In the late 1970s, the Shah of Iran was planning to use oil to build one of the biggest plastics manufacturing plants in the world, modernizing his country. Someone with power on the international stage didn’t like this, so with the help of US intelligence establishments, they set about ending his reign, plunging the country into four decades of oppressive rule after nearly getting a bunch of Americans killed for the “crime” of being in the country.
Yes, a minority of the people of Iran were irritated by the Shah because they felt like his modernization efforts were disrespecting their cultural values. Others were upset because his preferred method for dealing with dissenters (even peaceful ones) was imprisonment. A populist protest against the Shah was spun by outside operatives into a massive series of riots. When the Shah went to the United States for cancer treatment, the rioters demanded he be replaced by a bringer of order, Ayatollah Khomeni.
He was great — so much more brutal than the Shah, and his plans for the nation reversed Iran to a more primitive condition where the plastics industry was never going to take off, which was a win for someone on the international stage.
After four decades, we don’t know who pitted Iranians against Iranians, but we do see the fingerprints of the US’s CIA on the Revolution.
A Half Century Later
That was half a century ago, but that could never happen here…right?
Have you seen any US cities lately? Homeless encampments. People getting pushed off subway platforms. Smash and grab robberies. Riots when drug addicts die in police custody or rapists are shot while attacking cops with a knife. And cops aren’t doing anything to stop crimes against ordinary people because DAs and politicians are insisting the Constitution allows people to live how they want.
Unless you’re an ordinary person who wants to live a normal, boring life — then you must scuttle around in terror avoiding the homeless who are often violent and the other assorted criminals, who are also often violent.
Can you smell your freedom burning?
So maybe we need to expand our domestic military presence toward eliminating such freedoms. Clearly, such elimination is necessary to control crime made possible by treasonous groups within our government who are operating under orders from globalist elites bent on leveling American cities, erasing away all traces of national loyalty, so they can form a one-world government.
It’s the division that makes us unsafe. Unity keeps us strong. Do it OUR way!
Does that sound like a dystopian fiction? I am an apocalyptic novelist after all. Writing apocalyptic novels doesn’t require incredible imagination. Just watch the news and consider the possible outcomes of the latest initiative.
Real Time News
The Governor of New York recently sent armed troops into the subways of New York City, supposedly to keep people safe because the New York City cops have been told to stand down. Yes, the cops are supposed to keep New Yorkers safe, but they’re not there, so we need the National Guard. What, that isn’t logical to you?
Governor Gavin Newsom of California is deploying troops along the California-Mexico border to stop the smuggling of fentanyl into the country because the federal government refuses to secure the southern border. Yes, the federal government is supposed to be in charge of both the border and drug interdiction across the border, but they aren’t doing that job, so obviously we need the National Guard to do it.
Why are you staring at me like I’ve just said something that makes no sense?
Governor DeSantis sent troops to maintain order in Miami during Spring Break. Yes, he needed to protect people from college students drinking beer.
Create chaos and then bring order, thereby solving a problem you created. Genius! Really scary genius.
Order Is Good?
It might look good. Sometimes it feels nice. Maybe ordinary people can go for a walk in the evening without being harassed by homeless people. YAY!!!
But….
What prevents those troops, once they’ve established order against the criminals, from being used against ordinary people who might have reasons to protest?
Benjamin Franklin, astute Founding Father that he was, observed that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” He was writing about settlers defending themselves on the frontier where some of the Indian tribes were being paid by the French to attack them. He was explaining that the frontiersmen didn’t want the British army to attack the Indians. They only wanted to defend themselves and the Pennsylvania Assembly had provided them funds to purchase rifles and ammunition for this purpose, but they didn’t want armed British troops in their territory. They weren’t interested in purchasing a little temporary safety by trading their liberty and, Franklin suggested, if they were willing to do so, they would deserve neither.
This has happened before to other societies and it didn’t turn out so well.
What does it take to bring order to a society?
Soldiers with fully automatic weapons in airports, train and bus stations, concerts, sports stadiums, hospitals, casinos, hotels, schools….
“We’re keeping you safe.”
As they did in the USSR, Poland, Hungary, and East Germany…oh, my!
How do you feel about illegal migrants being recruited into the United States Army? The illegal migrants would have a strong incentive for joining up because they would be offered a legal pathway to citizenship, but what provides their connection with you who look so different from them and don’t speak their language? Will they understand the concept of inalienable rights? Liberty is an English concept that hasn’t translated well into other languages. Will these illegal migrants, having entered the country through breaking our laws, be loyal to the United States and the Constitution?
Or will they simply be trained to maintain order against their latest identified threat who is you?
Lela Markham is an Alaska-based novelist and commentator who thinks we stand a better chance of avoiding a dystopia if we’re aware of where we might be headed. She’s also amazed that people 250 years ago understood that you give up liberty when you ask the government to defend you with armed troops, but we’re acting as if this is an entirely new concept. It isn’t!