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"Selfish, Ignorant Citizens Make For Selfish, Ignorant Politicians"
George Carlin explains why he doesn't complain about politicians... "this is all we have to offer, garbage in, garbage out" Maybe, he chides, it's not the politicians, "the public sucks, f#$k hope!"
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Yep, you get the government you deserve with democracy. No shocker here in the US.
As Emma Goldman said: “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” And in fact they have, at least insofar as the vote upon which all others depends — self-determination, aka secession — is concerned.
As for democracy (which the founders decried), it’s a red herring, for without the protection of individual rights — and we have lost most of ours — democracy is just mob rule. Or as Ben Franklin put it, “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic," meaning that ours ended decades ago, if not as far back as the forced union that we have existed under since the end of the Civil War. Have we not, for over a century, pledged allegiance to an “indivisible” nation that was founded on the exact opposite principle? Yet how many Americans today are aware of this fact and wouldn't scoff at the notion that it should be otherwise? Sadly, if America isn’t dead, the American ideal certainly is, the country’s descent into kleptocratic crony capitalism making a mockery of everything it once stood for. And as our fraudulent money and banking system lurches toward collapse — all the faster, as the tiny few who profit from it do all in their power to prop it up at our expense — a dumbed-down, docile, and dependent “citizenry” returns, lemming-like, to the polls to assure, once again, that nothing changes but the names of their keepers.When the Luciferian-Jesuits infested this globe all this illusion of "Left/Right" - "Communism/Freedom" marionette stage production only changes the marionette characters but the puppeteers are still pulling the strings.
Down votes??? Are you serious!?!
BTW... WAKE UP!!!! Take your stupid blinders off for God's sake!
If the population sucks then why doesn't Obama just import a new population from Mexico?
Oh wait....
...I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administered; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years, and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.~~~ Benjamin Franklin's Final Speech - 17 September 1787
"Sending in good people to reform the state is like sending in virgins to reform the whorehouse." — Alber Jay Nock
http://www.barefootsworld.net/nockoets0.html
http://www.barefootsworld.net/admiralty.html
a little more from the one with no shoes...
Sadly, if America isn’t dead, the American ideal certainly is, the country’s descent into kleptocratic crony capitalism making a mockery of everything it once stood for.
At its inception US&A stood for both individual liberty and the right to own slaves. Those contradictions continue to the present day in various forms - America has always stood simultaneously for many competing modes of thought / interests.
Granted, the US was from its founding a contradiction in terms, but the federal government was generally so unintrusive that the average citizen barealy had any contact with it, and the nation grew organically as a result. There is thus no comparing it with the welfare/warfare/police/surveillance/regulatory/predatory/crony-capitalist state that the US has become.
There is thus no comparing it with the welfare/warfare/police/surveillance/regulatory/predatory/crony-capitalist state that the US has become.
Yeah, it's actually been much worse at various times in the past.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2012-06-14/in-1868-a-wild-fraud-to...
Well, that was 150 years ago. I'm confident that 150 years from now, when the history of the early 21st century has been written, the scale and scope of the corruption will be found to be suitably breathtaking.
I wonder Carlin would have had to say about Iowa Senator-elect Joni Ernst's work on the farm castrating hogs.
f#$k hope!"
Has he not read the Noble Prize Winner's "The Audacity of Hope?"
That is all about reclaiming the American Dream and the Noble Prize Winner has done so much for that.
"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it." Carlin
"Selfish" usually means that people will vote for those they perceive as most beneficial in keeping their jobs. Doesn't matter if it's government, inefficient industry, or something else.
It may also be "rational" because I suspect many here believe (correctly, I think) that many will be hurt by changes, necessary or not.
Brav-FUCKING-O
"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."
- George Carlin
Bright honest people with a conscience don't run for political office because they realize it is a garbage bin of sophistry, equivocation, and mendacity.
If I wanted to be a professional liar I would have been a lawyer.
It is no coincidence that most politicians are lawyers.
An astute and accurate observation.
Yep I agree whole heartedly.
http://www.millionmaskmarch.com/map
IMO, Carlin was right. We Americans are generally physically and intellectually soft, sheltered, and stupid. That is how we wind up hiring, even re-hiring, guys like Obama, who is, quite simply and obviously, a loser. We will continue to get what we deserve.
So explain why the rest of the world is vastly more fucked up than the United States.
US keeps dropping bombs all over it?
According to the best surveys out there, US is down at between 16th and 25th on the list of decent countries to live in, depending on how they weigh the various qualities. Norway and Singapore are at the top. So not quite all countries are more fucked up.
Golly a "survey". Oh wait the "best surveys". LMAO.
I'd be more convinced if you could drop a "study", or a "paper". or maybe a "consensus opinion" on us.
Guess it depends on the definition of 'fucked up', be it gun crime, privacy invasion, drug addiction, imperialist aggression, incarceration, police brutality, debt, obesity, water fluouridation, divorce rates, punctuation and grammar, unicorns or what have you. Probably needs to be more specific.
we export our suckiness?
if they counted the suckiness, we'd have a trade surplus?
years of doing things right put us a little ahead of the rest of the world
L Frank Baum explains it well in his political parable, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
As much as I love and appreciate George (RIP) he unfortunately forgets to mention that the last decent American President (politician) had his brains blown out in broad daylight in Texas.
Another decent politican who ran for President Ron Paul was repeatedly robbed of votes and railroaded into political oblivion.
Is it the "shit" people who vote or is "fucktards" who are gaming the whole system fault?...
It's because power corrupts and very few people are able to resist the money and influence that comes with high office. Over time power continues to consolidate and grab more of a stranglehold on people's everyday lives.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/ch4_06.htm
Bingo Hammer the last decent American President (politician) had his brains blown out in broad daylight in Texas.
----
There hasn't been a decent American President since George Washington. George didn't want to live in the capital city and didn't even want to be President.
Eisenhower warned us.
He commanded the largest -and by far the most lethal- combined military force the world has seen before or since, and at certain points in the white heat of WW2 could probably have given whatever commands he felt like and been assured of them being stringently followed.
Eisenhower also strongly dissagreed with dropping The Bomb on Japan and and was over-ruled by a President that never saw battle or walked amongst the trenches and fields covered in the dead of both sides as did Ike...
It wasn't that long ago...
"The US Mint has just issued an alert to Primary Dealers across the US that Silver Eagle inventories, which according to the Mint began today at over 2 million ounces, are now SOLD OUT as of 12:30pm EST."
"Silver Doctors broke the story: Silver Doctors – Mint cleaned out of silver eagles in 2 hours. I have confirmed this report with A-mark, who is one of the mint’s authorized primary dealers."
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/
and your sister made $1T last month working from home?
George fucking Carlin. Love this man.
Carlin was smart enough to realize and point out all the illusions the public lives in. In the end, he knew the best most of us would ever get out of this shit show is a front row seat "the freakshow", his words. Whenever I get too wound up over anything, I just remember to take a step back and realize I have it better than 95% of the world's population. Just sit back and enjoy the show.
If only 50% of voters decide to vote ONLY for independent candidates, things will change immdeiately. Just don't vote for anyone who runs on a DEM or REP ticket, do it once in 2016, see how quickly all elected people will beging to work on the real issues affecting people.
"If only 50% of voters decide to vote ONLY for independent candidates, things will change immediately."
Yeah, more assassinations.
An American, not US subject.
"Yes Senator, please board the remotely piloted plane. You don't want to be late for your destiny, do you?!"
Fellow citizens!
Your collective brainwashability is repulsive!
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1223928
At this point in the shit show, I think that it is evident that even if no one "voted" yesterday, all of the same candidates would have been declared the "victor."
An American, not US subject.
"I personally avoided all festivities on the national Pick a Puppet day."
SINGAPORE/NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - A tumble in silver prices to four-year lows has triggered a global scramble by consumers to purchase silver coins and bars, as the spread between the price of the metal and gold reaches its widest in five years. Retailers and distributors in Asia and the United States said they were struggling to get supplies of items such as Canadian Maple Leaf silver coins. While demand for silver has been strong over the last few months, retailers say buying interest soared in recent days as the metal fell towards its lowest since 2010, along with gold.
Demand for silver coins and bars accounted for more than a fifth of total demand in 2013, according to a report by the Silver Institute. A sustained jump in demand should support silver prices, currently at just over $15 an ounce. The price of silver is currently around 74 times cheaper than gold - the biggest spread since early 2009. Due to its greater afford ability, silver sales tend to outstrip gold in volume terms and attract a lot more retail buyers. "Supply of silver from some mints has been delayed," said Brian Lan, managing director of Singapore-based retailer GoldSilver Central.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/05/silver-demand-idUSL4N0SV2GP201...
"Precious metal dealers in Germany have literally been run down after the latest slump in gold and silver. Wholesalers already expect deferred deliveries. The latest plunge in gold and silver late last week has led to a sharp increase in demand by German precious metals investors, which also continued on Saturday. There was a particularly strong demand for silver coins. “On Thursday and Friday people had to draw numbers in order for us to control the run”, reports Andreas Heubach, CEO of Heubach Edelmetalle in Nuremberg. “On both days we sold each around 40,000 silver ounces – incredible”, he said. “Demand is back – and hysteria as well”, he evaluated.
Tremendous Run
“The run is tremendous, even today on a Saturday”, Christian Brenner, CEO of Philoro Edelmetalle GmbH in Leipzig and Berlin reports. Despite the high counter trade level in September, demand has increased by 100 percent, online-trade even soared by 300 percent.
“Run is not the right expression“, says René Lehmann of Münzland in Dresden. “We’ve seen up to 80 percent of our regular customers taking advantage of the slide to build up more positions. On those two days, on Thursday and Friday, we made approximately 50 percent of our monthly revenue”, he reports to Goldreporter. Maple Leaf (1 oz.), 1 kg Lunar and ½ oz. Great White Shark were particularly in demand, since Münzland had a special offer on them. In gold especially 1 oz. Maple Leaf and 1 oz. bars have been purchased. The ratio of buyers to sellers has generally been at 50 to 1.”
http://www.goldreporter.de/german-precious-metal-dealers-report-huge-run...
R.I.P George Carlin. I miss that guy.
I miss George too.
I miss Hunter Thompson, too. A lot.
No writer in my lifetime has disparaged and lambasted politics and politicians as accurately and vehemently as did the dearly departed Doc.
I miss Seinfeld...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyC9bBNnltU
True dat!!!
Now gimme my "free" gubmint stuff...
Followed George's advice.
I Sent $20 to a gun rights lobbying group instead of voting and feel pretty good about myself.
NO JURY SUMMONS FOR ME!
I don't understand at all. Voting is free, so it's not an either or proposition. Likewise being a juror is a serious check upon the elite, in that a jury of peers can acquit for all kinds of stupid reasons. Admittedly these rights have been diminshed from the radical institutions they once were, but they still are rights, and I don't see the benefit of turning them down.
I break it down as a function cost vs time to achieve a result. Figure an hour to go vote. Considering voting is considered a duty it can also be referred to as a job that must get done. A job is about results, not how hard you work: A man can spend all day digging a hole that a backhoe can dig in 2 minutes. I am simply subcontracting out the obligation to achieve the desired result.
I don't like the stress and annoyance of dealing with political theater; the players are scum and it makes me feel dirty trying to empathize with them. I am only interested in the end results that directly affect me; I don't care one bit about the stupid "Vote for my lies game." Contributing to a lobbying group bypasses all the election BS and puts my influence right where I want it no matter who 'wins.'
Get this - Hagan spent $111 Million to get re-elected as a North Carolina US Senator and was derailed by a pizza-delivery guy! You gotta love that.....
Look at the good, I'm sure the $111 million did a lot of good to the employees of newspapers, campaign sign vendors, radio stations, and television stations in NC.
It's never going to get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you've got... because the owners of this country don’t want that. I'm talking about the real owners now... the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you.
Word.
'We the People' usually clamor for easier money. We want debts to be more easily serviced over time. We essentially beg for inflation.
Retirees want HARD money, They want their Egg McMuffin to cost the same tomorrow as it did last year.
Governments walk the line trying to please the most voters. If they make the money too easy they get inflation. If it is too hard they can wind up on the guillotine (the common ending of hard money regimes).
There is a solution to this see saw and it seems the central bankers understand but we are still locked into the $IMF system and we won't see significant changes until the dollar dies.
I disagree.
The vast majority of the public is good. Unfortunately the vast majority of the good are incredibly trusting and ignorant.
There is not doubt that the grease rises to the top because the good do not want dominance over others and certainly the good would not lie, cheat, steal and defraud to get power over others... only the slime does.
I resent that ZH is trying to blame the people for the acts of slime. Give the people as much access to the truth, the real truth, as the lies they are being told and you will see them shine.
people are only as good as their last meal.
let a man or woman or child starve, and you will see what they are. that is the only true litmus test, and i believe those who are truly evil perpetuate the notion that people are either mostly bad, or mostly good.
they are neither. people are mostly ANIMALS. and our pretenses of ethics are ENTIRELY RELATIVE to the survival challenges we face.
if i was in a room locked with you for 3 months an no food.
i would eat you. but hey, that's just me, i must be really an evil bad guy.
Good points Tesla and Not. PS: Who loves liver with fava beans and a nice chianti?
MEAN PEOPLE SUCK
MEAN PEOPLE SUCK
PEOPLE SUCK
The polls are open.
F**k politicians, f**k bankers, f**k facebook, f**k liberals. He is my f**king idol.
Carlin was an unabashed liberal/progressive and would have thought you were brain damaged for your f**k liberals comment-- unless your meant pretend liberals like Obama and the leadership of the demo party who no different than most repugs, exist by deceiving the public, and betray the American people by enabling corporate bankster scum to rape and pillage at will.
Humorous schtick, but not exactly good public policy.
Kinda like ZH.
" it's not the politicians, "the public sucks, f#$k hope!"
The msm doesn't tell the truth because the msm is owned by the banking mafia. The biggest problem is not that the public sucks but that the public trusts the msm (or more accurately trusted past etnse as most of the damage has been done).
congressional approval rating: about 14% last I read
incumbent reelection total: something like 98%
Congress is representative of its constituents. Take Maxine Waters for example, she perfectly represents the people of Inglewood and south LA's FSA.
The American People do not approve of the American Constituency.
We are a self hating bunch, which explains our need to bomb the shit out of everyone else, because, you know, shit.
And the banking elite play off of this disfunction.
Asian dawn?
"this is all we have to offer, garbage in, garbage out"
Yep, he is right..after the dumbass got booted out, here come the retard!!
Sometimes the good citizens do arouse themselves
See
https://www.academia.edu/6047250/Cowabunga_
Or maybe another 7000 years . Whatever
https://www.academia.edu/9140381/An_End_to_7000_years_of_war_._Orkney_Wi...
The solution to our problems is real simple: Flush the Progressives out of gov't, and down the toilet. Corollary: Fart and urinate on every OWS idiot you meet, and make anybody who claims to be libertarian prove their creds.
Conservatives elected to the Senate, House, Governorships, and state legislatures (My God, Dems lost the supermajority in Cal, for God's sake) will do just that. Capitalism of the non-crony kind and free markets of the free kind are not magic, or course, but work as if they are.
‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers,
And the sentence by the word of the holy ones,
In order that the living may know
That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men,
Gives it to whomever He will,
And sets over it the lowest of men.’ ~ Dan. 4:17
Although I agree that enough of "We the People" have been reduced to Zombie Sheeple, however, that has been deliberately caused by the ruling classes using the methods of organized crime to dominate the political processes, for generation after generation, THE FISH WENT ROTTEN FROM THE HEAD DOWN THROUGH THE TAIL.
There is nothing wrong with the abstract theory of a democratic republic operating through the rule of law. Indeed, that is still the best theory available. However, originally that was supposed to mean that the American money supply was backed by gold and silver, whose value was set by Congress. After the international banksters succeeded in destroying that, then their profits from being able to control the public "money" supply enabled them to more and more control everything else.
People have adapted to live inside of systems of sophisticated social slavery, where agreeing with lies was rewarded, while disagreeing with those lies was punished. The application of those carrots and sticks resulted in politicians that were the banksters' puppets, while the masses of muppets were brainwashed more and more to believe in bullshit by the schools and mass media. Most successful, surviving politicians succumbed to bribery and intimidation, while those who did not were assassinated. Therefore, nobody is worth voting for, since anybody who was worth voting for would end up being discredited or destroyed, if they won elections enough to become a serious threat to the established systems, which are based on triumphant organized crime capturing control over the political process, through the vicious spirals of the funding of politics, especially including funding illegal political activities, like the assassination of politicians.
http://blogs.rollcall.com/beltway-insiders/billionaires-dominate-campaign-spending-crp-reports/?dcz=
Billionaires Dominate Campaign Spending, Analysis Shows
By Eliza Newlin Carney, October 29, 2014.
At this point of time, the American (& globalized) system is suffering from terminally metastasized cancer, since the enforced frauds of the public "money" system have thoroughly infected and afflicted everyone, enough to make any effective treatments more likely to kill the patient faster, rather than heal. The established systems are driving themselves towards their own mad self-destruction. There are no possible reforms within those established systems, due to the real roles of money in the political processes having become triumphant criminal insanities, that dominated the lives of everyone.
The only "solutions" are some "revolutions." However, those are only possible after the madness gets bad enough to destroy itself ... which is such a bad situation that it becomes practically impossible to predict what might emerge from such collapses into chaos ... especially since the destruction of the natural world was actually way worse than the social polarization driven by the social successes of fundamentally fraudulent financial accounting systems capturing privatized control over the public powers of governments.
It is a great tragedy that the democratic republic and its rule of law have already been so destroyed that there is nobody worth voting for, because that is going to continue to get worse, faster, until it results in the fascist police state engaging in democidal martial law. I WISH that there were some ways to fix these problems, however, the situation is analogous to a terminally ill individual, for whom there is no reasonable hope, other than for irrational beliefs in some miracles cures.
Since the real systems have become almost inconceivably corrupt and crazy, in the general population it is much easier to find people who are proud that they do not vote, than to find people who are proud to participate. The vast majority of public have gradually adapted, for generation after generation, to live inside of a political system which was more and more based on triumphant organized crime capturing control over the political processes and all related social institutions. Given that REALITY, which people can do nothing practical to actually change, there is more and more enthusiasm for not voting, rather than for voting.
There are no politically practical ways to promote any politicians who would be worth voting for, since they could not compete with the political puppets promoted by the people who already have the legal power to make the public "money" supply out of nothing as debts. Furthermore, those people, whenever necessary, will act outside of the law to neutralize any serious threats which arose. The public spaces are almost totally dominated by political puppets, including some token controlled opposition, slightly allowed into the "elections," which are primarily the mass media's puppet shows, put on to fool enough of the muppets enough of the time.
There is nothing GOOD about not voting, but rather, as expressed by George Carlin, that attitude is one of resignation to facing the facts that our society is terminally sick and insane, while there are no realistic ways to stop that ...
Wow, lotta new posters today! George Carln is looking down and laughing at anyone who voted yesterday. I don't vote for the same reasons Carlin didn't vote. It's all a fucking sham.
What do you mean, looking down....from where?
Only good thing that happened yesterday; marijuana legalized in Oregon, DC and Alaska!
& With "friends" like this,
who needs any enemies?
State of Oregon Measure 91, 2014,
another neoprohibitionist change:
... the total of homegrown marijuana
at the household does not exceed
four marijuana plants and eight ounces
of usable marijuana at any time ...
A privilege tax is imposed at the rate of:
$35 per ounce on all marijuana flowers ...
Use of marijuana in public place prohibited.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/election-2014-americans-ready-end-war-drugs
Election 2014: Americans Ready to End the War on Drugs
By Jag Davies, November 5, 2014.
"... in a year like this, when young people are so much less likely to vote, which makes these victories all the sweeter ..."
An abundance of social science research has demonstrated that if people do not start voting when they are young, then they more probably will never start voting. In my opinion young people intuitively know that there is nobody worth voting for. The younger (& poorer) you are, the more you are being lied to, cheated and robbed by the political system you were born into, and the less you can do about that in a political system which is dominated by old, rich people.
The "legalization of marijuana" is NOT being done on the basis of more radical hemp truth, but rather being done in neoprohibitionist forms, based on compromises with the old lies. Marijuana is being "legalized" in the worst possible ways, back into the same crazy and corrupt systems that criminalized cannabis to start with. The "legalization of marijuana" is being done in ways which are too little, too late, and too trivial to matter much ... In any case, the deceitful "war on terror" has been drummed up to take the place of the deceitful "war on drugs," and that fraudulent "war on terror" is orders of magnitude worse than the fraudulent "war on drugs."
Too bad Mr. Carlin suffered sudden death shortly after this aired. I forget what his ailment was, a rampaging nail gun maybe?
Malia & Sasha promising local boys the candy if they can make it over the fence, past the dogs & up the stairs is outrageously funny though.
http://www.fredoneverything.net/TACDemocracy.shtml
Plumbing the Depths
How the Gears Turn
March 9, 2008
Common delusions notwithstanding, the United States, I submit, is not a democracy—by which is meant a system in which the will of the people prevails. Rather it is a curious mechanism artfully designed to circumvent the will of the people while appearing to be democratic. Several mechanisms accomplish this.
First, we have two identical parties which, when elected, do very much the same things. Thus the election determines not policy but only the division of spoils. Nothing really changes. The Democrats will never seriously reduce military spending, nor the Republicans, entitlements.
Second, the two parties determine on which questions we are allowed to vote. They simply refuse to engage the questions that matter most to many people. If you are against affirmative action, for whom do you vote? If you regard the schools as abominations? If you want to end the president’s hobbyist wars?
Third, there is the effect of large jurisdictions. Suppose that you lived in a very small (and independent) school district and didn’t like the curriculum. You could buttonhole the head of the school board, whom you would probably know, and say, “Look, Jack, I really think….” He would listen.
But suppose that you live in a suburban jurisdiction of 300,000. You as an individual mean nothing. To affect policy, you would have to form an organization, canvass for votes, solicit contributions, and place ads in newspapers. This is a fulltime job, prohibitively burdensome.
The larger the jurisdiction, the harder it is to exert influence. Much policy today is set at the state level. Now you need a statewide campaign to change the curriculum. Practically speaking, it isn’t practical.
Fourth are impenetrable bureaucracies. A lot of policy is set by making regulations at some department or other, often federal. How do you call the Department of Education to protest a rule which is in fact a policy? The Department has thousands of telephones, few of them listed, all of which will brush you off. There is nothing the public can do to influence these goiterous, armored, unaccountable centers of power.
Yes, you can write your senator, and get a letter written by computer, “I thank you for your valuable insights, and assure you that I am doing all….”
Fifth is the invisible bureaucracy (which is also impenetrable). A few federal departments get at least a bit of attention from the press, chiefly State and Defense (sic). Most of the government gets no attention at all—HUD, for example. Nobody knows who the Secretary of HUD is, or what the department is doing. Similarly, the textbook publishers have some committee whose name I don’t remember (See? It works) that decides what words can be used in texts, how women and Indians must be portrayed, what can be said about them, and so on. Such a group amounts to an unelected ministry of propaganda and, almost certainly, you have never heard of it.
Sixth, there is the illusion of journalism. The newspapers and networks encourage us to think of them as a vast web of hard-hitting, no-holds-barred, chips-where-they-may inquisitors of government: You can run, but you can’t hide. In fact federal malefactors don’t have to run or hide. The press isn’t really looking.
Most of press coverage is only apparent. Television isn’t journalism, but a service that translates into video stories found in the Washington Post and New York Times (really). Few newspapers have bureaus in Washington; the rest follow the lead of a small number of major outlets. These don’t really cover things either.
When I was reporting on the military, there were (if memory serves) many hundreds of reporters accredited to the Pentagon, or at least writing about the armed services. It sounds impressive: All those gimlet eyes.
What invariably happened though was that some story would break—a toilet seat alleged to cost too much, or the failure of this or that. All the reporters would chase the toilet seat, fearful that their competitors might get some detail they didn’t. Thus you had one story covered six hundred times. In any event the stories were often dishonest and almost always ignorant because reporters, apparently bound by some natural law, are obligate technical illiterates. This includes the reporters for the Post and the Times.
Seventh, and a bit more subtle, is the lack of centers of demographic power in competition with the official government. The Catholic Church, for example, once influentially represented a large part of the population. It has been brought to heel. We are left with government by lobby—the weapons industry, big pharma, AIPAC, the teachers unions—whose representatives pay Congress to do things against the public interest.
Eighth, we are ruled not by a government but by a class. Here the media are crucial. Unless you spend time outside of America, you may not realize to what extent the press is controlled. The press is largely free, yes, but it is also largely owned by a small number of corporations which, in turn, are run by people from the same pool from which are drawn high-level pols and their advisers. They are rich people who know each other and have the same interests. It is very nearly correct to say that these people are the government of the United States, and that the federal apparatus merely a useful theatrical manifestation.
Finally, though it may not be deliberate, the schools produce a pitiably ignorant population that can’t vote wisely. Just as trial lawyers don’t want intelligent jurors, as they are harder to manipulate, so political parties don’t want educated voters. The existence of a puzzled mass gawping at Oprah reduces elections to popularity contests modulated by the state of the economy. One party may win, yes, or the other. But a TV-besotted electorate doesn’t meddle in matters important to its rulers. It has never heard of them.
To disguise all of this, elections provide the excitement and intellectual content of a football game, without the importance. They allow a sense of Participation. In bars across the land, in high-school gymns become forums, people become heated about what they imagine to be decisions of great import: This candidate or that? It keeps them from feeling left out while denying them power.
It is fraud. In a sense, the candidates do not even exist. A presidential candidate consists of two speechwriters, a makeup man, a gestures coach, ad agency, two pollsters and an interpreter of focus groups. Depending on his numbers, the handlers may suggest a more fixed stare to crank up his decisiveness quotient for male or Republican voters, or dial in a bit of compassion for a Democratic or female audience. The newspapers will report this calculated transformation. Yet it works. You can fool enough of the people enough of the time.
When people sense this and decline to vote, we cluck like disturbed hens and speak of apathy. Nope. Just common sense.
This first appeared in shorter form in The American Conservative