A secret vow?

Swedish police, hearing screams,
break down door and enter, only
to find practicing opera singer.

I think I may have stumbled onto a secret organization. Unfortunately, my only evidence is circumstantial. I know there is a vow that the members must take in order to become full members in this secret band, or group, or whatever you might want to call it. The vow: I ______( name) solemnly swear that I will never allow anything sensible to happen as long as I am a member of this organization. This is known as the NAAS vow (nothing allowed altogether sensible) to those who have taken it. Of course, as in all such secret ideological organizations there is a bit of controversy about this. Some claim it should more properly be the NEAS vow (nothing ever allowed sensible), but these believers are in a minority. I have been unable to unearth the secret name for this group but publicly they are known as the United States Congress. Some of my evidence for the existence of this underground organization is as follows:

It is commonly known that the best, most efficient, and least expensive universal health care would be through a single-payer system. It is also known that our existing health care system is not at all sensible, being overly expensive, limited to those with means, wasteful, inefficient, and far inferior to the systems of most other industrialized nations. This has been recognized for a long time by those who have devoted themselves to a careful study of such things. The NAAS people have been able to prevent the development of any sensible health care system at all.

Similarly, it is commonly known, and even admitted, that there can be no military victory in Afghanistan, “the graveyard of empires.” Thus it would appear to be eminently sensible to withdraw our troops from that virtually impenetrable mountainous country where we are quite definitely not wanted, and attempt a different approach. Our solution to this problem, however, is to send more troops. One senses here the hand of the NAAS, as there would seem to be little in the way of any other explanation.

Another example has to do with the so-called “war on drugs.” This farce has continued now for many years and has cost our country untold billions of dollars. It is known, again by those who have made it their business to investigate carefully, a complete and total failure. After all these years and all the money there are more drugs on the market, and for cheaper prices than ever before. Like prohibition before it, it has spawned nothing but crimes of all kinds: thefts, murders, tortures, and misery untold. This could all be avoided with one simple step: legalize drugs of all kinds and leave the problem up to the medical profession where it belongs, and tell politicians to mind their own business. And being such a sensible solution it would also save us billions of dollars now wasted on a lost cause. Prohibition didn’t work, the war on drugs won’t work. But remember, NAAS!

Still another example, although there are easily dozens more, has to do with our military budget. The amount of money we spend each year on the military and Pentagon exceeds the amount spent by all other nations on earth put together. It also involves spending on many items that are known to be useless for any perceived purpose of the moment or even in the future. We maintain military installations of one kind or another in some 135 countries, mostly military outposts that are not crucial for our defense (but part of our sort of unspoken “empire” that is about to collapse). This is not sensible. Not sensible at all. But this budget has been, and continues to be, virtually untouchable, sacrosanct, hardly even to be mentioned when Congress debates our national budgets. Why is this so? Because the NAAS people, under their pseudonym (Congress), see to it that nothing sensible can be done in this area. Now a courageous Congressman, Barney Frank, has publicly denounced this situation and called for a 25% reduction in the military budget (I would opt for 50%). Although what Frank says about this is the truth, and nothing but the truth, don’t expect anything sensible to come of it.

These are only four examples of problems that could be overcome with a modicum of just plain common sense. There are dozens more. Indeed you could probably characterize all of American culture as being like this. But they have all festered for years because the NAAS group has vowed to not allow anything sensible to happen. Occasionally there is an individual who either has not taken the vow, or has come to their senses and wishes to do something sensible, but they either do not last long within the organization, or they are simply ignored by the majority. And many individuals are not allowed into the organization in the first place, as to qualify at all you must be elected to some public office, and there are means to prevent this. It is rather like a Mens’ Club or a Fraternity, except in recent years a few token women have been allowed to join. It is not that the majority does not have reasons to object to anything sensible, they have many reasons, mostly related to lobbyists and corporate sponsors who are opposed to sensible solutions that might infringe upon their obscene profits or bloated salaries and bonuses. As these kinds of reasons are better left unsaid, and preferably unknown, the front group, Congress, pretends to be something quite different than it really is. They try to promote the idea they are there to do public service, and act for the public well being, while under the surface the real power (NAAS) actually runs the country, stealing from the taxpayers to reward those who have taken the sacred vow. This used to be called corruption, but we know it now as “politics as usual.”

LKBIQ:
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
Unknown, Often attributed to Abraham Lincoln

TILT:
Billiard balls were originally made of wood, then clay, and until 1869 of ivory, when a viable substitute was first invented because ivory became scarce.