America No. 45

War of our world: Witness to the collapse of the American Republic.

     December 2011.  Now, on the precipice of a new year, am I the only one suffering a sense of disquiet as to the fate of our former Republic of America? Am I the only one who wonders what happened to transform said former Republic into the soulless oligarchy it is today? Oh, good.  Well, here are just a few of the reasons America is no longer America.  This is not the entire set, of course, but you may collect the entire set...Trade them with your friends...

Erosion of the mind.  The mind? We don’t need no stinkin’ mind.  Hey, I’ve got an app for that mind thingy.  My MeGizmo does all my thinking for me.  Not only do Americans appear to be thinking and reasoning less, but in conjunction they are being force-fed drivel through all their little gadgets.

The decomposing center; the disappearing national cohesion.  As demagogue and ideologue-driven faction-frenzies grow in scope and power, the idea of national cohesion recedes, as does the concept of compromise around a rational center.

The demise of traditions, the evisceration of holidays and the force-feeding of homogeneity.  Traditions, regional and national, are beginning to atrophy, or they have been appropriated by cynical entities seeking to profit off them.  All of America’s holidays are now nothing more than barometers for how much merchandise can be hyped and sold (See, Christmas, an obscene orgy of selling, buying and guilt.). 

The cult of the celebrity and the celebration of boors and boorishness.  Americans are obsessed with shallow celebs and reality TV nitwits, and who are daily stuffed down our media gullets.  Everything now must have a celebrity angle, or it is not considered relevant.  Celebrity bios and birthdays are presented and announced daily.  Even NPR (National Public Radio) seems to have become ensnared in celebrity worship.

Debasement of the self.  Americans have been taught to “act/play the fool” is somehow a democratizing trait.  TV and the Internet constantly present us with fools being celebrated.  At public events the cameras always show us the fools: the fools waving and jumping up and down; the fools dressed as fools; the fools trying to get their fifteen minutes...What, you haven’t seen Chuck “Where’s the camera!” Schumer?

The materialization of society.  Hourly, Americans are subjected to a relentless wave of SELL! SELL!; BUY! BUY! Commercials hector us on all manner of our media and supply the bulk of the time of whatever we watch.  Americans have been conditioned to roll out of bed at all hours and go shop; to stand in line for hours; to camp out in front of Big Box stores; to resort to fighting or stomping our fellow shoppers...And our grinning, alleged media merrily cover all this as though it were children leaving for summer camp.

The encouragement and ignoring of debt, both public and private.  Debt continues to climb, as all aspects of American society have been indoctrinated with the idea of spending without consequences.  Happy face credit card companies ply us with cutesy, consequences-free adverts which show us the joys of debt.  And, of course, our alleged political reps borrow and spend with impunity (Hey, it’s not their money!).

The lionization of media demagogues on talk radio and cable TV.  Media demagogues rule and may be found daily on talk radio and on FOX and MSNBC belching forth their divisive rancor.

The obsession with inane stats and numbers.  Chief among these are the singularly noxious poll numbers, as daily we have heaped upon us the results of numerous inane polls (Tell the truth, do you really remember the results? Of course you don’t.).  Too, one cannot watch any alleged sporting event without being beset by stats crawling across the bottom of our screens, so as to appease the annoying fantasy nerds.

The denigration of sportsmanship and fairness.  Sport in America has become a cesspool of cheap shots (both verbal and physical), trash talk, gambling, chest-thumping, ME-first posers

The demise of governance.

Read.  Absorb. Think.  Act!
Be obstreperous, not obsequious.

     December 2011.  If you are a reasoned thinker, the thought must have flitted across the windowpane of your mind: America is no longer governed so much as it is whipped into faction-frenzies as demanded by the two predominant American ideologies, and assisted by their true believers and acolytes.
     Ideologies? Wait, you say, America has never been an ideological nation.  Americans aren’t ideologues. 
     True, until recently.  In the over-hyped Sixties America witnessed the Left and the rise of the so-called New Left, many of which now wander the groves of academe.  But despite their spouting of violent rhetoric, the Left/New Left were always more of a laughable proposition than a threat to the demise of America.  Ah, but America has now fallen prey to a more sedate and more insidious ideology, one which has bored its way into the fabric of America.  And that ideology is known as neoconservatism, the false conservatism.   
     The neocons first dead-headed their way into respectability in the Reagan administration, and then took over the administration of the bobblehead “Dubya” Bush.  Once in control of the Bush administration the neocons employed various useful idiots (See Tea Party) and numerous shrill shills (See Limbaugh, Rush and the other demagogues of talk radio, as well as the demagogues of the FOX agitprop channel) to extend their base of largely ignorant true believers.  Neocon demagogues and their addled true believers now control talk radio and the cable TV screech and sell markets.
     In opposition are the so-called progressives, the false liberals.  They have largely disappeared from talk radio and are now centered around MSNBC, the Comcast-owned cable TV station and various websites.
     And both ideologies have numerous fellow traveler websites which entertain the faithful by pumping out ideological argot.  Thus, both ideologies have created faction-frenzies, which have served to engulf a wide swath of American society and many (if not all) of today’s high-profile issues.
     The aforementioned faction-frenzies, as whipped up by our techno-aided ideologues and demagogues, now serve to infuse rancor into all our national issues.  And when one considers the added component of an increasingly deumbed down citizenry, a citizenry more concerned with the false world of pseudo-reality TV and the lives of nitwit celebs, one understands how we have arrived at where we are; understands how ideologues and demagogues now hold sway on issues.
     As a result of faction-frenzies, our party mechanisms have broken down, overwhelmed by ideologues and their demagogue shills on talk radio and cable TV.  In addition, the individuals we elect are not of the best and brightest, but largely of the worst and dimmest.  The Tea Party wing of the Republican party are but a neocon-controlled phalanx of shock troops, sent in to shrilly shout the neocon party line.  They are an obdurate lot and not given to compromise.  And now we have Occupy Wall Street (OWS), another psuedo-populist movement without the urge to compromise.  Indeed, compromise is among the first casualties of a society dominated by faction-frenzies.
     Our ruinous involvement in the obscene wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the result of ideological faction-frenzy.  These draining ventures have cost America thousands of innocent lives and over a trillion wasted dollars.  And both the bodies and the billions continue to be wasted, primarily in Afghanistan, as our war in Iraq is officially over (I think...well, except for all those contractors.).
    Ideologues and demagogues are a priori thinkers and care little for empirical evidence of history, or of events gone by.  Too, they care little for reason.  Ideologues and demagogues ignore or rearrange the empirical slate to read whatever their thinking is on a given issue.  And in the place of reason and empirical facts we now have faction-frenzies.
     How is that working out for u.s.?

Occupy the apparatus.

ap*pa*ra*tus   n.  1. The totality of means by which a designated function is performed or a specific task executed.  2.  a.  A machine.  b.  A group of machines used together or in succession to accomplish a task...4.  A political organization.  - From The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition.

“Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.” - David Hume

     December 2011.  Recently, America has witnessed the rise of the so-called Tea Party movement, and, more recently, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement.  Both entities are pseudo-populist fronts for the ideologies which created and run them.  In the case of the Tea Party, it is a creation of neoconservatism, the false conservatism, whereas Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a creation of progressivism, the false liberalism.  Both the Tea Party and OWS serve as ideological conduits.  Neither entity represents We the People anymore than the corporate class or D.C.’s Beltway Bog represents We the People.  The Tea Party and OWS are fabrications.  They are playing on the ever-increasing ignorance of the age, an age given over to shallow demagoguery and cynical non-governance...Meanwhile, back in the D.C. Beltway Bog...
     Consider this bitter irony: America has become the country which our Framers formed the original Republic to protect We the People against.  That is, centralized and amassed power.  The British Crown was the source of tyranny for fledgling America.  But current day America is beset with a more pervasive and insidious tyranny, one perpetrated by the very apparatus charged with protecting it from tyranny.  One may call this apparatus many things: the special interest status quo; the Beltway leviathan; the American Oligarchy; the American Crown; generic BIG government, an invasive bureaucratic corpse that won’t stop growing...The apparatus...
     The apparatus? Yes, the collective special interests of both the government and corporate sectors.  The coalescence of the government and corporate sector apparatuses with the singular goal of keeping We the People, dumb, distracted and quiet...or at least perpetually frustrated.
   
     Consider these lines from the Introduction of “Leftism Revisited: From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Pol Pot” by the late Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn:  “There is nothing more fatal than sentimental amateurism.  The switches were wrongly set in 1789 with the French Revolution.  The three fundamentally leftist revolutions, those that spawned France’s democracy, Russia’s international socialism, and Germany’s national socialism, formed and fashioned the history of the last two hundred years and established the “Centuries of the G”-guillotines, gaols, gallows, gas chambers, and gulags.”
     It could be suggested America today is in “The Age of the D,” that is:  the dumbed down; the distracted; the deluded; the deluged (as in overwhelmed); the disabused; the divisive and the devious, thus what has set in has been decay.
     Consider the following excerpt from Orwell’s 1984:
“...the Party taught that the proles were natural inferiors who must be kept in subjection, like animals, by the application of a few simple rules...
Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer,  and, above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds.  To keep them in control was not difficult.”

     Now, let us RE-write the above excerpt to reflect current day America:
...Both the parties, Donkeys and Elephants, viewed America’s proles as easy pickings to be dumbed down and controlled (much like pets), by applying a few simple controllers: The constant grind of government and corporate bureaucracy to keep them busy and frustrated; numerous unprincipled media demagogues to keep them riled up over essentially nothing and each other’s throats; layered debt to keep  the proles buying and paying; daily helpings of silly celeb news and pseudo-reality TV; the daily introduction of petty, lipstick on a pig non-issues; a sprawling and predatory sports industry (and, above all, gambling); booze and fast food; numerous media commercials; constant hype as regards gadgets and [alleged] entertainment vehicles; constant sophomoric allusions to sex and scatological talk...And so it goes, on and on...

The Grotesque Ol' Putrefaction (aka the Republican party), a cadaver fit for a "CSI"/"Bones" cameo.

     December 2011.  Surely you have see at least one episode of “CSI” or “Bones.”  If so, you are aware that the gag-inducing corpse, one in a heightened state of putrefaction, is almost always used as a prop, an introduction to the crime.  It is a sufficiently grotesque cadaver with a rotted, maggot/fly-infested face, and stomach contents of the consistency of aged vomit...a cadaver resembling the current state of the Republican party.  The Republican party has become a collection of moral and intellectual stiffs, a political cadaver farm.  It began with the loathsome, neocon-run Bush administration, an administration which gave America needless war and casualties, and debt; it continued with the addled John McCain, who gave us the dolt known as Sarah Palin (Whatever happened to her, anyway?); Then came Donny “Comb Over” Trump, an odious buffoon;  And then Bachmann, a silly thing; finally the rhetorical weathervane and cardboard cutout known as Mitt Romney, who has recently been eclipsed by the malodorous cadaver of the zombie Newt Gingrich, exhumed and brought to the fore.  And, of course, one must not ignore the triumvirate which serves as the brain trust for today’s Grotesque Ol’ Putrfaction: Rush Limbaugh, a corpulent demagogue, who sits behind a microphone issuing hate and ludicrous drivel as he enriches himself by exploiting the ignorant and likewise hate-filled.  And then there is Rupert “You’ve been hacked!” Murdoch and his carcinogenic News Corp. empire (FOX non-news, Wall Street Journal, NY Post...).  Finally, we have the aforementioned Donny Trump, or Karl Rove (Your choice!), either choice ensures you have chosen a slimy character.
     Since the modern Republican party was founded in 1854 it has fielded for America a wide spectrum of individuals, from the laudable to the loathsome, but since being taken over by the neocons (false conservatives) it has become a slough of death, debt and, finally, despair for those of us who would have rational governance.

Miley & Michelle: Two exploiters, two phonies.

     December 2011.  Y’all know who Miley Cyrus is, don’t you? In our celebrity-soaked nation I suspect most know she is the annoying daughter of an annoying, washed-up one-hit wonder.  So, y’all know who Michelle Malkin is, don’t you? No? Ms. Malkin is one of America’s ever-growing demagogue demimonde, a group of individuals who ply the media channels of talk radio and cable TV (See Limbaugh, FOX and MSNBC, et al) exploiting societal ignorance and the baser instincts of humanity so as to garner  publicity and thus make themselves wealthy.  As with government, demagogues create nothing (Wait, I take that back! Government creates bureaucracy, paperwork, agita...Sorry.) while they sit in their media cubicles spewing rancor, half-truths and outright lies; spinning the Big Lie. 
     Ms. Malkin recently wrote a column entitled “Miley Cyrus’ ‘Occupy’ Exploit,” in which she took Cyrus to task for contributing a “YouTube anthem” to the Occupy movement. Ms. Malkin’s piece appeared in the 3 December edition of Rupert “You’ve been hacked!” Murdoch’s New York Post, a tabloid rag which fronts as an attack/smear vehicle for the neocon (false conservative) ideology.  Indeed, the whole of the Murdoch News Corp. enterprise, which includes the Post, the FOX Agitprop channel, the Wall Street Journal and the London Times, serves as the attack/smear wing of the neocon ideology.
     Ms. Malkin’s column attacked Ms. Cyrus as “Hollywood’s perpetually half-dressed wild child with an insatiable appetite for attention...”  Understand, I am not here to defend Miley Cyrus or Hollywood celebs or reality TV trash...but I am here to show just how alike America’s celebrity crowd and America’s demagogue demimonde are.  Kindred souls of occupation and exploitation.  Consider the following excerpt from Ms. Malkin’s piece:
     “Will Miley put her Louboutins where her vocal chords are? With an estimated net worth of $120 million, the radical chic poseur is no dummy.  While her video stokes anti-police hostility and anti-bank rage, she and her managers can safely raise their figurative fists with one hand while inking new corporate deals with the other.”  All true, BUT what say I re-write the above to encompass the demagogue demimonde.  Ready?
     I have put in [brackets] those words and phrases that have been altered to accommodate Ms. Malkin and her crowd: “Will [Michelle, Laura, Ann, Bill, Sean, et al] put their Louboutins (and Manolo’s) where their vocal chords [and keyboards] are? With an estimated net worth of [Demagogues, fill in YOUR net worth], these [pseudo-populist poseurs] are no dummies, [as they know how to exploit the ignorance and anger of their audience.].  While [their radio rants, Pod casts, columns and cable TV appearances stoke thinly-veiled class warfare hatred and racism, the Michelle Malkins, et al and their managers/handlers can safely hide behind their veneers of false patriotism [They screech for war, but never serve.], and false faith, as they remain safe and sound in their well-guarded media cubicles and in their mansions, while masquerading as friends of We the People, as patriots and as holier than thou types.  In truth, they are but phonies.
     Ms. Malkin ends her piece with this: “In so many ways, Miley and the Occu-mob are a match made in heaven.  Vacuous.  Hypocritical.  Entitled.  Vain.  Nihilist.  Exhibitionist.  Coddled.  Forever adolescent, treating life like an endless “Party in the USA,” and demanding that everyone else pay for it.”
     Congratulations, Ms. Malkin, as you have accurately described (with little variation) the lifestyle/existence of virtually the whole swath of the demagogue demimonde.  Does that not sound like Rush Limbaugh, et al (Vacuous.  Hypocritical.  Vain.  Exhibitionist.  Coddled...demanding everyone else pay?).  Of course one would have to substitute “Tea-soaked mob” for “Occu-mob,” but...  You do realize that both the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street crowds are two false popular fronts created by their respective ideologies, do you not?
     Bottom line? Phonies abound in our modern day America and these demagogue phonies (like Malkin, et al) have managed to thrive, as they lack conscience and they covet publicity and wealth.  And our ever-evolving media technology allow said phonies greater access to America’s  ever dumbing down citizenry.  Both Miley Cyrus and Michelle Malkin are but two shallow corporate creations given over to hoodwinking a certain percentage of the general populace.  More and more, the phonies are capable of fooling more and more of the people all of the time.

'Tis the season to stuff a turkey with flyers, ignore Jesus, go gaga over Lady Nuisance, celebrate the resurrection of the NBA, and to log onto a virtual & contrived season of corp. crap.

“For a moment they were both tugging, and then the handle came off [the saucepan].  Winston watched them disgustedly.  And yet, just for a moment, what almost frightening power had sounded in that cry from only a few hundred throats! Why was it that they could never shout like that about anything that mattered?” From Orwell’s 1984.  To what does this refer? Read the novel (HINT: It has to do with proles fighting over material goods.).

     December 2011.  Ah, yes, ‘tis what is gratuitously called the Holiday Season (Black Thursday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday?), that cordoned off time of the year when America demonstrates just how well it has been indoctrinated by its corporate overseers.  And America responds by dutifully queuing up/camping out/logging on outside of and onto a host of big box stores in anticipation of the start of the corporate-dictated Holiday Season.  The festivities comprising this corporate-contrived Holiday Season include the stomping of security guards (Sometimes to the death); fist fights for mall-ascendency to claim the latest Made in China, over-hyped products; the tasing (”Don’t tase me, workshop elf bro!”) and/or pepper spraying (by both police and shoppers); the issuing of invectives in the entire octave range of the human voice...In short, all behavior antithetical to the meaning of the now deceased Holiday Season. 
     But what do holidays (really) matter, save for providing vehicles for unrestrained consumerism? And they do not, of course, and have not for a number of years now.
     The basic meanings of America’s holidays have been gutted and been replaced with the guts of 24/7 consumerism.  And various luminaries such as Washington, Franklin, Lincoln? All have become but props, just as the American turkey and the trimmings of Christmas.  Too, there is another imperative which has become front and center in our modern age of American crap.  It is the celebrity imperative.
     The celebrity imperative? What the Fa-la-la-LILO-RiRi is that? Precisely, it is the deification of celebrities to the point where they must be insinuated into each and every area of society, or that lacking area shall be viewed as inconsequential.  Consider Thanksgiving.  It is bad enough Thanksgiving has become the anteroom for Black Friday promotion and a stage for NFL football, but on Thanksgiving night we were beset with a TV Katie Couric special, which featured the ever-annoying Katie Couric plumbing the depths of the ever-annoying Lady Nuisance (aka Gaga).  So that is what Thanksgiving has become: sales, football and Gaga.  Too, holidays have come to serve as promo vehicles for the latest movie release.  I fully expect Jesus to be in the next chipmunks promo (Jesus, Chipmunks and Gaga sing Tony Bennett?), or fronting for the latest Spielberg release.
     No matter.  Be thankful.  I have just learned Christmas has been saved, has been redeemed, to use a more appropriate word.  The NBA is back! The NBA shall save the day with a quadruple header.  Jesus would have wanted it that way.  Take Jesus, the Knicks and throw in your (bonus mileage) points.
     Lady Gaga and David Stern, saviors of Western tradition: Who knew?