Bruins fuck yeah!

The deterioration of America is our own damn fault

American politics in action

Never in my adult life have I felt so detached and indifferent with respect to American politics. I have always regarded it as a twisted sideshow, unfit for consumption by decent folk. But consume I have. For years I have watched and analyzed this ongoing train-wreck, first out of the hope that someday I could help play a small role in stopping it; then with the understanding that though I could not stop it, I would at least be able to comprehend it; and then finally, having realized that it is neither stoppable, nor comprehensible, I followed politics merely for my own morbid amusement.

I no longer glean much amusement from political diversions. Much hoopla has been made recently about a congressman sending photos of his penis over the internet. In two weeks, the media has spent more time on this “story” than it has explaining how and why the financial system collapsed in last two plus years. Our political debates, such as the one in New Hampshire last night, are nothing more than personality contests stripped of all substance and laden with clever one-liners that pundits use as some sort of standard of political excellence.

And maybe they are. Americans can rarely fix their attention on anything that lasts longer than seven seconds. During the debate Ron Paul no doubt left most people scratching their heads when he blundered by discussing monetary policy. Apparently he doesn’t watch much cable news; otherwise he would know that there is just no place on television for that sort of topic. Much as Americans are concerned about the economy—as they should be—they don’t care to listen or know much about it. The average American’s knowledge of economics is so shockingly deficient that it is no wonder the richest of the rich have been able to plunder middle class wealth for the past few decades. Tea Party types are right to protest wealth redistribution, but they do not seem to understand that the redistribution is upward, not downward to minorities and illegal immigrants as many of them seem to think.

There is a contingent of libertarians and survivalists who keep warning of a malevolent authoritarianism coming to America, and that the people will be ruled over by an iron fist of the kind seen in Third World countries run by military juntas. But this admonition makes a sketchy assumption—namely that Americans would care about, and fight back against, such a development. After all, a true, active dictatorship would only be necessary in America if the citizens push back against the current passive dictatorship, which is run by Wall Street oligarchs and their enablers in Washington. And yet, the populace seems so sufficiently passive, that there is no need to institute a true autocracy complete with the abolition of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. (No doubt rights have been curtailed courtesy of the “war on terror,” but what I am referring to is the outright erasure of the Constitution by official government fiat.)

Herein is an alarming prospect, captured well in a famous comic strip about the differences between literary prophets George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. That strip reads in part:

“What Orwell feared was those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who would want to read one…

“As Huxley remarked in ‘Brave New World Revisited’ the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny ‘failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.’”

In a nation where a show called “Extreme Couponing” can exist, one must wonder how much longer the culture can be viable before it turns into a society of total serfs—a gigantic idiocracy too stupid and ignorant to operate at a functioning level. It is a sad state of affairs when one of the more popular shows on television is all about fat people working out. Reality television, once criticized for being unrealistic, has with time lived up to its billing. Programs with odd premises such as Survivor have been drowned out by shows about parking enforcers, mall security cops, exterminators, pawn shop owners, and home fixer uppers. One would think Americans already have enough contact with such people, that it would be entirely unnecessary and even idiotic to air shows about such mundane everyday activities. Obviously, one would be wrong.

- Max