Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Schmolistics and Druthers.

Politics, schmolitics.
It is pundit day in the USA and therefore on the local media. The longer I observe the scene, the more inclined I am to pay attention to weird theories that I would prefer to dismiss with howls of laughter.
Let's just say that certain far-out notions have taken up residence in the back of my mind, and are whispering comments from between the curtains.

I did not expect Obama to wave a magic wand and make everything alright. But I did expect more resistance from his government to the corporate and military-industrial agenda.
The revolving doors between government office and corporate headquarters keep turning around, regardless of who is supposedly in power. The rich keep getting richer, the middle is being hollowed out, the commons is disappearing (privatize everything!), personal freedoms regarding health are threatened. And by the way, we have an ailing planet on our hands. The whispers are wondering if it could be true that the whole democracy game is a distraction from what is really going on behind the scenes......

Honesty is lacking everywhere.
Back in early 2008 I did a blog on the way that partisan politics distort rational discourse on the economy. In short, power to manage the economy is either claimed or denied depending on where the advantage lies.
Who dares to admit that the USA's time at the top of the heap may be coming to an end? Power is shifting to Asia and the South. It is their turn. Demographics plays a huge role.

Anyway.......if I had my druthers, if I could change one thing not only in political discourse but in the way society as a whole functions, it would be this:
Encourage people to think And/And, instead of Either/Or.
Encourage people to focus on what unites them, rather than what divides. Most regular folks want pretty much the same things from life. They just have different ideas on how to achieve them.
Encourage a discourse in which we could say to our opponent: "I don't buy your entire position, but you have some valid points."

Is it a North American thing, or a twenty-first century thing, or a bit of both, that we see such extreme pendulum swings, and so much what I call "block thinking"?
By block thinking I mean the belief that granting an opponent a point is impossible, because it immediately implies that one buys the whole enchilada. I'll elaborate another time.

Meanwhile, the good news is that the Republicans can no longer just play opposition. Yes, the system is broken. They once again will have to own up to owing part of it.

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