One more reason why I remain, as always … The Mad Monarchist.

8 comments:

  1. I just love your blog! How can you live with views like this in Texas? I mean it must be living hell, surrounded by republicans everywhere.. What you're writing is just too true.

    A Monarchist from Hungary.

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  2. Didn’t you know, Petya? In America, the Neocons say we Monarchists are flaming Liberals, so MM should actually support the Unions…


    …That said, I shall comment in full later, with indulgence.

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  3. Oh, it is far from hellish, it is my beloved home and native land. People come from far and wide to enjoy, like a good friend of mine from Hungary who came to work as a hunting guide. I don't have many problems as a monarchist here because monarchy is not a local issue and so most do not consider it at all. However, most of my traditional views on other issues are shared by a majority of my fellow countrymen. Of course, when revolutionary-republican triumphalism comes out, I do have to voice my opposition to it. And it's not an unpleasant duty.

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  4. Lovely post again Mr. Mad.

    I really liked the bit about the wealthy elites pushing for the peoples (whom they claim they represent) own downfall.

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  5. Well, you've certainly presented a view I was not aware of. I usually never meddle in economic affairs (the way I see it, as long as an economic system is moderate and uncharged politically, it's good enough - best leave it to the economists), but it seems that it is equally relevant to political matters, in this case at least.

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  6. You know, it's not just American unions MM. Consider th Lisbon Treaty. The European Constitution was defeated at democratic referenda, only to have such democracy subverted by apparently "democratically representative" chambers that ratified the Lisbon Treaty.

    I guess it's only democracy when you agree with them. Nodding heads syndrome.

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  7. Economics can be used to manipulate people and there are legitimate cases of people being driven to revolt or rebellion because of poverty and hopelessness. As for the EU, their "democracy" is a total joke. They have one elected body that is simply a talking shop, there for purely propaganda purposes and nothing more.

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  8. I tend to agree with MM on this matter. The Wisconsin Riots are simply further proof to me that the whole “We, the People” ideal is more Myth than Reality. We are not a United people, and there exists no general will. We are divided by factions who fight principally for their own self interest, and who are always art each others Throats in a sort of ongoing Civil War. This is the “Animated Contest of Liberty” Sam Adams spoke about, and the Perpetual Revolution that both Jefferson and Trotsky so desired. It is a maddening cry to arms over the slightest whim, and all caused by peoples Greed and desire to gain at the expense of all society.


    The supreme Irony is though that both Factions claim to represent “The people”. On the Left, those waving h Red Flag of a Socialist order and who work for the Public Sector that’s been downsized, or their well wishers, insist that they are the face of We, The People, fighting Governor Walker and the TEA Party and Corporate Elites that oppress us. The big bad guy is the Capitalist Class, a handful of Elites, like a New Aristocracy, with say New Monarch King Walker to replace King George. Those Elites want to gain wealth and power, all by taking the wealth for themselves, and this results in making the common man poor.

    Naturally they represent the Real America.

    On the other hand, those who support Governor Walker see the Protestors as the New Aristocrats and Obama as King George. They are a small minority of Unionists and Liberal Elitists who want to oppress the masses and take the Money from hard Working Americans to finance themselves. They are oppressive Tyrants and the Governor is just standing up for the People.

    They are the Real Voice of the People, they are the Real America.

    And Which one is telling the Truth? Alas, neither. Both factions are Americans and both Factions fight or their own vested interests and their own Political Ideologies. There is no General Will of the people, just rival factions out to gain power over the whole via rhetoric or laws.

    This is how our Democracy always works, and one could forgive me for not being too enthusiastic about it.

    Denouncing ones own countrymen because of political disagreement, which exists mainly because these factions are given the illusion of having real Political Power and each wants to seize it from the other, only teaches us to divide between ourselves, and seeing each other as not really Americans based on where we fall ideologically, which in turn is usually based on what job we do and where we live, undermines the E. Pluribus Unum promise of Republicanism we were told is the natural result. All it really teaches us is to try to gain the Numbers enough to win a seat of power the to set about crushing our opposition.

    For this I say, Give us a Monarch to guide us, and who is common to all Men. A Politician is common only to his Party.

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