Sunday, February 21, 2016

Trumping Absurdity is Absurdity's Trump Card

And you are a card carrying member when you buy into the bullshit machine in the first place.

The headline in this article says it all, but in this case it is the ignorance of commentators in general that is being spoken of.

Trump is beating off on his own transcendence of propriety having anything at all to do with some "objective" notion of a qualification for our leadership role. The process itself, at least for the last thirty or so years, has never been meant for anything other than entertaining distraction. If you think actual "leadership" ability has meant anything more than "toss them an occasional bone" every once and a while then you weren't paying any attention at all to three fourths of the last Bush administration, and two thirds of all of the Obama administration.

Sure, Obama at least had nominal leadership ability, and there were, at least, a few times when he actually tried to use it (as in the Affordable Care Act), but the remaining net affect? A lot of bankers never went to jail. Working Americans were still left holding the bag of shit called the "financial bailout;" Immigrants at home, and at our borders, are treated shamefully. Perpetual war has become even more enshrined, and, as a final kiss good by, we are on the verge of Cold War 2.0, as well as brand new nuclear arms race. I am just soo feeling the leadership.

From the point of view of big Money, however, things are going just fine. Even if the village idiot gets elected president, the people he appoints to get the real work done will be well steeped in what concerns them; who else is in the revolving door circuit for him to choose from in any case? And it's not like he won't feel any incentive in the matter. There will be deals to be made after this gig and, whether you are a shark or not, pissing in the same water they swim in isn't going to be very helpful.

The really funny part here is that, bleak as all of this may seem, I still have faith in the idea that we will eventually wake up. We will finally realize that the things that have come to occupy us serve us very poorly. We will then see that how we provide for ourselves, and how we manage that provision is ours to determine. That the knowledge humanity has collected to this point belongs to everyone. Using that knowledge, and our own will to do it equitably, will give us the power to set things up in any way we can come to agree on. All we need to do to start is to stop doing things the old way, and then begin negotiating what the new way will be. A lot of arguments, a lot of difficulty, and no shortage of sacrifice will be required between now, and the end of that process, but however bad it may be it will still be better than the path we are on now.

Start thinking about it. Be sceptical of everything (even web sods like me) as you start making an effort to be better informed than you are now. And most of all, turn off the fucking television set.