FROM TIME TO TIME

I wonder if the reason that the Mayan civilization disappeared had to do with a sudden irresistible urge to rid themselves of their ruling and priestly classes. I can see the peasants and slaves slowly spreading the word among themselves to seize one night, perhaps on the eve of some great event - or the morning after, to suddenly fall upon the rulers and gut them and toss them from the tops of the pyramids alongside the priests. I think they probably made a thorough job of it and got rid of the entire caste and all their families. In this kind of endeavor it is always best to be thorough.

Having rid themselves of the parasites that infested every waking moment of their lives I'm sure they turned their attention to gardening and raising herd animals and letting the mighty works of 'civil' society collapse around them and fall into disrepair and slowly succumb to the jungle. They probably continued to toil long hours and work every day to put food on the table and find time for some of the poor man's enthusiasms to pass an idle hour or two.

What we find though is that their civilization passed completely out of history without much in the way of explanation. We'll never know what happened to the jungle civilizations of middle America before the Spanish Conquistadors arrived. It's worth considering though, that those that remained found reason enough to go onwards without much care, or concern, for what became of the cities and temples that dotted the jungles from Mexico down to South America.

If we use this as a modern parable for our time, I'm sure that any number of the ruling class and priests of the higher science which is justified by consensus and blind faith, would find it unacceptable because deep in their murky hearts they know that civilization is a fragile thing and without men and women of indomitable will and enormous faith to impose it and shape it for the masses, all would perish from the earth. On the other hand it would take a rare talent to turn up even one person more comprehensively stupid and vicious then the banking class and government officials. They don't actually do anything. Where work needs to be done, they hire contractors to perform it.

I've kind of railed against the usurpation of law by men wearing badges who decide what the law will mean today or tomorrow. So far, I think it is fair to say, there has been no mechanism to turf these critters out and keep them from enforcing the law elsewhere. They suffer no consequence of their actions since their victims can only sue the cities and corporations that hired these lawmen and pay them. The city and its taxpayers will suffer monetary damages but all cities accept that they have venal, self-serving, vicious rats working for them and they set aside money every year in their budgets to pay for the legal defense of the officers and then to pay the civil judgements awarded plaintiffs when the actions of the town's police are found to be violations of the law, due process and civil rights.

Now we have another whole class of pugnacious scumbag that we are paying salary and benefits. Who are the vicious little bureaucrats that put up barricades at parks and then fight to keep them up and to keep the people out of their parks? What are their names? Who do they work for? Who ordered the barricades up and who made sure that they stayed up?

You're a citizen of the Republic. Would you order your workers to do put up such barricades? I can see me in that role. I'd call in all the supervisors and tell them that due to the inability of Congress to deal with matters fiscal in good faith and with reason, they were all to go home that instant and not return to work for any reason until called back to duty. Once they were gone I'd send all the rest of the staff home. Then I would power down the computer, turn off the lights and close the door on my way out of the building, and the email or smug voice mail message ordering me to send my people out to throw up the barricades, would lie aborning on the device; unanswered, unresponded to, and perhaps, in a little pool of shame. Because I'd forward that thing to every blogger I know so you would know who is giving such venal orders.