{"id":1341,"date":"2009-11-16T00:06:24","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T05:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=1341"},"modified":"2018-08-07T21:56:19","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T01:56:19","slug":"monday-november-16-2009-a-gift-of-earth-and-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=1341","title":{"rendered":"Monday, November 16, 2009 \u2014 A Gift of Earth and Water"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest and most impor\u00adtant events in his\u00adto\u00adry have a strange invis\u00adi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty when they are hap\u00adpen\u00ading, except, of course, to a few unheed\u00aded Laoco\u00f6ns.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to choose the worst from the list of crimes com\u00admit\u00adted by Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtives against their own peo\u00adple, but I think that by far the most impor\u00adtant is this one: Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtives engi\u00adneered and pro\u00adpelled the trans\u00adfer of most of Amer\u00adi\u00adca\u2019s wealth to the Com\u00admu\u00adnist Par\u00adty (the one that real\u00adly counts \u2015 in Beijing).<\/span><\/p>\n

This will prove, I think, to be the most impor\u00adtant event of this era. Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtives man\u00adaged to trans\u00adform the \u201cfall\u201d of Com\u00admu\u00adnism into its tri\u00adumph. This does not come as a sur\u00adprise to those few, like myself, who have always main\u00adtained that Marx\u00adism is an ultra-Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy, and that the gang\u00adsters of the Com\u00admu\u00adnist Par\u00adty of the PRC<\/span> embody the Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive wet-dream and utopia.<\/span><\/p>\n

What can we expect from Democ\u00adrats in Wash\u00ading\u00adton? Not much. Con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive ortho\u00addoxy is as firm\u00adly entrenched in that par\u00adty as it is in the Repub\u00adli\u00adcan. Wit\u00adness Oba\u00adma bla\u00adtant\u00adly snub\u00adbing the Dalai Lama to please Amer\u00adi\u00adca\u2019s new mas\u00adters, and appear\u00ading in a rigged and cen\u00adsored \u201ctown meet\u00ading\u201d, played by the rules of the the great\u00adest mass-mur\u00adder\u00aders and slave traders of his\u00adto\u00adry. What else can be expect\u00aded? The Com\u00admu\u00adnist Par\u00adty (sel\u00addom named, these days, for the word is taboo) owns Amer\u00adi\u00adca\u2019s debts, and calls the tune. This was not Oba\u00adma\u2019s doing. From Nixon\u2019s snivel\u00ading, envi\u00adous, and craven crawl\u00ading to Mao, to George Bush Sr. clink\u00ading cham\u00adpagne glass\u00ades with Deng after the slaugh\u00adter at Tian\u2019an\u00admen, to the hordes of Amer\u00adi\u00adcan cor\u00adpo\u00adrate quis\u00adlings eager to strip mine their own coun\u00adtry and hand it to the Par\u00adty, it has always been an agen\u00adda dri\u00adven by Con\u00adser\u00advatism. But Oba\u00adma will not buck the trend..<\/span><\/p>\n

I am remind\u00aded of this as I read these words in a recent\u00adly writ\u00adten his\u00adto\u00adry of the Per\u00adsian Wars. (Tom Hol\u00adland\u2019s Per\u00adsian Fire):<\/span><\/p>\n

There sat Arta\u00adphernes, broth\u00ader of the King of Kings, ruth\u00adless and shrewd. When the Athen\u00adian ambas\u00adsadors had arrived at his court and begged him for an alliance against the Spar\u00adtans, Arta\u00adphernes had gra\u00adcious\u00adly grant\u00aded their request. Nat\u00adu\u00adral\u00adly, how\u00adev\u00ader, he had set con\u00addi\u00adtions of his own: a gift of earth and water. The Athen\u00adian ambas\u00adsadors, shrug\u00adging their shoul\u00adders, had accept\u00aded his terms. On their return to Athens, when they report\u00aded the news of the sub\u00admis\u00adsions they had made to Arta\u00adphernes, \u201cthey were severe\u00adly cen\u00adsured\u201d \u2015 which no doubt enabled the democ\u00adra\u00adcy to feel good about itself. The Athe\u00adni\u00adans, how\u00adev\u00ader, did not repu\u00addi\u00adate the alliance with Per\u00adsia \u2015 or their own sub\u00admis\u00adsion. Bet\u00adter safe than sor\u00adry. Even after the great vic\u00adto\u00adries of 506 BC<\/span>, who knew when Cleomines might be back? An insur\u00adance pol\u00adi\u00adcy against the Spar\u00adtans was no bad thing \u2015 even if it had cost a sym\u00adbol\u00adic humil\u00adi\u00ada\u00adtion. And what was a gift of earth and water? A ges\u00adture \u2015 noth\u00ading more.
Or so, at any rate, it pleased the Athe\u00adni\u00adans to assume.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biggest and most impor\u00adtant events in his\u00adto\u00adry have a strange invis\u00adi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty when they are hap\u00adpen\u00ading, except, of course, to a few unheed\u00aded Laoco\u00f6ns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-ar-blog-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1341"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7903,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1341\/revisions\/7903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}