On the subject of the debt debacle, August 2011.
It’s a good thing we lost faith in politicians a long time ago, folks. Otherwise we may have been stunned by the dazzling display of incompetence we’re witnessing right down the road in Washington. Truly we have an opportunity to embrace the events of the past few weeks as a wake-up call, because for far too long we’ve treated our elected officials like patriarchs when, in fact these days, they’re more akin to salesmen. Used car salesmen at that. I’m talking about the kind of salesman who’s behind on child support and not at all unfamiliar with threats of being kicked out of his double-wide by his landlord for rarely paying rent on time.
This gang of salesmen is deciding what wars to fight in our name and how best to pay our bills in tragically comical fashion. Somehow they have convinced us they have power over us when, in fact, they are employed by us. So why are we allowing them to fail again and again? Why don’t we just fire the bums? There are millions of us versus thousands of them and if we want them to act in our interests then we have the authority to insist they act in our interests. We need to stop complicating the process and, most importantly, we need to stop letting them decide the narrative.
Their narrative is divisive, it pits us against one another, it’s for sale, and the ‘happily ever after’ part goes to the highest bidder. If your political affiliation separates you from your fellow human beings, it’s time to rethink that relationship. The current mess in Washington is one that we’ve bought and paid for as a society, not one that was forced upon us by a dictatorship.
The entities who have an interest in keeping us divided would ship us out into suburbia, file us into self-contained domiciles where their messaging can be transmitted easily, masterfully disguised as news and entertainment. Over time, they’ve driven wedges between communities and, finally, succeeded in separating individuals from one other, thereby thwarting any intelligent discourse that might lead to the questioning of authority. The politicians in D.C. and much of celebrity culture are little more than the pretty faces and convincing speeches that have succeeded in keeping us from talking to one another.
We have to put aside the differences they’ve sold us and come together to forge a new narrative. The first step is to go and spend time with people with whom you wouldn’t normally associate. Anarchists, go have beers with Young Republicans and see if there’s any common ground after a few. Muslims, invite right-wing Christians and Jews to come and break bread over Iftar during Ramadan. Ravens fans go tailgate peacefully with Steelers fans, cats play nice with dogs, etc. If we want to reverse the roles of elected officials and the citizenry responsible for them in order to empower the people, we have to come together and start a conversation about common ground, not debate issues on which we differ. I would wager that we’ll find we have more in common than not. The current worldview we’re buying isn’t benefitting anyone other than the salesmen and the interests of those they serve and, unfortunately, they are not serving the interests of the People. They are serving themselves.
