"The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." Orwell
"“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
Plato
"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant" Robespierre
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Doomnation
In timing that can only be considered ironic, the latest report from Copenhagen is released. As the rest of the world is recognizing the existential implications of climate change and mankind's primary role in it, we in the US are about to turn congress over to people who'll make sure we continue to ignore it. Deny it. Pretend it's a liberal plot.
It's unbelievable and inexplicable that our nation has turned so steadfastly to such people; has become unwilling to make the sort of sacrifices, address the challenges for which it once was rightly known. It's depressing beyond description that a small cadre of very wealthy people whose livelihood depends on continued pollution have so easily subverted our political process, bought our elections, bombarded people with evidently irresistible propaganda, feeding their fears and relying on their weakness to achieve their ends.
And now, finally, we see the results of the so-called Republican "long game" and the inability of feckless and disorganized Democrats to match it with reality. Brilliant: single out the religious base, convince them Christianity is under attack, vote them into school boards, endumb the populace, feed fears of bogeymen that don't exist. Behind the power of a unified disinformation network, get them, and then those around them, to believe we're at greater risk from those that would provide health care and public education than from those who'd rape the land and darken the skies for profit, who figure there's nothing that will result that can't be dealt with in their insulated castles, so who cares.
Is that hyperbole? Am I over the top? In prose, maybe. But in fact?
If humanity survives long enough, history will look at early twenty-first century America and smack its forehead so loudly it'll be heard on the moon colony which if it doesn't exist means humanity is a thing of the past.
The fault will be ours, America's only. Exceptionalism will, finally, be inarguable. We'll have been the only country on the planet that buried its collective heads in the hot sands, from which the words will barely be discernible but will still be mumbled, plaintively: voter fraud, IRS, ebola, ISIS, Benghazi, birth certificate, socialism...
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As I have told you before "WE" need you in Washington to set all the "good old boys" straight, or completely clean House.....Your faithful reader, cheer leader and if I was younger I'd go with you!
ReplyDeleteoh its not just America.
ReplyDeletetheres our Tony Abbott - you know, the bloke who said hes not interested in climate discussions at the pending G20.
sure, theres a lot of blame on Congress.... but they are by no means alone....
This is what also happened to the "prophets", philosophers and I'm sure some of the elites knew the empire would collapse. No one did anything and no one will for us. I just like to know I'm not the only that knows this and try to enjoy whatever i can.
ReplyDelete"Is that hyperbole? Am I over the top?"
ReplyDeleteIn a word, "No." You have absolutely captured the insanity which rules our political discourse. Thanks for putting it so simply, too; the "Republican long game." So true and so sad...but let's not give up hope yet. We'll see what Wednesday morning brings....
We have caused massive extinctions and the culmination of that will be our own and it is richly deserved.
ReplyDeleteLuckily I shouldn't be around to experience it.
Jim