man & nature # 45 ~ the big delusion / count # 2 - see entry below for count # 1
Monday, September 29, 2008 at 10:08AM 
One of the many reasons I live here • click to embiggenThe current conventional political wisdom in good 'ole US of A is that we need "change". One candidate won the primary based on that "platform". The other co-opted it later (because he's a genuine I vote with my friends 95% of the time "maverick").
Whatever the merits - personal and/or political - of these self-adopted agent-of-change labels may be, they both primarily revolve of around the same mass delusional notion that "change" needs to made in Washington, DC. That the "problem" resides there and with them. That the "problem" is a top-down one. That it resided outside of the collective self, AKA, the American people, themselves.
I completely disagree.
It's been said many times and in many ways before, but let me quote one of my favorites by Timbuk 3:
Assholes get elected because assholes get to vote.
Or, this from George Carlin:
Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders.
And don't forget the time-worn classic:
The American public gets exactly the government that they deserve.
It's really as simple as that. Our government and its attendant politicians are nothing more or less than a reflection of who we are as a people. Or, at least, who we are as a people as determined by those who vote.
And, on the whole, we are a selfish lot. Especially so since the Reagan Revolution wherein a majority of us were sold the bill of goods that "government is not the solution, government is the problem". That it is the government that stands in the way of us getting whatever we want, when we want it, and in employing whatever manner we choose to get it.
There are 2 key delusional flaws in that idea:
1). You just can't have whatever you want without consequences of some kind.
2). And, more importantly, it is our government that binds us all together. It is the glue that holds it all together. Without it, we have anarchy.
In a culture and society as large and diverse as ours, it is the government's responsibility to regulate, and, yes, dare I say it, control competing private interests which, left unchecked, would have the power to tear our country apart. And, it is the responsibility of citizens to engage in non-rancorous conversation and debate about what to and how to regulate and control.
That said, who the American public has been electing over the past 3-4 decades are representatives - left, right, Democrat and Republican - who believe (or are afraid to stand up to those who believe) that we should just deregulate everything and let the "invisible hand" of the market make all our decisions for us.
Why do that? Why not? We have been told, again and again, that the market is the best place to get whatever we want, whenever we want it, and at a price we can afford. And the key word employed in that notion is the one that labels us as "consumers".
That label has become the operative imperative in our society and culture - terrorists attack our country? A big part of the suggested solution is to go out and spend. The consumer economy is on a tailspin? A big part of the suggested solution is to go out and spend. Don't have enough money to go and spend? No worry, the taxpayers will just give you some. Just get out there and be patriotic consumers. Forget about "traditional values" like actually saving money. No. Not that. Just accept that fact that consumer debt is the natural order of things.
Why is it that no one in the electorate ever seems to notice that our elected leaders, corporate heads, and the economic academia, never talk about us as workers? Could I be that that conversation might lead us to the realization that we, the people, are more than just consumers. That in order to get what we want, when we want it, at a price we can afford, directly and dramatically effects our lives as workers.
It would be really difficult to figure out how people haven't made that connection except for the fact that we have been conditioned to be ravenous consumers whose desires know no bounds and that the frenzied state of satiating these unbridled desires keeps our minds off of the fact that there are real and serious consequences to our lives and our society from this selfish, self-centered avarice.
Wake up people and shed the big delusion - the problem isn't "them", it is "us".
My despair with the current offerings from the political class is that none of them are willing (and most likely not even able) to give us the bad news - that the "change" we so desperately need must come from the bottom, up - although that idea doesn't negate the influence that a "real" (truthful) leader can provide in shaping that approach. That we, John & Sally Q. Public, need to look in the mirror and recognize the grotesque caricature of a human being as a "consumer" that so many of us have become.
The point is rather simple really - if we are selfish and self-centered then there will be a never-ending stream of self-serving and greedy politicians and captains of industry standing ready to assume the mantle of "leadership". All the while assuring us that they stand ready to give us what we want when, in fact, it's really all about what they want (hint: power and money).
Reader Comments (10)
The Bush administration's legacy is a weakening the US of A as a world power. The "C" average student has been a dismal failure and if it hadn't been for 9/11, he would have been laughed out of office a long time ago.
Constitutional rights were thrown away in the wake of 9/11. Great way to govern a democracy.
The USA is no longer top dog in South America. The only reliable friend the US has down there is drug ridden Columbia. Just last week Venezuela entered into a deal with Russia for state of the art combat airplanes with China being busy building infrastructures all over South America. Argentina nearly went brankrupt with the Chigago School of Economics folly. Brazil is trowing its weight around the continent and the US has lost the dictator states of Peru and Chili.
The US has entered a stalemate in Irak, with moral in the army at an all-time low. Many soldiers have been told by their superiors that their contracts have been extented to the year 2030! Soldiers who accept bonuses for fighting in Irak and eventually loose a limb are under obligation of re-embursing theirs bonuses. That's no way to treat any army.
Afganistan: The US is sending more troops into that country as the Talibans are showing strength and boldness in engaging NATO troops.
Africa: The Chinese are there also building infrastructures that the US can no longer afford.
Thanks to Ms Rice, Russia has been named the greatest threat the USA faces. Russia's response was an invasion of Georgia. Russia is said to be pulling back, but is keeping South Ossetia and Abkhazia. There's also a little of Kosovo behind the invasion of Georgia.
And if that wasn't enough, there's the ungoing meltdown of the debt-dependent U.S. financial system. Here's how one analyst sees it: "Like a wave of locusts, credit related cockroaches overran the system in September, bashing markets and prompting [Treasury
Secretary Henry] Paulson to abandon his one-tree-at-a-time forest fire
fighting technique for a nuclear plan that will forever change Wall Street as we know it." (Ian McAvity's Deliberations on World Markets.)
For this mess, you can thank GWB and his band of right wing neo-conservatives.
Mark, I really admire you for wading into this morass and entertaining all the comments. For me, you are preaching to the choir.
All the best.
I've been called funny, witty, interesting, weird, even smart.
Someone people might like to have a beer with.
I was, earlier today, sitting in a bar while CNN was broadcasting the democratic leadership after the bailout bill went down in the House.
This started a conversation amongst the four people sitting there.
The usual bullet points and talking points flew. Left and right.
But they agreed that the "Government" was the problem. "You know how they are. They, Blah, Blah, Blah…" One patron blurts out. "Yeah. You can't trussem. Blah, Blah, Blah" from the other side of the bar.
The bartender, one of those people who believe that I'm smart, says to me "You'd do better than those people. Wouldn't ya?"
"HELL NO!" I said. "I don't know a damn thing about finance. But… I'll have a beer with you."
Try this on for size. Our financial crisis is just another step in the creation of the North American Union to take place 2010. This is a deliberate attempt to devaluate our dollar. They cannot make us use the Amero if our Dollars still have value.
Don’t believe it’s coming. Here is our government’s website. http://www.spp.gov/
Here is Ron Paul, maybe, not such a nut after all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBVB1Uc0nko
Oh, and who is for it. Bush, McCain & Obama. Obama and the democrates are responsible for the crisis. I know you guys don’t want me to slam your savior, but don’t take it from me. Here are some youtube videos from 2004 – 2005 recorded by CSPAN.
2004 –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvG-s_Ssb0
2005 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvG-s_Ssb0
Is it not already too late if one waits until one is thirsty to begin digging a well? -Chinese Proverb
Forgot this link. More proof the democrats are to blame not the republicans. NEW YORK TIMES 1999
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&scp=1&sq=september%201999%20fannie%20mae&st=cse
I will be vindicated. Thing are just now coming to light.
Who was in control of congress in 2004 and 2005?
Sen. Obama got a lot of money from Fannie EMPLOYEES.
Did Sen. McCain? Watch this video from a NEWS network.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5oN3spj8rY
Gee Ron, it must be nice to live in a world that's so delightfully simple, where everything is black or white or either / or. The world has only two sides - "us" and "them". What a treat it must be to live in such a place, where there's right and there's wrong, with absolutely no subtlety and no nuance. Everything fits nicely into one of two buckets.
Hey, I have an idea! Let's start a new political party! We'll call it the "Clueless Coalition". You could be the presidential candidate and, if she's available, Ms Mooseburger could be your running mate. You'd be perfect for each other since you both speak the same language - Gibberish.
Jimmi, the 2004 - 2005 congress was controlled by a bunch of dumb ass, greedy, power hungry republicans. Now is controlled by bunch of dumb ass, greedy, power hungry democrats. However there were a few republicans who tried to warn us and wanted to fix the problem. The only democrats I saw were defending Fanny.
As for the NEWS networks. There aint no such thing. I can go to Fox and hear something different. At least they tell me on the front end they are conservative.
If the money came from the employees only proves he was one of the family as shown in my video. For christ sake who is his finance advisor? Who is he going to turn to for financial advise? Franklin Rains, the very man to ran Freddy in the ground.
Gee Paul, it seems you live in a smaller world than I. Your world has only one side "US". However you still need two buckets. One for subtlety and nuance and one for your kool-aid. You should dump the kool-aid and get some common sense.
Ron - "North American Union"?!? Are you actually suggesting that Canada would join up with the U.S.?!? You must be on some very powerful medications. It's scary enough just living next door, thanks very much.