Open Thread - 08/07/26 - Grazing the Herd
How odd it is that humans allow another human, or group of humans, to have so much power over themselves. Given that all humans are flawed, in some such way.
Where, in the human psyche does that necessity come from? A need for cooperation? For order? For security? Because humans are herd animals?
Saints and sinners, those are relative designations determined by societal norms, one man's saint is another man's sinner, adjustable according to definition. But, in today's world those two opposing attributes become indistinguishable.
Especially in Washington, DC.
DonkeyHotey, flickr Creative Commons
I'm going to tell you something you already know, our politicians don't represent us. They haven't for a very long time. There may be a few that have served for the right reasons, but they don't last long. The Machine spits them out like the coin return on a Coinstar kiosk.
Our politicians are supposed to represent us, the People. But they don't. They represent themselves and the relationships they have with the financial markets, lobbyists, campaign donations and any other lard they can squeeze from the pork that they bring home.
Does that sound familiar? There was a war fought about much the same things, some 250 years ago.
I'm neither a Democrat or a Republican. I guess you could call me an Independent. Not the kind of independent that sits between the Democrats and Republicans and usually swing votes for one party or the other. I'm the the kind of real Independent that doesn't have to go along with any of the cult-like two party bullshit.
The donkey and elephant are appropriate mascots, both can be fed legal bribery from a lobbyist's feed bag. While the people they're supposed to represent struggle to get by.
The Democrats left me long ago, starting with the Clinton administration, then the Biden presidency sealed that deal for me. The Republicans are no better, their greedy heads are stuck in the feed bag as well.
So I guess an "Independent" it is. Until something better comes along. But for that "something better" to happen, intra-party, would mean some heads would need to be pulled from the feed bags, and then, monkeys would fly out my ass.
I think maybe things might change if enough people realize that we're governed by very flawed people. People that have no interest in representing us, except for those election periods when they canonize themselves as saints, only to return afterwards to the sinners they've always been. Until the next cycle. Or until they die. And sometimes even that doesn't stop them.
Maybe the surveillance state watching every move we make or the collapse of our rigged ponzi-economy will wake enough people up. Maybe.
Maybe a new party I can get behind will come along. Maybe that damn asteroid will finally hit Earth. Maybe.
Sometimes I think these times are a patchwork of dystopian movies I've seen over my 72 years, I just don't know which ending it's going to be. Good or bad.
In the mean time, I'll end with the beginning:
"How odd it is that humans allow another human or group of humans to have so much power over themselves."
It's not that odd. Humans allow it, until they don't.
Then they pick a new herd leader and start the whole thing over again.
3:16
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
sorry if I rambled on a bit.
I was very much a rambling man in my younger days.
Many years later it's mostly my mind that rambles.
Oops, there I go again.
What's up with you today, my friends?
Tell me about it.
Getting from point A to point B
.
Normally takes a bit of rambling if you want to touch
all the bases. Your points are well taken.
I propose we rename the mascots for the two parties to
more fitting critters. Like snake and lizard or ant and spider.
Low lifers all. Mole and vole? What would you suggest?
Thanks for the OT. Enjoy your Friday.
Zionism is a social disease
Getting from point...
A to B was one thing back in my days of riding the thumb, but getting thoughts from synapse A to synapse B in my later years have proven to be another thing entirely.
My entry for the two party mascots: The Scorpion and the Frog.
Thanks for sailing in.
Brilliant.
Well played- I'm stealing that!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
My ramblings...
are always open to a five finger discount.
I would go for any 3rd party
even if I disagreed with it. Anything to break this logjam. We're taught about democracy and government, but we get a popularity contest put on by the wealthy to choose one of their many vetted candidates.
Why have a country if few of the benefits go to it's citizens? As I understood it, government did the things that were too big, too needed and not profitable for business. Since most of our government concerns itself with commerce and taxation (too unsexy to attract media) the politicians get bribed to monetize all our needs. Education, health care, food, housing? Can't afford it? too bad. Every piece of legislation opens the door for exploitation of the 99%, since privatization is cheaper, right? So the media reports on the social aspects of race, sex, religion in concerned tone, and the politicians thump their chests and nothing gets done. One half of the country hates the other and that seems to be the new party platform.
My hope is the youngs figure out something to get behind 'cause it's almost time to stick a fork in America.
They are no longer politicians...
and we no longer have a government. We have cartels and mob bosses.
Their prime directive is to divide us into as many conflicting parts as possible and to push us as far as they can towards killing each other.
From what I've gathered across the internet boards is the youth's hopes are that the fossils that run the show all die off before everything is destroyed. I gotta say that if I was still a youth that I would probably feel the same way. I know I did back in the 60s.
Thanks for your input, I always look forward to it.
Good morning Johnny. Short answer probably doesn't exist.
The proper purpose of government, as noted above, is to do for the populace that which they may not effectively or efficiently do for themselves. An awareness of this as a task that needs to be done seems innate in groups or societies over a certain minimal size and complexity. There is another, yet larger size and complexity where it all gets out of hand and begins some sort of aggrandizement, evolving from "it will take a certain of planned and managed teamwork to achieve such-and-such a goal, objective or condition" to "here's how we should divvy up the spoils". Ownership, or at least exclusive ownership can play a role in this. So can laziness, and some forms of ambition.
Julius Caeser
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Yup...
You said, and you said it well:
Me thinks the difference between the two groups is the size of the stack of ill-gotten lucre that acts like a magnet for sociopathic thieves, much akin to petty theft as opposed to grand larceny.
You quoted Julius Caesar:
I quote The Who (Well, actually Mose Allison, but The Who are much angrier in this version):
As long as
glyphosate is approved for use in farming, I will believe the goal of government, regardless of party, exists for the right people to make money, and the others may die and get out of the way.
As long as a cure for a disease can be purchased at Tractor Supply but not at a pharmacy, I will believe the goal of government, regardless of party, exists for the right people to make money, and the others may die and get out of the way.
What party will activate that existing bill to start the draft? If a majority of Democrats get elected in states where weapons manufacturers are located, it will be them. Or, vice versa.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Bingo...
you have recited Articles I through III of the esoteric Deconstitution of the Disunited States of Dumbmerica.
It wouldn't hurt my fee fees
if Texas seceded. Texas joined the Union by an agreement that specifically allowed secession. Just make sure we oldsters keep getting our SSA checks and Medicare!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Texit...
secession was specifically written into the Texas Constitution.
I'm ready.
On the other hand
If Texas succeeds to secede, think of the millions of Americans who’d inundate your new country just to escape our government. You might need a bigger border wall.
Anya
For any future illegals
trying to slip by the Texas Ranger Come and Take it task force, please heed this advice:
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I think that if things got bad enough...
for Texas to secede, at least half of the other states would follow suit.
They’d probably want to
But maybe more difficult. They don’t have secession written into their Constitution as Texas does. Rural eastern Oregon has attempted for years to secede from Oregon and become part of Idaho, can’t even manage to do that.
Anya
A man I would recommend people learn more about
Of course, I would think, the people here are aware of him but he is not mentioned in regular conversation ever, Eugene V. Debs.
Four time candidate for president as a Socialist. Garnered over 1 million votes while in jail for opposing a war in Europe, now known as WWI.
“I would not be a Moses to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could lead you into it, someone else could lead you out of it.”
Appears he had a clue, perhaps a genius. He made many sacrifices in his personal life so as not to give ammunition to the Epstein Class of his day.
That's a leader I can get along side of and walk with.
I don't get behind anyone... LOL
You're right...
many here are fans of Mr. Debs, but I think his ideas are kept from the general public because they may be thought of as dangerous to the ideology of the Epstein class.
I do wish we had a man of his stature to walk beside. We all know what happens to an individual that may approach that status and that may very well be why they shy away from the spotlight.
The world is a dangerous place for a non-compromised man of the people.
Thanks man.