10.14.2012

Rime of the Ancient Australian

Hear the rime of the ancient mariner
See his eye as he stops one of three
Mesmerises one of the wedding guests
Stay here and listen to the nightmares of the sea.

And the music plays on, as the bride passes by
Caught by his spell and the mariner tells his tale.


The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a Samuel Taylor Coleridge epic poem, later adapted by Iron Maiden for one of their greatest songs. In the story, a wise and grizzled mariner frightens a young wedding guest with a horrifying cautionary tale from his experience at sea.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is what I think of every time I recall the Australian expat I met two years ago. I have told this story to only a few people since.

It began with a simple Craigslist search for garage shelving in the summer of 2010. After a quick e-mail exchange, I arrived at a typical Southern California two-story house on a cul-de-sac in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The owner had a locksmith truck out front, one, I would learn, from his successful small local locksmith business.

The owner invited me in to the garage to see the shelving for sale. After I agreed to the price, I began dismantling it for transport, and we began to talk. It turned out that he had lived here several years and his daughter had grown up here. But he was pulling her out of the local high school and moving the family back to Australia. "Why?" I asked.

"Oh, mate, you don't wanna know."

But of course I did. I pressed.

"My wife doesn't like me talking about this. But I've lived under a dictatorship before. And that's exactly what you've got coming here," he finally confessed.

He couldn't have known that I was no Obama fan. Most people my age in this area were Obama voters. But once he had decided to tell his tale, he couldn't stop.

He talked of things with which I was quite familiar, but with which most of the public would not have been: Eric Holder and the Black Panthers, the White House asking people to inform on their dissident friends and neighbors, the Obama cult of personality, and the way the media were no longer watchdogs but open supporters of the regime.

I had at that time already seen and participated in the blossoming Tea Party movement, and I was confident that the November 2010 elections would bring a sharp reversal. Won't we put an end to all this nonsense right there?

"Mate, it won't matter. These guys don't allow parliaments or Congresses to stop them."

How prescient he was. A landslide Congressional election, and yet nothing has changed. The Boehner Congress allows Obama's spending to continue unchecked. The Boehner Congress gave Obama the power to indefinitely detain Americans without trial in the NDAA. We have created a vast dependency class, with 15% of the population on food stamps, and millions more on extended unemployment benefits and disability payments. Obama went to war against Libya without Congressional authorization. Domestically, Obama rules by Executive Order without even the pretense of checks and balances. Senator Charles Schumer has proposed, and Speaker Boehner has endorsed, a Reich Flight Tax to confiscate the assets of Americans fleeing the Obama regime.

Maybe we put an end to this on November 6. But maybe not. It certainly wouldn't hurt to heed the warning of the ancient Australian and begin planning your escape strategy. Sovereign Man and International Living are two good places to start.

And the wedding guest's a sad and wiser man.

UPDATE: Thanks Instapundit for the link. And the optimism:
Fascism is forever descending upon the United States, but somehow it always lands on Europe.
Please see another immigrant's view of America at Left Coast Rebel's related post on Thomas Peterffy, and check out our San Diego Tea Party blogger friends the SLOBs.

19 comments:

K T Cat said...

I loved that song back in my youth. I even saw them live on their Powerslave tour.

So where had the guy lived under a dictatorship?

Zeke said...

During my flight training in Santa Monica, a boisterous Englishman walked up and, out of the blue, started quizzing me about oxygen requirements.

"Who was that guy?" I asked my instructor.

"That's Bruce Dickenson. He used to sing for Iron Maiden."

Wcv said...

It was somewhere in Africa. I forget where exactly.

Minicapt said...

Try Zimbabwe, probably during the late 1980s.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

...begin planning your escape

No way. Gonna stand and fight.

K T Cat said...

Instanche! Congratulations!

Doo Doo Econ said...

Well done!

Billy Beck said...

This:

"Maybe we put an end to this on November 6."

...is delusional. The economic imperatives outweigh all political opportunities, now. Mark my words: we will not vote our way out of this.

Anonymous said...

I don't want to miss it if the SHTF in America. This is my country, there are more of us than of them, and they are lazy incohesive cowards anyway. Don't worry there are many many good people here, you just dont see them on TV much.

Rich Vail said...

What anonymous said...this is my country, and I served in the USMC, though many moons ago. I haven't forgotten what I learned way back when...

Seerak said...

No point in running; we're fresh out of new worlds to flee to.

The line is here. I came here from Canada for that exact reason. If I ever go back, it sure as hell won't be because I think it's any *safer* up there; it will be because I think it's over, so I might as well be with family.

But not yet. Not yet.

Seadragonconquerer said...

So Cassandra went back to Australia? Where the Gubmint has the White folks disarmed down to single-shot hunting rifles? No thanks. I'll stay in the 'kwa. Keep my M1a. And shoot for the face when they come for it.

Anonymous said...

Mr Varones

Dear Sir

I would recommend to you the DIM Hypotheis - a book by Leonard Peikoff - which attempts an explanation of what is happening to the West

al fin said...

Guns. Lots of guns.

Anonymous said...

As others have said. I'm not going anywhere. This is our country. I'm going to fight for it.

This is the end of the line as someone else said. Mark Steyn says it as well. There are no other places to go for this mix of freedom.

I haven't lived in a dictatorship, but I've visited them in my youth and it was so eye-opening I've been grateful to have won the cosmic lottery ever since.

wizardpc said...

I seem to remember hearing this exact story in 2004 with the imminent re-election of Bush.

Anonymous said...

well done.

link forthcoming.

Slam63 said...

@Rich Vail.

This Gun Bunny is ready to hop.

Cocking the cannons, laying the sights.

Unknown said...

I agree. This has been my country for 81 years. My parents are buried here. I spent 25 years of my life defending it against foreign tyranny. I will not willingly see it succumb to domestic tyranny. I'm not going anywhere. I'll fight here if it comes to that.

Happy Super Tuesday!