man & nature # 36 ~ not voting is an intensely political act
Monday, September 8, 2008 at 10:45AM 
A spot of muted sunlight • click to embiggenI am basically apolitical in the sense that I agree with what Gore Vidal had to say about our democracy:
Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.
I am also apolitical because, speaking of presidential elections, and this year's event is a prime example, those elections are little more than (again, Gore Vidal) a quadrennial bacchanal of the cult of personality.
That said, in light of the current state of our republic, it is difficult to ignore the ridiculous political circus that is currently unfolding before us. And a wonderful 3-ring circus it is. In Ring One, we have the Obama Circus. In Ring Two, the McCain Circus. And, not to be overlooked, in Ring Three, we have the Media Circus.
All of these performers and clowns are working their butts off to keep the wishful thinking spectators in the bleachers entertained as they wait to see if their Presidential Personality Sweepstakes Ticket pays off.
This year's ubiquitous delusional theme, AKA - song and dance, is "Change" and both the Right and the Left are trying to sell their own particular version of it. However, both versions seem to revolve around the same vague promise of a return to the glory days of the Great American Dream / Promise / Pre-eminence. Unfortunately (for the spectators), none of the 3 Circus' are addressing the actual facts on the ground which pretty much preclude any "return" (we can't return to anything, we can only move forward) to "glory".
The essential fact on the ground in this American culture is elemental - we are no longer a nation with any sense of shared purpose. Thanks to a relentless campaign on the part of Corporate America, we are motley crew of self-servicing "individuals" working like industrious little beavers to build and pad our individual nests. Our only common goal is personal prosperity, wherein the ends justify the "free-marketplace" means.
What I don't understand about the "spectators" in this Circus is that they seem to be totally blind to the results of this paradigm - the inequity in the distribution of income and the distribution of wealth:
bq.... The wealthiest 1 percent of families owns roughly 34.3% of the nation's net worth, the top 10% of families owns over 71%, and the bottom 40% of the population owns way less than 1% - from, Survey of Consumer Finances, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board.
The share of national income going to wages is at the lowest level ever recorded, while the piece of the pie gobbled up by corporate profits is at its highest point since 1960 ... despite several periods of healthy growth between 1973 and 2005, the average income of all but the top 10 percent of the income ladder -- nine out of ten American families -- fell by 11 percent when adjusted for inflation ... the top .01 percent ... has grabbed most of the gains, seeing an impressive 250 percent increase in income between 1973 and 2005 ...
But, then again, it's not that hard to understand:
The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return ... and ... The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent ~ both from Gore Vidal.
What's all this have to do with a photography blog? Well, in truth, not much but I did get sent down this path when I found this quote on a photography quote site:
We have got the fruit of creation now, and need not trouble ourselves with the core. Every conceivable object of Nature and Art will soon scale off its surface for us. Men will hunt all curious, beautiful, grand objects, as they hunt the cattle in South America, for their skins, and leave the carcasses as of little worth. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
Reader Comments (7)
No commments, must be a political thing.....all I can say is, "Is this the best we can do America?"
While the urge to not vote as protest against the inequalities that we all suffer is alluring, what options have we? The differences in the political parties that dominate the current process are obvious enough to those that can see behind the sad state of money driven populism. One party has consistently shown a disregard for the the land and it's inhabitants. The other shows a willingness to pay attention to the dangerous path of unlimited growth on a finite planet and act accordingly. Asking Americans to sacrifice what has become a gross taking of resources for short term material pleasure is not going to win any votes yet we allow the debate to be centered solely on human progress as if we were separate from everything around us. In my mind it is the connectedness that we have lost. The hard part in this whole process is putting aside our arrogance as inhabitants here and move forward in our personal actions and our political actions without letting the current state of affairs dissuade us from a forming a more perfect union. We who feel deeply about these things have an obligation to chose. Vote for all things that we hold dear and vote for the future well-being of all things.
Seeing your use and--I believe--misuse of economic numbers reminds me of Disraeli's 'lies, damned lies, and statistics' quote.
from your post:
"the average income of all but the top 10 percent of the income ladder -- nine out of ten American families -- fell by 11 percent when adjusted for inflation"
The size of American households has been shrinking for decades now, hence the shrinkage of 'family' income. Average real income for individuals has risen radically in that time.
I think the free-market debate should long ago have been put to bed (it creates the most prosperity for the most people, including those low on the income ladder). But if we must debate its merits, let's do it with legitimate statistics.
Also, you state that your are basically 'apolitical' yet you quote Gore Vidal (more than once) and nobody else. Vidal is a hard-core leftist, anything but apolitical. Quoting him in this way is certainly not an 'apolitical' act.
You no longer live in a Republic. What you have there is a Corporate Fascist Police State. Enjoy. Or arm yourself and get on with the next Revolution.
Presidential elections are no longer a contest between candidates but rather a lobby vs the people type of election (gun lobby, insurance lobby, anti-abortion lobby, carbon lobby, religious lobby, etc). In the end, the lobbys always win.
Free market? Did someone say free market? In the USA? That's a good one.
1- Markets are controlled by oligarchs: they are no longer free.
2-American agriculture is still heavily subsidized.
3- And when the market go bankrupts who pays? The industry or the goverment? Who's going to bail out Fanny May and Freddie Mack? The industry or the goverment? Who bailed out the Saving and Loans Institutions when it was near bankrupted? The industry or the goverment?
Carlin should have run for president while he was alive.
"Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. 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. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. F*ck Hope."
I found an interesting article on the Edge.
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html
Written by psychology professor Jonathan Haidt
Titled why people vote republican. Also I found the response by Sam Harris interesting.