We are so afraid. The hand of the trainer has been on us. It has been a punishing hand. Often cruel. It has jerked us up short. It has demanded that we think and act in ways that please the trainer.
Over the years we have become like the horse born wild, captured, and then broken. We now back up to the plow and wait to be harnessed. The trainer – the composite of parents, the pressure of peers, of teachers and preachers, of public relations gurus, of politicians, and the flock itself, have domesticated us.
We have been taught how to act and how to think. Our values have been grafted on to us, ideas that are often strange to our genetic beginnings.
We conform. We embrace convention and distrust and disrespect those who do not. We are regimented and constrained and tamed.
We must conform, else we are in danger. Can you see it – ten thousand minnows, all silver, and that one red minnow? Can you see the approaching shark?
But we have choices. Dare we make them?
Gerry Spence's Blog 
Gerry: this article reminds me of one of your TLC students who practices criminal law in the Lone Star state. Like many lawyers he practices in a small town with a couple of judges. Lawyers get out of law school bucking and snorting to use their new found power and knowledge to the good. But soon they learn they must back up to the plow of these small town judges and never dare imply to the judges that they are wrong because they are the only judges and one must go along to get along and stay within the well worn furrow as the judge directs (blinders help). Courage evaporates, brain cells atrophy, the heart shrinks to the size of a kidney bean.
But one of your students dares to takes great exception to the injustice perpetrated against his client by a particular judge. His heart is strong, his courage bold and his intellect sharpened, in part or in whole by the support and education he has gained at your College. He fights for justice; he loses but he makes his record and ultimately prevails in a higher court.
For the next five years, he loses every motion every case in her court. She tries to destroy him. She abuses him on a regular basis. She makes an example of him. How he finds the strength to continue under such abuse; I wonder, I worry about him, I carry him in my heart, my thoughts and my prayers. How he presses on I do not know, I cannot say where he would be without the sustenance of your college.
One day he receives a call, the judge wants to see him in Chambers. He goes over for what he believes will be the usual abuse session.
He arrives in chambers, the judge is sobbing. She is begging forgiveness for how she has treated him and his clients for years. Her wickedness is too much for her to bear–she can no longer continue her campaign of abuse. She has reached her own tipping point.
The plowmaster has not broken the horse. The plowmaster has broken herself.
Thank you, Vicki, for the good story. Story tells.
Gerry
I take it the red sparrow, is the one in the coal mine,(filled with methane gas to extinguish us) as is the red “minnow” in the small pond. We are taught math, and english in schools. We are part of society.
We pay taxes, we are subjected to the draft, some were, if they did not know an important Congressman, or have Dick Cheney’s WY draft board, we understand the word “civics”, and the helping hand to our fellow man. We are not animals, or someone’s whipping boy, because he is on the Financial Service’s Committee. We worship God as we see his spirit, in nature, we have our own view of God, not necessarily yours(God is persoanl to us), and spirtuality, that does not make us insane or crazy, or mere targets to be branded as wack jobs, & part of that conformity, peer whipping, as if insanity is laid down by the master’s whip of ridicule, who carries the big stick. We labored in the fields, we earned a hard days wages, and each year, we paid the IRS, and then now some–want to take it all away, they use fancy bailout words, sent trillions to foreign banks, tell us to shut up, limit our speech, confine us as if we are savages who have nothing to say, want to make us passive, so as not to speak up as human citizens, as if we are mere plow horses, and there as mere slaves to undnerwite the trillions(as serfs) added yearly on the back of our kids, as if we never learned to count, but see the hand of the corrupt debt master–he/ she is in Congress, the ones who do not really see you–as a human being.
We have been there, and we are on the verge of a revolution, we have been given no other choice.
your laugh, it is no joke.
Once upon a time: Go back to see what killed John F. Kennedy after we the people began circulating Silver Notes with a deflated value and the reUnited States began focusing upon Red China’s encroachment on the mafiosa’s transportation industry.
All slaves are, without ceremony, familiar with the technique learned in the womb. Mothers on earth have groomed the later regeneratons of Adam to sufffer during gestation.
a single tree standing tall and glorious is easily brought down but a forest has itself for protection unless the single tree is all that is left of a great forest
Either in one of your books, or some equally wise tome, there is the story of the baby elephant who begins life tethered to a stake. He tugs and he pulls but he can’t free himself. He grows to accept his restrictions. So much so that he no longer fights to be free, not even as a fully grown bull elephant.
I am reminded of this story all too frequently and especially when I fail to test the rope.
Yes, Bob. Some ropes need breaking. Others not. Wisdom is to know which is which.
Gerry
All the killings, mass ones, by people who have recently lost a job, is what we now see in the news.
They ended up hating American society, and before they go, they seek to
run a killing field.
what do all the sages, all the professors, all the pundits have to say about this cracking, breaking point in this garden of Eden, gone sour for some, the newly deranged and deadly dangerous, not humored lacking any Funny HQ, who are at wits end……….?
this is the new level of
what is in the society, it is alarming, what fancy words are placed over such profuse flow of blood, now running deep red in the American lands, by all the Bail out for the banker class ?
Its what we dont see that should concern us more. Our fellow Americans who feel as though thier lives have been snatched take out their shame and rage on their family behind closed doors. Our children are the ones who lose the most.The bailouts are like the thousand doller saddle on a ten dollar horse. My grandpa told me to things that I will always remember if you see a chair sit down and you cant shine shit, these bailouts are only trying to polish the screwing the real class took.
Gerry,
Thats really pretty darn good free verse poetry.
Being from New England, I’ve got to ask ,do you high plains folks know the difference between a red minnow and a red herring ?
George: The red minnow is me. The red herring is what you may wish to identify in what I say to you.
Gerry
Things I wished I’d said at the time.
Good answer; ” school” is in session.
Well, Larry Summers, ex President of Harvard, and chief e-con advisor must have some profound words on it all. After all , he was picking up over a cool $ 5 million from hedge funds, that will be assurdely comforting to Argus, as we eat our popcorn hosts, and swallow it with the red wine of the saviors blood.
Amen, and glory to H- Etta in the highest, as April 15th slave away day is near.
The red and silver S/ fish no longer migrate from the sea up the rivers on the West coast, as they used to,
as the area was damed to honor the pork of Washington, and the folly of piggy politicans, who have us stranded on the bridge to nowhere, as they eat PAC money, and feed us grey mutton.
The great white chiefs sporting game of jury nullification is merely for the most corrupt, like the king of all fixers Teddy- the MONEY KING of Pork–Stevens, who stole our lands for a pint of crude, and the London pipe to foul the seas, as oil spills are in vouge, as now we see the Army of invaders(Reps) gloat on the fixer being freed, as if only the powerful can escape the ruling of a jury(of citizens), to make the fix a sport for the corrupt to tamper with the truth, and do all you pale faces, from the Juris Halls of the Brady bunch, glory in the double standard, as Lenoard Pelter rots away in jail, framed by experts at lying, AKA, the FBI, and their fabricators , at large. You stole the jewel of the upper plains, the Teton’s from us, for some Condos, for the trophy home bankers, and tell us, Gold in the black Hills, is your God.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/ted_stevens_conviction_voided_/
The Department of Justice is righting obvious serious wrongs heretofore committed by the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ. The government is not permitted to convict a citizen if it does not play by the rules. Withholding exculpatory evidence (evidence that is favorable to the accused) is a serious wrong. This was corrected in Steven’s case.
As a child I often saw Red Cloud’s Lookout, a mountain near Sheridan where I grew up. Do not hate all “pale faces.” Some of us still care about the Native American. We stole the whole country and all of its contents from you, not just the Tetons.
Gerry
How can Gerry, brand or label, what was not turned over, if truly exculpatory,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exculpatory_evidence
in the Stevens corruption case, as that material has not even been before the judge( E. S.), and is the subject of a pending order for disclosure on April 6, 2009(the docs). Granted AG Holder is big on brownie points, political as he is, as evidenced in his shoddy activity to spring –pardon if you will- the nice zillionare $$ DEM party donor-guy Marc Rich, so seeing as how Ted Stevens floats among billions for his buddies, isn’t that par for the D C course .
4 DOJ attorneys and 1 FBI guy were present on April 15, 2008, when some hand writtene notes were taken as the interveiw of Mr real bad guy, Allen, the convict in the matter, who was key in the additions to the Senator’s chalet at a ski area town in Alaska.(a la Aleyska by the Fork, like Teton ski resort by the Snake).
Could you look into this Gerry, along with all the other criminal defense legal eagles, so on to stuff –here, and comment when all the facts come out, right now seems some want to keep America in the dark,
Also, the judge( E S) has not dismissed the conviction of Stevens, all be the DOJ has filed a motion to do so, and generated all the P R Gerry was reacting to.
Imagine, Gerry being jerked around by some DOJ P R. D C style, what would Argus say about that. Lincoln would be turning over in his grave, by this latest twist.
Isn’t Gerry a big fan of jury verdicts, now he is a big fan of jury nullification as to a powerful Senator, my my,
the popcorn does some funny flip-flops, in the latest on justice by some jumping FBI Joy sticks.
Ted Stevens, and AL, and the Club, oh my my the ex GOP candidate is showing his true party colors.
Eric Holder, the buddy of the very rich, and powerful, Conington and Burlington corporate law, his revolving door white collar D C culture of scratching the back of the uber powerful
It is most obvious the 4 red squirrels are DOJ esquire guys, standing around, looking totally lost, among the FBI guys, in silver suits, as the wild Teddy Stevens, the last of the Artic mustangs, breaks his rope, and runs to the last frontier, among the BP Crude rigs, as Red Cloud’s, Native cohorts were put into corporations, mostly run by the GOP party in Alaska. As the great white polar bear is starving out on the ice floats, our heritage melts away, and we bemoan that Russia sold to the USA fur trapping rights, it never held, as if all is under a cloud of what is right, as wrongs are never made right, when such injustice is the order of the day, and day after day, infinitum
Hi Vicki,
Thanks very much for your story about the battle between the courageous lawyer and the abusive judge. Sadly, this type of real-life story prevails all too often, especially in small towns where there is no higher authority to keep the abusive judges in check. And the tremendous harm they do to those unfortunate enough to appear in their courts is all too often dismissed as “harmless error.”
One can only hope such judges will one day develop a conscience and confess their abuses. Or if they won’t do it themselves, other courageous lawyers will expose their judicial misdeeds publicly. Until then, the abuse will probably continue, unchecked and unbalanced.
Gerry, I love your wisdom. It makes me think.
The red minnow is anybody who disagrees with our society…not politically…but socially…Ruby Ridge, Waco, Jonestown, and the Mormon compound are but a few of the countless number of examples that occur each and every day. At Ruby Ridge, Randy Weaver, “a self-confessed White “Supremist,” knew he was out of step with society; the religious fanatics at Waco knew they were out of step with society; the poor and dispossessed within our society so no civil justice in it; and the Mormon fundamentalists attempted to secretly follow the dictates of their scriptures. What did they do? They removed themselves from our society. That was not enough for the “trainer” described below. The trainer sent the “shark” to destroy any of those who refuse to conform to the very narrow confines of our present-day mores.
Very few of us sympathize with the “red” minnow because most have been genetically altered to obey “Big Brother.” We are taught to loathe the red minnow without reason, and we mostly never even think of why we are to loath the red minnow, except that they are somehow breaking the law (in other words, they will challenge or destroy the fundamentals of our society).
I was a “silver” minnow and despised the anti-war protesters during the Vietnam war era. Why, because my trainers had been trained by their trainers, and their trainers have been trained by their trainers, etc.. Sadly, all they did was train and never questioned why and what they were training, and they never said: “What is wrong with a people trying to get out from under a repressive government that the U.S. put into power to serve American interests and not those of the Vietnamese people?”
All of our lives we have been taught to conform. Schools are made to institutionalize us, and this is very evident by the change in universities in the last 30 years. My daughter has chosen to unschool her children, even after she got her masters from a prestigious university.
Societies have always had ways of institutionalizing us. I used to be a minister and so I can relate to the following story. There was a bishop who spread acorns all along the path as he walked. He said that it was to keep away the lions. When someone told him that there were no lions in England he replied, “Wow, it is working better than I thought.”
At this point in time any swimming against the stream is better than the way we have been institutionalized in our society.
Theodore, I agree. The church, however, is the greatest whipmaster of our culture. Gerry
One thing that is so ironic is Robert Hannsen, ex FBI guy, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hanssen
He was a very religious sort in very deep into some inter Catholic sect.
Not your run of the mill, pew pusher.
Yet, in his parallel universe, he was a Soviet spy, who caused the death of other Americans, being the big kahuna of double agents.
Plus, he was a real big porn fan King. See his curriculum viate, above.
How did he keep it all sorted out in his lobes of the conscious.
He must have had a whip master, who really did a trip on him.
As an ex Katholic(a fallen Katholic), I now pop corn in my microwave, and worship my dogs.
Gerry, I agree with you 100%. I was a minister, taught religion in college and I honestly believe that the church is even worse than you think. First and foremost it will do anything to stop you from thinking. If we don’t start looking honestly at what the church in our country is doing we will never understand how to cope with the religious fanatics throughout the world. As our society has become more and more zombie like, it is not by accident that the church has become more and more dogmatic.
Whipmasters you wonder about;
Maybe some lawyers are the great whipmasters, take Ted Stevens,
see/ hear his radio interview, on keeping his legal defense fund secret, to keep in the doner fat kat money flows, hidden, and his contempt for ordinary citizens:
http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2008/08/21/stevens-lashes-out-in-radio-interview/comment-page-1/
You can speak of little fish, be they pink, or yellow, but at some point what about the shark, and the wolves, howling, & tearing away at the flesh.
Stevens may have got Eric Holder(DOJ Political animal) to give him a pass, no second trial, but he may be the great fangle toothed gnashing beast, who devours all that is civil in society, and takes advantage of so many.
Listen to the radio tape, it is most eye-opening, to peel away some misconceptions people may have.
The church does seek money from one, if a member. Any person over 18 can tell any church, or cult to buzz off. Yet, corporations are hooked into sucking vast billions
out of the Federal treasury,
and you are mandated to pay the piper– the big whip master. I am not sure why you are so hung up on churches. After you were 18, you said adious to churches, are you concerned about some Islamic stuff, in places where the illiteracy rate is very high…..?
Will there ever be an honest 911 commission?Even the chairmen now admit they didn’t get the whole truth. An idiot should recognize that the real story of 911 is not being told by the govt and its complicit media.
Don’t most people who were raised in a church, reject it at some point( in many areas of America).
And, so a lot of people go to church, what exactly is the danger, if they want to believe what they do ?
So, Blackswan, how did you engage in stoping people from thinking(as a Minister) ?
They are many people who go to church who are engineers, and scientists, and can think.
A lot of facists are into thinking they are God like, and play savage games with the rest of society.
I wish you could elaborate Blackswan, and be specific, please.
How dare the Red Minnow question the gov’ts version of 9-11.
We are in a period of great change now and you should enjoy this fascist’s heaven.
The gov’t will hold you tight and make you safe, so don’t worry about the weight on your shoulder.
We are entering a new dawn for our loving masters and we will all bow down to the New World Order!
Charlie:
Did I engage in stopping people from thinking? The defensive answer is no. The reality is yes. By participating in a deceptive group, and even within it trying to educate, you become part of the larger group. If you are, in the story of the wild horse and the red minnow, trying not to conform you will not stay in the church very long. It is an institution designed to make people conform and as such contributes nothing to those who want to not conform and help others to not be sucked into conforming.
What is wrong with believing what you want? Think of the Taliban and you have the answer to your question. Think of the various sects in America today and you have your answer. Women and children suppressed, to say the least.
One other thing is that the last church where I was a minister over 40% of its families had an education of a Masters or Phd – from theologians, philosophers, historians, chemists, physicists, to doctors, dentists and even some of Gerry types – lawyers. I agree that there are many educated people in the church. Try to educate them about the history and reality of their religion and the attacks will begin.
Now, after I was in a fundamentalist church I thought maybe I could find a place in the Episcopalian church, after all it is supposedly not as dogmatic. Knowing the history of the Nicean creed I could not say it so I stood and just bowed my head every Sunday, trying to just be polite while the congregation like robots repeated something they knew nothing about. It amazed me that “educated” people never even studied the history of what they were saying, and then I received as rabid responses as from fundamentalists once I pointed out the way Constantine used the vision of the sword and had the Nicean creed written to control people.
It is best to break free from all means of control, religious, economic, political or whatever. There is a great book called Black Mass by John Gray that points out the danger of what people believe. The longer you dabble in believing that it is ok to believe whatever you want you are also admitting that your belief means nothing.
The SS elite Nazi units were very well educated(the most educated in Germany in the 1930’s).
And, we are told of Hilter’s Pope(by some Yale Professor). Tell that to the many American Catholics, who left their guts, and limbs and parts of themselve on Omaha Bearch, or the battle fields of Europe, those church goers from Boston, New York and Chicago with sur-names of Polish heritage, or Irish lineage.
The Book “Black Mass”( another title) about the mob in Boston, who was in cahoots with the FBI rouge cons, who set up murders of informers.(one FBI guy now in jail for a long time for his stints—obstruction of justice( among many back stabbing pursuits).
I suppose since the FBI most wanted, Whitey Bulger, was an altar boy once( in his early days), he is Exhibit numbero Uno–but for what–being a non-conformer. He is some animal indeed, but it is his brother, the Mass Legislator that is the so called shining star in the education area. Many used to believe in the Bunny Rabbit, leaving loose change when one lost their temp teeth at childhood, and Santa Claus, and life is filled with many myths for people to believe in.
I never believed I was an arm of the state, or that it owned my being, any aspect of it….. & explotation of people come in many forms, it is not just from non-secular institutions.
As I read B-Swans piece he states: “it (the church) will do ……anything to stop you from thinking” .(April 13, 2009). Context following B-Swans notation he was an educator and minister.
Maybe that was a reference to other men of the cloth and educators, in general, some broad brush.
Yes, that old history on when the Pope-ship was split is fasinating.
There are many good people who go to church, not all can be branded with some broad-brush,
the same slam could be used on civics, and sheep.
Where were all the German lawyers, when Hilter was coming to power—in some beer halls, or what ??
Where were all the Oxford educated when the Irish citizens were being starved, as food stuffs were being exported out of Ireland ?
Yes, history goes to the victor who can rewrite it, and indeed is it revised by the most powerful doing their bidding as upper crust uber educated. Another Black Mass book, was not by Gray, but it showed a dark side of power gone astray, and it was in the DOJ/ FBI, at the high levers of Government.
Having said the foregoing, all people should study history, keep their mind open, and question, and not be sheep-like.
That goes to civics, as well as all other aspects of life.
I once was an altar boy, then I joined the Knights of Columbus to help clean up the streets as a civics project. I may be a quasi atheist, still in the fold, but do so because I frockle with the salt of the earth, from all walks of life.
They never ask what I really believe at a point in time, or give some litmus test, or screen test.
I do not have to sign an annual certification that I believe Jesus rose from the dead, or that ….
So far I have not been found out. Who really knows what they deep down believe, when one goes to the core of things ?
I know there are many good people in church. But, at some point, those who are in power who have held you back from thinking have to be confronted. Matt Taibbi wrote “Actual rich people can’t ever be the target. It’s a classic peasant mentality: going into fits of groveling and bowing whenever the master’s carriage rides by, then fuming against the Turks in Crimea or the Jews in the Pale or whoever after spending fifteen hard hours in the fields. You know you’re a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your shit. Whatever the master does, you’re on board. When you get frisky, he sticks a big cross in the middle of your village, and you spend the rest of your life praying to it with big googly eyes. Or he puts out newspapers full of innuendo about this or that faraway group and you immediately salute and rush off to join the hate squad. A good peasant is loyal, simpleminded, and full of misdirected anger. And that’s what we’ve got now, a lot of misdirected anger searching around for a non-target to mis-punish . . . can’t be mad at AIG, can’t be mad at Citi or Goldman Sachs. The real villains have to be the anti-AIG protesters! After all, those people earned those bonuses! If ever there was a textbook case of peasant thinking, it’s struggling middle-class Americans burned up in defense of taxpayer-funded bonuses to millionaires. It’s really weird stuff.”
Watch Constantine’s Sword – great documentary of why we have such a loyal military in the midst of lunacy.
I suppose as long as there are cheat flat screens, and
politicans who tell use we must give trillions to bankers to stimulate the economy, a revolution will be avoided–temp wise.
Ya, not like those pesants in Ireland who burned down the Duke, and the Earls, and the Royal’s grand houses.
No, we wouldn’t want to get too uncouth, now would we, with all that height of noble civility in our realm, pure reason of the unGodly, who gave us Stalin, and Marx, one set of dogma, trafficing on the heels of the last one.
Of course, the USA needs a strong military, to defend the way of life of Barney Frank, and certain politicans, who would never lower themselves to serve in Viet Nam, and etc.
Why pick on Barney Frank? George Bush? Dick Cheney? I think I made my point
Why pick on priests, Bishops, men of the cloth, Vets, taxpayers, citizens, who pay the freight, just because George Bush–W–, Barney Frank, and Dick Cheney were draft evaders, and probably your heros. That hardly gives you special standing to get up on your high horse and give your sermons to other, as if you think any who express a belief in God, are somehow disqualified to hold any rational thougths in their head, or valid feelings about life, or other aspects of being human.
Your brand of dogma is just some warmed over hash of nihlism, parading around under the banner of superiority, like a Pink KKK, with no hoods, as if
giving pretext to look down your nose, and then play off of that Harvard Yard spin off, and the Dali.
I am proud to be a Knights of Columbus, and
to support all the good things they do.
They support dignity of life. Futhermore, one can can a tax deduction for serving the Knights, as a qualified orginization.
You can believe what you want, you can believe that any who belong to some religion are nuts, or sheep-like, or what ever you want.
I belong to the Knights to do community service work. I don’t go for all that is in its K of C literatute, anymore than i do from what I read in the New York Times.
Why is Dick Cheney picking on person(s) to have them arrested if they disagree with his “disgusting” policies in Iraq ?
What religion is that of Cheney that makes him so holier than thou ?
You opened this can of worms, so now will it be smothered under a blanket of silence, so citizens really don’t count in America in assorted forums, places, and tribunals, and the civic cyber squares.
Dick Cheney and Alan Simpson make Wyoming look like Northern Ireland, as if they are the Orange order, and most people in Wyoming are some serfs, merely to be exploited.
You don’t see the Cheney or Simpson kids in the front lines– GREEN Zones–now do you, what lesson does that reflect about PARTY Political CLASS in America.
I just hope now that Simpson –his Clique–don’t seek to strip the Knights( K of C) of any tax exempt status, just becasue I shoot off my mouth, here.
For all i know some in the K of C just as soon I am not so out spoken, but they want us to be part of the public square in America.
The trinity of East coast Blog Meisters, the Simpleton Injustice Blog, with others are a cult of sharks. I suppose such sharks come in
all kind of shades, feeding on the little minnows
gullibility
So much floats around in the sea of bloggy water, one needs a homing device to find safe
harbors.