Government

how do you undo a teaching; one that is teaching a whole to dumb down its own self?

most people are too comfortable with there daily lives to understand of even question the possibility that something horrific is truly going on around them. once the water has finally came to a boil its to late. everything will dump over.

 

The best route is to teach the next generation... and practice due vigilance in what's going on. Nothing takes the credibility from ones words than failing to live up to them. Talk about it with younger folks and find a way to make it entertaining and interesting... people will be more inclined to pay attention.

It's an enormously difficult fight though... just considering the ways that government makes its work intellectually inaccessible to the masses.. the sheer size of legislation being debated, the tricks to attach unrelated special interest matters to something... the amount of time legislators have to actually read thoroughly the stuff they're voting on and what voices actually get heard by the government.

There's a saying, "follow the money" which is used in response to questions about how something got done... whether it be an improbable candidacy finding a quick way into the fraternity of puppets known as congress or how a specific piece of legislation won support... follow the money- where it was spent... who bought air time... who was the most effective fund raiser for his or her party.... which can go hand in hand with the innate ability by sheer personality to get total strangers to like and want to support, contribute, etc..

As a whole we're pretty lazy. Even with 9/11 and the economic troubles there's no galvanizing issue to unite the newest generations of voters... there simply are way too many distractions the keep people entertained enough where they see little reason to care about the business of government. We're taught culturally to value instant gratification... and previous generations that were forced to face political matters head on have inadvertently spoiled most of the younger folks and there's zero cultural demand to have any inkling to know what the fuck is going on with government. The "greatest generation" had the great depression and the second world war to unite them in a common effort- and more regular people felt a true sense of ownership in where the country was going. They had sacrificed and worked so hard... they knew the value of hard work and they were more likely to apply themselves at job well past any probationary periods because just being able to work was seen as worth the effort- because they KNEW what it was like to live life not knowing where the next meal was coming from... many had lived like this for the better part of a decade before war broke out.

Expressing ignorance is most likely going to be responded with an empathetic absence of encouragement to address the political deficiency because the shared sense of powerlessness gives a ready and convenient excuse to bitch about things and not be expected to come up with any useful ideas. Our congressmen are well aware that as a whole we're not watching and the business of government is conducted in a manner that makes it uninteresting to most. That way we'll be more easily distracted and our attention held by other things infinitely less important to our lives- like what's going on with celebrities' personal lives.

Look at the garbage that dominates prime time television and you'll understand how easy it is to keep us focused on other things... and take in the political campaign ads and you'll realize just how stupid that we, as a whole, have shown ourselves to be to those in government. We're kept divided so we'll never untie as a single loud voice that demands true representation.

I suspect that too decisive a political victory is seen as dangerous to the winners as it suggests that they may have to actually do their job and support the middle class but in cultivating grassroots division by way of partisan politics and ensuring that the losing party is well represented in numbers there is the means by which one side can blame their failures on the other by painting the party members and more importantly their grassroots support as unpatriotic, anti-American, evil, *fill in the blank* they can maintain the "us against them" mind set that makes neighbors less concerned about one another.

Voting has the least potential in our re-assuming our part in the political balance, it is our ability to be heard- outside of government established (and regulated) modes of "free speech"... but the process of becoming conversant in political matters is made to be the intellectual equivalent of a root canal.

Egad that was long... I hope it made sense.

 

I think people's views on the government whether they be left or right can best be summed up by older demographic of the tea party movement, "Get the government out of everything and tear this corrupt thing to the ground!!!!............................but I swear to god there will be blood to pay if my social security check is one day late"