Talk Shops
The Imperial Moot has two power:
- select the new Emperor upon the death of the old Emperor, and
- dissolve the Imperium
So, it does its first job perhaps once a generation regarding the Emperor, and the second job is the Big Red Button that is never pushed. Otherwise, it’s a powerless talk shop.
A talk shop of extremely powerful and wealthy people.
It seems that a great many Americans pine for dictatorship. How else to explain the outrage over the fact that a member of Congress has requested that the Congress actually vote on the largest spending bill in human history? It seems the preferred method of lawmaking now is to have a small number of politicians decide law without the annoying formalities of legislative votes.
The current controversy centers on the fact that Rep. Thomas Massey from Kentucky things Congress should have a recorded vote on the massive kleptocratic bill currently working its way through Congress.
As it is, Washington’s most powerful politicians want to use unanimous consent to pass the bill. This means a small handful of members of Congress can show up, say “aye” when prompted, and the bill will pass. Indeed, even if some members show up and say “nay,” the chairman can still just declared the vote “passed” based on his or her own opinion of which way the voice vote went.
On other words, what Washington’s “leaders” want is a rubber stamp.
And a rubber stamp legislature, something we have long seen in countless despotic regimes throughout history, is apparently what many Americans want.
One need only peruse the social media responses to Massie’s opposition to a rubber stamp to see just how little respect there is for the concept of the rule of law. Many of the responses are repeatable here, but a they could certainly be said to be in line with John Kerry’s intellectually stunted comeback: “Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an asshole.”
Of course, who could expect anything more to the point than this. Obviously, people like Kerry aren’t going to argue “I firmly believe members of Congress ought not be required to accountable for their votes.” He won’t say “the basic tenets of representative government mean nothing to me.”
But that’s what opposing Massie’s effort means.
“Why, this is an emergency!” is the claim made by those who think it perfectly fine if a small group of millionaires passes legislation in the shadows — legislation designed largely to prop up the asset prices of billionaires so they can keep being billionaires. Meanwhile, regular people will get one or two month’s worth of rent payments. And then they’re on their own in the worst job market since the Great Depression.
Small and medium-sized business will suffer the worst, but the “good” news is billionaires will be able to use their new windfall to buy up the assets of small businesses while increasing the market share of America’s mega firms.
Congress Can’t Be Bothered with Voting on the Largest Spending Bill in History by Ryan McMaken
Archduke (later, Emperor) Cleon Zhunastu, the founder of the Third Imperium, had a better grasp of human nature than Washington, Jefferson, and the rest of the Founding Fathers.
But then again, the people the Founding Father were speaking for, the religion and ethics they shared, the kind of economy they were working in, and the tech & communication networks that were in place at the time, underwent greater change in a shorter time than the Third Imperium ever had to face.
And in the face of radical and unrelenting change, people naturally reach for the Old Ways.
(Bitterly, the “Old Ways” isn’t defined as “What are the Commandments? To the Law and the Testimony!”
but “What do powerful men say? What do the priests experts and scientists think we should do?”
Not Rule of Law, but Rule of Men.)
One more thing: the Imperium – thanks to the Vilani – has a multi-millennial tradition of corporate responsibility to workers, as well as shareholders and customers. Couple this with the aristocratic vision of Noblesse oblige, and you get billionaires who understand the vision of insuring that 20% (say) of profits go to their workers, from their own deep pockets.
Rather than having the government do it, with taxes from The People and loans from the Smiling Bankers… while the billionaires themselves pay a pittance. “It’s the government’s job, not mine!”
Typical secularist dehumanizers, ethical escape-artists and mechanical-men. And don’t get me started about the socialists and their huge big promises… with thieving, bloody fingers crossed behind their backs.
We live in a personal universe, not an impersonal one. Which means that we must take personal responsibility… and the greater the level of wealth and power and knowledge, the greater the responsibility.
But that’s a Bible concept: and we all know the level of respect Our Betters have for the Bible.
The Voice of Power: In the Real World
The Media Navigator classifies 72 influential media outlets based on their political stance and their relationship to power. In many cases, the latter is more significant.
The Media Navigator
“Political stance and relationship to power”, not number of views.
Hmmm.
Of course, I have a couple of quibbles in the ranking: The Economics should have its own special column all to itself in the far left, but the editors probably still think that the major politicians are more important than the major banks. A common mistake.
(Not true in the Third Imperium, by the way. Imperial movers and shakers are generally military men, industrial titans, or high-tech tribal chieftains: banks serve them, not the other way around.)
The guys I tend to read – mainly LewRockwell, but a bit of Anti War, Zero Hedge, Moon of Alabama – are on the “conservative & distant from power” area. I am mildly astonished that Swiss media observers has even heard of them.
The hardcore sites I read – Gary North and Chalcedon, but also Lamb’s Reign – are still comfortably off the radar.
The Voice of Power: In Traveller
The Imperial Government — unlike the ancient Ziru Sirka/First Imperium, the Solomani Confederation, or today’s People’s Republic of China — are not particularly interested in information censorship. There are a couple of reasons for this:
Narrative Control: the government has a particular story – say, about the four plane strikes of September 11, 2001, or the Kennedy Assassination. A large minority disagrees… and each of these people have their own story, and can’t come to a single narrative.
“The biggest and strongest narrative, unified and amplified, wins the fight.”
“What about all those dissidents?”
“Let them talk all they want, and fight among themselves just as they please. It keeps some people distracted, others amused, and frees Our People to focus on creating new stories. There’s always another crisis, after all…”
“Certain Nobles have a prickly sense of honour. And a weapon at their hip they are willing to use.”
“That’s a local affair, and not our concern. Still, stirring the pot and focusing tons of attention on some low-level House isn’t a bad outcome. It makes for great – read, profitable – copy, too!”
Or – same thing, but closer to reality:
The U.S. government’s story of 9/11 has not varied much since approximately 9/12/01. It is the accepted story, just as the stories of the assassinations of Lincoln, JFK, RFK, and MLK are accepted. That is to say, millions of people don’t accept them, but there is no single alternative story for each of these famous events that has challenged the government’s story. Therefore, the government stories win by default.
This is why the government’s stories stay in the textbooks and gain grudging support from the majority of the population. Nobody really wants to devote the time and effort necessary to studying all or even a fraction of the alternative narratives. It is relatively easy to poke holes in the government’s story. It is incredibly difficult to fill those holes with a narrative that does not have an equal or greater number of holes.
9/11: Where to Begin a Revisionist History by Gary North
This “Let them babble” is one arm of Imperial Rule.
The other one, dating from the Imperium Romanum, is “Let them hate, so long as they fear.” This truth is generally kept in a low profile, but has been known to make an appearance, as assorted targeted minorities know.
*waves to the psions*
Both are very Solomani attitudes: the Vilani don’t really understand why any disagreement to the Consensus should be tolerated, for any reason.
(See: “Error correction”, “Feedback”, and the Solomani prophetic tradition.)
This leads the Vilani to spend serious sums on idea & intellectual suppression… a cost Solomani-culture Imperial governments generally don’t have to pay. (But see the one-party, race-bound Solomani Confederation for a most notable exception.)
The Vilani have noticed this, by the way.
Especially the Mixed Vilani, the dominant demographic group of the Third Imperium.
