Poignant Article: Our Entertocracy

Many thanks to Rick for sending this article along. I literally felt the frustrations wash away while I was reading this masterpiece. Make certain to check out the site Axis of Logic, too, as there are some gems to be read.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_12599.shtml

Our Entertocracy
By John N. Cooper
Oct 13, 2004, 13:56

Kathleen Hall Jameison, of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication, has observed that the problems facing this country are so daunting, so refractory to simple solutions, no politician aspiring to (re-)election dares broach an honest, straight-forward discussion of them for fear of rejection by an alienated, disappointed or disillusioned electorate. As a consequence, our electoral decisions are based largely on side issues - the past, trivia, matters of appearance - rather than those issues of crucial substance urgently confronting the country. Rather than being addressed when they are first perceived and recognized, these issues tend to be buried, only to fester and inflame into crises when they are mature. Americans have become addicted to being shielded from facing unpleasant truths until it is much more difficult, if not too late, to address them effectively. Why?

For many if not most Americans the principal objectives of life are personal comfort, gratification - whether passive or active -, and amusement - whether by self or preferably by others. In general, we are neither comforted, gratified nor amused by difficult, intractable problems, individually or nationally. At best we want solutions, from others, not problems that require our personal attention and action both of which detract from the pursuit of our personal objectives. As our politicians' primary object is (re-)election, not problem solving, they comply with this preference, providing, not realistic, candid appraisals of looming national difficulties, but whatever myths and fantasies they believe their public will swallow. As a youth, I knew a woman who said she was aware some unpleasant things were happening in the world but she'd rather not know about them. It's as though many Americans would rather not confront the unpleasant realities of the world we live in. Why?

The criteria of addiction whether to a substance or a behavior are two:

* ever more craving, and
* symptoms on deprivation.

We are addicted to the prospect of happy issues out of all our afflictions, to the illusion of bright promise for our futures, regardless whether our present behaviors contribute to, or foredoom, very different results.

In the last few decades, generally the most profficient entertainer has won national elections by the creation, support and sustaining of national self-deluding fantasies: that America can do no wrong, that the rest of the world is out to get us, that we are victims of others' unmerited and unjustified animosity. We choose leaders we are 'comfortable' with, not those who tell us unpleasant truths we don't want to hear. Our media, our politicians, excuse our national excesses saying their clientele demands them, yet they steadfastly strive to create that demand to justify perpetuation and propagation of those excesses, whether material waste, environmental contamination or trashing other nations in our own, self-indulgent interest.

At a recent political rally, a candidate was praised by the chair as 'very entertaining'. In fact nothing in the candidate's presentation had provided any evidence of competence for the position to which he aspired but it sufficed that he was amusing, entertaining. Americans are addicted to fantasy, escapism, delusional pursuits to avoid confronting the realities the rest of the world deals with daily. Like Blanche DuBois, we demand magic above all else to numb ourselves from conscious recognition of what we are doing, what is being done in our name to ourselves, to others, to life on this planet, to this planet itself. Our media, our politicians, slavishly pander to the demands of the electorate to be reassured, or failing that, distracted, entertained. Our excesses, where even acknowledged, are excused, saying the American way of life we demand and seek to impose on others is "non-negotiable".

Orwell wrote that if freedom means anything, it is the right to tell others things they don't want to hear. Prior to the Second Gulf War, the consensus of domestic and foreign experts on the Middle East was that invading and occupying Iraq would be the disaster now playing out. It's not that our leaders weren't warned; they chose to ignore the expert opinion and the popular media padded amiably along behind them. Even now, expert opinion on issues from the world economy to the planetary environment foretell impending calamaties in the near term yet nothing is said of this in the campaigns of the principal candidates. Why? Why are our electoral campaigns continually contested on minutae while the 800 lb. gorillas and 2 ton elephants of difficult, substantive issues, covorting offstage left are ignored?

We are fond of congratulating ourselves on our 'democracy'. But a fundamental requirement of an effective, functional democracy is the presence and predominance of an aware, thinking, responsive electorate. Perhaps our political system would be better termed 'entertocracy':

Entertocracy: (n) Rule by entertainers or entertainment, with predictably toxic effect.

Bush=cheater? Again??

I love this kind of chatter:

http://publish.nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/rate/125456/%3C?php%20echo($g_url)%20?%3Eemailto.php?id=125456

It makes you laugh in that way you'd imagine laughing when, after 43 years, the cross-eyed midget that swore to hunt you down and kill you for kissing his mother finds you in Tahiti drinking coctails and slips something in your drink. Do you see it all? Imagine looking up from the ground, beautiful day, beautiful people, gasping for air, with a terribly aging cross-eyed midget entering your eye's path, chuckling the way midgets learned to chuckle from watching Herve Villechaize on TV.

Bush=unilateralist=isolationist=my depression

It's disturbing to look back at the last four years. And until this damn election is over, that's all I'll be able to do. I'm tired of friends abroad calling and emailing wondering what the hell is going on here. I'm wondering the same. And to have lived in DC while it happened is a strange circumstance that I'm quite angry about. The problem is, I don't know who to punch.

So for now, funny links with songs and animations serve to vent the incredible frustration. These two are great stress relievers:

http://www.kaicurryservices.com/peacecandy/gwbush/stateofthe.html

http://www.kaicurryservices.com/peacecandy/gwbush/ferrell.html

Bush and Dick, what a bad, bad joke.

Swing & Stance aka Communist Management v. Fascist Oversight

Today felt like Tuesday, but apparently it's Thursday. It's about 10:30pm now, but I thought it was 2am. Tomorrow should be Friday, but I may end up feeling more Wednesday. By tomorrow night it may be morning again, somewhere.

The Chicago Cubs once again have disappointed. I was unlucky enough to fall in love with them in 1983, shortly after moving to the north suburbs of Chicago from Gainesville, Florida. Those were the days, when Mel Hall had the coolest left-handed swing and stance, and one well-timed late-inning pinch-hit hypenated-word made a young kid find a new hero. It was hard to follow Mel's career when he was traded to lowly Cleveland in 1984, but I tried although with little success. Mel didn't look nearly as happy on his subsequent baseball cards, and by 1985 the hero status had all but disappeared, replaced by a weird compulsion to chew as many Topps wax pack gum sticks at the same time as humanly possible. A friend sent an email today about the Cubbies, and it was so brilliant and dead-on that I had to post it here:

Subject: Cubbies let another good one get away!

http://english1.people.com.cn/200311/24/eng20031124_128865.shtml

"China has invited former Los Angeles Dodgers infielder [and Chicago Cubs manager from 1992-1993] Jim Lefebvre to manage its national team..."

I heard a story on NPR yesterday about the 2008 Chinese Olympic Baseball Team.

This only goes to show how poor the foresight of the Cubbies' upper management must be. Think of where they would be if they kept Lefebvre on! Now he's a commie pinko. My only hope is that he always was a commie pinko, a die-hard commie pinko.

I picture Lefebvre and Rey Sanchez comparing and contrasting the benefits of communist management versus fascist oversight. Dunston's sitting on a bench in the corner of the locker room naked, wrapped in a towel, doing blow, while Jose Vizcaiano and Harry Caray are pounding tequila before the game.




The description is pure baseball heaven. And God bless Thad Bosley.

Book of Mormons

Please let me know which one(s) is/are your favorite, as I'm already starting my X-Mas and Hanukah shopping list. Rumor is there's a discount after every eighth figure, so don't be shy.

http://www.lehi.com

If you haven't seen the mirrors yet, go back and find them.

OK, I'm going to stay regular

...with my entries. Let's bash W for now.

This is a fantastic article that addresses the central point I've come back to again and again: who really cares about the facts surrounding the upcoming Presidential election? Some perspective here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2004/10/06/notes100604.DTL

Editorial about the VEEP debate. Doesn't Dick Cheney have the most beautiful eyes?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/100704Z.shtml

September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September 11th, September !!th:

http://home.earthlink.net/~houval/gopconstrm.mov

Ride on the peace train y'all.

Save the bunny

This gent has got a fresh take on an old scam:

http://www.krohm.net/bernd.htm

happily confused

well, finally bloggin', at least I think so...