Some recent events in the US may have come as a surprise to some Americans, and even caused some distress.
Here are some tips that can help:
The Constitution
You’ve probably seen candies and fruit made of plastic or resin for sale in stores. These items come with a warning label: “For decoration only, do not eat.” This is a good idea, because they look so realistic that children and nearsighted people may think they are real and put them in their mouths! If they are especially good quality, even adults with perfect vision may make this mistake.
That’s the way it is with the Constitution. It reads so well that people, even smart people like you, may succumb to the temptation of thinking it can protect you from this or that, or have an effect on what your leaders do or don’t do. But people in many countries around the world, and even your own countrymen, if they are poor, can offer some wise advice that can save you a great deal of emotional stress: “For decoration only, do not eat.”
Elections
Mainstream Americans love elections! They admire their politicians the way teenaged girls admire matinee idols. If you have ever seen a teenaged girl who just found out from a movie tabloid, or infotainment show, that her favorite star was arrested for some distasteful crime, you know how disappointing and devastating that can be for her.
In the darkened theatre, or curled up in the family room, she watched him starry eyed as he made her laugh, his love scenes inspired her first innocent romantic dreams, her heart stood still when he was in danger, and thrilled with pride when he vanquished the bad guys! Even though old enough to know it was only a movie, deep down she knew that he couldn’t be too different in real life. Previous press stories about him told of his visit to a homeless shelter, his generosity to a sick toddler, she did not cynically shrug that off as a publicity gimmick. That was proof positive that her hero was all his movie roles portrayed, and more!
Then comes the bombshell. The celestial one is arrested on drug charges. Or worse. How could he do this to her! Had she not written him letters? Saved her baby-sitting money to send to his favorite charity? Paid her fan club dues promptly?
Her mother and father shake their heads and sigh. We tried to tell you, they say, but you wouldn’t listen. He is just an actor. He plays roles. His favorite charity was chosen by his manager, he doesn’t know anything about injured dolphins, or care about them. The visit to the homeless shelter was set up by his publicity company. If he really just wanted to help the homeless, why would he need to go there with a hair and makeup team and send out notices to the press photographers? With all the money he spent to do that, he could have written another check to the shelter.
Imagine their surprise, when after a good cry, she forgives all. Anyone can make a mistake, I know he will learn from this because he is a good man, a noble one. What parent could object to that sentiment? But when she decides to pay double her fan club dues, to make up for the fair-weather friends who now denounce him, and spends all her allowance on DVDs of his movies, they shake their heads again.
People in other countries, and again, the poor in your own, can tell you that politicians are like that matinee idol with feet of clay. They don’t work for you, they don’t “represent” you, they represent large corporations the way the star represents the studio.
And the theory of a causal relationship between which candidate in an election gets the most votes and who takes office is just that – a theory.
The US form of government is not unique. Many countries, most of them, interestingly, US client states, enjoy the same form of rule by cartel, represented by a “strong man,” who as the world has seen in the case of Saddam Hussein, is only as strong as the cartel that props him up wants him to be, and only as long as he does what he is told.
The people in those countries, though generally regarded by American voters as simple, childlike folk who lack the capacity to understand complex concepts, in fact tend to be considerably more sophisticated in some ways than their Blackberry-totin, J. Crew-wearin brothers in the west, and are less susceptible to illusions regarding what life in a totalitarian dictatorship means, regardless of how it is presented, or “framed.” Which brings us to
Disappearances, Torture, Secret Laws, Secret Courts, Secret Police, Domestic Spying
When a population has imposed upon them, or in the case of the US voting class, and to some extent, I am sad to say, also the US underclass, chooses totalitarian dictatorship as a form of government, these things are normal, routine, and simply a part of life. People who have more experience with life under such regimes take this sort of thing for granted, and live their lives accordingly. Unless they have the resources and the wherewithal to overthrow the regime and institute a new one, and even more importantly, unless the majority of the population has the will to do so, there is really no point in being outraged, or writing scathing editorials ( a venting outlet which is shrewdly permitted even in some of the most draconian states), or indignant huffing about laws and constitutions, which as noted above, are not relevant to the actions of cartels, warlords, or strongman figureheads.
The American underclass is also less likely than their affluent countrymen to count a belief in the “voting” process among their faith tenets, and more likely that you forgive their lack of amazement at the latest “surprise.” They know that while their chances of getting ahead are about the same as their chances of winning the lottery, and equally independent of any action or lack thereof on their part, getting over is a much better bet, and that truth naturally becomes the basis of culture.
It is emulated, or inspires emulation, who can say, by the cartels and their henchmen. Thus “investigations,” stirring speeches and strongly worded statements are judiciously and liberally constructed and applied as a balm to the wounds of the voting class, while the infection rages on untreated, and slowly, a few even grudgingly, grumblingly, shuffle back to the meetups and committee meetings, and write more checks to send to the millionaire politicians they have forgiven, and some will tell you, like the pretty secretary who clings to her married lover because it is better than being alone, that there is nothing else, both unable to see that in reality, if they wish to improve their lot, if they wish to survive, there is only something else, and that something else can be found by simply looking into a mirror.
No Hay Mal Que Dura Cien Años, Ni Cuerpo Que Lo Aguante
Translation: There is no evil that lasts one hundred years, nor body that endures it. Obviously, that is figurative. There have been evil empires that lasted more than a century, the US is only the latest in a history book full of them. And there are people who do live in them for more than a hundred years.
However, sooner or later, the correction occurs. There is a spark here, then another one over there, and a puff, another puff, a little flame, and the correction occurs. These are not beautiful events, though history tends to romanticize them, a natural result of the grandchildren of the sparkers and puffers who are writing history books instead of rowing in a galley, picking lice out of the wigs of French noblemen, or stacking polyester tank tops on a shelf at Wal-Mart. Nor do corrections bring Utopia, nor the spirit of Antioch, or true and noble Caliphate, nor any of those holy grails of society that the puffers’ hearts intend and yearn for.
But what they do bring is more often than not, an improved lot for more people than the evil empire ever did or intended to.
Once feudal Europe now provides health care to its citizens, and some even provide housing.
