In the previous four parts of this discussion, ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, I have presented arguments to support the fact that there needs to be an immediate, over-arching plan for us to start producing as much American oil as we can, as soon as we can, by opening up ANWR, the Rocky Mountain Oil Shale, and the outer continental shelf regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf to drilling, and putting them on a fast-track through the rules and regulations involved with that drilling.
Right now, we are standing at a fork in the Road of History, wondering which path to take. The path that we finally choose to follow will open out into a broad new future, but it’s hard to make out the features of each pathway when we are besieged from all directions with advice, promises and warnings. We think we're involved in a presidential election, but it is far, far more than that. Once again we stand on a great battlefield of a war, and this time it is a conflict that will test America as it has never been tested before. America was conceived in Liberty, and it is the Freedom of the Individual that is being put on trial. One of the greatest fights we face is simply to recognize this war for what it is: the profound battle of the Individual against Collectivist Ideologies.
We need to remember that our enemies have many kinds of “armies”. Some fight by terrorist acts both on the official battlefields such as those of Iraq and Afghanistan, and in what we consider purely civilian theaters of operation throughout the world, such as London subways, Madrid trains, and American buildings. Some fight through courts and coercive social pressures. Some make rules and regulations that eliminate the personal and make everything political, that make every aspect of our lives subject to legal and administrative fiat based on the Collective Ideology.
While our military and security people are engaging the terrorists, it is up to the rest of us to fight those mental guerrillas of all kinds who take over territory in our minds and emotions by sowing fear and lies, by coercion and bribery and threats. They try to tell us that we must withdraw from many of our choices, that we must become less than what we are by birthright as Americans. They tell us that we have to drastically change our behavior so that we can become citizens of their correct Utopian Vision. They want to make each of us a member of a Collective, a member indistinguishable from all others of our category, our “identity”, our “kind”. We must become their “authentic” citizen.
To the Left, the Collective is the Nanny State they long for. They place us in categories measured by ethnic, race, gender, and other such markers. Any individuality we show must be suppressed by laws such as hate crimes, hate speech, and other rules and regulations that add up over the years (such as on which foods we may eat, and which are forbidden).
To the Islamists the Collective is an Islamic Caliphate, where the Collective is under Sharia law and rigidly controlled. The Collective’s categories are religions, their religion against all others, the suppression of individuality is ruthlessly carried out, and by law females are totally controlled in every aspect of their being.
Both the Left and the Islamists place heavy value on events and issues that tend to herd Individuals into Collectives, and the Energy Crisis serves each of them in their own way.
This is why we must fight those who use the armies that march unseen with economic power to destroy us. Right now, some of our enemies control vast wealth from oil profits. They are in a position to do great damage to the world by destabilizing countries that depend upon their oil, and by exploiting that destabilization. They will have the money to rebuild whatever they destroy, so they will not have to take as much care as they would if they had to keep their victim’s infrastructure intact. They are in a position to cause localized depressions, with massive unemployment, by strategically handling the oil they normally provide, controlling its flow even to the point of cutting it off in places, and collecting vast sums of money from its users.
They can back terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida, the Taliban, the FARC in Peru and Colombia, the groups of Basque and other terrorists who are truly all over the world. By creating the conditions for the industrialized countries to go into recessions, they can bring added pressure on the Third World who cannot receive the kind of aid they normally do when their usual benefactors are in recessions.
With huge petro-dollar profits, through advocate propaganda, and/or by sowing fear—our enemies can coerce, bribe and/or buy what they need for both strategic and tactical purposes. They can obtain communications systems—the press, the airwaves. They can buy key industries and assets, set up safe houses, bribe those who show a willingness to sell out their own countries in exchange for power and money. They can buy politicians and policy makers, military officers, pay for assassinations, and otherwise extend their power in ways that are not obvious or easily discovered. They can set up training camps and organizations, they can outfit them with supplies and experts. They can pay or coerce experts to join their side or to be silent.
We have, in the past, ignored those who tell us of such plans. We have stood horrified to find that such words were, in truth, written in blood. This time we must listen. This time, we must hear the Future calling to us.
Henri Amiel said that, “Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be outraged by silence.” It is our duty to speak out, to call attention to what we see happening around us, especially when too much of the press is heavily biased and won’t tell the truth when it interferes with their ideology. We need to raise our voices in protest when the attempt is made to silence experts who disagree with the current Collectives and their accepted “Truthiness”.
To those who say that too much of what we do is a case of “Blood for Oil,” we must respond that we are not fighting for oil, we are fighting for what oil is now and will continue to be for decades in an industrialized world that drinks oil to live as much as we humans drink water. We must have in our hearts the courage to carry with pride, with honor, and with strength the duties that will seek us out. And we must honor those who stand directly in the face of danger.
As a part of all this, the Collective Agendas march along with the Challenge given to us by Al Gore on July 17th, as I will discuss in Part Six.
Trackposted to , Perri Nelson's Website, Allie is Wired, Democrat=Socialist, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, and The World According to Carl, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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