My role model Quakers are the late 1700s industrialists who hoped the industrial age would give birth to benign forms of "company town" capitalism which honored workers and extended families. Pennsylvania was to be a showcase for these lifestyles. However that dream was derailed by the Indian Wars, for which Quakers refused to pay taxes, losing social and political clout in the process. America was overrun with military-minded immigrants who went on to colonize territories as far away as the Philippines (Mark Twain and William James, also heroes, were completely disgusted by the hypocrisy of imperialism). Smedley "fighting Quaker" Butler wrote War is a Racket and frustrated the Business Plot of his day, which should have been enough warning.

I empathize with Quakers escaping to Costa Rica to try again with their experiments. The US is hostile to the whole idea of civilian lifestyles (gun play is for everyone!), thinks of itself more as Sparta than as Athens. I expect Quakerism to have a brighter future outside America's walls, beyond the reach of the Prison State, which for all its nuke head "superpower" bluster is losing the war for hearts and minds.

Americans have a very fragile and delicate psyche given their level of hypocrisy is so high. They desperately need Iran to desperately want to "go for the gun" and have nuclear weapons, as that's their upcoming excuse for another heroic invasion. In the meantime, the rest of the world sees through the ruse and isn't about to fall for it yet again. Isolating the "US" (a legal fiction at this point, a "too big to fail" creature of LAWCAP) is proving easier than anticipated, given how hellbent it is on isolating itself and appearing pathetic.

Related reading:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/09/catholic-analysis.html
http://controlroom.blogspot.com/2008/07/psy-war-whos-losing.html

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