Hope
A recent corrrespondence with a longtime friend, concerning the plight of "The Hammer", Rep. Tom DeLay, (may his rotten political soul rest in peace), was a stimulus of sorts.
He wrote:
By now, you have already heard the news. And by now, the Republican slime machine is already in action. Soon, we will be hearing the old "high tech lynching" charge. Of course, never mind that a grand jury--not just one person--indicted DeLay. Are they all in on the "conspiracy?"
I also find it ironic that the Republicans are reminding everyone about "presumed innocence." Too bad that all of that does not apply to those fellows down at Gitmo.
I responded:
How sweet it is. To think that DeLay would be indicted in Texas, of all places. Texas, where elections are as legitimate as Friday night bingo; where election law consists of a wink and a smile; where LBJ cut his politically corrupt teeth, (and don't forget his equally ambitious protege Bobby Baker).
I'm beginning to think that this system of ours is beyond repair. The intoxicating smell of money seems to have overwhelming aphrodisiac effect on anyone who heads to Washington D.C., which leads to an intense desire to screw us all.
DeLay, Frist, Cunningham. Three amigos. Fox News will be going to the mattresses.
His response:
Capitalism is the reason for the "intoxicating smell of money . . . . " But I still believe in our constitutional principles. Unfortunately, too many of the power brokers never live up to their patriotic blather. Indeed,
historically speaking, they often never do. This morning I told my class that pledging allegiance to a flag is meaningless. We should pledge allegiance to the constitution. Those who were still awake seemed to agree. Maybe there still is hope.
I responded:
I wouldn't blame capitalism solely for the woes of the current system. I think that greed, self-interest and tribalism are built into the human "reptilian " brain, (to borrow Carl Sagan's term), and fester and spread like a cancer throughout the most noble of ideals. It seems, sadly, that on this planet, at this time, (time being the scope of human history, past present and future), the wants and needs of the rich and powerful few, (and those with ambitions to wealth and power), will always outweigh those of the many. In this age of mass media, I fear that the powerful few have finally acquired the means with which to control the many through fear, deception and mass cultural sedation.
Ours is probably the most highly entertained and least informed society on earth, and the disparity between fantasy and reality increases exponentially by the day. We are an insulated and spoiled people who live in a delusional theater of the absurd: the darkened home theater of sitcoms, "reality" TV, and corporately manufactured "news", bound, gagged, and blindfolded by a lethal combination of misguided nationalism, organized religion and concentrated wealth; where "style" (or an increasing lack thereof), outweighs substance; where language is manipulated to confuse, and ultimately, obliterate truth.
With the advent of the post WWII national security state we have become an alarmingly dysfunctional family that refuses to recognize the madness that churns around us. Instead we continue to revel in past glories (real and imagined), and succumb to slick slogans and carefully contrived sound bites.
Meanwhile, the national attention span gets shorter and shorter, unable to sustain an interest in anything but a skillfully edited moving image on a flickering screen. The medium has, indeed, become the message, and the message is, in its subliminal totality, more and more a hypnotic suggestion.
Hope? If the mid-term elections in 2006 return a vote of confidence to the staus quo, to the hard right Republican Party-- to "staying the course" in Iraq; to an arrogant "with us or against us" foreign policy; to crushing national debt; to cronyism and corruption; to an increasing disparity between the haves and the have-nots; to favoring religion and superstition over science; to gutting a generation of environmental safeguards; to a return to the McKinley era--then I think hope will be in short supply among most of us political southpaws.
George W. Bush, a category 5 historical disaster, hovers at an anemic forty percent in the polls, which, in light of the events of the last week is remarkable. His second term has already been proclaimed DOA by many in the media who spout the conventional wisdom.
I'm not so confident.
With these poll numbers Bush is just a terror alert, (or anything with the "terror" association), away from getting a bump back to fifty. A little relief in gas prices, a "red" alert or two, and the "base", (the "haves and the have mores"), will circle around the hapless commander-in-chief and commence with a full court press upon the clueless Democrats. Fox News will go into twenty-four hour "news alert" status; the shouting heads on cable and radio will reguritate the RNC talking points and proceed to define the debate, as they have for the past thirty years.
Hopeful? In my middle age I've become less and less so. I find it hard to believe that we're still debating drugs, homosexuality, school prayer, the "Pledge of Allegiance", and abortion, among other "hot button" issues. But you can bet they'll surface again, in white-hot relief, next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. The needs of the many thus forfeited, in perpetuity, for the marginalizing of the few.
Hopeful? I'm always hopeful. But I bet against the Yankees last year when they were up 3-0 on Boston. And I'm a Yankee fan.
He wrote:
By now, you have already heard the news. And by now, the Republican slime machine is already in action. Soon, we will be hearing the old "high tech lynching" charge. Of course, never mind that a grand jury--not just one person--indicted DeLay. Are they all in on the "conspiracy?"
I also find it ironic that the Republicans are reminding everyone about "presumed innocence." Too bad that all of that does not apply to those fellows down at Gitmo.
I responded:
How sweet it is. To think that DeLay would be indicted in Texas, of all places. Texas, where elections are as legitimate as Friday night bingo; where election law consists of a wink and a smile; where LBJ cut his politically corrupt teeth, (and don't forget his equally ambitious protege Bobby Baker).
I'm beginning to think that this system of ours is beyond repair. The intoxicating smell of money seems to have overwhelming aphrodisiac effect on anyone who heads to Washington D.C., which leads to an intense desire to screw us all.
DeLay, Frist, Cunningham. Three amigos. Fox News will be going to the mattresses.
His response:
Capitalism is the reason for the "intoxicating smell of money . . . . " But I still believe in our constitutional principles. Unfortunately, too many of the power brokers never live up to their patriotic blather. Indeed,
historically speaking, they often never do. This morning I told my class that pledging allegiance to a flag is meaningless. We should pledge allegiance to the constitution. Those who were still awake seemed to agree. Maybe there still is hope.
I responded:
I wouldn't blame capitalism solely for the woes of the current system. I think that greed, self-interest and tribalism are built into the human "reptilian " brain, (to borrow Carl Sagan's term), and fester and spread like a cancer throughout the most noble of ideals. It seems, sadly, that on this planet, at this time, (time being the scope of human history, past present and future), the wants and needs of the rich and powerful few, (and those with ambitions to wealth and power), will always outweigh those of the many. In this age of mass media, I fear that the powerful few have finally acquired the means with which to control the many through fear, deception and mass cultural sedation.
Ours is probably the most highly entertained and least informed society on earth, and the disparity between fantasy and reality increases exponentially by the day. We are an insulated and spoiled people who live in a delusional theater of the absurd: the darkened home theater of sitcoms, "reality" TV, and corporately manufactured "news", bound, gagged, and blindfolded by a lethal combination of misguided nationalism, organized religion and concentrated wealth; where "style" (or an increasing lack thereof), outweighs substance; where language is manipulated to confuse, and ultimately, obliterate truth.
With the advent of the post WWII national security state we have become an alarmingly dysfunctional family that refuses to recognize the madness that churns around us. Instead we continue to revel in past glories (real and imagined), and succumb to slick slogans and carefully contrived sound bites.
Meanwhile, the national attention span gets shorter and shorter, unable to sustain an interest in anything but a skillfully edited moving image on a flickering screen. The medium has, indeed, become the message, and the message is, in its subliminal totality, more and more a hypnotic suggestion.
Hope? If the mid-term elections in 2006 return a vote of confidence to the staus quo, to the hard right Republican Party-- to "staying the course" in Iraq; to an arrogant "with us or against us" foreign policy; to crushing national debt; to cronyism and corruption; to an increasing disparity between the haves and the have-nots; to favoring religion and superstition over science; to gutting a generation of environmental safeguards; to a return to the McKinley era--then I think hope will be in short supply among most of us political southpaws.
George W. Bush, a category 5 historical disaster, hovers at an anemic forty percent in the polls, which, in light of the events of the last week is remarkable. His second term has already been proclaimed DOA by many in the media who spout the conventional wisdom.
I'm not so confident.
With these poll numbers Bush is just a terror alert, (or anything with the "terror" association), away from getting a bump back to fifty. A little relief in gas prices, a "red" alert or two, and the "base", (the "haves and the have mores"), will circle around the hapless commander-in-chief and commence with a full court press upon the clueless Democrats. Fox News will go into twenty-four hour "news alert" status; the shouting heads on cable and radio will reguritate the RNC talking points and proceed to define the debate, as they have for the past thirty years.
Hopeful? In my middle age I've become less and less so. I find it hard to believe that we're still debating drugs, homosexuality, school prayer, the "Pledge of Allegiance", and abortion, among other "hot button" issues. But you can bet they'll surface again, in white-hot relief, next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. The needs of the many thus forfeited, in perpetuity, for the marginalizing of the few.
Hopeful? I'm always hopeful. But I bet against the Yankees last year when they were up 3-0 on Boston. And I'm a Yankee fan.
posted by jvmuss at 7:49 PM
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