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The Barbarians Are Where?

by

Richard Tornello

The Barbarians Are Where?

By Richard Tornello

We have been at war for 17 years. Hell, we’ve been at war of some type ever since Europeans set foot on this North American continent, whether it’s been at a perceived outside threat or between ourselves as a nation, we have been at war.

Today the discord within what’s left of our notion of E Pluribus Unum appears not too different but greater than in the 1860s, where that discord and internal disunity had its origins in the founding of this nation and the kicking the slavery issue down the road for a few decades. Today it’s still race, economics and the destruction of a vibrant middle class combined coupled with the denigration of science, history and a very important subject, civics. That’s a lot to consider in and of itself.

However that’s just a backdrop to the question, which gate are the barbarians attacking? Our internal national discord, and poor leadership, a plutocratic aristocracy if you will, is eating its own tail while the barbarians are if not at the gate, can control the gate. By this I mean that our weakest link is our computer-based infrastructure, a fact not lost on anyone or any country that has some brainpower.

Some think its China, some Russia, and some Iran that are the main culprits attacking our system. I cannot say. The fact is that we as a nation are to blame for our situation.  Yes, we gave the keys to the gates away in 2003, (the source code to windows given to the PLA and Russians during the Bush administration), by spies, trusted employees, and possibly top leadership. That situation can and is getting worse.

In the meantime, while we’re busy fighting among ourselves, China, which in Chinese is Zhong Guo,  and traditionally means middle kingdom, is doing all it can to position itself to be just that. It was for centuries before its last dynasty lost its mandate and was overrun by the British need to stop the flow of silver, instigating the opium trade which resulted in part to the destruction of its citizenry. That was a period of about 200 years of political and social chaos that culminated with the founding of the PRC. They have centuries of history to fall back on and are doing so along using that governmental and political knowledge along with modern technology, infrastructure development and adroit political moves to insure a new mandate of heaven.

What am I saying? We are maybe still the most powerful military nation on the planet, for now. Economically most nations are tied to our economy. But that can change as history illustrates. Whom do you think will benefit?

The dollars that China holds will mean nothing to them once their trade and infrastructure plans are in place (New Silk Road).  Cyber blackmail will be the operating mode of subtle persuasion and rule of which the world is getting a taste. It’s probably conducted through a proxy for obvious reasons. And though our military is not sitting back doing nothing we as a nation, as a people are not facing these new facts. We require science, a healthy environment, a healthy involved and educated electorate. Instead, what I see, even in my own extended family, is a microcosm of our malaise.

Barbarians at the gates? I hardly believe so, not as we eat our young with poor health, education and welfare, not while our leaders of this democratic Republic, the only one true one since the Greeks, concentrates more on lock-step political centralism, crass uncompromising ideology and the accumulation of unheard of  individual wealth, than upon statesmanship. Not as we spend our time fighting among ourselves, egged on by those that have a vested interest in our discord.  Not as we promote discord among the population on subjects that should be discussed and chosen in the home. And definitely not when we spend our human and financial wealth on stupid, undeclared, and prolonged wars against other nations as well as our own populations. No we don’t have to worry about barbarians at the gates. If you want to see the true barbarian, take a good long hard look in the mirror every morning.
 

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