Shadows Of The Empire

It is no secret that we have recently had quite the hullabaloo of late over the rather large amounts of tainted products wending their poisoned way into the US from points overseas. The main dealers of death and ill-health are the products manufactured or produced in China. The manufacture of toys has long been an overseas affair. So much so that we have taken it as an out of hand arrangement and give it no second though. Yet there is another item upon which we depend that we are bringing in from the outside. And, any American may be scratching their heads in consternation as to why and why from there. I speak of food. We are importing large amounts of food from this nation and others whom have never made it a secret that they are not fond of us or our way of life. They are, instead enamored of the cash to which we bring them. And they have built up quite a stockpile of their own.

I may be missing something here, but it is understood that we are a massive nation. We have a Midwest filled with hundreds upon thousands of miles of fertile fields for the growth of vegetables, grains, beans, etc. We have coasts that lay upon two oceans and numerous bays and gulfs. Are we lacking in seafood or in those other foodstuffs upon which we rely for our nourishment? It seems that we may. Sadly so, we have conditioned the American farmer to survive on Government subsidies to not produce rather than the product of his sweat and toil brought up from the Earth. Thus, we have been increasing our desire and need to procure the cheapest of produce from nations hostile, if not openly, to our interests and survival. This also applies to the baubles we use to surround ourselves. These are the diversions of Consumer Electronics, our clothing and our creature comforts. And we are not the first super power to have done so.

I speak of the Roman Empire. The Empire was agreeably one of the largest and most powerful nations of the ancient world. It was flung s far as the British Isles and stretched into Egypt. So varied were the locales in which they had left their footprint and their presence that numerous goods never before available were brought into and relied upon as had never been seen. It became common to assume this supply would always be there and for prices seen nowhere else outside the bounds of the Empire. This caused them to be increasingly, and in the end, totally reliant upon their charges for their very sustenance; for the very items they bought and sold as their livelihoods. This is where they stretched beyond their ability to feed their very own. Additionally, their bits and baubles were shipped from far and wide for the enrichment and entertainment of Patrician and Plebe alike.

And still, we find that there are contrasts here. The Roman Empire subjugated and made their own the lands from whence their commerce and agriculture came. We cannot speak so. We have many a nation upon which we have made ourselves dependant for our survival. Yet we find we do not have military power and control of these outposts. We rely on the benevolence of nations which are far from benevolent. In further contrast, we have the full capability to produce almost all these thing we rely upon out of our own lands and industries. However, it appears that we have lost the will to do this very thing. Or, we have been denied the right, at least agriculturally, by the Patricians of our Modern Age.

We know that the end of the aforementioned Empire was brought about by the laziness and corruption of the Patrician leaders and the willful distraction of the Plebes. This distraction held before them by the Patricians seeking to keep the mob from tearing them limb-from-limb were they to see the real danger the Empire had been placed in. Even a simple baker, were he not distracted, would have seen that it is best to grow your own grain, to mill it, and then to bake and sell the end result. In our present Nation, we find the Patricians are not the Conservatives, as the media may seek to misinform, but from the so-called Progressives who wish to surrender our sovereignty with a wink and a smile. At our roots, the Conservatives wish to keep labor and production upon our shores, but have been thwarted by the Labor Union lapdogs of the Left. The Plebes find their Circuses in our Reality Shows, vapid entertainment, and the pabulum fed to them by an ever veiled and deceiving media. Their Bread comes in the form of mandatory minimum wage laws, welfare, and the hollow and distracting promises of more to come.

The Empire was destroyed by barbarians from without and corruption within. And in this, there is no contrast. We find that even at this moment, the barbarians of our downfall come not on longboat and horse, but on the cargo ships, the boxcar and semi trailer. Steadily they pour in to our nation to bring down our populace with a taint upon our sustenance and the financial ruin of our companies. The very lifeblood of our economy I threatened as they hemorrhage cash due to, dare I say planned, negligence on the part of their foreign manufacturers. Our strength for the new day, for industry, sapped by illness due to the tainted food we have consumed. The recall of Chinese foodstuffs and the recall of shoddily, poisoned products from the same nation are seeking to tear us apart from within and without. And what other time bombs; what hidden hordes of destruction do are we in peril of from the myriad hostile nations to whom we have surrendered our means of continuing on? We see now, as the years have played out, the consequences of the granting of the Most Favored Nation status to an enemy who seeks to see us fall. We see over the horizon the much more frightening specter that this may just be the beginning.

But what is it that can be done? We have grown too accustomed to buying jeans sewn in Malaysia or Viet Nam. We buy cars electronics from China, among other things. What can we do? The answer is tough. And it will be a sacrifice, but one which we must be prepared to face to ensure our survival. We must return to days past, when our nation was strong. We must return to industry and production within our sovereign and blessed borders. And we must get the American farmer producing again. As consumers, we must say no to those things created in the countries hostile to our own, and buy our produce from those who grow within our twice-blessed shores. We have little power as individuals. And yet we have a great power which drives the systems that keep this nation thriving. We speak with our Cash. If companies find that the products they create in factories in these enemy states are no longer making money for them, they may be forced to return to the homeland for their livelihood. But we must ensure they bring them back to non-union shops. Those who sell foodstuffs must know that these things they buy from overseas will no longer move. They must be taught that the American farmers and fishers are their only hope to remain viable.

I may seem a rambling nut, but I from my heart as one from whose eyes the wool has been pulled away. Lest we become like the Empire before, we must stop the Patrician corruption. We must say no to Bread and Circuses that so distract the Plebes. We must return to the label “Made in America”. With stout hearts and staunch wallets, we may yet stem the invading Barbarian horde, and retain the splendor of a nation that slips daily into decay. It is a nation that was great and can be again. We must see to it and preserve our Republic.