Mariner has noticed that a number of magazines, newspapers and other opinion-based sources are unifying behind articles about whose fault it is that led us into our social/political dilemma. Some in mariner’s family blame it all on Norman Rockwell whose art taught everyone how to live a Victorian life in modern times, that is, instead of using each homeowner’s yard for purposeful needs (everything from growing food to utilities for children and others who may need space) instead keeping precision lawns and trimmed shrubbery so they could pretend they are rich just like the Victorian oligarchs.

Others blame the Ivy League social structure which was a very clubby way to help the wealthier families possess the best colleges, get the power-linked jobs and live in the best neighborhoods (The Villages in Florida or huge estates in Hawaii) just like the Victorians.

Mariner’s regular readers know he blames the economic structure of the Federal and state Governments who squashed the ability for middle and lower classes to make a fair living amid all the plutocracy.

But things wouldn’t change without a growing imbalance, would they? Back in the earliest times, change was provoked when one army beat another army – killing and destroying along the way. Just as too many guns kill children in schools, too many guns around the world still provoke ‘bullet style’ wars in many countries when there are many other ways to disrupt a nation even more effectively (destroy computer networks, power grids, even influence elections, etc.)

History teaches that there is a finite link between change and consternation. The North American Indian blamed white people; Mayans and most of South America blame Spaniards; Biblical Jews blame the Greeks, Romans and Iranians; Formosans blame the Japanese and Chinese; South Korea could, if it chose, blame the United States.

But it all began when a few nomadic travelers left Africa to grow more wheat than they needed and traded or sold the extra so they could stay where they were, own property, and did not have to migrate from place to place to find supper. Now there were two classes: business and migrant.

Today there are many variations of each but they all started with small business around the Mediterranean.

Ancient Mariner