This is a great article written by Chris Hedges a few years back. It truly defines our politics of today and I see it all over the pages of forums- all forums. Sometimes you will get some amazing thought out answers from people. Just one of these pieces of wisdom "far and very few between indeed" keeps me coming back to the forums. You find a little gem stuck in the middle of all the trash. The illiterate rarely vote, and when they do vote they do so without the ability to make decisions based on textual information. American political campaigns, which have learned to speak in the comforting epistemology of images, eschew real ideas and policy for cheap slogans and reassuring personal narratives. Political propaganda now masquerades as ideology. Political campaigns have become an experience. They do not require cognitive or self-critical skills. They are designed to ignite pseudo-religious feelings of euphoria, empowerment and collective salvation. Campaigns that succeed are carefully constructed psychological instruments that manipulate fickle public moods, emotions and impulses, many of which are subliminal. They create a public ecstasy that annuls individuality and fosters a state of mindlessness. They thrust us into an eternal present. They cater to a nation that now lives in a state of permanent amnesia. It is style and story, not content or history or reality, which inform our politics and our lives. We prefer happy illusions. And it works because so much of the American electorate, including those who should know better, blindly cast ballots for slogans, smiles, the cheerful family tableaux, narratives and the perceived sincerity and the attractiveness of candidates. We confuse how we feel with knowledge. The illiterate and semi-literate, once the campaigns are over, remain powerless. They still cannot protect their children from dysfunctional public schools. They still cannot understand predatory loan deals, the intricacies of mortgage papers, credit card agreements and equity lines of credit that drive them into foreclosures and bankruptcies. They still struggle with the most basic chores of daily life from reading instructions on medicine bottles to filling out bank forms, car loan documents and unemployment benefit and insurance papers. They watch helplessly and without comprehension as hundreds of thousands of jobs are shed. They are hostages to brands. Brands come with images and slogans. Images and slogans are all they understand. Many eat at fast food restaurants not only because it is cheap but because they can order from pictures rather than menus. And those who serve them, also semi-literate or illiterate, punch in orders on cash registers whose keys are marked with symbols and pictures. This is our brave new world. Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts. The consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount. The most essential skill in political theater and the consumer culture is artifice. Those who are best at artifice succeed. Those who have not mastered the art of artifice fail. In an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we do not seek or want honesty. We ask to be indulged and entertained by clichés, stereotypes and mythic narratives that tell us we can be whomever we want to be, that we live in the greatest country on Earth, that we are endowed with superior moral and physical qualities and that our glorious future is preordained, either because of our attributes as Americans or because we are blessed by God or both. America the Illiterate
Great observation. 'I vote for him; he has a great haircut, a nice suit and showed us his family'. Looking from the outside, American electioneering really does appear like a glitzy, vacuous circus. The scary part is that a clown always ends up running the country. And that isn't funny.
It's what ticked me off and made me a Center-right Nationalist. After the failure of the Obama Administration, I realize that we need a true recognition of Americanism inside the heart of Washington. And I'm sure in Britain, Brits likewise feel they need a government that would give the queen the power she needs to govern effectively.
Just curious. What party is bang-on in favor of getting rid of public schools? What party just loves to criticize any position involving thought as something from THOSE POINTY HEADED, PENCIL-NECKED INTELLECTUALS? What party twice elected (actually once selected and once elected) a man who said "Is our children learning." What party thinks "intelligent" design is science?
Just an observation since we hear so much about "American electioneering;" if clowns always end up running the country, considering the U.S.'s position in the world, what do you think that says about the rest of the world?
That ain't going to come from the Republicans or the right wing, unless of course you want an American version of Nazi Germany.
And it ain't going to come from the Democrats or the left wing, unless of course you want an American version of the Soviet Union.
I do actually, save for the part of Concentration Camps and stuff. In terms of domestic politics, Hitler's Third Reich was simply beautiful. One might say that's a part of the propaganda he sold. Even so, it was true for the Germans. Even historians admit that had Hitler not waged war or the Holocaust, he would've gone down as one of the greatest statesmen of all time.
You do realize that's a lot like saying that if I you quit beating your wife tomorrow you must then be a feminist right?
Which historians agree that a megalomaniacal psychopath would have ended up as "one of the greatest statemen of all time"; David Irving? What a dumb assertion. Hitler's Third Reich was a nightmare of paranoia, neighbour spying on neighbour, free speech criticizing the Nazis earning you the midnight knock and a visit from the Gestapo, a bullet or concentration camp and, if you were in any way 'different' from the acceptable Aryan 'norm' you were either ostracized or doomed. Simply beautiful. What colour is the sky on your planet? Take note of my sig line...
Are we to deny their animal laws, their infrastructural development and the German Economic Miracle? Alot of good came out of NS Germany, it's unfortunate that the bad surpassed it.
Hitler was entirely successful in spreading Fascism around the world. Regardless of his intentions, his use of concentration camps and mass-scale coercion generally has led people to identify these things with Fascism, allowing the economic system to go unnoticed as it was adapted into Western systems of government. We're all Fascists now, albeit with an American flavor. Hence, most of the social totalitarianism of Hitler's regime is vehemently denounced by all sides (rightfully, in my opinion) - but nobody ever discusses the rest.
I disagree, this is crony capitalism. State Controls are grossly missing. Hence is why inflation is skyrocketing out of control(or well, it's "stabilized" but in comparison to historic prices, it's nuts). Equally, where's the centralization? By now, if he were our president, we would've long had a jobs bill on his desk(if he didn't outright use the executive pen to create a plan). [video=youtube;ljv7rMFc_yk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljv7rMFc_yk[/video] But most importantly, his vision of schools is simply marvelous. Something we generally proclaim "interest" in, but never actually doing. If i'm so fortunate as to have political power, I'll gladly do it: Out with the defunct, overpaid and yet ancient dinosaur-like public school systems. In with financing and approving elite private schools across the continent. If every Human has limitless Human Capital, it's in our best interests to tap it all. The "best" is everyone, and only everyone should be the best.
