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All great kingdoms and societies are destined to fall—sooner or later. Our human proclivity is such that after an era of success we adopt an arrogant, invincible, it-can’t-happen-to-me, mindset. Predictably, it’s not attitude of the people who created, fought for, and nurtured that success, but rather an affectation of the “entitled” generations that follow. History says so, so don’t blame me. I just make observations. Anyway after a good USA run of almost 240 years, I think I heard the flush lever being pulled; the water has begun to swirl, evacuating the steaming deuce dropped by decades of self-serving politicians aided and abetted by a ho-hum, bored electorate. As always, the stench will linger prompting a worldwide reaction of, “Who shit!?!” I suppose it’s the fault of we (the trivial many) for either not paying attention (Hey, I’ve got more important things to concern myself with; for instance, the lives and loves of the Kardasians, Lady Gaga, and NASCAR!) or becoming mind-numbed ideologues lining up behind radio and TV talking heads whom we allow to do our thinking. Cries from the past and present… “Clinton’s a liar! Bush lied! Obama lies about his religion and birth place!” Yeah? So what if they did/do? They’re politicians, folks. Politicians lie! All of them! It’s in their DNA! Yet, we’re always surprised and outraged. Well, that’s not completely true. It’s only the OTHER guy; we make excuses for OUR guy. Good grief, talk about denial. We’re the real idiots. Keep in mind we cannot tell fibs to congressional committees without incurring severe penalties. However, it’s okay for them to lie to us, and they do—continually! “I am not a crook!” “I did not have sex with that woman!” “Read my lips, no new taxes!” “I am not gay!” Our functional (and growing) idiocy has the politicos lying about practically everything and they must be amused and amazed at us for accepting or pardoning their prevarications. We rationalize because (we claim) their intentions are good, and besides, failure is always the fault of the opposing party. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket. We have a Capitol City full of pompous clowns running around projecting blame for their collective failure and denying anything they do is wrong. And we, in our inane idiocy, re-elect them time-after-time because of some misguided party affiliation or mind-numbed ideology. More idiocy… Women want to be taken seriously, yet Al Gore lays a sloppy smooch on Tipper and what happens? Professional, well-educated females swoon in droves and decide to vote for the boring, monotone, buffoon. C’mon, ladies, seriously? But—and I hate to mention this, but must to be fair—I heard guys saying they could not vote for Hillary Clinton because she is (and I also heard this over the radio) “not bangable”. Well, that’s true, but c’mon, guys, there must be better reasons. From our pop-culture generation I hear that corporations are evil, that the executives demand and receive salaries that are exorbitant. (I must admit at the last corporation where I was employed—as a member of the policy-making executive staff—we referred to corporate headquarters as the Death Star). So, there may be a grain of truth, but how about so-called entertainers, sports figures, and politicians (with their PACs)? Why not the same outrage for these grossly overpaid mental giants that we treat as royalty? These “royals” taking their cue from the politicians recover from rash statements with ease and at no risk of being penalized—because we’re idiots! Alex Baldwin, a self-righteous, smug, actor said if George Bush became president he was leaving the country. He didn’t because (he said after the fact) he was speaking metaphorically…nondisclaimer, nondisclaimer, bullshit, bullshit … At least corporations create useful products and services, jobs, and a tax base. When a company moves off-shore because our government favors foreign corporations, I hear, “They’re taking’ our jobs!” Here’s a flash for you, folks: The jobs are not yours’; they belong to the company. “Yeah, but look at all profits the greedy oil companies make!” Oh yeah? Look at all the taxes from each gallon our greedy government takes. When the price of gasoline rises, do the governments freeze their percentage of the take? Nooo. Why does anyone think anything run from Washington DC will be successful? Yet the so-called progressives push for more and more government control I suppose to create a new socialist proletariat to be staffed by intellectual elites. They’ve already succeeded in turning the American media into Tass and Pravda. I guess the idea is that we should turn over management because government leaders been sooo successful with the post office, DMV, railroads, social security, and public schools. For the latter, the high school graduation rate in the metropolitan area close to where I reside is a whopping 30 percent. Of that 30 percent, the motto of many is: “D” for Diploma. Talk about government influence in education… In 1994 Joycelyn Elders, then US Surgeon General, speaking at a UN conference on aids, advocated promoting masturbation among teens. She said, “I think that it is a part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught.” My first thought was: What? You need to promote it? You need to teach it? Hmmm, I thought we pretty much learned that on our own. I doubt that among teens there is any shortage of self-pleasuring. Maybe that’s where we first learn to lie always claiming, “I don’t do that!” Every guy I know has a story about being caught by a parent at one time or another. This guy, a pony league pitcher named Rimer, had his father tell him, “Ball players don’t do that!” Hey, think about this: with a little creativity one can turn it into a healthful pursuit by referring to the activity as a prostate maintenance program. Make sense? But to the crux of the matter: Why the destructive (for the country) behavior among politicians? Furthermore, why the acceptance among us, the unwashed masses? The answer is within everything that motivates human behavior—the reward system. People do what they are rewarded for doing! In other words, politicians do what they do because you have rewarded them by reelecting them time-after-time. And why do you do what you do? Because of your toxic me-first, the-hell-with-the-team attitude. Examples: 1) mindlessly following a political party because that’s what your family has always done, 2) voting as the union or the church tells you to do, 3) walking lockstep behind some radio commentator, 4) misguided loyalty to some race hustler, 4) political correctness, etc. Sorry to say, but in my opinion, we’re too far gone to self-correct. The die is cast. We may as well go hunting with Darth Cheney or take an evening drive with the liquored up late Edward Kennedy. Without some kind of big-time traumatic event we don’t have the gumption or nads to change. An insidious, self-serving way of thinking has been hypnotically programmed bit-by-bit into the system and us. Know what? I’m jumping on the bandwagon. From now on I wish to be known as a Swiss-American, and I’ll be insulted and take offense if I’m called by any other label. ACLU here I come! Stick a fork in us, Destiny, we’re done. Copyright 2011 by Gene Myers. Author of AFTER HOURS: Adventures of an International Businessman (AEG) and SONGS FROM LATTYS GROVE (PublishAmerica).
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politicians, ideologues, lying, idiocy, pop-culture, corporations, progressives, government,
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