THE UNITED STATES: REPLICATING
THE SLAVE ECONOMY OF THE
OLD SOUTH & LEAVING
AVERAGE CITIZENS
TO SINK INTO POVERTY
[Forcing Christians to choose between the
"Good-Life" and the Cross of Christ]
March 7, 2008
By: S.R. Shearer
"And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A
measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and
see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." |
Romans 6:6 |
|
"For I have told you often before,
and I say it again now with tears in my eyes, there are many who walk along
the Christian road who have become the ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST.
Their future is ... loss ... [for] all they think about is this life here
on earth." |
Phil. 3:18-19 (Amp.) |
INTRODUCTION
America is once again
beginning to shed jobs - and it's doing so on a massive scale. Moreover, the
jobs that remain are being relentlessly "down-waged" - creating
in the process a growing class of "WORKING POOR" that's unprecedented
insofar as the experience of most modern Americans is concerned.
All this lends a certain awful credibility to
the saying of the rider of the Black Horse of the Apocalypse, a terrible
personage in whose hands is a pair of balances, and out from whose lips issues
a fearful warning:
"A measure of wheat for a penny [literally - denarius, a Roman
coin which represented a WHOLE DAY'S wages], and three measures of
barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine." (Revelation
6:6)
NOTE: The meaning of this is that the condition of
man at the "end of the age" will be reduced to such that he will
have to labor a whole day simply to buy a loaf of bread or three measures
of barley. But the second part of the saying ["... and see thou
hurt not the oil and the wine ..."] means that the destitution
of these days will not extend to what might be called a "global elite
of worthies" who have evidently allied themselves with the anti-Christ
- only the rich in the ancient world could afford oil and wine.
The inexorable press of the American economic
system in the direction of Revelation 6:6 augurs ill for all those Christians
in the United States who want to hold onto the "Good-Life" and Christ
at the same time.
THE CURRENT ROUND OF "DOWN-WAGING" AND
JOB LOSSES IS PROVING TO BE VERY SEVERE
And let it be clear
here: The truth that more and more Americans are falling into poverty as a
result of job losses and "down-waging" is a fact that is beyond
dispute. Indeed, there's been a certain dreadful routine in the remorseless
cycle of job losses and "down-waging" that's been going on in the
country for the past thirty years, with each new round worse than the one
before it.
The current round of
job losses and "down-waging," however, has been particularly harsh
because it is connected to a mortgage and credit crisis of unprecedented proportions.
In the past, many Americans were able to ride out the worst effects of this
unyielding routine by cashing in on the equity of their homes. Not this time!
Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post writes:
"Everyone seems to acknowledge now that there will be lots of mortgage
foreclosures and that house prices will fall nationally for the first time
since the [Great] Depression. [Indeed, some analysts are predicting that house
prices may fall to as little as fifty percent of their 2006 levels.] … There's
even a growing recognition that a recession [possibly even a depression] is
over the horizon …"
What Pearlstein is essentially
implying here is that there is no way this time for most of those who lose
their jobs or are "down-waged" to cushion the effect of their changed
circumstances - at least until they can find new jobs or learn how to cope
in their new "down-waged" situations; that coupled with a concomitant
failure of "financial instruments" tied to the mortgage meltdown
could lead us into a broad-based economic crisis not seen since the Great
Depression.
GIVEN TIME, THE ELITES WILL BE ABLE TO "FIX"
THINGS - BUT THERE WILL BE A PRICE TO BE PAID
Most observers don't see the crisis going that far: GIVEN
TIME, THE ELITES WILL NO DOUBT BE ABLE TO "FIX" THIS
CRISIS BY SQUEEZING EVER MORE "TRIBUTE MONEY" OUT OF
AMERICA'S SLAVE-STATES, just as the Mafia solves its cash-flow
problems by squeezing out more "protection money" from
those small shopkeepers it is supposedly "protecting"
- something the U.S. was unable to do in the 1930s. [Please see
our last article, "Ninnies, Know-Nothings,
and the Falling Dollar;" please also see "Part
3: U.S. Economic Supremacy" in Chapter XII of the NEW
ANTIPAS PAPERS as well as "Part
2: U.S. Military Supremacy," also in Chapter XII; finally,
please see our new DVD, GREED
IS GOOD: The American New World Order System and the Church That
Supports It.]
Still, there will be
a cost to be paid, and not only by those in America's slave states, BUT
BY THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS (INDEED, MILLIONS AND MILLIONS) OF "AVERAGE
AMERICANS" WHOM THE ELITES WILL NOT BE ABLE (OR WILLING) TO "SAVE."
THE SEVERE NATURE OF
TODAY'S JOB LOSSES
Evidence as to how severe
the current round of job losses has been is evidenced by the unemployment
figures in California; the unemployment rate there has reached a staggering
6.1 percent and is expected to go much higher. That number, however, represents
only a fraction of the unemployed in the state. The fact is, the unemployment
number for the state's (and, for that matter, the nation's) unemployed is
so jiggered (the better word is "rigged") that it is almost meaningless
- AND SO MUCH SO THAT ONE COULD EASILY CONCLUDE THAT THE "JIGGERING"
OF THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS PART OF A MASSIVE GOVERNMENT COVER-UP AS
TO THE REAL EXTENT OF THE STATE'S (AND NATION'S) UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.
Take the furtive, underhanded way California (and, indeed, the entire nation)
calculates the number of people who are unemployed. While the
unemployment rate is supposed to be based on a monthly survey
of sample households, in reality, the unemployment figure is linked
to the number of those in the state who are drawing unemployment
pay. But today, those who qualify for unemployment pay represent
only 35 percent of the state's workers. Assuming that this rate
remains true for those who don't qualify for unemployment pay
(it's in fact probably higher), the unemployment rate in California
would climb to an astounding 18 percent of the state's population.
Now, if hiding the fact that 18 percent of the state's workers
are unemployed - and substituting the figure of 6.1 percent -
DOES NOT REPRESENT A GOVERNMENT COVER-UP, THEN THE CONCEPT
OF WHAT COUNTS AS A "COVER-UP" BECOMES MEANINGLESS.
[Please see our article, "We
Are All Being Played for Suckers."]
And this still doesn't
count those who are listed as "no longer looking for work" - which
essentially means, all those who stop receiving unemployment pay because they
have not found work in 6 months. Finally, if those who hold temporary or part-time
jobs - but who are desperately looking for full-time work - were counted (about
70 percent of those holding such jobs), the unemployment rate would climb
to a truly astronomical figure.
THE HUMAN IMPACT
Jocelyn Wiener, writing
for the McClatchy newspaper chain, reports that the numbing, devastating impact
all this is having on the state's unemployed and under-employed is easily
discernable in the quiet desperation of those seeking work in the state's
job centers; Wiener writes:
"These days, the line of job seekers inside the state's biggest career
center never seems to end. Parents hug their babies as they move toward the
sign-in desk. Professionals stand stiff and awkward in sport coats and heels.
Unemployed construction workers and custodians and cashiers fill out requisite
paperwork while waiting their turn.
"Each one enters the glass doors of the California Employment Development's
big brick building looking for a break: full-time, part-time, a temp. job,
something. Increasingly, a break is hard to find.
"'It's getting ugly', said 47-year-old Joe Greta, who in October lost
his job working at a Sears warehouse. As Greta stood examining a wall of job
postings, a man nearby kicked a chair in frustration. All the phones to reach
the call center that processes unemployment claims were in use."
NOTE: the fact that one must talk to a "live" person
over the phone in the unemployment center says something: specifically,
that workers in the job center are afraid of the "mob" in the
building and are putting "distance" (a kind of "security
circle") between them and the "rabble."
Wiener continues:
"As the nation's credit and mortgage crisis grows and the retail and
construction industries stall, unemployment numbers are climbing … 'I sense
a more desperate feel now than in the past', said Pattie Espinosa, manager
of the center. She said that many of the hundreds and hundreds of people who
stand in line over the course of a day had worked at the same company for
years before being laid off …"
"DOWN-WAGING"
And it's not just job
losses that are affecting American workers, but "down-waging" as
well. For instance, take the recent "down-waging" that's been happening
at General Motors. On February 12th, 2007 Chris Isidore
of CNN reported that -
"… in order to try to stem automotive losses that have dogged the company
since 2005 … [GM] is making a range of [buyout] offers [to its employees]
that run as high as $140,000 …"
Isidore went on to say:
"THE GOAL IS NOT TO REDUCE HEADCOUNT BUT RATHER TO BRING IN NEW WORKERS
AT A LOWER COST."
"The current … [worker] at GM today has an average base wage of $28.12
an hour … By comparison, new workers will be paid about $14 an hour."
Think about that! GM is planing to reduce the
basic pay of its SKILLED workforce from $28 an hour to as little as
$14 an hour, and cut its benefit package in half - that's
just a little more than $2,000 a month at a time when house mortgages alone
can be that much and more.
Furthermore, what's happening at GM is happening everywhere in the United States.
For example, take the average pay of so-called "Wal-Mart Associates:" In 2001, sales associates, the most
common job in Wal-Mart, earned on average $8.23 an hour for an annual wage
of $13,861. That's below the 2001 poverty line of $14,630 a year established
by the US Dept. of Health and Human Services. And even if both husband and
wife were to work full-time at Wal-Mart, their combined full-time wages would
just barely exceed the $27, 948 a year needed by an average family with one
child to survive in today's economy.
A SILENT DEPRESSION
It's in the light of these dismal facts that Ray Tapajna reported in the Cleveland
Plain Dealer (July, 2007) something that probably seems obvious to millions
and millions of ordinary Americans struggling to make ends meet in today's
economy:
"There seems to be many contradictions and untold stories about the
human condition of our times."
The "human condition" that Tapajna was thinking about was poverty
and the way the poor who have been the victims of all the job losses and "down-waging"
that's been going on in recent years were being accounted for in the United
States: there is a SILENT DEPRESSION
abroad in the land, and the elite media are not reporting on it, or if they
occasionally do, it is grossly under-reported.
20 PERCENT OF THE U.S. POPULATION
IS NOW LIVING IN POVERTY
And just how widespread
this SILENT DEPRESSION is was made clear by a November 2006 New
York Times analysis of 2004 federal tax information which found that the
bottom fifth of American taxpayers earned below $11,166 a year ($930 a month),
with their average income amounting to less than $5,800 a year ($483
a month).
Accounting for the fact
that the IRS's definition of “taxpayer” applies to couples who jointly file
as well as to single individuals, the Times estimated that THE POOREST
26 MILLION TAXPAYERS REPRESENTED NEARLY 48 MILLION ADULTS AND ABOUT 12 MILLION
DEPENDENT CHILDREN. BY THIS MEASURE, THE TIMES CALCULATED THAT THE
POOREST 60 MILLION AMERICANS (OR 20 PERCENT OF THE NATION'S POPULATION) WERE
LIVING ON LESS THAN $7 A DAY (OR $210 A MONTH).
Comparing the data accumulated
by the Times report to Census data published by the U.S. Census Bureau,
Naomi Spencer, a well-known expert on these issues, notes:
"By comparison, the 2004 poverty line was $27 a day for a single adult
below retirement age [ or $810 a month] …" [Compare $210 for a single
adult per month in the Times report to what the census bureau says
is a poverty level income (i.e., $810 for a single adult per month)].
What this means is that
the poverty in which these 60 million Americans are living is EXTREME
in the most PROFOUND meaning of that word!
ONE-HALF OF THE NATION'S POPULATION
IS LIVING IN POVERTY OR "NEAR-POVERTY"
And that's not all!
- Spencer goes on to say that if poverty is measured by one's net worth, then
close to one-half of the nation is living in poverty or "near-poverty;"
that is to say, although their outward circumstances may belie the fact of
their poverty, many Americans are only one paycheck out of "beggary."
Spencer continues:
"At a time when the top 1 percent of US households received 17 percent
of all national income, held more than a third of all net worth, and more
than 42 percent of all net assets, nearly a fifth of households held zero
or negative net worth. Another third of the population held less than $10,000."
Think about that!! -
ONE-FIFTH OF U.S. HOUSEHOLDS WITH A ZERO OR NEGATIVE NET WORTH and
another ONE-THIRD OF U.S. HOUSEHOLDS THAT HOLD LESS THAN $10,000 IN ASSETS.
That includes equity in homes, cars, furniture, clothing ad infinitum,
ad nauseum. That's approaching almost one-half of the U.S. population.
MOST AMERICANS DON'T
SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING
Most Americans - i.e., those who still have good-paying
jobs - don't see what's happening. The growing numbers of the poor remain
invisible to them much as the poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They
know they're there - but only in the most detached way; there's no subjectivity
to their "knowing;" no empathy. Commenting on this deliberate, very
premeditated indifference of most Americans towards the poor in their midst,
award-winning journalist James Fallows writes:
"America's poor are like people in Madagascar. We feel bad for them,
but they live someplace else. I recently worked for several months on a temporary
project inside a large software company. Because I had a long commute I often
stayed late to wait out the traffic. Around 9 p.m. I'd hear a knock on the
office door. A woman in her 60's, wearing a stiff-fabric vest with the logo
of an office-cleaning company, stepped into the room to empty my wastebasket
and collect Mountain Dew cans from the recycling bin. She walked as if her
feet hurt. Eventually I started leaving the office to go home as soon as I
heard her a few doors down. I was willing to read articles about the travails
of the working poor, but I just didn't want to see them; I didn't want to
watch her limp. These days, the poor are like the Rwandans, a problem without
a name or face. I never knew the name of the woman on the cleaning crew. I
didn't want to ask."
MOST EVANGELICALS BELIEVE THAT THE POOR
ARE POOR BECAUSE THEY DESERVE TO BE POOR
And there's something
more, especially insofar as evangelical Christians are concerned! - an attitude
towards the poor which implies that the poor are poor because they deserve
to be poor; an attitude that, according to Richard McCormick, is based on
the idea that "poverty is caused by an aversion to hard work,"
an opinion that Francis Fitzgerald says is reinforced by the fact that since
the 1960s -
"Evangelicals have made the greatest gains of any … group [in the U.S.]
in income and education."
Obviously, most of today's
evangelicals find themselves on the "prosperous" side of America's
division between the "haves" and the "have nots."
FACTS THAT ESCAPE MOST EVANGELCALS
The fact that there are millions and millions of hard-working Americans (many
holding down two or more jobs) who are, nonetheless, poor, and
the fact that over the past thirty years there has been a shocking
exodus of good-paying jobs out of the country seems to entirely
escape them. [Again, please see our article, "We
Are All Being Played for Suckers."]
Finally, the fact that
the job losses and "down-waging" that's responsible for most of
the country's new poverty is, as Naomi Spencer says, "THE PRODUCT
OF DEFINITE [GOVERNMENT] POLICIES" that their business allies in
the Republican Party have been promoting for the past three decades is a concept
that most evangelical Christians would probably reject out of hand. Nevertheless,
that's the truth - and that truth becomes abundantly clear when, as Spencer
suggests, one asks himself a few simple questions, such as -
Why did the U.S. government support and fund the Maquiladora
factories in Mexico during the 1980s?
Why has the U.S. government been involved in moving production
outside the U.S.?
Why has the U.S. government funded programs to move factories
outside the U.S.?
When did the connotation of international trade change to include
the exporting of jobs and factories?
Why is the government colluding with the Mexican elites to
import cheap Mexican labor into the United States knowing full well that this
"illegal" workforce is not only reducing the wages of American workers,
but displacing millions and millions of them not only in the agricultural
sector, but in the trades and in manufacturing?
WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT UP TO?
The question to be asked in the light of all this is, What are
the government and the business elites up to in promoting policies
that are so at odds with the interests of ordinary working Americans?
Put simply, what the government is doing is making use of the
PLUNDER that has accrued to it as a result of its policy
of "empire expansion" in recent years - plunder that
consists not only of "natural resources," but of "HUMAN
RESOURCES" as well - "HUMAN RESOURCES" THAT
THE BUSINESS ELITES CAN UTILIZE AS "CHEAP LABOR."
[Please see our articles, "The
American Empire: the Corporate / Pentagon / CIA / Missionary Archipelago,"
"Working Conditions in the Third
World," "The Congo and
American Greed," and "The
Versailles Phenomenon;" and once again, we urge you to
order our FREE DVD, GREED
IS GOOD: The American New World Order System and the Church That
Supports It.]
Specifically, what's
been happening is this: AT THE INSTIGATION OF AMERICA'S ECONOMIC ELITES,
THE GOVERNMENT IS PURSUING POLICIES THAT ARE PURPOSEFULLY AND RELENTLESSLY
TRANSFORMING THE AMERICAN ECONOMY FROM AN ECONOMY THAT FAVORS WELL-PAYING
JOBS FOR ORDINARY AMERICANS INTO AN ECONOMY THAT FAVORS "CHEAP LABOR"
- AND THEY ARE POCKETING THE DIFFERENCE.
VERY OBVIOUSLY, THESE
POLICIES CANNOT HELP BUT HAVE THE EFFECT OF FAVORING THE ECONOMIC INTERESTS
OF THE ELITES OVER THE ECONOMIC INTERESTS OF ORDINARY CITIZENS - POLICIES
THAT INEXORABLY TRANSFER THE WEALTH OF THE NATION FROM THE HANDS OF AVERAGE
AMERICANS INTO THE HANDS OF THE ULTRA-RICH.
THIS IS NOT A NEW PHENOMENON: IT'S HAPPENED
BEFORE TO OTHER WAR-MAKING NATIONS
THIS PROCESS IS VERY
SIMILAR TO THE ONE THAT TOOK HOLD OF ANCIENT ROME AND TRANSFORMED THE ROMAN
REPUBLIC OF PLINY AND CICERO INTO THE ROMAN EMPIRE OF NERO AND TIBERIUS; FROM
A NATION BASED ON SMALL FARMERS AND ARTISANS INTO A STATE BASED ON THE HUMAN
PLUNDER OF WAR THAT COULD BE PUT TO WORK ON ROME'S HUGE FARMS CALLED LATIFUNDIA
- FARMS NOT UNLIKE THE SLAVE PLANTATIONS OF THE OLD SOUTH.
The latifundia [from the Latin for "broad" (latus) and "estate"
(fundus)] were the great
Roman farming estates owned by Rome's economic elites - estates not unlike
the large corporate farms of today that emphasize the "efficiencies"
of cheap labor (SLAVES IN THE CASE OF ROME, "ILLEGALS" IN THE
CASE OF THE UNITED STATES) and mass production that inevitably drive out
small competitors. The development of the latifundia represented a
trend in Roman agriculture that took many years to complete.
Roman agriculture was
originally dominated by free peasants, each cultivating land (usually 10 acres
or less) for their own family needs. But, as Rome's military conquests continued
all through the second and first centuries B.C., more and more prisoners taken
in these conquests were sent back to Rome as slaves - AND THERE WERE A
LOT OF THEM! For example, one source reckons that by the time of Christ
there were some three million slaves in Italy as opposed to four million free
citizens.
NOTE: This is analogues to what's been happening insofar
as the American Empire is concerned where - as a result of the American
Empire's expansion into the Third World - "cheap labor" has become
available to America's business elites on a scale never before realized.
Moreover, while there is still a necessity to "import" a great
deal of this "cheap labor" into the United States (which is precisely
what many American businesses are doing insofar as "illegal" Mexican
workers are concerned) much of it can be put to work outside the American
homeland making products for export into the United States as a result of
so-called "free trade" deals such as NAFTA, CAFTA, and other "deals"
promoted under the aegis of the WTO. IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED IN THIS
CONTEXT THAT SLAVERY IS NOTHING MORE THAN THE ULTIMATE FORM OF "CHEAP
LABOR."
Using the "cheap
labor" the slaves provided, the Roman farming elites were able, as we
just suggested, to achieve enormous "economies of scale" that undercut
the "profitability" of the small peasant farms of ordinary Romans
- a process that eventually bankrupted them and forced them off the land and
into Rome's cities where they were compelled to go on the dole. For example, where before there were 10 Roman farmers
working 10 acres each, there was now one 100 acre farm owned by a single wealthy
man and worked by slaves who made nothing.
The Roman elites would then purchase the small farms that had been abandoned
and add them to their already extensive holdings. Over time, these estates or latifundia became truly
enormous. For example, by the time of Christ, a farm (or fundus) of
one thousand acres would have been considered quite small. A more typical
estate was one in central Italy that comprised 250,000 acres and was worked
by thousands and thousands of slaves.
A GROWING INCOME GAP
As the process wore
on all through the second and first centuries B.C., the gap between the rich
and the poor in Rome became enormous. For example, one estate - owned by Marcus
Licinius Crassus - was valued at 50 million denarii, the basic unit of Roman
currency, making the owner of this estate more than 900 times richer than
an ordinary Roman citizen. Still another estate owned by a Roman Senator
was valued at 370 million denarii.
THESE ARE THE KINDS OF GAPS THAT HAVE OVER THE PAST FORTY
YEARS DEVELOPED BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR IN THE UNITED STATES
WHERE THE PAY OF SOME CEOs IS 900 TIMES GREATER THAN THAT OF AMERICA'S
AVERAGE CITIZENS. [Please see our articles, "The
Measure of a Man's Worth," "Divergence
of the Rich from the Poor," and "The
Derivatives Market."]
CHEAP-LABOR SPREADS FROM THE AGRICULTURAL
SECTOR TO THE TRADES (OR MANUFACTURING SECTOR)
In the initial stages
of this relentless process by which Rome's economy was transformed into a
slave economy akin to the one that came to prevail in the Old South, many
of the small farmers who migrated into Rome's cities were able to find work
as artisans and small trades people (e.g., as carpenters, dye-makers, clothiers,
iron workers, armament workers making weapons for the army, etc.). BUT
IN TIME, EVEN THESE VOCATIONS BECAME DOMINATED BY HUGE ENTERPRISES THAT USED
SLAVE-LABOR, THROWING AVERAGE CITIZENS TOTALLY OUT OF WORK AND TURNING THEM
INTO A MOB OF "DO-NOTHINGS."
This is precisely what is occurring in the United States as the use of "illegals"
(AMERICA'S VERSION OF THE ROMAN SLAVE) continues to spread throughout
the economy. Low paid "illegal" workers are undercutting the wages
of low skilled American workers [and now even skilled workers (e.g., skilled
assembly workers at General motors - see above)], and forcing them out of
their jobs.
"ILLEGALS" AS MODERN-DAY SLAVES
And make no mistake about it: One is not stretching the truth too far when one
compares America's "illegal" workers to Rome's slaves. America's
"illegals" are some of the poorest paid and most exploited
workers in the US economy. They are excluded from most of the fundamental
labor rights guaranteed to other US workers, including the right to organize
and the right to overtime pay. In addition, these workers also lack health
insurance, sick leave, pensions, and job security - and their "illegal"
status renders them powerless to protect themselves from their employers and
those who "traffic" them from work site to work site.
The "traffickers" of these "illegals"
(TODAY'S VERSION OF YESTERDAY'S "SLAVE TRADERS") prey upon
the "illegal's" vulnerability and desperation to find work. Often
they promise to take workers on credit to well-paying jobs where the debt
incurred for transport can be paid off quickly. In some instances, workers
arrive at the place of work already thousands of dollars in debt where they
face brutality and a near-total loss of control over their lives. Subsequently
they are forced to pay off their debts in conditions to which they did not
agree, working in the fields or on factory floors for 12-14 hours a day, seven
days a week. Deductions are made from their wages for transport, accommodation,
food, work equipment, and supposed tax and social security payments. Weekly
wages are sporadic and in many instances workers are left with no pay.
As many as 12-16 "illegals" may be housed
in one cramped, run-down trailer or apartment and kept under constant surveillance
by employers using a variety of methods, including armed guards. Some endure
a constant barrage of verbal abuse along with threats of violence and death
to themselves and their families back home. In the most severe cases, employers
use "public" beatings, pistol-whippings, and shootings to make an
example of those trying to escape. In addition, women in forced labor are
sometimes faced with sexual harassment and even violent sexual assault.
IT'S NOT JUST "ILLEGALS" WHO ARE HURT BY
THIS BRUTAL SYSTEM, BUT AMERICANS AS WELL
But it isn't just the "illegal" workers
who are harmed by this brutal system; American workers are hurt as well. Historian
Graham Stevenson writes:
"Low paid illegal workers are pricing … American workers
out of jobs … Instead of using capital to increase the productivity of American
workers, many farms and factories are simply using illegal workers to lower
costs. Like the latifundia [in ancient Rome] this isn't affecting total
output as much as redistributing wealth within the country. Instead of an
owner and 2 American workers at a farm, and two at a factory making farm machines,
there is the owner and 10 illegal workers. Essentially the income of the two
farm workers is divided amongst the 10 illegals and the income of the 2 factory
workers is kept by the factory owner."
WHAT TO DO WITH AMERICA'S
DISPLACED WORKERS
The question that arises is, What is one to do
with all the displaced American workers? The government and the elites the
government serves are pursuing two solutions:
-
Lock much of the excess population up in prison - especially
those who are viewed by the government and the elites as "troublemakers."
This is being done under cover of the "War on Drugs"
where the government is imprisoning or otherwise "disappearing"
many of them into the bowels of the American penal system.
[Please see our articles, "Measuring
the Depravity of the Elites: Pacifying the Poor through Drug
Addiction" and "I
Was in Prison and Ye Visited Me Not."]
-
There's also another way the government is attempting to
deal with America's displaced workers - and that is to recruit
them into the army or some kind of "National Service."
Indeed, the concept of "National Service" is viewed
by many as a perfect way of bringing back the draft without
necessarily connecting "National Service" with service
in the military. The nation's youth could be added to the
nation's "cheap labor" force and put to work re-building
the nation's infrastructure, cleaning up the cities, serving
as "auxiliaries" in the nation's police apparatus,
etc. - all of which would serve to undercut the wages of American
workers that much more. [Please see our articles, "The
Draft: You Had Better Get Ready," and "Closing
the Trap: the Draft."]
"National Service" [in Rome's case, this meant strictly
military service] is exactly the way Rome ultimately solved its unemployment
problem - a solution perfected by Marius' reforms at the end of the 2nd Century B.C.; a solution by
which many of Rome's unemployed were "persuaded" [really, forced]
to join the army where they were paid a salary. Stevenson writes:
"At its height, the native Roman army was at one of the highest proportions
to the citizenry at large ever known, at one eighth [12.5%] of the entire
population."
These were the legionaires spoken of in the Bible in such
passages as Acts 10:7 (Cornelius), the Centurion whose servant Jesus healed
in Matthew chapter 8, and the Centurion who said of Christ at the crucifixion,
"Truly, this is the Son of God." (Mark 15:39).
Between these twin solutions - i.e., prison for
malcontents and "National Service" for the rest of America's unemployed
- America would go a long way in solving its growing unemployment problem.
Insofar as those Americans who appear to be living
the "Good Life," but who are in reality just one paycheck away from
the "poor house," they could easily be cowered into subservience
lest they fall through the cracks into oblivion - which is precisely the way
the U.S. business elites have cowered union workers.
GAINFUL EMPLOYMENT IS CONNECTED
TO ONE'S LOYALITY TO THE STATE
Finally, for that portion of the American population
that retains secure, "good-paying" jobs (still, about 50 percent
of the U.S. population), their hold on the "Good Life" could easily
be predicated on their loyalty to the state - a situation that could be comfortably
enforced since most of these jobs would be connected to America's armament
and related industries - INDUSTRIES THAT THE UNITED STATES WOULD FIND DIFFICULT
TO MOVE "OFF-SHORE" FOR FEAR THEY COULD BE "NATIONALIZED"
BY THEIR SLAVE STATES AND USED AGAINST THE "HOMELAND."
One should remember here that it would certainly
be no "big thing" to require a security clearance for those employed
in such industries. Who, after all, would challenge the necessity of a "national
security" check for those working in defense related industries?
A GREAT DILEMMA THAT ALL TRUE
CHRISTIANS MUST ULTIMATELY FACE
And so, now we come to the great dilemma that
will be imposed on all those Christians who - at the "end of the age
- "want their cake, and eat it too;" in other words, those
Christians who want to retain their connection to the "Good Life"
while maintaining their Christianity.
That will prove to be IMPOSSIBLE! It's
not without reason that the Lord said,
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and
love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and mammon [i.e., the god of money]." (Matthew 6:24)
And come on now! Isn't this true of our present
situation. Think about it! -
And,
IF one's connection to the "Good Life"
is connected to a LOYALTY OATH to the United States - again,
God's great enemy,
THEN, how is it possible for a "good"
Christian to maintain his hold on the "Good Life" when that connection
is predicated on an alliance with the enemy of God?
Obviously, it's not possible! - a fact that makes
Matthew 6:24 ["No man can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold
to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon"]
really come alive!
THE "END OF DAYS" COMES
DOWN TO A QUESTION OF MONEY
It's in the light of this STARK
reality that we can begin to understand what Revelation 13:16-17 is all about:
"And he [i.e., the anti-Christ] causeth all … to receive a mark in their
right hand, or in their foreheads:
"And that no man might BUY or SELL, save
he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."
(Revelation 13:16-17)
BUYING and SELLING!
- that's what the "mark of the beast" is all about; in other words,
participation in the economy and, ipso facto, the "Good Life"
in the "end of days."
And so now we begin to appreciate the momentous
significance of Christ's words when He said:
"For the love of money [i.e., mammon] is the root of ALL
evil." (1 Timothy 6:10)
And when He called those
who wish to hold on to their money "FOOLS:"
"The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
"And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have
no room where to bestow my fruits?
"And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater;
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
"And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many
years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
"But God said unto him, THOU FOOL, THIS NIGHT THY SOUL SHALL
BE REQUIRED OF THEE: THEN WHOSE SHALL THOSE THINGS BE, which thou hast
provided?
"SO IS HE THAT LAYETH UP TREASURES [ON EARTH] FOR HIMSELF...."
(Luke 12:16-21)
NOTE: Again, one should bear in mind here that this passage
of Scripture is very specifically connected to the "end of the age;"
that's what Christ is discussing in Luke chapter twelve.
A FOOL!
- that's what Christ calls people who trust in their riches. And why is that?
Because money blinds people to the TRANSITORY nature of life here on
earth. Indeed, the Bible warns us:
"They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts, WHICH DROWN MEN IN DESTRUCTION AND PERDITION."
(II Tim. 6:9)
MONEY INEVITABLY MAKES US THE
ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST
And insofar as Christians
are concerned, money has a way of turning them into the "ENEMIES"
of the "cross of Christ!" That's what the Bible says! That's
what the Apostle Paul says:
"For I have told you often before, and I say it again now with tears
in my eyes, there are many who walk along the Christian road who have become
the ENEMIES OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. Their future is ... loss ... [for]
all they think about is this life here on earth." [Phil. 3:18-19 (Amp.)]
It is precisely this
fact (i.e., that money inevitably turns Christians into "ENEMIES OF
THE CROSS OF CHRIST") that Jesus took the time to warn those living
at the "end of the age" to -
"Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body,
what ye shall put on." (Luke 12:22) [Remember again, Luke 12 has a
very special reference to the "end of the age."]
And why He went on to
say:
"Be yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will
return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto
him immediately.
"Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall
find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make
them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." (Luke
12:36-37)
Plainly, what Christ
is saying is, Be ready to go! Get rid of anything that can hold you back!
- any connection you have to this world; any so-called "responsibility"
that you have to "this life."
THE CRUX OF THE MATTER
And so now we come to the "gist - the essence,
the crux - of what we've been talking about; why we have written at such length
regarding the economic process that you presently (or soon will) find yourselves
involved in at the "end of the age;" and that is this: TAKE HEED
TO YOURSELVES; A TRAP IS BEING SET FOR YOUR SOULS.
Soon, very soon now, you will have to choose between
And
It is not a choice that you can ignore, nor one
from which you can flee. As more and more jobs are "down-waged"
and / or shipped overseas - in other words, as people are subsumed in the
SLAVE ECONOMY that has come to prevail in the United States - the only
good jobs that will remain for ordinary citizens will be jobs connected to
the defense and related industries - industries that REQUIRE
a loyalty oath from all those who want jobs in them.
And don't think - even for a moment - that this
is a conclusion that we've "created out of whole cloth." It isn't.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS TO ALL COUNTRIES THAT ENGAGE IN PERPETUAL
WARFARE. Again, this is PRECISELY what happened to Rome.
Stevenson writes:
"Warfare became a way of life [in Rome], the norm for economic growth
[just as it has become now in the United States]. After the first Punic War
with Carthage, which established Rome as the dominant Mediterranean power,
the expansion of the Roman republic brought about a period of wealth and power
for the noble patrician class. AS FOR ORDINARY ROMANS, THEY WERE NOW LARGELY
PREOCCUPIED WITH MILITARY SERVICE and their previous economic role was
filled by the labour of slaves in a new large-scale agricultural economy."
Now come on! - isn't this exactly what is happening
today in the U.S.? The only "gainful employment" that remains for
ordinary citizens is connected in one way or another to what President Eisenhower
called the "MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX" - employment that
is, of necessity, connected to loyalty to the state.
SETTING THE POOR AGAINST ONE
ANOTHER: AN OLD TRICK OF THE ELITES
And there is something more to be remarked on
here: It's not just that "gainful employment" in the United States
is increasingly being linked to loyalty to the state, it's that those Christians
who refuse to be disconnected from this kind of "gainful employment"
will increasingly find themselves divided from the very objects of Christ's
offer of salvation: The POOR. It's not without reason that Jesus
said:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, BECAUSE HE HATH ANONTED
ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." (Luke 4:18)
Indeed, the government and the elites which the
government serves have purposefully set in motion policies specifically designed
to set not only the rich (i.e., those who still retain "gainful employment")
against the poor, but the poor against one another: blacks against Latinos,
poor whites against both blacks and Latinos, men against women, and, most
especially, "illegals" (America's version of the Roman slave) against
native-born Americans. This is precisely what Lou Dobbs is all about,
or do you think that his "raging" against "illegals" in
the country would be tolerated by the elites (after all, CNN is nothing if
it is not an elite institution) if they did not have a "greater purpose"
in mind?
SETTING THE POOR AGAINST ONE ANOTHER IS AN
OLD TRICK OF THE ELITES FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL, and was precisely the policy
pursued by the Southern oligarchs during Jim Crow and the so-called "Bourbon
Restoration" when poor whites were persuaded - in contravention to all
their economic interests - to join the oligarchs against the blacks. The bait
the oligarchs used to entice poor whites to their side was racial rage - at
least, poor whites were led to believe, there was one group that they were
better than: Blacks. This is exactly the kind of enticement that the Roman
elite used to entice poor Romans over to their side against the slaves in
their midst - at least the poor Romans were better than the "barbarians"
(i.e., slaves) in their midst.
MARX MIRRORS CHRIST
IT WAS CHRISTIANITY THAT ENDED THE GAME THE
ELITES WERE PLAYING IN TURNING POOR ROMANS AGAINST THE SLAVES. Karl Marx
had it right when he wrote:
"It was here, in the spiritual vein, that the proletarian and barbarian
slave found common ground in the end. Indeed, it was … [Christianity] that
offered a safe haven to body and debt slaves of all kinds. As Engels has written,
"where was the way out, salvation for the enslaved, oppressed, and
impoverished, a way out common to all these groups of people (slaves, ex-slaves,
the plebeian mob, impoverished free men) whose interests were mutually alien
or even opposed? Christianity, at least in its early message, provided such
an ideology." [F. Engels "On the History of Early Christianity"
Die Neue Zeit Vol. XIII - ed. L S Feuer "Marx and Engels - Basic
Writings on Politics and Philosophy." p 225]
Christianity, "AT LEAST IN ITS EARLY
MESSAGE," was instrumental in healing the breach between the poor
of Rome and Rome's slave population. One might fairly ask, then, WHAT KIND
OF TWISTED CHRISTIANITY IS IT TODAY THAT FOSTERS ILL-WILL BETWEEN THE
"ILLEGALS" IN AMERICA'S MIDST, AND NATIVE-BORN AMERICANS? It's
certainly not the kind of Christianity practiced by the early church!
It was in the light of this stark reality that
Karl Marx once remarked to a Christian acquaintance:
"I love your Christ; but I hate the religion that has now come to represent
Him."
TWOFOLD MORE THE CHILD OF HELL
God help you, dear Christian,
if you find yourself being drawn to the message that Lou Dobbs and his ilk
are purveying today: It means that you are involved in a kind of religion
the early church would not recognize as Christianity; the kind of religion
against which Christ said:
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea
and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, YE MAKE HIM TWOFOLD
MORE THE CHILD OF HELL THAN YOURSELVES.
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of
mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of
the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not
to leave the other undone.
"YE BLIND GUIDES, WHICH STRAIN AT A GNAT, AND SWALLOW A CAMEL.
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean
the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess.
"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within
the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto
whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full
of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
"Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (Matthew 23:15, 23-28)
TODAY'S CHRISTIANS: BEING
CONDEMNED ON TWO LEVELS
It's here - it's precisely
here - that Christians may find themselves condemned on two levels:
And,
I TELL YOU A TRUTH …
It's in the light of
this somber reality that I convey to you a truth, dear Christian: IF YOU
ARE ONE OF THOSE WHO HAS FALLEN THROUGH THE CRACKS OF TODAY'S ECONOMY;
one of those who has lost his hold on the "Good-Life," do not think
- even for a moment - that God has been unkind to you. The very real
fact of the matter is, God may very well be taking the "long view"
insofar as your welfare is concerned, and so much so that in eternity to come,
you may well say with the Apostle James:
"Let the rich [rejoice], in that he is made low." (James 1:10a)
And IF, PER CHANCE,
YOU, BY GOD'S GRACE, ARE ONE OF THOSE WHO STILL RETAINS HIS WEALTH,
then be -
"… not highminded [with your wealth] …but be READY TO DISTRIBUTE
[it to your brethren] …" (1Timothy 6:17-18)
Prepare yourself in
these "last days" to take upon you the mind of Joses whom the Apostles
named "THE SON OF CONSOLATION, a Levite, and
of the country of Cyprus, who, having land, sold it, and brought the money,
and laid it at the apostles’ feet [for distribution to the needs of the saints]"
(Acts 4:36-37). Indeed, it was because of the generosity of saints like Joses
that the church was able to expand in those very HARSH times after
the crucifixion. Describing this remarkable phenomenon, the Bible says -
"And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one
soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed
was his own; BUT THEY HAD ALL THINGS IN COMMON …
"Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors
of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were
sold,
"And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: AND DISTRIBUTION
WAS MADE UNTO EVERY MAN ACCORDING AS HE HAD NEED." (Acts 4:32, 34-35)
Sounds like Karl Marx,
doesn't it! But it was precisely because of this spirit of generosity that
-
"… great power was given unto the apostles as a witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
"And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought
among the people …" (Acts 4:33, 5:12)
THE LORD HAS NEED TODAY OF
MANY "SONS OF CONSOLATION"
In the "Tribulation"
of these "last days," THE LORD HAS NEED OF MANY "SONS
OF CONSOLATION" - people who "have the mind of Jesus"
-
"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery [i.e., who thought
it not presumptuous] to be [called] equal with God:
"MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, AND TOOK UPON HIMSELF THE FORM OF
A SERVANT, and was made in the likeness of men:
"And being found in fashion as a man, HE HUMBLED HIMSELF,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
(Phil. 2:6-8) [Please see Part 2 of Chapter VIII of the New
Antipas Papers, "The
Tribulation As a Winnowing of God."]
IF YOU ARE RICH
…
If you are rich, are
you willing to take upon yourself the mind of Christ? Are you willing to become
like Joses? It's precisely this kind of generosity - the kind that Joses exhibited
in the early church - that the world longs to see! It is this kind of generosity
that will expose today's American church and her "harlot churches"
throughout the world for what they really are: FRAUDS!
And so I ask you again,
Are you willing to sacrifice everything you have so that the church might
have such a testimony? - the kind of testimony that would prompt God to pour
Himself out in GREAT SIGNS AND WONDERS in these "last Days;"
so -
"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
"And that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
(Phil. 2:10-11) [Please see Chapter V of the New Antipas
Papers, "The
Church;" please also see our article, "The
Church vs. the Machine."]
LIVING IN THE "IMMEDIACY"
OF THE "END OF THE AGE"
We must learn to live
in the "immediacy" of the "end of the age." We must be
able to recognize the "signs of the times" and orient ourselves
towards that reality. Jesus said:
"When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There
cometh a storm; and so it is.
"And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat;
and it cometh to pass.
"Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the
earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?" (Luke 12:54-56)
We must NOT
be like that unfaithful servant in Luke 12:45-46, the servant who said in
his heart:
"My lord delayeth his coming; and who began to … eat and drink, and
[make himself comfortable in this life here on earth];
And why is that? Because
-
"The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for
him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder,
AND WILL APPOINT HIM HIS PORTION WITH THE UNBELIEVERS. (Luke 12:45-46)
That's scary! That's
very scary!
THIS IS NOT THE LORD I KNOW
Some Christians, of
course, will say in their heart, "This is not the Lord I know! My Lord
is not this "extreme;" this "unkind;" this divisive in
His severity. But that's not what Jesus said of Himself:
"Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay;
but rather division:
"For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three
against two, and two against three.
"The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the
father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother;
the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against
her mother in law." (Luke 12:51-53)
TWO PATHS ARE LAID BEFORE YOU
Listen to me! - I say
again, there is now laid before YOU two paths:
The question is, Which
path will YOU choose? - and you should understand here that
in conjunction with this choice, IT'S NO ACCIDENT THAT THE "PIVOT"
AROUND WHICH THIS CHOICE MUST BE MADE IS MONEY!
HOW DOES A RICH MAN
KNOW IF HE IS TRULY LOVED?
And is that so surprising?
Think about it! How does a rich man - AND GOD IS VERY, VERY RICH
- ever know that he is truly loved? The sad truth is, he doesn't so long as
he retains his wealth. But should he lose it, then he will find out.
Great crowds of people followed Jesus so long
as He fed them and healed them of their diseases. But when tribulation arose
because of the Word He spoke, the crowds disappeared.
Oh, to be loved because of who you are, and not
just because of the "things" you have! This is the love that God
desires from those who follow Him. It is the love that Ruth gave to Naomi,
and this even after Naomi had asked Ruth to depart from her because she [that
is to say, Naomi] had nothing further to give Ruth - she no longer possessed
any "things" with which to "purchase" Ruth's love. But
Ruth said:
"Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where
you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be
my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will
be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts
you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17)
The Lord is looking for such to follow Him - those
who will follow Him long after the "things" are gone, the crowds
have left, the popularity faded; when the clothes are tattered and torn, there
is no food on the table, and persecution rages all around. These are the disciples
who can say with the prophet Habakkuk:
"Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though
the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the
flock be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls - YET
I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD, I WILL JOY IN THE GOD OF MY SALVATION."
(Habakkuk 3:17-18)
THE WORLD IS LOOKING
FOR THIS KIND OF LOVE
The Bible says:
"For the earnest expectation of the creature (i.e., the creation) waiteth
for the manifestation of the sons of God (i.e., the church) ... For we know
that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."
(Romans 8:19, 22)
These are the TRUE "sons of
God" - i.e., those who "manifest" such love; again, the kind
of love that Joses, "THE SON OF CONSOLATION" manifested towards
his brethren. With such people one can repose trust and friendship; true love
is here to be found!
It is in this kind of love that the TRUE Church will be "revealed,"
"disclosed," "manifested" (Romans 8:19)! It
is this kind of love which will expose the hypocrites for what
they really are. It is this kind of love which will separate the
wheat from the tares. And it is only in tribulation that this
love is truly revealed in all of its splendor and peerless beauty.
In this, God's glory can find rest; in this the presence of God
securely dwells. [Please see Chapter V of the New Antipas
Papers, "The
Church."]
AND SO, NOW I SAY TO YOU ALL …
Choose now! Choose that path that leads to the Cross of Christ - and in conjunction
with this urging, let me suggest to you a very practical way of
doing so: Order our FREE DVD, GREED
IS GOOD: The American New World Order System and the Church That
Supports It, and show it to everyone you can.
You will find that you will very soon be "SEPARATED OUT" for
His "Testimony" on earth, and Christianity will then become something
that is very, very real in your life.
God bless you all!
S.R. Shearer
Antipas Ministries
P.S. IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY, ORDER YOUR FREE DVD ON THE AMERICAN NEW WORLD
ORDER SYSTEM NOW.
Finally, Remember the Word of God:
"IF WE HAVE SOWN UNTO YOU SPIRITUAL THINGS, IS IT A GREAT THING
IF WE SHALL REAP YOUR CARNAL (MATERIAL) THINGS?" (1 Cor. 9:11)
To give to the ministry,
We need your help to spread the word concerning Antipas Ministries and the
eschatological viewpoint it represents; WE NEED YOUR
HELP BECAUSE WE DO NOT "LINK" WITH OTHER SO-CALLED "CHRISTIAN"
WEBSITES which are, for the most part, "in the tank"
insofar as their loyalty to the United States is concerned
- a loyalty that has made them partners in the BLOODY
trail the American military has left in its TERROR-RIDDEN
rampage throughout the world, as well as making them partners
in the abject poverty that American corporations have
imposed on the peoples and nations the American military
machine has ravaged - A BLOODY, TERROR-RIDDEN RAMPAGE
THAT HAS TO A LARGE DEGREE BEEN CARRIED OUT IN THE NAME
OF THE "PRINCE OF PEACE." [Please see our articles,
"The Third World
as a Model for the New World Order," Inside
the American New World Order System" and "The
American Empire: The Corporate / Pentagon / CIA / Missionary
Archipelago."]
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