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Shortly after World War II the people in economics decided that their subject of interest was objectively based and departed from the subjectivity it had previously embraced and joined the forces of the mathematical sciences. With their computers, equations, graphs and statistical models they decided that everything in economics was subject to central planning and, with the right formulas being applied, all would be well and the nation could be micromanaged to prosperity. Woe to those with big egos and even bigger statistical bell curves. The new economists with all their formulas did not predict the trouble this nation is in today. In fact, their theories are massively responsible for the many woes we are experiencing. Let us review a few of the failures with the best idea saved for last.
The Federal Reserve:
We will not rehash again the failures of the Federal Reserve System. Its primary mandate is to protect the purchasing power of the dollar. Since the purchasing power of the dollar has declined over 95% since its inception in 1913 we can say that it has failed massively in its primary mandate. The most stable currency in the history of the world was the Byzantine gold solidus which retained its same value for over 500 years (498-1030). One reason for this stability was that the Byzantine Emperor decreed that anyone caught debasing the Byzantine currency in any way was to have their hand cut off. If the Fed chairmen had had this caveat hanging over their heads perhaps they may have behaved in a more prudent manner.
Other functions of the Fed in which they have failed massively include reducing unemployment, bank regulation, and as a lender of last resort. I won’t supply all the details. As a final indignity the Fed cannot even maintain the integrity of its own balance sheet.
Monetarism:
Monetarism is an economic theory associated with Milton Friedman, the 1976 Nobel Prize winner in Economics. Friedman’s theory was described in an equation known as the quantity theory of money. MV = Py. Money supply (M) multiplied by velocity (V) equals nominal GDP, which can be broken into its components of price changes (P) and real growth (y). The problem is that V cannot be controlled because it is a behavior phenomenon. This theory discourages saving because when you save V goes down – this is why governments are often encouraging citizens to adopt bad habits and spend. Since the Fed controls M the Fed must print money like crazy if V drops to maintain nominal GDP – printing money like crazy is not good in spite of what the crackpot socialist economists at Princeton may espouse.
Financial Economics:
I will not list all the details, but these are the financial theories spawned by more Nobel Prize winners that have produced the explosive growth of financial futures and derivative contracts. The problem with all these mathematical theories is that they do not respond to the real world of markets and human behavior. We see the end result of all this in the housing collapse of 2008.
Keynesianism:
Keynesianism rests upon the assumption that a dollar of government deficit spending can produce more than a dollar of economic activity, the so-called multiplier effect. The fatal flaw of Keynesianism is this famous “multiplier.” Shortly after being elected in 2008 Barack Obama had two of his economic hacks, Christine Romer and Jared Bernstein, look at the multiplier in connection with his proposed 2009 stimulus program. Romer and Bernstein, in a famous study (famous for being grossly inaccurate) estimated the multiplier at 1.54 – in other words a dollar of government spending would produce $1.54 worth of economic activity. Another more rigorous study with the same data showed accurately that the multiplier would always be below one and would be 0.48 by the end of 2010. This means that by the end of 2010 about one-half of each stimulus dollar spent would be wasted. A review of the economic literature shows that the methods used by Romer and Bernstein were unsupportable except for ideological reasons.
Keynesian economics only works under very restricted conditions. In order to work you must have a very short run liquidity problem and, most importantly, a balanced or near balanced budget with little or no national debt. None of the favorable conditions for Keynesian stimulus was present in the United States in early 2009. The country was heavily in debt, was running huge deficits and was having a severe solvency crisis – exactly the wrong environment for Keynesian stimulus. The stimulus spending did exactly as predicted – wasting valuable resources and increasing the deficit.
We would like to thank James Rickards and his book Currency Wars for what I have written in the foregoing portion of this post. This is all accounted for in much greater detail in his Chapter 9 of the book entitled “The Misuse of Economics”, a chapter in the book I regard as a classic, particularly the section on Keynesianism. I think every economics student at every university should be required to memorize every word of this chapter. As a minimum every professor with a PhD in Economics teaching at an accredited university should be forced to read this material – particularly the socialists at Princeton from where we seem to draw our major economic “thinkers” and Federal Reserve Chairmen. These are the same “thinkers” whose only solution to any problem is more government spending. The solution is where Mr. Rickards and I part ways. His solution to all this is another wildly theoretical approach that is almost as unpredictable as the ones he has just demolished. We now present the U.S. Freedom Army solution to solving national economic problems, which may or may not place us among the great economic thinkers but is something we know will work.
Home Economics:
Once upon a time in high school they used to have a class called Home Economics. Only the girls ever enrolled in this class because the guys were too embarrassed to go to the class. In this class they essentially taught women how to be good housewives – this was in the days when women were not too present in the workplace. They learned things like cooking, washing, cleanliness, child-raising and many other things necessary to run a proper household.
One of the things they taught the girls was how to manage the family finances. Simple things like if you spend more money than you take in you are going to have problems. Pay yourself first at about ten percent and set aside that money for a rainy day. Make a family budget that makes sense and is in accordance with reality and it had better balance or the problems will continue to multiply. Try to pay cash for things and don’t go into debt. We’re sure there was a lot of other sound economic and financial advice that was imparted.
We personally think that a Home Economics class for all members of the Federal government is the answer to all the nation’s problems. If the guys are too embarrassed to attend we could hold the class surreptitiously in the Congressional basement. No diaper changing is required in order to graduate.
oh btw, yours truly assup was complaining in the sticky thread.
I'm surprised that DA sent you an pm even though you had her on ignore.
Yeah, that makes you wonder, doesn't it?
anyway...
This communist catfish is particularly vile... although she does have some nice facial hair!
Quote:
Old age and illness have not dulled the tongue or treasonous soul of convicted jihad-enabling lawyer Lynne Stewart.
She's as vile and violence-promoting as ever.
Freed from prison two years ago on "compassionate release" after being diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, the flaming 76-year-old radical is still championing left-wing massacres against the police.
And still kicking America in the teeth.
The Associated Press reported over the holiday weekend that the mouthy menace remains stubbornly devoted to "armed struggle."
Translation: Sicko Grandma Stewart -- as unrepentant and unapologetic as the rest of her rotten hippie pals in the bloodthirsty Weather Underground, Black Liberation Army and Black Panther movement -- continues to endorse murdering her ideological enemies in the name of peace and social justice.
"Armed struggle," is that what she would callously call the 9/11 jihad attacks on 3,000 innocent men, women and children? It's what she calls domestic terrorist attacks on our police officers.
Stewart was sent up the river in 2005 after a jury found her guilty of helping terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman -- the murderous Blind Sheik -- smuggle coded messages of Islamic violence to outside followers in violation of an explicit pledge to abide by her client's court-ordered isolation.
Rahman's idea of armed struggle: Calling on Muslims to "destroy" the West and "burn their companies, eliminate their interests, sink their ships, shoot down their planes, (and) kill them on the sea, air, or land."
Rahman greenlighted terror against Americans that led to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1997 massacre of Western tourists in Luxor, Egypt, the USS Cole bombing and 9/11. Stewart helped foment even more violence by defying the trial judge's communications ban and transmitting Rahman's edicts of violence to his followers.
"From the moment she committed the first act for which she was convicted, through her trial, sentencing and appeals," Judge Robert Sack of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals wrote, "Stewart has persisted in exhibiting what seems to be a stark inability to understand the seriousness of her crimes."
It's not that she's unable to understand. Sicko Grandma Stewart just doesn't give a flying knitting needle.
Yet, despite her barbaric lack of compassion for her fellow Americans slaughtered by the Islamic jihadists and murderous radicals she aided and adored, the Obama administration pushed successfully to spring her.
Why? Connect the dots. They're family. Barack Obama was best buds with Chicago neighbor and convicted Weather Underground domestic terrorist Bill "guilty as sin, free as a bird" Ayers. Lynne Stewart defended Weather Underground cop-killer David Gilbert, who remains in prison after his conviction in the deadly 1981 armored Brink's vehicle robbery in Nyack, New York, that claimed the lives of two police officers and a private security guard. Waverly Brown, Edward O'Grady and Peter Paige were all military veterans from working-class backgrounds.
Gilbert's convicted felon partner in cop-killing crime was the remorseless Kathy Boudin, who was freed in 2003 and now teaches at Obama's alma mater, Columbia University. Their child, Chesa Boudin, was raised by Ayers and his wife and fellow Weather Underground terrorist, Bernardine Dohrn.
She co-led the group that planted a bomb at Chicago's Haymarket Square police memorial; robbed National Guard armories and banks; bombed the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, and the State Department; bombed the New York Department of Corrections; bombed a judge's home, several courthouses, and an ROTC building; and bombed Chicago police cars, the NYPD headquarters and other NYPD precincts throughout the 1970s.
Fast-forward to September 2016. Several Weather Underground killers are back teaching at the campuses that bred them. The Weather Underground's Chicago apologist is wrapping up two terms in the White House.
And the group's legal handmaiden is now serving out her golden years cheering Micah Xavier Johnson, the evil, racist gunman who ambushed and killed five Dallas police officers in July as Black Lives Matter-inspired racial revenge over cop-related shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. She also embraced Gavin Long, who shot three Baton Rouge cops (both black and white) a week after Xavier's Dallas cop massacre.
The hate-filled Stewart blamed the victims for joining the thin blue line. She called the cop-killers "avengers," not murderers of heroic husbands, fathers and grandfathers keeping the peace. Most perfidiously, she championed the police massacres as a "deterrent."
That's a clear, cold incitement to more violence and anarchy.
Sicko Lynne Stewart's freedom is a middle finger to all law enforcement officers, first responders, their families, and the families of victims of Islamic jihad.
Cancer or no, Stewart's compassionate release should be revoked immediately. She is a cancer on America.
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
Winston Churchill
Well said Mr. Churchill. Let us now turn to a few people who did not share the opinion of Sir Winston and see how it worked out for their respective nations. You may or may not have heard of some of these people but believe me when I tell you that most did major damage to the countries they led. I have given an example from every continent but I will leave out the continent of Antarctica even though I am certain there have been some socialists wandering about down there – at least in summer. The six remaining continents have so many good examples that I could have selected any of several people from long lists of candidates. I chose these people for reasons known only to my subconscious – and my subconscious is not telling me why it chose them.
North America –Lazaro Cardenas. Lazaro Cardenas (1895-1970) was the president of Mexico from 1934-1940. During his time as president, he succeeded in becoming the greatest Socialist in the history of continental North America. You will notice I said continental North America only because he was surpassed in several other continents – South America (Juan & Eva Peron, Hugo Chavez, etc., etc.); Asia (Mao Tse-Tung, Ho Chi Minh, etc., etc.); Europe (Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, etc., etc.).
Lazaro Cardenas did the one thing all Socialists dream of doing – he redistributed land. He reached phase two of the Socialist Revolution – first you redistribute wealth, then you redistribute land, then you establish a dictatorship, then you take away freedom. During Cardenas’ presidency the government expropriated and redistributed millions of acres of hacienda land to peasants and urban and industrialized workers gained unprecedented unionization rights and wage increases. Cardenas redistributed more land than all his revolutionary predecessors combined, a 400 percent increase.
Cardenas applied the social provisions of the 1917 Constitution. This became clear when Articles 27 and 127 were enforced for the first time. The first of these articles governs national ownership of the land, mines, and natural resources, while the latter focuses on improving the conditions of peasants and workers. Cardenas also changed the agrarian legislation so that land could be redistributed to landless laborers on haciendas. Cardenas proposed a completely new model for the ejidos (substitute the word communes). Peasant agriculture would be the basis for agricultural modernization and the preferred form of the ejido was the large-scale collective type, although many new individual ejidos were created.
The years of the Cardenas reforms were marked by high food prices, falling wages, high inflation, and low agricultural yields. The reforms caused commercial agriculture to become stagnant in 1937. By 1940 levels of commercial agriculture fell lower than they had been five years earlier. Production from the ejidos was disappointing compared with production before the land ownership was reformed.
Russian exile Leon Trotsky was welcomed into Mexico by Cardenas, reportedly to counter accusations that Cardenas was a Stalinist. Though Cardenas was not as left-wing as Leon Trotsky and other communists would wish, Trotsky described the Cardenas government as the only honest government in the world. Cardenas was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize for 1955.
At 9:45 p.m. on the evening of March 18, 1938, Cardenas expropriated the equipment of the foreign oil companies in Mexico. The announcement inspired a spontaneous six-hour parade in Mexico City.
It was fortunate for the country of Mexico that Mexican presidents were limited to one six-year term. Cardenas’ Socialist policies were on the verge of ruining the Mexican economy. Subsequent presidents slowly undid the damage Cardenas had wrought.
The tragedy of Lazaro Cardenas was that he was a good person and meant to do well. He came from humble beginnings in the state of Michoacan. He supported his family from the age of sixteen after the death of his father. His first act after becoming president was to cut his salary in half. He was adored by the Mexican people for his selflessness and bravery. Lazaro Cardenas was probably the only president associated with the PRI who did not use his office to make himself wealthy. He subsequently served as Mexico’s Secretary of Defense until 1945. He retired to a modest home by Lake Patzcuaro and worked the rest of his life supervising irrigation projects and promoting free medical clinics and education for the nation’s poor. He certainly fit the term altruist.
Lazaro Cardenas nearly destroyed Mexico’s economy – but he did it with the best of intentions.
Asia – Ne Win. Ne Win (1911? – 2002) was the power in Burma from 1962 to 1998. On March 2, 1962 Ne Win seized power in a military coup d’etat ousting the prime minister U Nu (pronounced, quite possibly, you knew). From 1962 to 1988 Ne Win instituted the “Burmese way to Socialism”, a combination of extreme nationalism, Buddhism, and Marxism. Ne Win adopted socialist programs including the nationalization of all medical functions and the elimination of land rents. During his years in power there were at least eight major student and labor strikes that were brutally suppressed.
By the late 1980s Ne Win’s socialist and isolationist policies had turned Burma into one of the world’s poorest countries. Government policies and corruption had driven a great deal of the country’s economic activity underground into the black market and Burma, which had once been a leading rice exporter, was beginning to experience food shortages. In 1988 when he saw his power waning he orchestrated from behind the scenes a military coup that crushed any hopes for democracy. For the next ten years Ne Win worked from behind the scenes to exercise influence over the military junta.
After 1998 Ne Win’s power began to wane. Once a rich country, Myanmar (name changed in 1988 from Burma) is now an isolated and poor place. Ne Win is remembered as the man who took the country from prosperity to poverty.
Africa – Julius Nyerere. Julius Nyerere (1922-1999) was elected Tanganyika’s first President in 1962 and in 1965 the first President of Tanzania (a union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar). Two years later, he issued the Arusha Declaration, which outlined his socialist vision of ujamaa that came to dominate his policies. While studying in Edinburgh in the early 1950s he encountered Fabian Socialism and began to develop his vision of ujamaa which was to connect socialism with African communal living.
When in power, Nyerere implemented a socialist economic program and introduced a policy of collectivism in the country’s agricultural system. Nyerere believed that Africans were already socialists and all they would have to do would be to return to their traditional mode of life and socialism would reestablish itself. This return would be a true repudiation of capitalism, since his society would not rely on capitalism to prosper. Unfortunately for Nyerere and Tanzania, this ujamaa system caused agricultural output to plummet. The deficit in cereal grains was more than 1 million tons between 1974 and 1977. Only loans and grants from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1975 prevented Tanzania from going bankrupt. By 1979, ujamaa villages contained 90% of the rural population but only produced 5% of the national agricultural output. Tanzania went from the largest exporter of agricultural products in Africa to the largest importer of agricultural products.
Nyerere retired in 1985 while remaining the head of his political party. Nyerere was named “World Hero of Social Justice” by the president of the United Nations General Assembly (Ali Abdsullam Treki of Libya – another country that knows a lot about social justice).
South America – Juan Peron. An enigmatic figure, Juan Peron (1895-1974) was three times elected President of Argentina although he only completed one term (1946-1952). Peron was economically a socialist but in other affairs he was essentially a fascist – endearing him to extreme elements on both sides of Argentine political life. We will stick to the economic aspect.
When Peron was elected president on June 4, 1946 his two stated goals were social justice and economic independence and his program was known as Peronismo. Peron inherited a country that had benefitted greatly during World War II and had a surplus of US$1.7 billion. Peron instructed his economic advisors to develop a five-year plan with the goal of increasing workers’ pay, achieving full employment, stimulating industrial growth of over 40% while diversifying the sector, and greatly improving transportation, communication, energy and social infrastructure in the private and public sectors (Note: There is no such plan available in the real world).
In his first two years in office Peron nationalized the Central Bank, the railways, universities, public utilities, public transport, and created a single buyer for the nation’s exports, the Institute for the promotion of Trade (IAPI). The IAPI wrested control of Argentina’s famed grain export sector and used the profits to fund welfare projects. Access to health care was made a universal right and social security was extended to all Argentines. By 1948 the Argentine surplus was gone. The Central Bank was forced to devalue the peso and from 1948 to 1950 the peso lost about 70% of its value. Short of money, Peron was forced to borrow from the U.S. Export-Import Bank to cover a number of private banks’ debts to U.S. institutions. Inflation, which was 13% in 1948, reached 50% in 1951 and Peronismo was not looking too attractive anymore.
A big force in the central planning model instituted in 1946 was Peron’s second wife Eva “Evita” Duarte. Eva introduced social justice and equality into the national discourse and was instrumental in developing Peron’s five year economic plans. Reelected in 1952, Peronismo lasted three more years before a military coup drove him into exile. The exchange rate had soared from 4 to 30 pesos per dollar during his nine year reign, devaluing the peso over 500% during his stay – the economy of Argentina was in ruins. Peron was reelected in in 1973 for a third term but died in 1974.
Europe – The Papandreous. No, this is not a rock band.
Georgios Papandreou (1888-1968) was the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as Prime Minister of Greece and served numerous times as a Cabinet Minister starting in 1923 in a political career that spanned more than five decades. Georgios founded the Democratic Socialist Party of Greece and later revived Greek liberalism by founding the Center Union Party. After the military coup by the Colonels’ junta Georgios was arrested and died under house arrest in November 1968.
Andreas Papandreou (1919-1996) was the son of Georgios and in 1943 received a PhD in Economics from Harvard University (this tells you all you need to know). Prior to that time he was a student at the University of Athens where he was arrested for Trotskyism. His father’s protestations allowed him to be released and he left for the United States. In 1981 Andreas was elected Prime Minister of Greece and served two terms from 1981 to 1989 and from 1993 to 1996. Andreas’ government immediately upon taking office carried out a massive program of wealth redistribution. Andreas’ government carried through sweeping reforms of social policy by introducing a welfare state, expanding health care coverage, increased taxation, and increasing the share of GNP devoted to social welfare, social insurance and health. Andreas’ government also appropriated real estate properties owned by the Church of Greece. The excessive spending policies of Andreas led to massive deficits and massive increases in the national debt (where have we seen this before?). In two separate polls Andreas was voted the best Prime Minister of Greece since the restoration of democracy in 1974 (who votes in these polls?).
Georgios “George” Papandreou (1952-?) was the son of Andreas and served in the Greek Government in various positions beginning in 1981. He was named head of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party in February 2004 and President of the Socialist International in January 2006. In 2009 George was elected Prime Minister but he had a different task – to undo the damage his father and other socialist leaders had inflicted upon the Greek economy. Upon inauguration, George’s government revealed that its finances were far worse than previous announcements. This revelation only served to worsen the severe crisis the Greek economy was undergoing with an unemployment rate of over 10% and a debt rating of BBB+ (not good). Soon George asked that the support mechanism be activated whereby the IMF loaned money to Greece, but only with the required austerity measures. Finally in 2011, the task too great, George stepped down to let someone else try to save Greece. This time when the fox was elected to run the hen house all the hens were gone – proving once again that socialists are not good people to enlist to straighten out socialist messes.
Australia – Bob Hawke. Australia is a country of approximately 25 million people of whom almost 90% are of European ancestry. The Australians have a long legacy of free government and are smart – they elect different parties about every six to eight years and this gives them a certain balance that seems to work in their favor. The Labor Party (liberal) is not very liberal and the Liberal Party (conservative) is not very conservative. Compared to the other people I have previously highlighted Bob Hawke (1929 – ?) is small potatoes but since Australia is a small continent and Bob Hawke was the longest serving Labor Party leader (1983-1991) he was my choice.
In 1969 Bob Hawke was elected to the presidency of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) by a narrow margin with the support of the left wing of the union movement including some associated with the Communist Party. Hawke declared publicly that “socialist is not a word I would use to describe myself” (socialists always say that). The Hawke government introduced a wide range of social reforms including reintroducing Medicare, a doubling of subsidized home care services, a 50% increase in public housing funds and significant changes to old age pensions and social security services. By the late 1980s recession, high interest rates and an unemployment rate of over 11% saw the Hawke government in significant electoral trouble.
Hawke, like most Australian politicians, was a mixed bag – but we always see the results eventually of social programs that cannot be paid for. Hawke, when in college, entered the Guinness Book of World Records by consuming 2 and ½ pints of beer in 11 seconds, a feat which he claimed contributed mightily to his political success.
—————
Note: We always see similar patterns. They come in with a system ujamaa, Peronismo or whatever it is called (but actually it is just socialism). Socialism, as it always does, fails. Then the socialist organizations (the IMF, World Bank, Export-Import Bank or whatever) step in and engineer a new loan so that the country in trouble can use that money to pay back the old loans – throwing good money after bad. The net result of all this is that socialism and its failed policies are allowed to continue and therefore socialism is promoted and portrayed as a success. Who pays for all of this? The nations who contribute to these socialist organizations are the payees. Who ultimately pays? They are working people from successful countries who have now seen the value of their efforts reduced by the forces of inflation and the socialist governments they themselves helped to elect. When you vote for a socialist, whether you realize it or not, you are voting for your own destruction. At some point it will all have to end and then everyone will have nothing but at least, as Winston said, the misery will be shared equally. The forces of international socialism are like a giant spider that sucks the life out of its prey – in this case the prey is the successful countries that emphasize freedom and capitalism.
“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical … the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.”
Since last month we did “A short primer on Fabian Socialism” we thought it apropos to follow that up this month with “The Strategy and Tactics of Socialism.” The strategy of socialism is clear – it is the old Fabian Society (with a boost from the Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci) augmented by the work of Cloward and Pivens. The tactics are clearly articulated in Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky.
STRATEGY:
Go underground – Never identify yourself as a socialist. Hide under various names (liberal, progressive, populist, statist, or whatever) that evoke positive feelings from the people. When asked if you are a socialist deny it and say you are only working to help others. Never say that you detest the existing system and want to destroy it, only reply that you are “working hard to make a better country for everyone.” Tell whatever lies are necessary to distract attention away from yourself and stop people who do not share your beliefs from asking too many pointed questions. Try to focus people’s attentions on the problems you have identified.
Create crises – Make the people believe that a crisis exists and that the only solution is more government programs. It is not important whether or not a crisis actually exists, it is only important that people believe it to be so. Use your media allies to assist you in inflaming peoples’ passions so that a response to the “crisis” can be mobilized. Constantly reinforce the idea that only through the central government can a solution be found. Attract people to set up agencies to work on the “crisis” – they will soon become afraid of losing their income and will aid and abet you in doctoring information to “prove” that the crisis still exists. Never give specifics on the “crisis” since then responsible people will be able to prove that it is over – the “crisis”, once established, must go on forever so that the government programs can be perpetuated. (Note: There are only two crises – war and socialists running the country).
Expand the Welfare State – Place more and more people on welfare. Change the rules so that larger and larger numbers of people can qualify for assistance. Make the welfare state so massive that it collapses the country’s financial system (Cloward and Pivens). Pass out liberal amounts of money to schools, environmental groups, labor unions and businesses so that they will demand an ever expanding central government (this is a little like getting people addicted to drugs). When problems appear blame them on the failure of capitalism and greedy businessmen or blame it on evil rich people – in this respect use all the tools available to exploit class envy and direct people’s attention away from the real problem, the socialist expansion of government. Expand the number of people depending on the government for their income or their survival to the point that you achieve critical mass – the point where your reelection is guaranteed. Assert that what people are receiving from the government for free is their “right” under the Constitution.
Make gradual changes – Do not force anything upon people. Convince them that the poison they are drinking is “good for them.” Slowly get them to think that the changes being made are a normal part of the evolution of society and are for the better in the long run. Withdraw anything that provokes a violent reaction and figure out how to repackage it to make it palatable the next time. Phase into the government at all levels (including the military) people you have identified that are supportive of your activities. Use the politics of personal destruction to destroy the careers of anyone who disagrees with your approach. Slowly and gradually get people to believe that violations of the rules of the society are normal and more sophisticated and that the older generations “just don’t understand the modern world.”
Centralize political power – This is the most critical strategy of all. Without this everything else is useless. Take as much power as possible away from the state and local governments and from the people. Regulate from the central government to the greatest extent all human activity. Also important is the corollary – if anyone tries to decentralize or take away centralized power “go ballistic.” Find people who are damaged by this loss of centralized power and recruit them to join in political protests and become violent if necessary. If you cannot find these people pay people to protest. Do not under any circumstances allow any of your gains to be taken away – if this collapses the country’s economic system so much the better.
TACTICS:
Do not flaunt your radicalism – Cut your hair, bathe, clean up, put on a suit and tie and run for political office. Do not take to the streets unless there is no other option. If you take over a business, school, labor union or any other organization politicize it and form close working relationships with government entities – do this all in the name of expanding your business or improving society, or whatever justification works for that situation.
The end justifies the means – Use whatever techniques are required to achieve the desired results. Violate any or all of the Ten Commandments if needed. Doctor information and misquote experts. Use experts within your framework to give the false impression that facts and fiction are somehow linked in one master idea. When you violate rules to achieve an end clothe it in a moral argument so that you can pretend that what you have done is justified.
Utter platitudes – Never say anything concrete about what you are doing. Use generalities that appeal to people without defining what they mean. Good slogans are words such as fairness, change, common good, racial equality, challenges, fiscal responsibility, efficient and effective. Use the First Amendment of the Constitution liberally to justify what you are doing since it is vague – try not to refer to those parts of the Constitution that are specific. Never, ever, define your terms in ways that can be objectively measured.
Arouse discontent – Find out what makes people unhappy and fan the flames of discontent. Use irreverence, sarcasm, humor or whatever technique you can locate to get people sufficiently aroused to act. Always try to find an external reason why they are discontented so they can blame their unhappiness on something else – never let anyone know that the real solution to their unhappiness probably only requires a look into a mirror. Once you find what excites them to action keep hammering away at the source of their discontent. Repetition works – use the media for repetition if at all possible.
Discredit your enemy – Make him live by his own rules and attack him with irrelevant arguments. Attack God and the churches at every opportunity and make them appear immoral. Find ways to discredit the existing rules of society so that people have no faith in the systems under which they live. Make art, literature, buildings and music as repugnant as possible. Break down the civility of your system of government so that people believe everyone in a position of power is corrupt. Find fault with everything your opponents accomplish so that people believe nothing good is being accomplished. If you cannot find anything wrong with an opponent’s argument try to discredit him personally (whether alive or dead) – even if this requires lying. By the time people figure out it was you who was lying it is too late for him – you just apologize, the damage has been done, and no one remembers that you lied.
