YOU Are The Reason THEY Are Laughing At You - Part 1

YOU Are The Reason THEY Are Laughing At You - Part 1

This is going to generate angst among some of you. It is not my intention to pick a fight or offend. However, I will make no apologies for emotions stirred. If you think I am in error then please state why you feel that way and list what you would do instead, and why that may work. My point behind all of these writings is to generate healthy discussion. I do not claim to have the answers, I am actively seeking them. But the same tired rhetoric spewing forth for decades, generations really, that yield nothing moving forward for the benefit of those doing the spewing has got to stop. We seriously need to alter our thinking so we can consider an alternate way of living our lives and the function of society. I will not remind anyone of the definitions of the terms ‘stupidity’ and ‘insanity’. There are tons of memes showing that all over the place and you likely have seen many of them.

All of my life I have heard and was told that voting is the ultimate responsibility of our power. It was the highest duty and anyone should be shunned for not wanting to participate in it’s practice. “Vote the bums out if they don’t do their jobs!” The problem there is that they still are kept for their term even if you do decide you are displeased with their performance, or lack thereof. And all that time they are in their respective positions of power they still have the authority to move forward with their tasks which are nearly universally done at the behest of donors. And who are these ‘donors’? Business interests for business purposes. The purpose of a corporation is to achieve value for its stockholders, not to benefit its customers, employees, or contractors. That is only a byproduct of the process and that can be done minimally, if so desired, by the Board of Executives.

I have voted 5 times in my entire life. One of those times was under duress, of sorts. I felt pressured to vote for what was deemed the second best, since my primary choice had been knocked out of the race. I was too inept to explain it at that time but I had a strong sense of unease. Within a month I came to dreadfully feel the sting of that very poor decision. I swore I would never make that mistake again. Why would I, or anyone else for that matter, submit to so embarrassingly disgracing themselves for something so futile?  

Why have I voted so infrequently? Because it is a joke and it does not matter, not in any deeply meaningful way. The final choices presented are usually the worst of the bunch, or at least pretty far pickings down the desirability hole. Why do we keep getting these same types of interchangeable people? Looking back throughout our national history it can be seen that any real benefits are short-lived, if existent at all. It has been corrupted way before the 2020 US Presidential election. Whether local or national, very rarely do any of the candidates possess the moral acumen required to firmly stand on the grounds that they campaigned on, unless they openly campaigned for your downfall. They are bought, sold, borrowed, and traded but just lacking the moment by moment ticker like a stock market. Seriously, can anyone look over the past century and see that voting matters to the people that are doing the voting? Has anything helped the citizenry more over this time? Or has it made things more problematic and expensive for them? One simple way to answer that is to start by asking yourself “Have things gotten better and easier over time for my life and that of my children?”. Be honest, not comfortable, in your answer. Notice I did not write ‘with’ your answer. 

The exact same principle applies to the idea of contacting your representatives. Do you really believe that an email, a phone call, a letter, or thousands of them will significantly matter to them? Your wonderful vote may have helped put them into their position where they have been enabled to earn these wonderful privileges where robbing you of finances, freedom, and respect are the net result, but that does not in any way mean that they owe you anything. In a moral stance you have a valid argument for that they do bear a debt to you, but in practice when does that happen with them or another elected official at that time? Or any other time? “It’s all that we can do” is a ‘battle cry’ I have long heard. That sounds amazingly defeatist and compliant.  

If you can happen to be of use as a patsy or shill for a cause that they can gain something from your involvement then you may be ‘in’ with that crowd, at least for the while that you serve your purpose for them and those that they actually do serve. What the law says does not matter if it is not enforced, or only selectively enforced. As Thomas Sowell said there is nothing more stupid or dangerous than having people in charge who sustain no consequence for being wrong. We do not need another committee, another charity, another PAC, another community outreach if the ones that are already in place did what they were supposed to do. Or maybe they really are, if their primary cause is to generate money and contacts for certain people seeking power and influence, whether it is the openly stated cause or not, but it is the genuine intention behind the effort. Yes, yes, I am sure that their cost of doing business is very high which is why only a small portion of the proceeds acquired are utilized towards the stated goal. Something like saving Africans from starvation or protecting our children from drugs comes to mind.  

Rallies fit into this as well. Standing on a street corner talking to each other accomplishes very little to nothing towards the desire outcome, unless that desired outcome is a photo op used for ‘news’ and ‘editorials’ later. It is a good way to meet more like-minded people, as well as ‘plants’ from the other side. Unless a rally becomes disruptive directly to those you are rallying against your pleas will not be noticed to those you are upset with.  Those standing or laying in the streets blocking the roads completely I would have no issue with them getting run over. If your rally leads to the inconvenience and harassment of the average person just trying to get on with their life then you are doing a disservice. This is not an instruction manual and violence is not the first plan of attack, so to speak, unless you being Machiavellian in your tactics or other factions that are sponsoring riots, or rather, peaceful protests. Pun not intended but it fits. Rallies generally do not hinder, unless they are used as a setup for the attendees, it is simply highly questionable as to how effective they are unless they are stern and consistent. Your enemy, propaganda, which is legal and permissible, never sleeps.   

If you wish to partake in voting and/or attend rallies and/or reach out and make contacts to those you disapprove of then go forth and prosper. I wish you well and would be very happy if you got the results you fought for. But we rarely do, sometimes never. And then it gets worse and seemingly, if not actually, more desperate. Then people, and that includes you, start to strain under the hurt. It may be easier to give in to what ails you either by doing what is being demanded of you or simply accepting your feeble lot while diminishing your vitality in dismay. That is what happens when you compulsively listen to serial liars and thieves. These people are legitimately psychopaths. As George Carlin said, “It’s a big fucking club and you ain’t in it!”   

To be continued…