Joe Republican gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and that they work as advertised. All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too.
He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.
Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
Joe likes to email his friends. He likes to talk on the phone. He is secure in his knowledge that everything he says in the email and on the phone is secure and that no one is listening in or reading his mail because those commie liberal constitution framers believed that Joe had the right to privacy. It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills.
Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression. Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. Joe also forgets that his in addition to his federally subsidized student loans, he attended a state funded university.
Joe is secure in his walk to the bank with the knowledge that no police agency has the right to arrest and jail him without due process and probable cause. He has the right to an attorney, a jury of his peers and to be brought before a magistrate in a timely fashion. His family has the right to know he has been arrested. Again Joe can thank those commie constitution framers.
Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the tax-payer funded roads. He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.
He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to.
Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."
Won't take credit for this one...Just food for thought.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Between the Lines, or "...and he saw that it was good!"
I fear we've become a culture obsessed with superficiality. I fear we've lost any sense of focus on the long-term. I fear that the way we absorb information is all too easily manipulated by savvy swindlers pushing an agenda that enriches the few at the expense of the many and shortchanges the future at the expense of right here, right now. And I fear that this really isn't much of a problem for a lot of people.
It's helpful and somewhat soothing to remember that in many cases the great steps we've taken as a people weren't necessarily taken for the reasons we like to imagine. At least, not at an individual level. Presidents, senators, mayors, governors, protesters, strikers, voters, entrepreneurs, movement leaders, inventors, builders. What do they all have in common? They're people. They're looking out for Number One. Most of the things these people did were at least partly motivated by self-interest.
Sure, Abraham Lincoln was largely responsible for ending slavery and averting the total dissolution of the Union. These were undoubtedly selfless acts that put him and his family in great personal danger.
But at the same time, it's not difficult to understand how his actions were virtually always in sync with exactly what was best for Abraham Lincoln.
The Emancipation Proclamation is instructive: the document was only issued once Lincoln had the political cover of the Union victory at Antietam, so that he - and by extension, the North - would appear strong. If he issued it earlier, popular opinion might turn against him or it could be perceived as a last-ditch effort to avert some impending disaster. If he had waited much longer to push emancipation, the ambitious Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase, would have an easy path to nomination at the Republican convention by convincing ascendant Radicals that Lincoln was really a conservative on the slavery issue. As it was, he was forced to compromise heavily - too far, some abolitionists claimed - by omitting the border slave states and certain Confederate territories in Union control. Those slaves were forced to wait for their freedom until the implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment.
The self-interest that drives people to push themselves and their cultures beyond what may sometimes seem possible is not the perfectly rational self-interest of economic theory. The world is messy. The real self-interest of groups and individuals is somewhat rational but frail and easily amenable to deception, distraction, and misdirection.
Before the accusation can arise, it's not demeaning to say that people can be fooled, even Americans. We're not that unique.
It's part of the fate of human beings that we possess intelligence and can rise above the level of merely reacting to the world as we sense it, and this ability is the fundamental source of our enlightened intelligence. Only an intelligent being can dissociate their immediate experiences from their conception of reality. A man may see a bright hot yellow disk circling him up in the sky, but I can convince him through reason and observation that it is in fact a massive thermonuclear fireball exerting an invisible force on us that keeps our planet roughly 93 million miles away as we hurtle around it through an incomprehensibly vast space at an incredible speed.
Intelligence is also the source of all deliberate deception. To borrow from 1984, only an intelligent being can simultaneously comprehend that 2 + 2 = 4, and yet ardently profess that 2 + 2 = 5. Animals don't understand the deceptions they perform, their actions are guided by their instincts and present circumstances.
A lot of FOX News viewers regard themselves as well-informed. They might be curious enough to seek out the news, but they may not have the inclination to fact-check it, which makes them dangerously susceptible to being hoodwinked by conspiracy theorists and spinsters. One of the most intelligent strategic moves conservatives ever made was to effectively destroy the influence of mainstream media outlets in the minds of the right wing. As far as these people are concerned, the only media that can be trusted is right-wing infotainment like FOX, Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck. They see the regular media as corrupt, false, overtly and irredeemably biased, and contemptuous of non-elite heartland Americans.
The trick is that, in reality, all of these qualities apply to FOX and the far-right media in spades. Yet by hitting the correct code words they're managed to hide their true face from their fawning supporters, spewing hypocrisy and lies about all who disagree with their vision for America and convincing those same heartland Americans that the people actively working against their interests are actually good Christian Americans just like them, and the people working to make this a better place are actually some kind of "other" out to sabotage America's future.
It's reached a point, thanks to the fracturing of our media and culture, that most Americans no longer seek, nor are they presented with, any honest alternatives to the views they already possess. Even worse, it seems many people really never consider the consequences of the ideas they espouse. Properly exploited, as it has been by FOX and other conservative Republican organizations over the last generation, this situation yields a self-contained perpetual ignorance machine, ensnaring decent-hearted people in a web of lies that serves to enrich a few wealthy individuals at the expense of everyone else.
It's helpful and somewhat soothing to remember that in many cases the great steps we've taken as a people weren't necessarily taken for the reasons we like to imagine. At least, not at an individual level. Presidents, senators, mayors, governors, protesters, strikers, voters, entrepreneurs, movement leaders, inventors, builders. What do they all have in common? They're people. They're looking out for Number One. Most of the things these people did were at least partly motivated by self-interest.
Sure, Abraham Lincoln was largely responsible for ending slavery and averting the total dissolution of the Union. These were undoubtedly selfless acts that put him and his family in great personal danger.
But at the same time, it's not difficult to understand how his actions were virtually always in sync with exactly what was best for Abraham Lincoln.
The Emancipation Proclamation is instructive: the document was only issued once Lincoln had the political cover of the Union victory at Antietam, so that he - and by extension, the North - would appear strong. If he issued it earlier, popular opinion might turn against him or it could be perceived as a last-ditch effort to avert some impending disaster. If he had waited much longer to push emancipation, the ambitious Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase, would have an easy path to nomination at the Republican convention by convincing ascendant Radicals that Lincoln was really a conservative on the slavery issue. As it was, he was forced to compromise heavily - too far, some abolitionists claimed - by omitting the border slave states and certain Confederate territories in Union control. Those slaves were forced to wait for their freedom until the implementation of the Thirteenth Amendment.
The self-interest that drives people to push themselves and their cultures beyond what may sometimes seem possible is not the perfectly rational self-interest of economic theory. The world is messy. The real self-interest of groups and individuals is somewhat rational but frail and easily amenable to deception, distraction, and misdirection.
Before the accusation can arise, it's not demeaning to say that people can be fooled, even Americans. We're not that unique.
It's part of the fate of human beings that we possess intelligence and can rise above the level of merely reacting to the world as we sense it, and this ability is the fundamental source of our enlightened intelligence. Only an intelligent being can dissociate their immediate experiences from their conception of reality. A man may see a bright hot yellow disk circling him up in the sky, but I can convince him through reason and observation that it is in fact a massive thermonuclear fireball exerting an invisible force on us that keeps our planet roughly 93 million miles away as we hurtle around it through an incomprehensibly vast space at an incredible speed.
Intelligence is also the source of all deliberate deception. To borrow from 1984, only an intelligent being can simultaneously comprehend that 2 + 2 = 4, and yet ardently profess that 2 + 2 = 5. Animals don't understand the deceptions they perform, their actions are guided by their instincts and present circumstances.
A lot of FOX News viewers regard themselves as well-informed. They might be curious enough to seek out the news, but they may not have the inclination to fact-check it, which makes them dangerously susceptible to being hoodwinked by conspiracy theorists and spinsters. One of the most intelligent strategic moves conservatives ever made was to effectively destroy the influence of mainstream media outlets in the minds of the right wing. As far as these people are concerned, the only media that can be trusted is right-wing infotainment like FOX, Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck. They see the regular media as corrupt, false, overtly and irredeemably biased, and contemptuous of non-elite heartland Americans.
The trick is that, in reality, all of these qualities apply to FOX and the far-right media in spades. Yet by hitting the correct code words they're managed to hide their true face from their fawning supporters, spewing hypocrisy and lies about all who disagree with their vision for America and convincing those same heartland Americans that the people actively working against their interests are actually good Christian Americans just like them, and the people working to make this a better place are actually some kind of "other" out to sabotage America's future.
It's reached a point, thanks to the fracturing of our media and culture, that most Americans no longer seek, nor are they presented with, any honest alternatives to the views they already possess. Even worse, it seems many people really never consider the consequences of the ideas they espouse. Properly exploited, as it has been by FOX and other conservative Republican organizations over the last generation, this situation yields a self-contained perpetual ignorance machine, ensnaring decent-hearted people in a web of lies that serves to enrich a few wealthy individuals at the expense of everyone else.
Bad things don't come only from the right, however. Hollywood and most "celebrities" (assuming the term still has meaning) are generally on the left side of the political spectrum, and for that I can appreciate what they often try to do in politics. But unfortunately there's no way around the fact that the values that are important to their industry are corrupting when applied to politics.
Hollywood-style celebrity culture is rooted in a sensationalist, fad-seeking, "narrative"-obsessed mindset, and their hedonistic, self-centered lives are pushed in the media as some kind of ideal in which shame, humility, and morality play no part in "real" life. This rightly offends people, since in order to be relevant in pop culture you have to push the boundaries of reasonableness every once in a while. Jon Stewart can hold as many "Rallies to Restore Sanity" as he wants, but the fact is he makes his living making "out of bounds" comments about the ridiculousness of our politics and media. If he weren't in the position he's in - hosting a "fake news" show on a cable comedy channel - he wouldn't be able to say those things. I'm not bashing what he does - I love "The Daily Show" - I'm just simply pointing out that if his vision for a saner and more civil American politics and media were realized, he'd be out of a job.
I don't want to uniquely single out Hollywood for its negative influence on our political culture. Hollywood has done some good things for our politics, and believe me, there is plenty of blame to go around for all of the bad things (like, for instance, FOX News).
In the same vein, the right-wing obsession with imposing moral values through government is just as corrupting as the left-wing obsession with removing values entirely from the public sphere. If you take a moral stand and defend that position with nothing except "I believe in X because I'm a Christian/Muslim/atheist," your position is poorly reasoned. I have no problem with moralists as long as they can logically and philosophically defend their positions in inclusive terms. References to holy books, deities, or ill-defined external forces such as "nature" are non-starters when discussing politics - we must make laws for everybody. Justice, democracy, fairness, social cohesion: these are defensible reasons for staking a moral position. Just don't go into wild hysterics if I challenge that position based on my own lines of reasoning.
And it's the same way with business: there's no doubt that business creates wealth. By definition, that's what it does. Wealth is a good thing as long as it is broadly shared by the whole population, but as it concentrates in fewer and fewer hands its benefits to society are outweighed by the horrifying social and economic consequences of accelerating inequality. The values of high finance and corporate economics are corrupting politics and statecraft and turning this country into a plutocracy ruled only by money. Industry and hard work are not valued: efficiency, ruthlessness, and cold calculation are.
Organizations which are compelled to make profit for profit's sake will do whatever they can to accomplish that goal, including altering the government and the law against the true will of the people and lying about their intentions. Trying to impart these values into government might make it profitable, but not in the way that benefits average Americans. Two examples illustrate the point: healthcare and defense, two industries behind some of America's biggest expenditures.
Healthcare corporations make more money if you get sick; insurance companies make more money if they don't fulfill their obligations to pay medical expenses; drug companies make more money if you "need" their medicine; doctors make more money if they perform more procedures; hospitals make more money if they defraud Medicare and keep malpractice damages low; equipment manufacturers make more money if hospitals have to buy more and newer equipment every year for no medical reason; and all of them make more money if people have to pay for things out of pocket rather than having the government negotiate on behalf of the nation as a single pool in order to keep costs down for everyone.
The ultimate goal of this system is to keep Americans sick, poor, and totally incapable of addressing the problem as a nation, thereby making the healthcare industry more money. And they have able allies in the food and media industries, ready to turn a normal healthy person into a sugar- and fat-addicted hypochondriac who absolutely must have the latest, most expensive drugs and procedures to treat (not cure) his heart disease, cancer, and diabetes despite the lack of any evidence these new treatments work better than the old ones.
And most Americans either don't know, don't understand the implications, or don't care.
Defense contractors make more money if we continue a policy of perpetual warfare for no productive purpose; foreign companies, governments, and power players make more money as long as our soldiers are in their countries absorbing the human costs and footing the financial bill to secure and rebuild centralized "democratic" states where they've never existed; foreign enemies and terrorists make more money as long as we continue to occupy countries and territories where we're not wanted and kill innocent people, no matter how well intentioned we are; weapons manufacturers make more money as long as our military must continue burning through stockpiles of ammunition and logistical supplies at a cost running into the billions of dollars every month; and the military and the defense industry make more money and gain more power as long as the civilian government defers to the brass for every decision involving the number of troops, tanks, ships, missiles, bullets, and dollars we are going to waste in a series of military efforts with no military solutions.
The ultimate goal of this system is to keep America scared, militarized, and willing to spend obscene amounts of money, kill thousands of people, and sacrifice the blood of our innocent soldiers in order to keep the military-industrial complex rich and hard at work profiting from endless, unnecessary wars. And they have able allies: in politicians, who are all too willing to fight any and all government spending - unless it benefits the defense industry; and in the media, who are too cowed by phony patriotism and too ignorant of history to understand the complexities of the defense industry and the effects of its unchecked growth on our culture and economy.
And most Americans either don't know, don't understand the implications, or don't care.
Has the American mind closed? Have we lost that spark, that need to explore and conquer new realms by the power of our ideals and industry? Have we lost the need for new horizons, goals toward which we as a nation can strive without descending into debilitating bickering and pettiness? People like to compare us to great empires that suddenly lost most if not all of their power, like the western Roman Empire or the British Empire. I would say we're closer to the Ottomans. We're gradually being stifled by traditions in business, politics, and culture thanks to which our greatest collective desire seems to be to cravenly seek any and all ways to make more money and spend more time in the proverbial spotlight.
How truly, pathetically sad for the future of America.
Organizations which are compelled to make profit for profit's sake will do whatever they can to accomplish that goal, including altering the government and the law against the true will of the people and lying about their intentions. Trying to impart these values into government might make it profitable, but not in the way that benefits average Americans. Two examples illustrate the point: healthcare and defense, two industries behind some of America's biggest expenditures.
Healthcare corporations make more money if you get sick; insurance companies make more money if they don't fulfill their obligations to pay medical expenses; drug companies make more money if you "need" their medicine; doctors make more money if they perform more procedures; hospitals make more money if they defraud Medicare and keep malpractice damages low; equipment manufacturers make more money if hospitals have to buy more and newer equipment every year for no medical reason; and all of them make more money if people have to pay for things out of pocket rather than having the government negotiate on behalf of the nation as a single pool in order to keep costs down for everyone.
The ultimate goal of this system is to keep Americans sick, poor, and totally incapable of addressing the problem as a nation, thereby making the healthcare industry more money. And they have able allies in the food and media industries, ready to turn a normal healthy person into a sugar- and fat-addicted hypochondriac who absolutely must have the latest, most expensive drugs and procedures to treat (not cure) his heart disease, cancer, and diabetes despite the lack of any evidence these new treatments work better than the old ones.
And most Americans either don't know, don't understand the implications, or don't care.
Defense contractors make more money if we continue a policy of perpetual warfare for no productive purpose; foreign companies, governments, and power players make more money as long as our soldiers are in their countries absorbing the human costs and footing the financial bill to secure and rebuild centralized "democratic" states where they've never existed; foreign enemies and terrorists make more money as long as we continue to occupy countries and territories where we're not wanted and kill innocent people, no matter how well intentioned we are; weapons manufacturers make more money as long as our military must continue burning through stockpiles of ammunition and logistical supplies at a cost running into the billions of dollars every month; and the military and the defense industry make more money and gain more power as long as the civilian government defers to the brass for every decision involving the number of troops, tanks, ships, missiles, bullets, and dollars we are going to waste in a series of military efforts with no military solutions.
The ultimate goal of this system is to keep America scared, militarized, and willing to spend obscene amounts of money, kill thousands of people, and sacrifice the blood of our innocent soldiers in order to keep the military-industrial complex rich and hard at work profiting from endless, unnecessary wars. And they have able allies: in politicians, who are all too willing to fight any and all government spending - unless it benefits the defense industry; and in the media, who are too cowed by phony patriotism and too ignorant of history to understand the complexities of the defense industry and the effects of its unchecked growth on our culture and economy.
And most Americans either don't know, don't understand the implications, or don't care.
Has the American mind closed? Have we lost that spark, that need to explore and conquer new realms by the power of our ideals and industry? Have we lost the need for new horizons, goals toward which we as a nation can strive without descending into debilitating bickering and pettiness? People like to compare us to great empires that suddenly lost most if not all of their power, like the western Roman Empire or the British Empire. I would say we're closer to the Ottomans. We're gradually being stifled by traditions in business, politics, and culture thanks to which our greatest collective desire seems to be to cravenly seek any and all ways to make more money and spend more time in the proverbial spotlight.
How truly, pathetically sad for the future of America.
Friday, October 8, 2010
...and God said, "Let there be light!"
I am sometimes ridiculed by my coworkers because I pay attention. Seriously. You know the word they use?
"Voter."
Hilarious, I know. There were stories a while back about regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission spending up to 8 hours per day at work downloading porn (How the hell did they do that? There are only eight work hours in a day!). But me? I'm the guy who turns his head around to make sure no one's looking, who knows the angle of his computer screen because it gives him a clear view of his superior, and who, when it's all clear, proceeds to sneak a quick peak at...the New York Times.
I digest news like it's cake. And I fucking love cake. I got a smart phone more or less for the Internet. Now I spend even more time out of my day reading tons of magazines, newspapers, and blogs; random crap about politics, entertainment, sports, technology, or whatever else catches my eye. I like information.
So I'm not just a "voter," I'm also a "reader." More importantly, I'm a "thinker."
Now I'm not going to sit here and say, "Wow, am I not just the shit? Everyone should be like ME!" But a big problem right now is that there are hundreds of millions of voters, but not a whole lot of readers or thinkers. To be fair, thanks to the Internet there are more readers now than there were when I was too young to care about Clintonian philandering or the Contract with America. But that's where the lack of thinkers comes in.
The other day on "Hardball" Chris Matthews made a comment I found upsetting. He was talking about the midterms with the Democrat vying to fill the seat of the late Robert Byrd as the Senator from West Virginia, Gov. Joe Manchin. The topic of his opponent's sleazy political advertising came up, and this is what Matthews asked:
Because for decades they've been enabled by the body of literature in subjects like behavioral psychology, communications, marketing, and branding. Who needs reason or facts when all you need to do is emotionally manipulate your viewers/readers/listeners? Democrats refer to this practice as "using code words," at least when it's used to inflame racial animus. I think we should call it out for what it is: a gradual, sophisticated form of brainwash, a "framing" of the world and certain issues in such a way that the only conclusions that can be reached are those that have been pre-packaged to bias your opinions in particular ways.
This is why Democrats lose so often: the thinkers among us imagine that straight facts are convincing, because they convince us. But they're not. Many people simply aren't thinkers when it comes to political issues. Facts require context in order to be understood. They must be organized, dissected, and analyzed. This takes time and effort. It's hard for Democrats, especially progressives, to acknowledge because they're such idealists, but most people have better things to do than spend either the time or the effort contemplating things like credit-default swaps, CFPB, habeas corpus, mandatory spending levels, Bagram AFB, SB 1070, Citizens United v. FEC, or any of the other issues that seem so important and clear-cut to us. They just don't give a shit about the facts of these issues. They have jobs, or not. They have friends. Spouses. Kids. TVs. Large whiskey bottles. All of these things demand attention, often more than they would choose to give under ideal circumstances. And today's circumstances are terrible. As far as they're concerned, they can't affect these great grand issues so unless something is about to make their bills or their taxes go up or down it's really not more important than the other things in their life.
The thinkers on the Republican side know that what convinces people is emotion. It's why the correlation between the performance of the economy and the party that wins the election is so strong. If the economy is doing well, the party in power retains power. If not, power shifts or changes hands. In aggregate, people react viscerally, almost like children. If daddy's in charge and you lose your wooby, you want mommy RIGHT NOW!!!
Richard Nixon was arguably one of the most intelligent and able politicians in America's history, and he originated modern emotional campaigning. He knew his audience, he knew whose votes he could win and whose he couldn't, and he knew precisely how to speak so as to bring certain emotions to mind so that people would vote for him and/or against the Democrats. So did Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. They all played variations of the same playbook for years: Frustration at the stalemate in Vietnam. Fears about blacks, gays, liberated women, immigrants, and poor people eroding the power position of mostly rich white Christian males. The specter of Communism on the ascent. The decline of American power and the rise of the Soviet Union.
Now we play fill in the blank:
Frustration at the stalemates in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fears about blacks, gays, liberated women, immigrants, and the poor eroding the power position of rich and not-so-rich white Christian males. The specter of Islam on the ascent. The decline of American power and the rise of China. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's been used by conservative Republicans for decades. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. As long as America has a white majority, it'll be effective. The coalition it bands together is just wide enough, and progressives and Democrats are politically inept enough, that when it really counts (say, in a once-in-a-decade Census year when Congressional seats will be reallocated and districts will be redrawn), they win.
Think about this: who could imagine that only two years after the election of the first black president -- an inspiring yet pragmatic progressive Democrat who won more votes than any other president and who accomplished more for the broader progressive cause in the first half of his first term than any president since Lyndon Johnson -- progressives and the larger Democratic coalition would apparently be downtrodden, disenchanted, frustrated, and totally lost for words when it comes to arguing why they should be given two more years to govern America? Who could imagine that two years after nearly a decade of conservative Republican economic and foreign policy had rendered America nearly broke, nearly broken, and virtually ungovernable, Americans would be poised to give control back to the exact same people who were and are responsible for most of America's serious problems?
Who could imagine such things? Conservative Republicans. They know it's only a matter of time, effort, money, and the deft application of body language, word choice, and tone.
The only thing that can mitigate this mass bamboozlement is beating the bastards at their own game. It doesn't feel right to think about how best to use these communications techniques to subtly change people's minds without their permission. Sarah Robinson at The New Republic was correct:
"Voter."
Hilarious, I know. There were stories a while back about regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission spending up to 8 hours per day at work downloading porn (How the hell did they do that? There are only eight work hours in a day!). But me? I'm the guy who turns his head around to make sure no one's looking, who knows the angle of his computer screen because it gives him a clear view of his superior, and who, when it's all clear, proceeds to sneak a quick peak at...the New York Times.
I digest news like it's cake. And I fucking love cake. I got a smart phone more or less for the Internet. Now I spend even more time out of my day reading tons of magazines, newspapers, and blogs; random crap about politics, entertainment, sports, technology, or whatever else catches my eye. I like information.
So I'm not just a "voter," I'm also a "reader." More importantly, I'm a "thinker."
Now I'm not going to sit here and say, "Wow, am I not just the shit? Everyone should be like ME!" But a big problem right now is that there are hundreds of millions of voters, but not a whole lot of readers or thinkers. To be fair, thanks to the Internet there are more readers now than there were when I was too young to care about Clintonian philandering or the Contract with America. But that's where the lack of thinkers comes in.
The other day on "Hardball" Chris Matthews made a comment I found upsetting. He was talking about the midterms with the Democrat vying to fill the seat of the late Robert Byrd as the Senator from West Virginia, Gov. Joe Manchin. The topic of his opponent's sleazy political advertising came up, and this is what Matthews asked:
"Why are the people of West Virginia, you've been bragging on the people, saying how good they are, how developed they are as a people, as a society, and yet you're saying they're getting their minds twisted by this sophisticated advertising?"It upset me because he should know better. Anyone can be influenced. As a television personality, influencing people through tricks of body language, word choice, and tone is more or less his job description. Of all the villains responsible for the last 2-3 decades of insane partisanship, rancor, and gridlock, in my mind there are few who could contend with modern advertising. Strange, right? Why not shadowy billionaires like the Koch brothers? Why not Karl Rove or Dick Armey or Ed Gillespie? Why not Paul Begala or James Carville (to be fair)?
Because for decades they've been enabled by the body of literature in subjects like behavioral psychology, communications, marketing, and branding. Who needs reason or facts when all you need to do is emotionally manipulate your viewers/readers/listeners? Democrats refer to this practice as "using code words," at least when it's used to inflame racial animus. I think we should call it out for what it is: a gradual, sophisticated form of brainwash, a "framing" of the world and certain issues in such a way that the only conclusions that can be reached are those that have been pre-packaged to bias your opinions in particular ways.
This is why Democrats lose so often: the thinkers among us imagine that straight facts are convincing, because they convince us. But they're not. Many people simply aren't thinkers when it comes to political issues. Facts require context in order to be understood. They must be organized, dissected, and analyzed. This takes time and effort. It's hard for Democrats, especially progressives, to acknowledge because they're such idealists, but most people have better things to do than spend either the time or the effort contemplating things like credit-default swaps, CFPB, habeas corpus, mandatory spending levels, Bagram AFB, SB 1070, Citizens United v. FEC, or any of the other issues that seem so important and clear-cut to us. They just don't give a shit about the facts of these issues. They have jobs, or not. They have friends. Spouses. Kids. TVs. Large whiskey bottles. All of these things demand attention, often more than they would choose to give under ideal circumstances. And today's circumstances are terrible. As far as they're concerned, they can't affect these great grand issues so unless something is about to make their bills or their taxes go up or down it's really not more important than the other things in their life.
The thinkers on the Republican side know that what convinces people is emotion. It's why the correlation between the performance of the economy and the party that wins the election is so strong. If the economy is doing well, the party in power retains power. If not, power shifts or changes hands. In aggregate, people react viscerally, almost like children. If daddy's in charge and you lose your wooby, you want mommy RIGHT NOW!!!
Richard Nixon was arguably one of the most intelligent and able politicians in America's history, and he originated modern emotional campaigning. He knew his audience, he knew whose votes he could win and whose he couldn't, and he knew precisely how to speak so as to bring certain emotions to mind so that people would vote for him and/or against the Democrats. So did Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. They all played variations of the same playbook for years: Frustration at the stalemate in Vietnam. Fears about blacks, gays, liberated women, immigrants, and poor people eroding the power position of mostly rich white Christian males. The specter of Communism on the ascent. The decline of American power and the rise of the Soviet Union.
Now we play fill in the blank:
Frustration at the stalemates in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fears about blacks, gays, liberated women, immigrants, and the poor eroding the power position of rich and not-so-rich white Christian males. The specter of Islam on the ascent. The decline of American power and the rise of China. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It's been used by conservative Republicans for decades. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. As long as America has a white majority, it'll be effective. The coalition it bands together is just wide enough, and progressives and Democrats are politically inept enough, that when it really counts (say, in a once-in-a-decade Census year when Congressional seats will be reallocated and districts will be redrawn), they win.
Think about this: who could imagine that only two years after the election of the first black president -- an inspiring yet pragmatic progressive Democrat who won more votes than any other president and who accomplished more for the broader progressive cause in the first half of his first term than any president since Lyndon Johnson -- progressives and the larger Democratic coalition would apparently be downtrodden, disenchanted, frustrated, and totally lost for words when it comes to arguing why they should be given two more years to govern America? Who could imagine that two years after nearly a decade of conservative Republican economic and foreign policy had rendered America nearly broke, nearly broken, and virtually ungovernable, Americans would be poised to give control back to the exact same people who were and are responsible for most of America's serious problems?
Who could imagine such things? Conservative Republicans. They know it's only a matter of time, effort, money, and the deft application of body language, word choice, and tone.
The only thing that can mitigate this mass bamboozlement is beating the bastards at their own game. It doesn't feel right to think about how best to use these communications techniques to subtly change people's minds without their permission. Sarah Robinson at The New Republic was correct:
"We don't use half of what America's world-class advertising, p.r., and marketing pros know about how to market a brand, because progressives−as partisans of reason and rational choice−tend to view these techniques as unduly manipulative. To our way of thinking, it feels dirty. It feels like cheating."Time to get over it, guys. As thinkers, our tendency is to look deeper into these things. We shouldn't. That's what's screwed us for the last forty two years.
Junk is cheaper
So where was I when the cost of groceries skyrocketed? I really haven't been looking that hard until today when I noticed that Washington State apples were $2.29 a pound. Apples for God sake! Apples from Washington State! Not from Chile, not from Mexico, but from here!
I was standing looking at these apples like they should have been made of gold, when I noticed an African-American man standing next to me. I turned to him and said something like, "Really, this is awful." And he said, "They want us to eat healthy, but the food is so expensive that you just can't do that. Junk is cheaper, " and he walked away.
This got me to thinking. The South holds the award for having two of the fattest states in the Union and my state is in the top ten. All I have to do is look around and the number of women with a rear end the size of Texas is huge, so to speak. Walk into any Walmart around here and the number of overweight men, women, and children hits you over the head. " Diet" is not a word used by the rank and file in the South or any where else, for that matter. But did I mention that along with obesity, we have the highest rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, and all the other horrors that go with being overweight.
That brings me back to the grocery store. Eating healthy is expensive and anyone who says that it isn't hasn't gone shopping for food recently. Think about how much a bag of groceries costs you, not including meat. Oh and fish? Forgetaboutit! Junk food makes you sick, fat, and stupid. Its also cheap. Something needs to change.
I was standing looking at these apples like they should have been made of gold, when I noticed an African-American man standing next to me. I turned to him and said something like, "Really, this is awful." And he said, "They want us to eat healthy, but the food is so expensive that you just can't do that. Junk is cheaper, " and he walked away.
This got me to thinking. The South holds the award for having two of the fattest states in the Union and my state is in the top ten. All I have to do is look around and the number of women with a rear end the size of Texas is huge, so to speak. Walk into any Walmart around here and the number of overweight men, women, and children hits you over the head. " Diet" is not a word used by the rank and file in the South or any where else, for that matter. But did I mention that along with obesity, we have the highest rates of high blood pressure, diabetes, and all the other horrors that go with being overweight.
That brings me back to the grocery store. Eating healthy is expensive and anyone who says that it isn't hasn't gone shopping for food recently. Think about how much a bag of groceries costs you, not including meat. Oh and fish? Forgetaboutit! Junk food makes you sick, fat, and stupid. Its also cheap. Something needs to change.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
BUSINESS POLITICS
Let me tell you how the real world works. People think that hard work and persistence is what gets them through life, but that is a crock of bull. The unfair truth is that beautiful people are the ones that strive. Especially big breasted beautiful people. Why is it that the same women who are telling me that they do not need to impress anyone and that they are exactly the same as everyone else, yet they go out and get breast implants?? Question is, did they get that promotion??? You bet your ass they did. Sure I could bat my eyes and ACT as if I was going to screw my boss, but that would only get me a sexual harassment charge. Most men are dumb and women will exploit that, if it's an option. They will use their looks and "ladies" to get what they want. Don't believe me? Go to any bar and see who's getting the free drinks, cause it's not me, I can tell you that. As Bill Burr would say, "There are no feminists in a house fire." I think that this applies to more than just the literal. If people want to be taken seriously they have to get it into their heads that hard work and persistece is what it takes to go further in this world, unfortunately, if someone can take the easy route by showing some cleavage, they will. So quit trying to use your looks people, and start using your brain...yeah right.
ANGER MANAGEMENT
As this is our first blog post, I would like to start out by saying there are so many things in this world of ours that just pisses people off. Whether it be your job, your situation in life, or that guy who doesn't pull far enough at a light to give you an opportunity to turn too. I HATE THAT GUY!!!! Life is one angry situation after another, it's inevitable. So we, as people, have to be able to adapt and respond to these situations one way or another. This is going to be a way in which we vent to the world about what is pissing us off today, and tomorrow. Whatever it is that may be angering you, whether your significant other is getting on your nerves, or if all you need is one more trigger before you go into your office and shoot everbody, just know that there is more than likely someone else out there who has got it worse than you...but FU@K THEM RIGHT?!!!! Why everytime I complain about something does someone always have to say, "oh, you think you got it bad, you should hear what happened to me." I don't care what happened to you, we're talking about me right now so just give me the satisfaction of complaining about my problems without telling me all about yours.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Where We Are
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883
The infamous poem laid at the feet of lady liberty in New York harbor need not beckon anymore. Exiles no more, We are here. These are our citys, our towns, our own children and parents now left searching for a life lost. We are a people losing our way; a people being crushed by swelling debt, war, mass unemployment, and a deteriorating ability to support our own. The newly wealthy have been replaced by the growing poor. A country that once traded opportunity and prosperity for an honest living is being slowly wittled away by greed, apathy, contempt, and polarization of the masses by the minority. How did we get here? What can we do? Where are we going?
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