should you be surprised to be nibbled to death?

if you give great power to a body of people, should you be surprised if they use it for their own advantage? if you allow them the power to work in secret, should you be surprised if they do things you would not wish to happen?

the notion that a small guild of people can be trusted to run the state for the benefit of all has no logical foundation. why then be surprised to see these people acting as humans always do?

there is no surprise here. the bush regime is not unique, and might not be even the worst, merely the most coarse and unconcerned with superficial appearances. consequently, a change in personnel will have no significant result in american political culture. america will continue to be a nation ruled by an elite. the elite will be driven by the usual lust for greater power, greater wealth and, when some orc like cheney gets a seat in the cockpit, the lust will be for deeper personal goals, better described by psychiatrists.

people who are unhappy with the way things things are going in the 'land of the free' had better lift their attention away from the celebrities in the beltway, long enough to ask: "why don't we have democracy?"

indeed, they should ask, "why am i sitting here wringing my hands and crying 'woe, woe! when i should be working actively to bring citizen initiative into control of the nation."

no presidential candidate is going to change that. but some will hasten the decline, others slow it.

given the republican predilection for raining mass death around the world in support of 'freedom', a few terms of democrat reign might give relative peace to the rest of the world while internal decay continues. that would be nice.

this isn't news. anyone with half a brain knew what was going on.

the important point is, governments in uk and usa had power to behave like nazi sadists, and wanted to, so they did.

democracy is the only protection against these monsters. real democracy, not parliamentary democracy, not representative democracy, the real thing: rule by the people through citizen initiative.

but cows aren't suddenly going to stand up and behave like citizens. the fascists are winning, and are going to continue winning, while each cow tries to save itself by 'co-operating' with their masters. orwell got it right in '1984', in every aspect but time frame.

is to make sure is to make sure the 'right' people run the country.

marvelous what 'education' can achieve, the cattle don't know they are cattle, cuz they're told they are citizens. simple, innit?

clear demonstration that americans don't want democracy, they prefer to be ruled by people they wouldn't trust to baby-sit the kids.

on his watch, america stopped pretending to democracy, at home or abroad. mind you, the hypocrisy index still went up due to the creative lying that torture, rendition, collateral damage, preventive invasion and total surveillance seem to require still.

gg is making a living out of the collapse of political morality, for much the same reason women buy magazines purporting to outline the lives of the famous: morbid curiosity, not any intention or ability to participate.

"you get the government you deserve" describes the situation, the american character is too debased to maintain any kind of morality among their masters in the political class.

the government official who sees 'nothing wrong', 'does what he is paid to do', 'under orders from above'.

or the hack who makes a living out of reporting these activities, week after week after week, with never a word on what should be done. i take the view that gg and his guild are moral dung beetles: living on shit, protesting vigorously about the smell but either too ignorant to suggest a remedy or basically content to report 'the sky is falling' (because it's a living, innit), week after week after week.

i presume most of his readers agree with him: "ain't it a shame," they think, week after week after week. but they do nothing. like the good people of weimar germany, they watch fascism grow week after week after week, and do nothing.

what's really scary is, they have no notion that they can do anything about it, beyond complaining to their representative.

that ain't gonna do it. the politician caste has no interest beyond getting elected, and dare not do anything that would anger those people who voted for fascism because al gore was an 'empty suit', not a beer-drinking companion.

look at all those letters, rage, disgust, fear in abundance, but no one says: "if we had citizen initiative, we could fix this. then we could fix are other problems too, they're mostly caused by politicians anyway."

'no notion' is the characteristic of powerless people, submissive subjects of an (elected) king. but by now you should have some idea of the consequences of relying on the morals, good-will, and sanity of the politicians caste. so maybe it's time to take a further step in political evolution, establishing democracy as a fire-wall against fascism. continuing to do nothing is not survival-oriented.