Some things never change. Writing about Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) in his People‘s History, Howard Zinn discusses Nathaniel Bacon’s “Declaration of the People,” saying it “shows a mixture of populist resentment against the rich and frontier hatred of the Indians. It indicted the [Governor] Berkeley administration for unjust taxes, for putting favorites in high positions, for monopolizing the beaver trade, and for not protecting the western farmers from the Indians. Then Bacon went out to attack the friendly Pamunkey Indians, killing eight, taking others prisoner, plundering their possession.”
It reminds me of white trash today who hate both the rich and Mexicans, not realizing that the rich (Wall Street and DC) are the reasons we have illegal alien problem to begin with and not realizing that the Mexicans could be key allies in efforts to overthrow the Beltway-TARP Hegemony. As it is, by marginalizing the Mexicans, the rednecks push the Mexicans into the “bigger State” camp, thereby strengthening the Hegemony.
It’s a phenomenon that, according to Zinn, was occurring as early as the mid-eighteenth century, in the efforts of Boston’s upper-crust to control the mobs: “We have here a forecast of the long history of American politics, the mobilization of lower-class energy by upper-class politicians, for their own purposes.”
And how is that done today? By Obamaphones, food stamps, and free health care.
And if you think it would’ve made a material difference if Romney had been elected, you still think the way the Hegemony wants you to think.Bookmark it: del.icio.us | Reddit | Slashdot | Digg | Facebook | Technorati | Google | StumbleUpon | Window Live | Tailrank | Furl | Netscape | Yahoo | BlinkList