Creating social chaos
Politics in Hawaii have descended to the level of a “Romper Room” day care center.
No one is allowed to be sad. If someone snivels or, even worse, cries, then all activity stops until the sniveler is happy again. If someone breaks the rules, they get “time out” and play by themselves for awhile. No one is ever scolded or punished for anything. Ever.
Unfortunately, this has a very dark side when extended into the realm of human politics.
By addressing the Thirty Meter Telescope issue on the level of a “Romper Room,” the state created a political power vacuum. Among human beings, a political power vacuum will be filled as certainly as a vacuum at the bottom of the sea. A political power vacuum is being filled on the mauna as we watch.
Revolutionaries who loath the existing order are a feature of all complex societies. All have a cause — in our case, one of “fixing” history of centuries past. Some clever people realized the government is weak, a chessboard was neatly arranged in their favor and they took advantage of the situation.
What is happening on the mauna has little to do with anything sacred or even Hawaiian culture. These, and a weak economy, are merely the obvious social fissures vulnerable to manipulation by cynical and determined people who are intent upon overthrowing the existing social order. They are doing this by instruction manuals on insurgency. It is by formula, and it is a formula that has been successfully implemented on multiple occasions.
To create a new social order, in this case an ethno-state under an absolute monarchy, you must first tear down the existing order, in this case a multi-racial constitutional democracy. The only way to do this is to create social chaos, and position yourself as the “solution” to the chaos.
The obvious route to social chaos is to magnify ethnic tensions, bankrupt the government and disrupt the economy. To date, the insurgency is on track to accomplish all three. Insurgents think in terms of decades, not the next election.
If the state government does not act, then it will become the architect of the very calamity it seeks to avoid.
The insurgents on the mauna gambled that the state was weak and feckless, acted decisively and won. The state must now gamble that if it acts to re-establish the rule of law, the insurgents will be satisfied with flag-waving instead of launching a full-scale war.
One thing is painfully obvious. Continued inaction by the state will lead only to a worst-case scenario. It is a mathematical certainty.
Life is not a “Romper Room.”
John Powers
Pahoa
Puna Kai kickoff
Many people who live and work in the Puna area are happy to see that the Puna Kai shopping center will be opening soon.
However, it appears they will follow the same frustrating patterns as the majority of the businesses in Hawaii.
The Puna Kai pre-launch celebration is scheduled for a Friday, during work hours, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. The vast majority of working citizens will not be able to attend, so who exactly is their target audience?
If basic logic does not have a foothold in this venture, it might well end up another Pahoa haunt for the less desirable members of the community.
Sam Kapele
Pahoa
