Oh snap! I get FaceBook messages from people with whom I was in school - circa 1959. I hadn't keep up with these folks - escapees from Highland Park, Michigan - over the years. But FaceBook and such-like brings desperate characters together, in a manner of speaking. When I look at my email in the afternoon each day, I see Facebook or email messages propagated by FaceBook proclaiming rightwing allegiances.
The other day I read a piece about voting habits - I don't recall its cyber-location. Anyway, it was proclaimed therein that a person's right- or left-wingness is usually fixed quite early in life. Rightwing parents yield rightwing offspring.
In my own case, since my parents didn't set a political agenda for me, I didn't have one of my own. Except in this sense. I was always against the prevailing dogma of the moment. For example, when I was in high school (during the period of "Red Scare", "I led Three Lives" and bomb shelters), I thought that our country's fear of communism looked a lot like communism. Over the years I came to realize that Americans (given the state of our collective 'wisdom') invariably believed themselves to be faced with the following exclusive 'choice': Think or Guns. Note: this isn't even a choice between Guns or Butter!, as we were taught in Econ. 101. Ever since Korea we have 'chosen' guns. Today as a consequence of this gun-boat policy we've run out of butter.
In addition to the "Red Scare" we've been treated to the Black Scare, the Vietnam Scare, the Arab Scare, the WMD Scare, the Abortion Scare, the Medicare Scare, the Social Security Scare, . . . . Do you follow me here? So I've been against Scar(e)ism, of which Racism is huge part. Because of Scar(e)ism, we're scared - perhaps we've always been scared (it seems like it). We ought to be scared of the Reverse Robin-hood Effect. Statistically I'm quite sure it can be shown that our 'public servants' in Washington, D. C. and elsewhere have been so bent by 'fair-market' interests to be beyond any curative orthopaedic procedures (i.e., backbone correctives). We all know this. This we know better than anything else that we know having to do with politics. The promises are always the same - end big government, lower taxes, create jobs, a pig in a poke, something in every pot, dummies, suckers.
Getting back to people I know who plan to vote for Willard and St. Paul. Gov. Romney and Rep. Ryan strike me as chaps who have been given things - stuff that daddy left behind and Social Security Survivor Benefits, in their respective cases - and thereafter 'survived' by means of insider contacts and insider information. There are those who bend and those who bend those who shall be bent. Take your pick among the bent and the benders - it doesn't matter. So maybe voting for Willard and St. Paul is just an heredity thing. But then my stance against everything Willard and St. Paul ostensively stand for is just an heredity thing too - based on my heritage let's say?
I don't think so. Oh rats!
No comments:
Post a Comment