If God didn’t want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.
In The Magnificent Seven, and in the movie that spawned it, The Seven Samurai, a group of hired killers is employed- at a ludicrously small rate- by a small village who is being robbed by bandits every year. The bandits usually leave them enough to live on, but barely. The film has been reprised many times, notably as “A Bugs Life”.
Lets see, hardworking, check, thugs stealing, check, constant oppression year on year, check.
it’s like they were thinking of the Obama administration when they wrote it.
Who will be our seven samurai? Will James Coburn rise up from the grave to throw a knife into our modern day bandits?
Last night, in conversation, Ed says “But we’re really pretty comfortable. What’s the big deal?”
Pitiably, he’s right. Dammit.
I have all kinds of thoughts on this subject and can’t seem to get out anything to the point. I guess one analogy would be that I watch the sky when storm clouds build and do go inside when the situation warrants. Although, it is usually at the last minute. The last minute may be too late for the political pickle we are in.
Yeah, pretty comfortable now but that could change very fast I fear.
And remember, not only was the pay pitiful, but the town turned its back on the survivors in the end.
Nobody wants a mercenary around, except when they do.
Well, it will be when politicians are formally defined as thugs that conspire to make laws we need to follow and use force to ensure compliance.
Personally I try to follow the big ten. The rest are pretty much ignored.
On another note, sheep dogs work because sheep cannot tell the difference between a fake threat over a real one.
Does not matter that the fake threat is benign, they will still vote to stop it when they can.
In the seven Samurai, the bandits had government cover.
As a student of rebellion, I have looked at this particular issue a lot. Looking for sparks, triggers, tripwires opening salvos. Despite being close, the system in the USA is very good at healing itself and preventing riot. The people who are being oppressed the most are the same ones who have spent their entire lives supporting traditional institutions and don’t recognize that those institutions are just zombies now. The Law and order faction cannot easily become the rebellion faction. I suspect that even as they are being herded into camps, they will still have faith in their lawyers getting them free, the Supreme court will overturn the law that oppresses them, a jury will make the right choice, or even the power of prayer. They will lay their heads on the chopping blocks expecting to be saved by a last minute call from the governor, or a shot from a long range marksman. Cause that’s what happens in the movies.
For now we are. . . each time they will take more until we are not happy but by then we won’t be able to do a damn thing about it.
A comfortable cage can easily become a frying pan. In our case the cage is made of so many rules and regulations that any of us could end up in a not-so-comfortable cage on a whim.
The big deal is that right now we’re living an illusion of comfort. If we don’t control our own destinies, that illusion can be stripped away faster than a farmer can shear a sheep.
Well said, M.C.