Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, The Man come and take you away
---------Social Philosopher, Steven Stills, "For What It's Worth"
The Man was the left’s bogeyman in the 1960s and 70s. It represented establishment authority and oppression.
The Urban Dictionary defines The Man.
The Man is the head of ‘the establishment’ put in place to ‘bring us down’. Though nobody has physically seen The Man, he is assumed to be a male Caucasian between the ages of 25-40 and is rumored to have a substantial amount of acquired wealth, presumably acquired by exploiting those whom his ‘establishment’ is keeping down. The Man reflected government authority figures in the 60's and 70's like Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, as well as much of Law Enforcement, to young, Democrat, leftist Baby Boomers. In those days, Democrats and the left railed against The Man in music, protests, and activism.
By the 1990s as those Baby Boomers, who once protested against The Man, came of age, assuming prominent positions in society and government. In essence, they became The Man; the monster they had once despised and railed against. In historical perspective, for those who actually studied history, the Nixon administration represented The Man, especially during and after the Vietnam War. The left tasted power during the Carter years got a mouthful of fecklessness and misery. When country had "had enough”, it elected Ronald Reagan to two terms, but then George HW Bush; more Carter than Reagan. Then came Bill Clinton, the first Baby Boomer President, who had been against the Vietnam war, dodged the draft and wrote a letter to an ROTC leader asserting “loathing the military".
An inflection point had been reached; one that nobody realized in forethought, the scale or consequences of it. From fighting The Man in the 60's, Clinton became The Man as President. Instead of fighting the establishment and authority, Clinton and the left became that which they had fought. Hillary came also to representing The Man and was as radical or more than her husband. They now controlled the levers of power, including the CIA, FBI, DOJ, military, and other oppressive government agencies. The transitioning of our culture was under way.
The George W Bush presidency delayed this transition. His reaction to the left’s transformation into The Man shows that he was Clinton/Obama Lite; a mere place holder between the Clinton and Obama administrations. Another Baby Boomer President, coming of age when his generation protested against The Man, Bush was happy to assume that role when his generation came to power. Bush then gave us the Patriot Act, where federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies became weaponized against the American people. He has since said nothing as the Democrat Party has run roughshod over our political institutions; including weaponizing the IRS, the FBI, FISA, the media, the courts and the border.
The transition was resumed in 2009 when Obama took power and floored the accelerator through it. He became The Man. He used the FBI and IRS as his personal police forces. Obama had taken Bush’s gift of the Patriot Act and pushed it's limits, allowing the FBI and IRS to target his political opposition; culminating in the Russian Collusion hoax where his administration and agencies, using fabricated evidence, spied on Presidential candidate Trump and transition into office, by using the full weight of government agencies illegally just like a Banana Republic dictatorship. The leftist radicals, apparatchiks, community organizers took control of the systems of federal government; the very systems they had opposed in the past.
Everything politically that has happened since since is an outcome of that inflection point; why everything has flipped. President Trump's administration again delayed the transition fully taking hold. He represented strong opposition to it and has experienced a continuous onslaught of attempts to neutralize him and run him off the stage. President Trump opposed The Man. That onslaught continues to this day in the form of allegations an indictments. He was aware, but powerless to stop it, as the cancer had metastasized far and wide into virtually all government agencies, media, tech, finance, sports, and most of the corporate world.
Former watchdogs against government overreach by The Man, namely the media, happily went along. Many corporate media anchors and executives are the same Boomers who, like the politicians, transitioned from standing up to The Man to becoming The Man, are now controlling the levers of power through traditional and social media. Biden let the process continue to gain steam, to the point that the current generations of The Man are brazen in their tyranny, weaponizing their government against all political opposition, from January 6 protesters and parents challenging local school boards, to President and his associates.
There is no pushback against a weaponized government as evidenced by the Durham report describing “missteps” with no punishment for those who blatantly broke the law and abused the Constitution in pursuit of power and control. One of the ringleaders, James Comey, in a treasonous conspiracy against the duly elected president, has “no regret” for his actions swaying public opinion before an election. That is today's FBI. Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity have been flushed down the toilet. The FBI is now a Democrat super PAC. There was a time that the left fought against J Edgar Hoover’s FBI. Now the left is the FBI; far more tyrannical than Hoover ever dreamt of. The FBI IS The Man.
Where is the opposition, namely elected Republicans? Many are Boomers themselves, now; The Man, too, happy to enjoy the money, perks, and power that their new titles offer. Their silence is acquiescence as they watch the country decline into irrelevance. The Man of the 1960s only dreamt of such power over their subjects, but in 2020s The Man has consolidated his (and her) power and authority so firmly and broadly that President Trump and his MAGA movement are being squashed like insignificant bugs on America’s road to tyranny and serfdom. Will another generation stand up to The Man or is The American Empire set to descend into a New Dark Ages. Stay tuned.
Or maybe I've had too much Herbal Tea this morning.
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