A House Divided

Contrary to popular belief, Abraham Lincoln did not originate that old saying, he was actually quoting Jesus out of context. Jesus had been accused of being in league with the Devil because He had demonstrated the ability to cast out demons. His response was, "A house divided against itself cannot stand. Can Satan be divided against Satan?"

Back in the day, neither I nor my ilk believed in the Russia-China split. We believed that all those Commies were in it together, and that they couldn't be divided against each other any more than Satan could be divided against Satan. History seems to have proven us wrong on that, but we sincerely believed it at the time. Truth be known, the only reason Satan can't be divided against Satan is that there is only one Satan, and he can't be divided against himself. Whenever there are two or more individuals involved, they certainly can be divided against each other, but that doesn't necessarily mean that either one of them is on our side. Come to think of it, Satan could be divided against one or more of his demons without being divided against himself, and two or more of his demons could be divided against each other, with or without being divided against Satan. That's the trouble with those wise old sayings, if you think about them too much they turn out to be not so wise as you originally thought they were. While I may no longer believe that the Establishment is all in it together, I'm still pretty sure that they are all in it against us. Well, maybe not against all of us, but certainly against me. Well, maybe not so much against me as not for me.

I still think we could learn something from those Indians. They kept their tribes together all those years when they had no legal reason to do so. When the law changed in their favor, they were well positioned to take advantage of it because they already had their cooperative structures in place. I'm sure that they don't all agree with each other all of the time, but they seem to know how to pull themselves together when it's in everybody's best interest to do so. Right now the federal government is more or less on their side, but it has not always been so. Maybe all those years of dealing with the White Man's forked tongue taught them how to roll with the punches, stick together, and rely on themselves rather than expecting somebody else to take care of them.