Quo Vadis?

Quo Vadis---what's going on, where are we going? That's the question for the first days of 2009.
And it's a question that is not likely to have any clear-cut answers any time soon.

And that is why (at least one reason) Samizdat Republic (SR, for short) has been born.It's a new day. I don't just mean it's 2009 (versus 2008). Or, that we are having a changing of the guard, because of the an election- or the results thereof. It's a new America. Or rather, America as we knew it, as it has been, is gone- morphing before our eyes into something unrecognizable and largely unforeseen, and the ultimate destination...unknown.

There is a theory in climate change circles that a critical mass is reached in the atmospheric heat balance and a sudden, violent change in climate occurs. We have reached and are in the grip of just such a violent and sudden change in our culture and body politic. And, since we are in the midst of the sea change, we can't see how it will all turn out. As history has taught many times, we likely won't know when we have 'arrived' until much later. Hindsight is, as they say, 20-20. Right now, we are dangerously myopic...

What has brought this about? A few descriptors to set the frame:

Bush 1
Iraq 1
Eight years of Bill Clinton
Bush 2
Iraq 2
"Global Warming" Hysteria
"Illegal" Immigration
Guantanamo and Rendition
Hamas
Chavez, et.al.
Putin

The liberal press (drops it's pretensions of 'fairness and balance'- and the internet steps in)

Barack Hussein Obama- President Elect, and not clearly qualified by birth to hold office- the question no one in the power elite, on any side, wants to face up to.

There is more of course; any outline is just that---there are details. And that is where Samizdat Republic steps in to the frame.

Samizdat was the term used to describe a whole genre of 'secret writings' that were surreptitiously circulated in the old Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Cold War days. Solzehnitsyn, for example, was just one (well known) Samizdat author, whose writings such as "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch" were circulated 'underground', piece by piece and hand by hand. The writings of this author and others were proscribed by the regimes of the time. Yet, people took risks with their lives and the lives of others to circulate the Truth, and, eventually, the Truth, which never dies, yet indeed, in spite of the oppression, suppression and danger, grew stronger, set the circulators free.

Believe it or not, we are entering into that time in America, where ideas can be classified as dangerous by the state and indeed by the dominant (media) culture, and where uttering certain thoughts, discussing certain topics openly, will release the hounds of Hell on the author and those associated in any way with the 'heresy', the counter to the culture, utterances.

You think not...this is just exaggeration?

Then think on this:

Joe the Plumber, asking his question. Pilloried, 'investigated' under false pretenses.

Sarah Palin, running for V. P. (and still ,the attacks pile up)

A mayor who speaks out against 'illegal' immigration---where is he now?

The wife of a presidential candidate- dissected on the public stage.

Christians accused of 'hate crimes' for expressing their point of view (vs. Islamists who seem to be able to have their doctrines extend to the public schools in ways that would never be tolerated in regard to Christianity---even as we fight hot wars against the very same Islamists!)

I think you can see the point, even if you don't agree with it.

And this is just the tip of what is to come. People are already losing their jobs, their property and being threatened with (and actually being prosecuted for) 'hate crimes' , not only for what they say or write, but for what they think! Right now- right here- in America, the land of the free and home of the brave.

We are going to have to be more brave, because, we are already less free.

So, that's the frame for Samizdat Republic. That's what we are all about. And more. SR will address the unaddressable, discuss the undiscussable---like the Samizdat of old.In our new America---the Samizdat Republic.

Stay tuned.

M.C.