Admittedly, I'm a little late to the party with the Assassin's Creed series. However, I can honestly say that the timing has been perfect. Watching the "perfect storm" of Republican influence converging around the needs of the people like hyenas and their next meal has definitely sparked suspicion of that very "perfection." Truly, such an amazing aggregation of power when, by a strictly binary approach, they had so little (no House, no Senate, no WH) must have been by design. In fact, when you see things like the map of influence of the GOP shadow groups during this past election drawn out in a diagram, it's got a creepy beauty to it. Even the results are hard to argue with - look at the progressive community - we're being driven asunder while the Republicans stand united.
More after the jump.
This is where things become more interesting. The source of the power the two parties draw from flow from different springs. The Republicans, as is obvious by their actions, who they protect, and what they seek, draw their power from tangible wealth. Money, assets, corporations, etc. They protect their monied interests, and those interests, in turn, protect them. They got even better at it after obtaining their own media outlet, and have begun the process of robbing the power source of their opponent, the Democrats.
What is the source of Democrats' power? People. It's in sheer numbers. Obviously, if your platform is to help the needy, sick, homeless, or out of luck, you can expect little in return that resembles the power source of the Republicans. If you're lucky, what you might get is some volunteered time from another warm body, and if you're really lucky, that person will tell other people about their experience. Now, this isn't to say that Democrats are without money, or do not count amongst their numbers those who are wealthy. The individual differences that can be found amongst members between each party surely can be found within each party.
These two power sources, as different as they are, also share an interesting relationship. Money, being inanimate, is inherently controlled by people. We invented the concept, we make use of the concept, and if everyone disappeared tomorrow, all the money in the world would represent no power at all. However, because of the value that everyone puts in money, because our society depends upon it for transactions between people, it can very well end up controlling people. Folks living paycheck to paycheck, or burdened with great debts, regardless of fault in the circumstance, are slaves to money. The consequences for ignoring the master are grave and numerous.
So between people and money, which controls the other is situational. But when each feeds one political party moreso than the other, it behooves those parties to try to find ways to tip the balance in their own favor. Republicans, in the wake of the Citizens United ruling particularly, seem to be at an advantage right now, in that their money can buy a lot of control over people. That means they can, quite literally, by the power source of Democrats right out from under them. Control, of course, can be through direct actions (astroturfing, for example), or through more implicit means, like advertising to change opinions.
I'm sorry that I don't have any solutions right now. I'm extremely sympathetic to those wanting to keep the fight going about the latest example of capitulation from the president. But neither my wife nor I are unemployed, so I also don't feel the pain as much as our job-seeking friends are. Their pain is real, though, and while the deal isn't perfect (far from it), and while we're dealing with folks who, as I've tried to show, really don't care about the well-being of these people nearly as much as controlling them. I thus understand the president's argument about helping out the unemployed.
So what does this have to do with Assassin's creed? If you've played the series so far, you are probably already aware, if not, I strongly recommend the series. In any case, the parallels found in the Templars as described in the game to what we see in real life today are striking. Of course, that really represents good writing on the part of Ubisoft's team, and I'm not advocating belief in any kind of actual conspiracy here, other than the fact that Republicans do conspire with corporate interests, and quite effectively.
Corporations and their executives often have time to listen to and work with their political benefactors. Unfortunately, it's just the way things go that the average American the Democrats are looking out for are too busy making life happen to spend so much time listening and working with the politicians who seek to do right by them. Who can blame them?
[Edit: This, as the tag shows, was really more of a strem of consciousness than a planned, thought-through diary. So as such, I somehow neglected to bring up the whole Wikileaks silencing effort going on recently. So, I would encourage discussion in how that kind of effort also fits well with the whole Assassin's Creed storyline thing (for those who've played or are familiar).]