A week at the beach
After spending a week in close proximity to my fellow Americans, I can make a few observations.
First, the most important stories that occurred in the world last week were:
The debut of the iPhone.
Paris Hilton leaving jail.
Chris Benoit goes on a murderous rampage.
Now, in the real world, Congress issued subpoenas to the White House, VP Cheney attempted to create a new branch of government, and the most violent month in Iraq since the surge started came to an end. But you wouldn’t know it by watching cable TV. Sure, they’ll mention the airport car bombs in the UK, but only because it plays into the “All Fear, All The Time” business model that has served our media- and our government- so well for 6 years now.
It has been proven conclusively that our current administration and their band of merry morons in Congress have no interest in actually, you know, governing. If they did, then things would probably be working better than they are. But the one thing these pathetic people can do, and they do it 24/7, is frame. By controlling the tenor of a debate, by choosing the words by which we discuss vital issues, and by virtue of the consolidation of media in this country, they are able to babble any ridiculous line of blather basically unchecked, drowning out any rational debate of issues.
</strong>Eating at Shoneys on the way home from the beach we were forced (because the battery in my TV B Gone is dead) to see Fox News “discussion” on the compelling topic of “Can the American economy survive a Hillary Clinton presidency?”. Thankfully the sound was off, but reading the closed captioning gave enough of a clue as to the sheer 3 card Monte of it all. Ernest looking “adults” talking about a completely fabricated non issue on the governments propaganda organ, Fox. Sure, you and I, and anyone who takes 5 minutes to examine the world around them sees this for the partisan game playing it is- but we are but a few. I’m confident that for most in that South Carolina diner, if they watched any of it at all, walked away with a vague “Gosh, that Clinton woman is gonna ruin our economy if she’s elected…”, without any context, and since critical thinking is as rare in this country as a ethical politician, they won’t bother to actually examine the economy of the last Clinton in office vs. the current admin- all they hear is “trillions in new taxes” and run scared.
And scared they are. Every day since 9-11 our government and media have been attempting to keep the people of this country in a state of panic, and have largely succeeded. There is no real debate over the wars, the NSA wiretapping, the Bush administrations complete and total contempt for the American way of life and the rule of law. Instead, we are pinned to our couches watching people sit on a sidewalk in New York waiting to buy a cell phone. Losers, watching losers, while bad people continue to piss on our Constitution, slaughter innocents, and rob us blind. And as long as we’re kept in continual panic, we won’t actually ponder too long or too deeply about the actions of those who profess to “protect” us.
Nothing I write here is going to change anyones mind about the state of the world. Our only hope is our youth, who thankfully regard anything even remotely authoritarian as both corrupt and silly, and have no interest in continuing the theocratic warmongering meme of their parents generation.
Let’s hope they get a chance to run the place for awhile, because frankly, we have no other options.
