Dear Politicians

Is anybody besides me getting tired of hearing what "the American people" want?

Seriously.

From the right, from the left, from the ostensible middle... all we hear about is what "the American people" want, and how whoever it is who is utilizing that much overworked phrase is doing whatever it is they're doing for the sole benefit of such.

As an actual "American people", I feel it's time to respond.

Dear Politicians,

Stop pretending that we are a giant homogenous group that actually wants a particular this or that. We're not. For the most part, we wish to be left alone to go about our lives.

Quit acting like narcissistic parents, telling your children that everything you do is for them, even though it might not seem like it at the time. We've heard this story so many times that we know exactly where it is headed. So don't even bother explaining how a snowshoe is actually the same thing as a snowmobile. Oddly enough, we know the difference.

Matter of fact (and I know this is really, really hard) quit treating us like your children entirely. We're not. And don't want to be. And never did.

We don't want to be protected by you, nor coddled. We're grown ups. Many of our ancestors came across the frontier, living in sod houses and fighting Indians. Some of our ancestors were the Indians, fighting the settlers. Some of our ancestors came here chained together in the dank holds of slave ships. And so on.

The point is, most of us come from a long line of bad asses. Okay?

Furthermore... we don't really like you very much. Never did. Sorry if that tears you all up inside.

And we know that most of you don't really give a rat's ass about us... until you want our money or our vote. We also know that our money and our vote doesn't mean nearly as much as the money and votes from any of your corporate sponsors. 

So cut the crap.


Let's get real.

We know most of you want power and money. And we're actually pretty okay with that. We know those are powerful drugs, and we're willing to enable your indulgence in your addiction.

All we expect in return is basic government services from a basic government.

For this we are willing to pay basic taxes. (We are smart enough, btw, to figure out that rich people can afford to pay more than poor people... I know America is slipping behind in education, but most of us did get through second grade.)

We also know that calling bullshit organic fertilizer doesn't change its basic qualities. So please quit shoveling it at us, no matter what you're calling it.

Fact is, other than those few basics, you probably can't get any of us to agree on anything.

So just do your job. You wanted it, you got it.

Enjoy.

And good luck.

Because You Asked

Ahh, where to start.

First, after years of being a relatively user friendly place, MySpace inexplicably morphs into a nightmarish headache of neon gibberish. And thus, many who used it for actual social interaction through blogs, messaging, and so on are left in the lurch. Coincidentally? Oh God, do we really need another conspiracy theory? But, alas, Rupert Murdoch actually owns the place, and one wonders if for some reason he wished to halt all intelligent interaction on it. Whether or not that was his intention, that is the result. A small thing, except that it successfully interrupts the dialog of millions of people who use the site around the world for purposes other than selling grommets.  Political discourse included.

At the same time (mas o menos) the notorious (and indeed, at least in the U.S., nefarious) Julian Assange begins to release a virtual cornucopia of leaked U.S. State Department cables. Provided to him by an active member of the U.S. military. None of them important enough to be classified "top secret", or even whatever the next grade lower of secrecy is called. But embarrassing, and perhaps even game changing, in nature. Because they begin to paint a picture of an empire in decline, doing the best it can to continue to pull strings and influence events in spite of the fact that everyone, and I mean everyone, knows that its days of global dominance are numbered.

Did I ever mention that my favorite literary character was Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind? Because Ol' Rhett knew full well that the Confederacy was doomed from in front, in spite of all the bravado exhibited by its supporters, and acted accordingly.

Anyway, in typical blustery blundering Neo-Con American fashion, the Guv'ment reacted in such a way as to make an actual martyr out of Julian Assange. Smooth move. So now every malcontent teenager with a computer is throwing digital fireworks at places like PayPal and MasterCard. There is an entire anarchistic rebellion brewing that has much more to do with the U.S. reaction to the leaked cables (hang him, lock him up, flay him, and so on) than the cables themselves.

Even though the mainstream media in the United States continues to focus on other important things (Dancing With The Stars, Sarah Palin plugging a caribou, yabadayabada), around the world, this is getting some major coverage. Our media is tending to turn it into some kind of cartoon melodrama, with Assange cast as the villain. Globally, however, the actual content of the leaks (which have really just begun to come out... there are roughly 249,000 cables left to be released) is being examined, and it is causing a good deal of uproar.

The best place I've found to get good coverage, btw, is the Guardian in England.

It truly is a press freedom issue. What's amazing is watching an administration that lauded the importance of transparency in government do everything possible to fog up the window of transparency when the curtains are opened. 

Then, at the same time, you have Barack Obama negotiating with the Republican leadership (uhhh... hello! say the Dems in Congress.... we still exist!) and coming up with a tax bill that not only increases expenditures, but continues the Bush tax cuts at the same time. Another trillion in the hole. Ka-ching! It makes both parties look like the phony ass political storefronts for the Great Corporatocracy they are.

You have student riots in Great Britain, over tuition hikes. They scare the bejeezus outta Prince Charlie and his lovely bride on their way to the thea-tuh by rocking their limo. 40 of said students get their skulls cracked.

There are riots in Haiti over a phony election nobody buys into. And cholera spreading daily.

Meanwhile, there are allegations against Shell Oil, Pfizer, stories of collusion, coercion, subterfuge and political underhandedness.... coming in a slow drip like a leaky faucet in the middle of the night.

WikiLeaks has managed to overturn a stone of secrecy in the world of global governance, seen through the eyes of the actually competent U.S. diplomatic corps. And, quite simply, the bugs are scrambling to get out of the daylight. 

And then we still have two wars going, with no real end in sight, which means our voluntary military is stretched thin and unable to respond with much gusto to things like, say... North Korea slamming missiles into an island owned by South Korea. Instead, we posture a bit and say gee fellas, could you stop it please?



Meanwhile, here in the Good Ol' U.S. of A. (a place which I truly do love, in case you didn't know) unemployment remains way higher than even the figures show, and the figures ain't pretty. And we have a leader who seems all too willing to compromise with anybody, any time. On anything. In spite of the fact that he has written two best selling books, he needs to bring out Bill Clinton to explain why this new tax bill (which, yes, cuts taxes and raises spending) is such a brilliant idea. Because, of course, otherwise our fragile li'l ol' economy will tank. Obama uses The Economy like Bush used Terrorists. Be afraid. Very afraid. Trust us. We know what we're doing. And you, of course, are too friggin' stoo-pid to be burdened with anything resembling honest assessment, or God forbid actual input.

Ever since the Great Bloodless Coup of 2000, the actual will of the people has been deemed irrelevant at best.

People all over the world are getting fed up the the American Empire. Now personally, I think you have to be very careful in wishing for its demise, because what's likely to replace it is probably going to be worse.  But all vassal states (and many, many countries are historically essentially vassal states to the United States) come to loathe the empire that controls them. Even though that empire may have been basically beneficial to them in the long run.

Empires fall. Always. Not a single one has survived. We are no different. We will survive as a country, but not as an empire. Quite simply, the clock is running out.

The dialog among our leaders should be geared toward what kind of country we want to be after the inevitable fall of the empire. But, of course, almost everybody in government has a vested interest in the empire itself, and wishes to prop it up as long as possible.

The only question seems to be whether it will be dismantled in some semblance of order or come crashing down like the twin towers. And after that, what kind of country will we be?

One thing is for certain. Most of us will survive the decline and demise of the American Empire. The Roman Empire is long gone. But Italy is still there, as are the many other countries that made up the Roman Empire.

Sooo... do we want to be an open society, with freedom of expression? Or do we wish to be a closed society, where people are repressed and afraid to say what they really think?

If we all speak our minds, they can't shut us all up. But if we don't...



 

Fixing A Hole

I've been following this whole WikiLeaks thing with no small amount of interest. Okay... I've been pretty obsessed with it. Because sometimes events just feel huge.

What's most interesting (so far) is not so much what's in the cables is how people have responded.

The U.S. government, who seems to have no problem prodding us at airports, delving into our e-mails and so on, is aghast that they should be held to the same microscopic examination themselves. There is some kind of karmic justice there... you touch our private parts, photograph us naked and eavesdrop on our private conversations, and we do the same to you.

The shame of it all is that it has gotten to that "us versus them" mentality. If anything has been exposed, it is the sham of American democracy.

Of course, that sham has been apparent to many for decades. Frank Zappa famously said years ago that he thought democracy was such a great idea we should try it here in America. What we have instead is a system in which huge corporations (apparently including the government of China) control both major political parties, all three branches of government, and the media.

The American Empire seems to be in a bit of a wobbly condition. And nobody in a position of power, being that they all work for the same master, wants to rock the boat. Because they're on it, and it's already taking on water. And thus, you have an American media that so far has been embarrassingly mute on what's going on, trying to either shrug off the importance of what's happening or demonize the messenger.

Which is exactly what government leaders from both political parties are doing as well.

And by demonizing the messenger, they've turned him into a folk hero. 

Except, of course, for Ron Paul, who hasn't attempted to demonize anyone. He has publicly stated that we should examine the policies that have led us into this dark morass of perceived necessity for secrecy and subterfuge to begin with.  But Republicans won't pay any attention to Ron Paul because they view him as the crazy old uncle who shows up at family functions,  Democrats won't pay any attention to him because he's a Republican, and nobody else will pay any attention to him because he's from Texas.  And so he remains one of the few voices of reason in Washington, D.C., whose utterances seem to reverberate through empty halls. 

I'm no political expert. But underlying all this is a fundamental fact that people in the music business have known for a long time. In the digital age, there is no way to keep people from downloading your shit.  The rules are simply not enforceable. Sure, you can shut down Napster. But a dozen other file sharing sites will pop up who will do the same thing, only more effectively.

So I can sympathize with these folks whose careers are endangered. Political careers, media careers and so on. I've seen numerous careers decimated and in some cases destroyed by file sharing.

What has emerged is a music industry that is much smaller and continues to re-invent itself to stay in sync with the world we live in.  


Of course, few will argue that the mainstream music coming out of this modern music business is better than the old mainstream music. But there is a lot more room around the edges of it for stuff that is honest and real.

So maybe we could just have a shrunken government rife with corruption and subterfuge and corporate interests, and around it an encampment of actual democracy.

Which is why I'm backing Justin Bieber for president.   

In Praise of Common Sense

Ron Paul continues to be a voice of reason when there are precious few left. Though I don't agree with all of his positions, especially domestic, I do think his take on foreign policy is one hundred per cent spot on. He's one of the few political figures who correctly equates the nonsensical policies (lately exemplified by the almost farcical security scrutiny given airline travelers) with an indefensible empirical foreign policy that is not only bankrupting the country financially but in terms of common sense as well.

Quite simply stated, to paraphrase, the viewpoint is this... if we weren't all over the world fucking with people, they wouldn't be fucking with us. The idea that anybody hates our freedom is ludicrous. What they hate is us meddling in their affairs. What they hate is drone missiles and full on invasions. What they hate is us entering their homes and homelands, doing as we wish, ostensibly for their own good. What they hate is us building military bases that never go away. And as long as we continue these policies, our country will continue to deteriorate, from both outside and inside forces.

To me, this is a no-brainer. Many thinking individuals agree. The majority of Americans think that our involvement in long term overseas military ventures is unsustainable if not flat wrong. And yet, we continue to do it... year after year, generation after generation.

Were Ron Paul a Democrat or Independent, he would be railed at by the "right" as being un-patriotic, if not un-American. However, being that he's a Republican, and from Texas to boot, they really can't accuse him of such. The "left" pretty much ignores him as well, as he is, after all, a member of the ostensibly "enemy" camp. And still, whenever given the opportunity, he continues to point out the glaringly obvious reality that the messy bed we are currently tossing and turning in as a nation was in fact made by us.

Does this give hope that voices of reason will prevail? Not really. There are too many voices, both shrill and subtle, that wish the unreasonableness to continue. Because it is, after all, hugely profitable. But it is nice, even blatantly good, to hear at least one voice of truth in a cacophony of lies and half truths from both sides of the political aisle.  

Babble On

Like lots of other people ostensibly on the "left", I tend to wonder what happened to Barack Obama. Of course, if the polls tell the truth, the "left" I'm on is actually remarkably near the center. For instance, I'm for universal health care. So are most people. I'm for ending the two wars we're in... like now. As are most people. I'm for taxing the socks off the ultra rich. As are most people. And so on.

As for Obama... well, he's not so easy to define. He used to make noises like he was one of us. You know... like most people. He even did some ballsy things... like taking over the majority ownership of General Motors, for instance. And look how that worked out. General Motors has now totally turned things around. The idea that a government can't be involved in industry is ludicrous. Ask China.

But, alas, we have a system, and by golly we stick with it. Our system is to make sure the stupid rich get stupid richer and then some of the crumbs will fall off the table and we can eat.  Republicans and Democrats both support this system wholeheartedly, judging by their actions.

Obviously the crumbs the politicians are getting are substantially larger than the ones most of us get.

We also invade countries for reasons unbeknownst to any but those in the loop. At least we hope those in the loop know the reasoning. We're given reasons, of course,  but upon examination, they usually vaporize. We're fighting communism (remember... we used to fight communism... now we buy all our crap from China) or we're fighting terrorism, and so on. Again... Democrats and Republicans are for doing this. Most of us aren't. But in our ostensibly representative government, what most of us want really means surprisingly little. And an endless state of war is extremely profitable to some people. The money that is drained from our national treasury goes directly into their offshore accounts, or gold bullion stashes, or wherever they keep it.

I'd like not to be thought of as cynical. I consider myself realistic. I'd love to sing cumbaya and wear silly cute t-shirts and have a designer dog. But alas, I gravitate toward blues, my dogs are mutts and my t-shirt is white with a couple of stains on it.

Nobody is going to listen to us. Not Democrats, not Republicans, not Tea Partiers, not Jon Stewart, not nobody.  Power corrupts, and every time somebody gets into a position of power, they are corrupted. It's inevitable. It's a law of nature, as irrefutable as the law of gravity.

And so the best we can achieve, I suppose, is to state our little opinions, our small truths if you will, for posterity, and for the sake of others who might feel similarly. So that maybe, just maybe, when the dust settles in some unknown time, people will know that amongst the insanity, there was maybe a glimmer of light among the supposedly ignorant masses.

 

The Sound of Hooves

MySpace (or my_, as it is now apparently called) has finally truly imploded. This is what a poison gas attack must look like. In case you haven't visited Rupert's Playground lately, you should don your hazmat suit and take a gander at what WWI was like. It ain't pretty.

And Facebook, in spite of its vast popularity, somehow still creeps me out a bit. I don't know why. I don't analyze stuff like that too much. It's not that it's inherently evil (is it?) or anything... but I mean, that is where Sarah Palin spreads her nonsense and really... is openly inviting something that's gone viral into your life a good thing? Hmmm.

So I guess I'm back to real people in the real world. You know, people I actually know. People I actually meet. What a concept.

Not that I don't feel I know people I've met (especially on MySpace before the invasion of the body snatchers) through social networking sites. But alas, it's time to pull back. At least from trying to meet any new people. It's time to move on.

The Summer of Love, after all, was a wonderful thing... but not even for a whole summer. And once fall came there was nothing but human flotsam and jetsum washing up on the sidewalks.

So I'm going to try posting my blog over here for awhile. A blog is almost an antiquated notion now. Which makes me like it. You have to put whole sentences together, and paragraphs and such. And then people respond in kind.

Whew. All that syntax in one place is kinda daunting, isn't it?

Of course, I'll still make an occasional visit to Lisa Ferreri's site, Wiffledust.com. And I'll get in and out of Facebook to accept friend requests, and then leave before I get anything on me (that's actually kind of the way I feel... I hurry along, with my helmet on, hoping to escape unscathed). And if I absolutely have to, and I'm feeling courageous and fortified, I'll wade into "my_" and get back out as soon as humanly possible.

Telephones still work. E-mail is a good option. Maybe we should go back to writing letters and sending them in the mail. Remember what a cool feeling it was to actually get a surprise letter from a friend n the mail?

Besides, the way the country is going, we might be back to mail delivery by pony express. Which is good for the employment of horses, I suppose...

The Lord's Prayer as an Economic Model

Well, I'm back to blogging at MySpace. Because, quite simply, I have a lot of readers over there who have been reading my stuff for a long time. I'm not sure where they come from. But they go there to find it. I know this by reading the stats.  If you want to check out my blog on MySpace, you just need to google David Vidal. The link to my website will pop up. Go there. At the bottom of the page is a link to MySpace. Click it. That will take you to my MySpace site. You can easily navigate that to find the latest blog, or the old ones, for that matter. You don't have to log onto MySpace to do this. You can also check out music, pictures, etc. You know the drill. It's freakin' MySpace. But you only have to log on in order to leave a comment.

Having said that... I like this spot too. It's a little more academic somehow. So, I'll probably leave the occasional literary droppings over here as well. (Excuse me... I have dogs and cats.)

I looked up economic theory today. On Wikipedia and maybe one other place. Because honestly I never studied it. And I like Paul Krugman, the writer at the New York Times. I like the way he thinks, and he's a good writer.  And I kinda wanted to know more about what he's talking about. Because I know economic theory is just that... theory.

You probably know all this, but allow me to break down what I gleaned out of my perusing. You have Keynesian theory on the one hand, which is a belief that government manipulation of markets (interest rates, money flow and so on) is a good thing. On the other hand you have supply side economics (a theory that was apparently first named during the Nixon years) in which the basic premise is that markets will regulate themselves, and the best governance of them is no governance at all.

And it dawned on me (again, please humor me if this is old hat to you) that the difference between Democrats (who are essentially Keynesian) and Republicans (who are basically supply siders) all boils down to the conflict between these two economic theories. Everything else is just steam that rises into the air and dissipates. Hot air.

What we have in our actual economic system is a combination of the two theories. Were we to be totally Keynesian, we'd be socialist. The government would manipulate the market from top to bottom. Were we to be totally supply side, there would be no economic regulation at all.

The problem that our economy is going through now is that this amalgam of economic theories doesn't seem to be working. People who think in fundamentally Keynesian terms (I'm one of them... who knew) think that representative government in control of economic machinery is the best way to go. And supply siders (who in my world view have screwed things up since the days of Reagan) think the opposite.

What we have is a kind of wobbling back and forth between the two. Either one might work... but the combination of them probably doesn't. 

Then it occurred to me... what if they're both wrong? I mean, in reality, most of us use something more akin to the Lord's Prayer in our personal economic policies. We're thankful for a roof over our head if we're fortunate enough to have one, and food on the table, if there is some. And we hope that tomorrow we will have those things still. Or get them.

Seems to me the entire monetary system has been about economic slavery from day one. It wasn't imposed for the betterment of humanity. Humanity might have gotten betterment from it, but that wasn't the driving force behind it. The driving force was (and is) for the people who control the coinage (antiquated term I know... there used to be actual coins involved in this deal, made of gold and silver 'n' stuff) to control the people who didn't. That simple. And people were forced, often under penalty of death, to use that coinage. Otherwise, the powers that be would ride into your village and lop your head off.

So all of economic theory (or at least a good part of it) is designed to keep control of the populace, and gain control over more people on the planet (growth economics). The Keynesian model believes that through manipulation of the markets, the serfs (you and me) will be kept happier and consume, consume, work, work. The supply side doesn't even pretend to give a rat's ass about the serfs, and goes by the old philosophy of just lopping their heads off if they doth protest too much. By that theory, the rich should get continually richer, and the poor... well, who cares, really.

The Keynesians don't really care much about the poor either... they just feel they're more easily controlled if they're relatively happy.

Now we find ourselves in the digital age... and everything is turned topsy turvy. Because coinage is now nothing more than digits. And trading of digits is based on speculation based on projection of ideas. And so on.

These things are couched in fancy schmancy economic speak by economists... but really, they don't know what to do.

And, actually, we don't either. But I think we're used to that, many of us. Or getting that way. Because, at the end of the day, if we have food on the table and a roof over our heads, we're still thankful. And if we don't, or somebody we know doesn't, or even somebody we don't know... we try to help them, and they us. Because most of us aren't out to control anybody.

What a concept.

I'm reminded of the old Chinese curse... "may you live in interesting times".