I know people probably don’t wan’t to hear my thoughts on politics. But I’m feeling discouraged. Reading blogs like Stop Me Before I Vote Again doesn’t help. Here’s a writer named Al Schumann (who sometimes gets on my nerves), capturing some of my thoughts with his extreme sarcasm:
The “nice” brand of advocacy has to take the form of pleas to participate in deranged comparison shopping. This is not just any lemon, ladies and gentlemen, this is a genuine proletarian lemon, certified by veterans of Students for a Democratic Society. It’s far superior to the bourgeois wingnut lemon. It enhances your unique sense of self. The neighbors will feel like fools when you drive off the cliff in style.
Does it matter how you look when you drive off a cliff?!
Is it that bad? Am I just in a bad mood? I like the phrase “deranged comparison shopping.” Now that’s US politics.
Here’s a meme-picture I ran across. Perhaps it resonates because I was one of those guilty of feeling hope – despite my evident lack of youth.
“On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in.”
– Douglas Adams, in So Long, And Thanks For All the Fish
