My White Picket Fence

The American dream as it was sold to us involved a big cubic structure largely composed of wood with a white picket fence for a perimeter indicator. Inside of these cubic habitation modules, reaffirmation in success required a large metal vehicle reliant on fossil fuels for propulsion. If you had those things and perhaps a few more, then you had reached the American dream and you could be happy. And indeed, it seems that such a lifestyle was in the past not only normal, but also seemingly moral. 

However, if the 21st century has shown us anything, it is that a fossil fuel-reliant, resource-gobbling economic model is ultimately unsustainable. To survive in the 21st century, America needs to move to a new economic model, one where the country's mass appetite for fossil fuels is tempered with self-sustaining homes, renewable energy, and electric-hybrid vehicles that will allow the global economy to disassociate from tyrannical regimes currently in control of dwindling energy resources. Those resources will continue to dwindle, as the world imitates the Western model.

The world wants to emulate Americans, but we are only 5% of the population yet 25% of the energy consumers. The problem with everyone wanting a white picket fence in the suburbs is that the Chinese and Indians also want the same. The Chinese middle-class alone is larger than the population of the United States. It is only natural for people to want what makes them and their families comfortable, even if to the detriment of the common good.

Detriment to the common good is the result of blindness, and it is leading the world to an ecological apocalypse at the hands of a massive resource war. The answer to our current economic problems is not a patching of the current economy, but rather a rebooting of our entire economic model. There are more slaves alive today than were alive during the American civil war, and they make many of the products that are produced in the blind corners of the world. There will eventually be a war over slavery; it is inevitable. It will not be between countrymen, however, but rather the developing signatories of free trade agreements. The world cannot survive half slave, half consumer. 

It remains to be seen whether the developed economies of the world will eventually become energy independent and largely import independent due to 3-D printing technology, but these are the two technological developments that can most prevent massive resource wars in the 21st century. Even vast, renewable energy levels and on-demand printing of objects will not be enough to temper the appetite for precious metals and the invisible elements that drive our high-tech consumer goods. The war for precious metals promises to wreak havoc in Africa as China and America tear it apart in their quest to establish spheres of influence. I can't foresee a replacement for metals, so swords and bullets will be made for many more decades to come.

The Legal Illusion

Of what use is the law if it is only an illusion? I sometimes wish I were living in an illusion, for it would make the absurdity of America's laws all the more easy to swallow. It seems, however, that believing the illusion is easier on the heart: you don't have to stress about unpleasant truths. 

We used to be told that we had a Constitution, that we were entitled to certain protections. The Constitution goes short of saying that God gave men certain rights that cannot be taken by other men. One of those rights is the rights to be safe in your possessions, or to be allowed the privilege of your name being read out in a kangaroo court. There is increasingly more limited access to these kangaroo courts, unfortunately. You see, if you go to the border, you lose your constitutional rights, and the government can confiscate your belongings or rummage through your computer at-will. 

This is somewhat reasonable, and most governments around the world do it in one way or another, but the tyrants in Congress have decided to extend the definition of the word "border" to include nearly two-thirds of the United States. Today, there are close to 200 million Americans living within 100 miles of the border, the distance at which your rights become arbitrary privileges under control of Homeland Security.

According to a source, a national event of significant magnitude will trigger plans declaring the 100 mile Constitution-free zone into a virtual police state. The technology has already been developed and extensively tested on Muslims, who most certainly have put up a harder fight than can be expected of any American population.

Let's look at the story of the Brossart family in North Dakota-- who lived within 100 miles of the border -- and ran into some good ole' trouble with the sheriff because of 6 cows, and eventually were all apprehended using a Predator drone. Yes, the alleged theft of six cows escalated into a Predator drone and a SWAT team. DHS has gotten so many requests for drones, that soon they will start a billing system of sorts. Homeland Security has also recently purchased 2,700 MRAPs, the tank-like vehicles used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It seems that the pipes have been laid, and soon the steam of tyranny will violently make its way around America. We can in the future expect more drones and DHS checkpoints along America's massive "border." In some good news, the state of New Jersey is by federal law considered in its totality what it rightfully is: a border town.