Is Democracy pass\ufffd? asks a not-Republican essayist

Just hearing a report on NPR by PW Singer, author of, Children at War - a chronicle of Iran's, later Iraq's creation of a Kiddie Corps of cannon fodder, intended to clear mine fields, rush-in (where even the Six Hundred of the Light Brigade would have flinched) -

Each was 'issued' a little key on a chain: the key to the Gates of Heaven. As the Ayatollah promised each one. This is one replacement: a theocracy. One Right -Strong- opinion. All ya need next is Nukes - to Win the very large rotating cinder.

So then, do we not - most of us - pretty much understand nay.. comprehend the Fond Wish of the Fundie, immersed, bemused, unHappy within a techno explosion of ideas, possibilities {+ and -} and New Forks, appearing to coalesce every day? How to do that? Kill any use/respect for 'knowledge' - choose Faith. Alone. cha.

Is this any other than a plaintive yearning for those 'Goodest'-Old / Days of Yore, when women knew their place {it wasn't On Top}, darkies knew their place {it wasn't on the same sidewalk, let alone section of town} and ...
You Were Either FOR 'U.S.'(A.ye) or you were AGIN US.

Now our perhaps least Reactionary, least fossilized? debating member Mike M queries -- in the spirit of actual contemplation of whence we have come, where 'we' are.. and whether or not that sharp horizon-line just ahead in the mist is an undercut abyss or (merely a small chasm on the way to a nice stair case) heading ^{^up^} --

He raises The Question, which I must rephrase Because it is There:
Is there provocative, persuasive.?. compelling.!. evidence that, we have now *reached* that stage warned about by (that Other Ben) - the prescient Franklin?

Has our internal corruption on many scales and in most areas of social intercourse (as more and more pack heat) surpassed the -line- beyond which 'the center cannot hold / the thing unravels / (your fav)' Hmmm?

One could list zillions of anecdotal material from experience, and we'd each pick a different assortment. Mere random selection:

- the palpable oozing-in of sheer Dumbth,
- the increasing inanity of the popular 'entertainments',
- the mindless Black/White Good/Evil Yes/No nondebates on all levels,
- the perpetually pre-adolescent sniggering behavio(u)r re anything to do with sex, gender, bodies + their functions and Ooohhhh: n u d i t y

- that underlying current, akin to the left-over \ufffdwave background from Son of Big Bang: the lugubrious Puritanism rampant amidst the transistors and nanobots; (never mind all those unread books moldering in those unfunded libraries + an entire army of psychs and shrinks: treating those embedded guilt syndromes.)

- and on and on, but Always evident:
- the unremitting Nastiness of Biz-tactics, the pervasive Daily Lying, the by-design dyslogic of all political mewlings and daily tales of road- cubicle/Postal- spousal- rage, all of which afflictions lead more and more homo-saps towards -->

- a Need for those Drugs: ever to momentarily escape the horrific Bedlam *We* have created and tolerate, ovinely. Gutlessly: in trade for the corporate spew of endless New Toys.

If then, we have become ~ a clinically insane loosely-connected 'nation' of Me-Me-Me Zero-sum gamesters, hollow-materialists utterly adoring only of.. the One-God Money (with periodic pretense that it's some Other God we Really 'Love') --

Then: what-if 'democracy' is a Good Thing only within a window of opportunity, and only amidst curious, tolerant, energetic, unfearful, cooperative, generous (spirit + re all-that-stuff) mutually-respectful ____ creatures?

Because if that were the rough-set of attributes of the Democracy OS: it would appear that the Fundie Mindset is the stake in its heart. And if the US OS model is 'Doze ...

Isn't the yearning for Rapturin Out, merely YAN treacly faux-religio cant for that old cold-war chestnut,

Better DEAD than 'RED'

???


Could be spelled 'read', past tense of read - or even pronounced, well-read: as in more than One Book / year or lifetime. (elide the obv. red/blue - because we gots Good Taste.)

Perhaps, in the Year of Our Ford 1
Descendants of the Prescott Bush Clan shall obviate all the disruptive yammering, spoiled business efficiency and
Take. Charge.

(or, is 'Bushie' a contraction of bullshitter? as a friend used to remark pre-41, even)




Ah.. the local kitty, Sierra shows up. *She* Knows What's Basic.

Isn't that what chaos means?

An 'Elite' replacement VS the Original plan?
Not in my mentation. Hah! I wonder just who/which species would watch the Watchers (Gort? or just Klaatu). 'Cui bono' will ever be with us, so long as ego rules the jelloware.

Nope, we lose this imperfect but once ~workable one - We. Lose. I think we are close.

'Democracy' seemed.. our (maybe everyone's) last shining Best Hope. It only needed minimal, but regular/reliable efforts at scrutinizing the Egos volunteering; checking how they *did*: and then throwing out the inevitable %opportunists. Wash, rinse etc.

This has proven to be too onerous a task for the vast majority of Muricans. We have always taken the lazy way out of that critical *scrutinizing*.

Then too, we've always been a Classist society - with the good fortune that the uniquely qualified and beneficent founders, the authors of the clever checks&balances behaved with exemplary equanimity. They did not face the implications of slavery and recognize the rights of *all women* in defining citizenship.

Nobody's perfect, and considering how wise were their other deliberations - a sane few generations of successors would have addressed the omissions / avoided the insanity of not even a century later. (We'll elide the sorry behaviour of the Puritans et al towards the original owners of this huge real estate windfall - and whatever those savage acts might have predetermined, re the occupiers' future fortunes.)

But we didn't get another generation of that primal virtuosity, did we? We got more population, but of what subsequent quality? Especially after we killed off so many young / promising? in that bloodbath, harbinger of WW-I.

Did it work any better when One Job was enough? The little-woman stayed home (and the 2.2 well-dressed kids did not shoot other kids after or during school) etc.
Of course that bucolic '50s image == WASPS only, here in the USA. Women finally got a vote only in *1920* == One Half of our population. Brown V. Board in '54. Cheney, Schwerner et al died in '64. MLK, RFK in '68. Pretty recent stuff re all that 'slavery' Bad juju.

Kicking & screaming - has been our record re correction of those original omissions. And we're still largely a bunch of racist xenophobes, though some numbers suggest a little %progress .. depending on which clan one is speaking from within.

But IF.. there is a 'window' and we are past it; say, there are just too many amidst the 280 million, today unable to meet the basic duties of citizenship and/or too disinterested to try? - then the entropy could only increase.

(And if Elimidate portrays a very large portion of the 18-25 yos? and Reality Tee Vee actually engages an even wider slice -- looks pretty bad for reversing the trend, to moi.)

Finally, if the various religious sects next are going to duel over Winner Take All, henceforth; the protections of minority views erased for hegemony by some mythical 50.1% - then it's a Corporate Theocracy, not just a Corporatocracy, though there may be less difference there than I suppose.

I agree with Mike that it's fair / not heretical or even rude to raise the question, just as we are about to commence a second dose of a secretive, idiosyncratic cabal -- whose original accession was 'clouded' at the most charitable, while a steady drumbeat of G\ufffdbbelsian propaganda has been the theme ever since they were assigned power by those 5 people. (We might.. have done another election; of course, we aren't Ukrainians)

Polarization appears now nearly complete, communication between the poles more improbable than, even during the Chicago police riots at the Demo convention in '68, following all those assassinations. Greed has never been higher on the Hit Parade.

So.. nope, I don't see any 'replacement Authoritarian' contrivance saving people too lazy/bumbling even to perform as citizens. Either. What I do see is - a Radical regime (antithesis of 'conservative'!!) more apt to use nukes if panicked even further, than any I've lived through or read about. (More likely than the USSR, when there was one.) They will do so for the same reason as most any radical/zealot would;

These have Faith that They Are Right, no matter what anyone in the world thinks - including half of *this* population. And growing?



Nobody talking, addressing obvious fuck-ups, admitting even that mistakes were possible (!) Just more dissembling and slogans about Winning Democracy with troops.
Raise any issue: [Shrub] "I support out troops". Ummmmmm - never mind.




Brrrrr. Cold winter. No sign of a thaw.

Want Cosmic humor? Just heard:
Repos want to set aside the Wash election for a new one.
After a recount or two.
Because they lost. This time.
Love. It.

Wonder where they will stash the protesters at the Inauguration.
This time.
Will he be in a Bradley? Eggs should be no problem for that.

(Hey.. I take NONE of this stuff _seriously - remember? ..some of us see maya as maya.)
What's confusing about That?



sat chit ananda, y'all -

<ob speelingnazi> sequitur as in Gaudeamus igitur cha cha cha
Gotta report this to the IT-English CLO, you understand..