Dr. Forbush Thinks

Sometimes one needs to take a step back and look at the big picture. The world is a complicated place and when the people are focused in one direction that means that no one is looking in the other directions.

I was in Leon, Mexico a few years back. It was evening and we had just finished eating a meal. A couple of us thought that we would walk off our dinner and meander through town looking in the closed shop windows. There were still quite a few people on the street. Apparently they had similar ideas. As we turned a corner we noticed a commotion. An alarm was going off at a sporting goods store and about 5 police officers were at the entrance to the store looking for the people who had broken into the store. We stood some distance back away from the entrance to the store. A crowd had formed in front of the store watching the police go in and out of the store.

The building that the store was in was a long building that had many stores connected together. As we stood back away from the store we had the ability to look at the entire building at one time. And, as we watched we saw two suspicious men leave the building from another store and run down the street away from the commotion in front of the sporting goods store. Obviously it wasn’t clear whether these men were guilty or not, but it was clear that they were not even suspected, because the crowd and the police were all concentrating on the front of the sporting goods store. This got me thinking about the danger of focusing to closely on one thing.

This is the same way magicians create illusions. They get everyone to look in one direction while they do something where you aren’t looking. When the people want to be amazed this is a legitimate form of entertainment. People pay good money to be entertained by a magician. People know that they are being fooled, but it is all in the name of fun and entertainment.

In politics things are different. The people need to know the truth in order to be able to make good decisions. Politicians on the other hand want to create illusions in order to maintain power. If a politician can convince the electorate that he is the best man for the job then he will be elected regardless of the truth. Truth does not always win, because politicians have become masters of making people look one way while they do something reprehensible. And, Karl Rove and the Bush administration are the masters of this magic.

Depending on your point of view this could be a good thing or a bad thing. If you are a conservative and you share the view of the Bush administration that the wealthy need to be able to exploit the people for their cheap labor, then creating the illusion that the Bush administration is helping the American people is good for you. But, obviously it isn’t good for those who are being exploited. For example, if people are concerned about living a lifestyle similar to or better than their parents live this requires several things. It requires that people have jobs that pay similar wages, and prices of goods, services and housing to cost similar amounts. The political magician can concentrate on one aspect of this and tell the people that unemployment is low. But, if those jobs don’t pay the same as their parent’s jobs paid, they won’t be able to live the same lifestyle. Or, if health care or housing costs more than it did when their parents were in the same situation, then the lifestyles will not match. Stepping back and looking at the whole picture means to step back and look at the entire American lifestyle, not just the unemployment rate or the cost of housing or whatever single number looks good on that day. After all, it is the whole lifestyle that counts; under slavery unemployment was low, but slaves didn’t own their own homes or even own their own children.

Political Magic works on all levels and in both parties. The political party in power also has the most power to create the greatest illusions, so currently the Republicans have created the largest illusions. These illusions pass through the master magician Karl Rove’s door. He tells Republicans how to word statement their comments so that the people think everything is fine. He tells Republicans how tax cuts are what the American voter wants to hear, while FEMA and other important programs need to be cut to give the tax cuts to the wealthy Republican contributors. The Republican magicians have everyone looking at the tax cuts, given the illusion that they will get some money from these tax cuts. But the illusion doesn’t work this way and the Republicans are going to keep the illusion as long as it works.

Of course those are domestic problems, but political magic used on the international level as well. The President tells us to fear the terrorists so that he has an excuse to gather more political power. He creates reasons why he needs to break the law by telling us it will make us safer. He tells us how we need to attack another country by telling us that we are defending ourselves. Offense and defense are to different things in the real world, but in the world of political magic these two things become blurred into one. George W Bush directs our attention toward fear while he directs his gang to acquire more political power to make his regime stronger.

So, how do we fight political magic? We fight political magic by exposing the illusion. And, when we do this we will expect to here the politicians that are being exposed to yell and scream for us not to pay attention to the man behind the curtain. But we must force ourselves to step back and look at the big picture and question. Why would the Bush administration not want us to know what is going on at the White House? Why does the president hold so few new conferences? Why does the president authorize some leaks and punish people for other leaks? What is entailed in the real Bush energy strategy? Is the destruction of our environment worth the results that we get? Is the Iraq War really good for America? Should America set the precedent of invading other countries? What liberties and freedoms are you willing to sacrifice for the Bush agenda? What is the real agenda of the Bush administration?

If the Bush agenda succeeds will you like the America that we are left with?







Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit



Politics