Tell me something: Why did Kerry fold so fast? Why, after collecting millions for legal ammo, after promising to make sure every vote was counted, after the shit that went down in Ohio and Florida, did Kerry concede so damned fast?
Right after the Democrats got control of Congress, why did Nancy Pelosi re-assure the media that impeaching the worst president ever was not a primary goal for the new leadership? Why after angry voters had spoken were they told that there were more important issues to be dealt with first? Raising the minimum wage is good but is it really more important than getting out of Iraq? Re-writing ethics rules is good but is that more important than stopping the neo-cons from bombing Iran? What basement has John Conyers been hidden in now and why has he gone quietly?
Why are they eating up time debating about debating over a toothless resolution to slap the president’s wrist instead of censure, instead of Articles of Impeachment? Why are they waffling and posing while the clock on the preparations to bomb Iran tick, tick, ticks?
And why was Dennis Kucinach – supposedly one of the most “liberal” members of Congress – grinning and clapping after Bush’s State of the Union? Why did he lean over, shake hands, back slap and keep on grinning into the face of the worst president ever?
My answer: Because they are all members of the same club. They’re all minions, puppets, courtiers to Those Who Rule, to the greedy, planet-destroying, uber-rich, fucking Legions of Satan who control this planet! It’s fucking theater! A dumb show to distract those who might, just might get so agitated that they would riot in the streets and overturn some bulletproof limousines! They lead us on with HOPE! The next election will turn the tide, the next candidate will give us back our country, the next, the next, the next…
It’s an orchestrated two-year cycle. Win or lose, we keep looking ahead, keep believing that if we work within The System we can change it. If “our” guys win, we get a rush, a honeymoon of expecting change and when it doesn’t happen tension builds, the in-fighting starts. If “our” guy loses, we sulk and rage in defeat and the in-fighting starts immediately. The same answer always rises to the top, like shit in a septic tank, that if we all just bond together and work real hard next time change will happen, next time. So people donate money and time and energy to believing, to hoping, contrary voices are told to STFU. And everyone is occupied for another cycle.
The biggest fracture line in the “lefty” blogosphere is between those who still believe in The System and the few remaining voices who have to courage to say The System is fucked. You can’t beat The System by crashing into it because once you’re inside, you’re IT! You can’t sit around “Drinking Liberally,” imagining that you’re part of some “progressive movement” because that’s intellectual masturbation; you’re just diddled with your dick, throwing words and postures at a System that is laughing at you! Laughing at your impotence!
You can’t look at that. You have to hold onto your hope, your beliefs. You want “your country back” when it never belonged to you in the first place… or to your father… or his father’s father. The very idea that it ever belonged to you is a delusion, an ideal like a carrot used to lead your dumb ass along on the road of life. And if that doesn’t work, there’s always the stick – fire hoses and billy clubs and snarling German Shepherds and bullets fired by frightened young National Guardsmen. If your voice did make a difference, if your words and romantic aspirations for being part of a “movement” did start to have an effect, they’d just snuff you. A lone gunman, some nut would step out of the shadows and blast you away. And the next guy and the next guy until the discontented got the message to put their heads down and fall back into the futile cycle of hope.
It’s not simply clinging to hope that keeps you in line. It’s FEAR! And not just fear of being beaten or jailed or killed. The first fear is that you’ll have to actually DO SOMETHING other than hope in the comfort of your own home. Get away from your keyboard and physically DO SOMETHING! You might have to put yourself on the front line of political protest like DammitJanet does. You might have to go out there and risk getting beaten, jailed, and/or killed. God bless her, Janet is throwing herself like a moth against a flame. She won’t win anything but possible martyrdom but she has integrity! She is living her principles!
Fuck! I don’t have The Answers. I don’t think revolution solves the problem. The old elite gets beheaded and the new elite takes their place. New boss same as the old boss, same as it ever was. The transition is bloody anarchy and mostly innocent people suffer and die. Those Who Rule lose some members; let in new members. The System is bigger than our government, bigger than putting on a new philosophical costume and going on with the play. It’s the hierarchy, the pyramid of human social interaction that seems to be hard-wired into every collective endeavor. Some people take charge, get on top and lord it over the rest. And the vast majority — the very foundation of the pyramid — wants it that way! They want someone to tell them what to do. They actually like having a tough guy boss them around.
It’s just us fringe mavericks out on the edge of the herd who see the open spaces and think it should be different. We’re friggin’ mutants! Something is missing in our genetic code that messes with our docility! I’m sure Big Pharma is working on that…
So fight doesn’t work. That leaves flight. Flight means giving up the Hope Cycle, the participation in that cycle, the illusion of making a difference. It means walking away from the drama on stage and going outside of The System. It’s the old hippie message: Tune In, Drop Out, go back to the land and prepare to survive the larger Historical Cycle, the one where governments fall and new ones arise after a period of chaos. I think we’re there. The whole edifice of The American Empire is crumbling under our feet. The “unwashed others” are already invading. Those Who Rule are learning how to speak Chinese. Within 20 years… or maybe even tomorrow… the Hope Cycle is going to crash against the Historical Cycle and the once proud and “exceptional” people of North American will find themselves in a newly re-arranged Third World.
So I live out in the middle of nowhere and grow my own food. If I could just stop watching the Drama and restraining myself from heckling the actors on stage I’d be happier, I think…