C’eci N’est Pas Une Election

Honestly, I don’t know who’s what or why any more.

When I hear the Republicans complaining about the “librul” media – and hear the progressive Democrats complain about the “establishment” or “corporate” media, I don’t know who’s nuttier.

Then there are the snarkers who talk about the “slipstream” media – saying, I assume, that media merely follows what’s happening rather than anticipating what’s happening; getting caught up in doing stories on what the other guy is doing rather than anything else (I suppose the Kardashians have something to do with this).

I don’t know who’s nuttier.

As far as I can tell, these pejoratives come into play when viewing media that should actually be labeled “Stuff That Doesn’t Fit My Preconceived Notion of the World.”

It was said best on “The Newsroom”:

MacKenzie McHale: Yes, people choose the news they want now, but – 

Will McAvoy: People choose the facts they want now!

And that goes for everyone on the political spectrum, from the ultraconservatives to the progressive democrats. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.

I do know the narrative being spun is that (accurately) the Republicans are headed toward a contested convention.

I do know that the narrative being spun is that (inaccurately) the Democrats are headed toward a Hillary Clinton nomination.

Posit: Republicans in turmoil. Democrats the calm center.

We’ll see. Because if anyone thinks either convention is going to be a piece of cake, well, I hope for your sake it’s not poop-flavored.

We all pick the facts we want. That leads us to pick the news we want. And that leads us to lash out irrationally, just like that joker does in Forrest Gump when he’s caught physically abusing Jenny but blames the abuse on that “rat Nixon”. Because Nixon was RIGHT THERE, making him beat on his girlfriend.

And if we’re not a dingo like this guy, we’re like this guy (in bold, once the parades have stopped):

Forrest Gump: [voice over] Anyway, like I was saying, I had a lot of company. My Mama always said you got to put the past behind you before you can move on. And I think that’s what my running was all about. I had run for three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours.

[Forrest stops running and the group running behind him stops waiting expectantly]

Young Man: Quiet. Quiet. He’s going to say something. 

[Forrest pauses for a moment before speaking]

Forrest Gump: I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go home now.

[Forrest turns and the group parts for Forrest as he walks down the middle of the road] 

Young Man: Now what are we supposed to do? 

Forrest Gump: [voice over] And just like that, my runnin’ days was over. So I went home to Alabama.

We’re all that idiot. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.

I, for one, personally hope there is a meeting of the Pentaverate or the Illuminati occurring at that chalet in Colorado called “The Meadows” because otherwise we have to settle with the fact that we’re in charge of this mess and we could change it but we’re too busy ranting on blogs or taking selfies or manufacturing tinfoil hats to do anything about it.

So what do we do?

We think. We read. We learn. We look critically at people who say they’re fomenting a revolution or making America great again. We reconsider the fact that people running for public office are not the best qualified to actually hold office once they’ve got it. And realize that there’s not a hell of a lot we can do about all that – so we figure out what we can do with ourselves.

Or something like that.

But I’m selling something. Because if you agree with the Addams Family motto (We Gladly Feast on those who would Destroy Us) you may as well read and believe Ayn Rand.

Hurts, doesn’t it? It’s that old thing: The right message from the wrong people.

Traveling heavy or light, folks? That's the question.

This is Not a Blog Post

I don't know what they're called, but there seem to be a lot of them around these days. And I'm sure if I went back in time, I'd find a lot of them at any time I elected to stop at. It's a good thing that time doesn't exist, except within our own heads.

What I'm talking about are people who are convinced, beyond any reasoning, that the times in which they live, the country in which they live, or the people with whom they are forced to live, are the stupidest times, countries or people who have ever existed since a) That bolt of lightning struck that little pool of hydrocarbons, thus instigating the chemical and electric chain reactions that brought life to this planet, or b) God said that it was bad for Man to be alone on the Earth.

And, as whenever I get to thinking about these people, I also begin thinking of Rene Magritte. I happen to like most of his work, certainly that which does not involve naked ladies. The Son of Man, depicted here, is my favorite, because of the obvious incongruities -- and the not-so-obvious ones, certainly his left arm bending backwards rather than forwards, as if it were attached backward, is amusing and a bit disconcerting at the same time.

So how do I tire these negative-vibe merchants in with Magritte?

It's all in the perception.

It's really easy to say that, for example, we have the stupidest politicians of any era today. That's certainly been said of George W. Bush. While I agree that some of the decisions he made were not correct, I have a hard time with those who insist ours is the true Era of Stupid. I am, of course, referring to the book I'm reading at the moment, The Making of the President 1968, which details the acrimonious events that led to Richard Nixon being elected in that year. No one back then had a corner on smarts, and there was plenty of stupidity flying around as well.

What goes on is this: Folks are attuned to current stupidity, and tend to look at the past through rose-colored glasses, recalling only the highs, not the lows. John F. Kennedy was a great president who did, well, he did a lot of great things. He started us on track to the Moon! He started the Peace Corps! Vietnam? That was Nixon. Wasn't it? (Nixon, of course, is the exception. Everyone remembers Watergate. Few remember the Kitchen Debate, China, Egypt, what have you.) Obama, currently, is having the opposite effect. He can do no wrong. Which if, of course, a fallacy. Obama at the moment seems intent on creating a Nixonesque Enemies List which, while being human, is not presidential.

In other words, we've all got that surrealistic apple floating in front of our faces, blocking our vision to everything except what they eye can catch beyond the apple, and that's not all that much. And at the same time, our left arm is on backwards and WE DON'T NOTICE AT ALL.

There is a scriptural reference to that, of course, which is bound to get somebody out there upset:

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

(That's Matthew 7: 3-5.)

I confess to being a hypocrite at times. Some times I see the bad rather than the good, not realizing what that says of me and my perception of the world. This is one of the reasons I try to read a lot, because I know, at the foundation of all things, I'm pretty ignorant.

The Internet, in many ways, aids this perception, as people of all stripes are more easily capable of finding other like-minded people and excluding other perceptions of reality. The apples in front of our faces are getting bigger.