Mark Twain once said "Let me make the superstitions of a nation and I care not who makes its laws or its songs either." This was a brilliant observation. Never more evident than today. Look around, what shapes the society, the discourse (what passes for discourse),what force shapes the policies? Is it intelligence? Reason? Science? Even a remote bit of sensibility?
Any honest evaluation concludes it is not.
No, most of what we see is conjured.
Fairy tales and legends believed so fervently that they are indistinguishable to the believer from observable objective reality.
From the Cold War that weapons manufacturers summoned up to drain the treasuries of many nations into their accounts, to the imaginative fallacy of "trickle down down economics" that began our current downward spiral into crony capitalism, oligarchy and corporatism. From the lamenatble madness of preventative wars of choice, to the historical tragedy of twisting the motives of the founders of the USA into pious capitalists intent on establishing a (tax free for the rich) theocracy.
It's all complete Gimcrackery.
It is all guided by ghosts, goblins, spooks, specters, and boogiemen rising from demon haunted minds. The same ridiculous magical thinking that makes for myth fanatics to see faces of their holy heroes in toast also forms our society, our policies, and perceived realities.
Our faith in easily debunked myths allows us to see salvation in a plastic cup of austerity, when objectively it simply does not exist.
What drives this insanity?
Death anxiety, system instability, dogmatism, intolerance of ambiguity, closed-mindedness, low tolerance of uncertainty, high needs for order and structure, low integrative complexity, fear of threat and loss, low self-esteem and anger over the 60s.
What?
Yes, anger about the 1960s.
In a nutshell, it is reactionary knee-jerk to the 1960s.
We have spent decades now as a society in a ridiculous political and cultural backlash against the progress, political upheaval, and cultural changes of the 1960s. The Reagan 1980s reflected a rejection of the idealism of the 1960s. With John Lennon dead, instead of "All You Need Is Love" we heard a new theme song designed by corporate muzak creators... "All You Need Is Greed".
In the 1980s as a culture we seemed to have decided we no longer found thoughtful musicians like Bob Dylan or Pete Townsend all that interesting and replaced their cultural importance with businessmen...the nastier and more selfish, the better. (Think of the Alex P. Keaton character in Family Ties, think of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho)...in this overcorrection, I kid you not the #1 bestselling advice book (in 1989) was titled Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun.)
The fair and the lofty were out. The cheaters and oppressors were in. The dreamers of dreams were fired and the efficiency experts were hired. While the 60s and 70s heroes tended to be natural, creative, and a tad dangerous... our new reactionary heroes were completely contrived and scripted, destructive, and selling securities. We rejected the well-cultivated wonder our regulated economy was in favor of a misbegotten deregulated illusion where very few are prosperous...but the handful that are take all. No more shaggy hippies! No, we now want a sharp dressed man.
One who is self promoting, pompous, and full of ignorance and greed.
Instead of musicians with groupies, we demanded Donald Trump with whatever arm candy he paid for at the time.
Yes...it's true. We have no use for justice or statesmanship any more. Rather we demand SOB CEOs barking out nonsense...but with authority! It's no accident that Donald Trump should pretend to run for the presidency...he is the leadership we deserve. After all now we are broke, the sharp dressers own everything. They dumped their losses on us, raided the public treasury and moved it to tax sheltered accounts offshore...and a certain percentage are still jerking their knees, dislocating their chins...ready to trust another sharp dressing self promoting douchebag to run their country.
Yes...Trump really should be president. You get the leadership you deserve. We deserve no more.
We deserve a moronic narcissist buffoon, because friends, we have become a nation of ungovernable morons. We deserve Trump...in fact he is inevitable.
Any honest evaluation concludes it is not.
No, most of what we see is conjured.
Fairy tales and legends believed so fervently that they are indistinguishable to the believer from observable objective reality.
From the Cold War that weapons manufacturers summoned up to drain the treasuries of many nations into their accounts, to the imaginative fallacy of "trickle down down economics" that began our current downward spiral into crony capitalism, oligarchy and corporatism. From the lamenatble madness of preventative wars of choice, to the historical tragedy of twisting the motives of the founders of the USA into pious capitalists intent on establishing a (tax free for the rich) theocracy.
It's all complete Gimcrackery.
It is all guided by ghosts, goblins, spooks, specters, and boogiemen rising from demon haunted minds. The same ridiculous magical thinking that makes for myth fanatics to see faces of their holy heroes in toast also forms our society, our policies, and perceived realities.
Our faith in easily debunked myths allows us to see salvation in a plastic cup of austerity, when objectively it simply does not exist.
What drives this insanity?
Death anxiety, system instability, dogmatism, intolerance of ambiguity, closed-mindedness, low tolerance of uncertainty, high needs for order and structure, low integrative complexity, fear of threat and loss, low self-esteem and anger over the 60s.
What?
Yes, anger about the 1960s.
In a nutshell, it is reactionary knee-jerk to the 1960s.
We have spent decades now as a society in a ridiculous political and cultural backlash against the progress, political upheaval, and cultural changes of the 1960s. The Reagan 1980s reflected a rejection of the idealism of the 1960s. With John Lennon dead, instead of "All You Need Is Love" we heard a new theme song designed by corporate muzak creators... "All You Need Is Greed".
In the 1980s as a culture we seemed to have decided we no longer found thoughtful musicians like Bob Dylan or Pete Townsend all that interesting and replaced their cultural importance with businessmen...the nastier and more selfish, the better. (Think of the Alex P. Keaton character in Family Ties, think of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho)...in this overcorrection, I kid you not the #1 bestselling advice book (in 1989) was titled Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun.)
The fair and the lofty were out. The cheaters and oppressors were in. The dreamers of dreams were fired and the efficiency experts were hired. While the 60s and 70s heroes tended to be natural, creative, and a tad dangerous... our new reactionary heroes were completely contrived and scripted, destructive, and selling securities. We rejected the well-cultivated wonder our regulated economy was in favor of a misbegotten deregulated illusion where very few are prosperous...but the handful that are take all. No more shaggy hippies! No, we now want a sharp dressed man.
One who is self promoting, pompous, and full of ignorance and greed.
Instead of musicians with groupies, we demanded Donald Trump with whatever arm candy he paid for at the time.
Yes...it's true. We have no use for justice or statesmanship any more. Rather we demand SOB CEOs barking out nonsense...but with authority! It's no accident that Donald Trump should pretend to run for the presidency...he is the leadership we deserve. After all now we are broke, the sharp dressers own everything. They dumped their losses on us, raided the public treasury and moved it to tax sheltered accounts offshore...and a certain percentage are still jerking their knees, dislocating their chins...ready to trust another sharp dressing self promoting douchebag to run their country.
Yes...Trump really should be president. You get the leadership you deserve. We deserve no more.
We deserve a moronic narcissist buffoon, because friends, we have become a nation of ungovernable morons. We deserve Trump...in fact he is inevitable.
