It's good to win. As Americans, with our culture of sports, politics and corporate ladders, we are taught early to compete often. Life is competition. We compete for position, money, love. Isn't the classic drama - a love triangle? To win the girl is a boy's ultimate victory. It's good to win.
But is it like the legendary coach Vince Lomabardi said: Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing?
I think too many have taken Coach's words to heart. But the Coach was talking about a game played on a field with rules, timekeepers and men in plastic armor.
Life is not a game.
Because our win-at-any-cost, winner take all culture has created a disaster in this country and the world. Who would have thought the bank robbers would be the banks? Who would have thought we'd invent wars to wage for no good reason whatsoever other than economic cynicism? We've developed a culture of bullies who can't win any other way and winning is so important in a world where democratic power is an illusion and the game is rigged against you. Americans stand for rugged individualism under the rule of law, regulation, statute, edict, executive order and manufactured consent. Kids getting arrested for lemonade stands because they forgot the red tape. Police taser first and ask questions later. The TSA is setting up checkpoints in bus stations. Citizens are under a massive surveillance regime which make the former USSR look like Andy in Mayberry. Freedom is reduced to moving around a very tiny box of political correctness, orthodoxy and hypocrisy.
Isn't it striking the question isn't whether we have a virtual Dictator or not, but which Dictator we can trust to kill us justly without the benefit of due process?
And in this atmosphere as Americans watch our country fade and there is nothing we can do to stop it because the power to stop it resides in the very force which needs the stopping; when the only 'power' citizens are allowed is to vote for one of two viable, well-vetted power-structure candidates, whose differences pale by their world-view similarities, Americans have somehow embraced this pittance of power granted to them, and like the Romans of a fading empire roared for gladiators in the Coliseum to escape the reality of their fallen glory and debauched society, Americans rally round the flag of the Two Party System because we believe in Freedom and Democracy. Hollow be thy name.
Outside of sports only one game riles the passions and tingles the spine and it's Politics. Team Politics. Brand Politics. Identity Politics. It's the only game we have. The mighty have their game of thrones and we peasants cheer the political jousting competition. We root for the blue knight, boo! the red knight, and place all our hopes and dreams into our side winning. Because, it feels good to win. Which of course does not explain why Americans remain silent about so many losing wars and wars for no reason, value or cause other than American Hubris. This is baffling but shouldn't be. When it comes to war it doesn't matter we win; all that matters is we fight on. These wars are un-winnable because there is no enemy but the people we occupy. We fight the ghosts, mirages and windmills of imperial decline.
But both political brands support these wars not because they are right, but because they have been bought by those who profit from war and from war's continuance and expansion.
Since there is nothing the 'common man' can do about it except vote and since both candidates support the same basic foreign policy we don't talk about it because what is the point and there are other 'issues' to win.
We have a rising tide of poverty and despair in our country. We bailed out Wall Street and let them all off the hook while Main Street is a pothole and everyone is waiting for the next human time-bomb to explode in their backyard. We're reviled around the world for our big-stick, Ugly American approach to Everything. We have a privatized penal system where profit demands prisoners and therefore we imprison more of our fellow citizens than any other country in the world. Corporations are people, but no people from corporations ever go to jail for corruption, fraud and deceit. Instead they are fined and pass the cost on to their customers. The Supreme Court says companies and billionaires can give unrestricted amounts of money to the candidates of their choice. Haven't seen any candidates “just say no.” The system stinks and everyone knows it and yet, it is still seen as unpatriotic not to participate in a system which stinks from corruption, cynicism and greed.
Because it's good to win. Bread and Circuses. Party Politics. What's the difference?
Four more years of what? More of the same but faster, cheaper, better? Patchwork, gerry-rigged answers to human and global problems bigger than the cynical game of American politics?
Will Obama be a transformative figure in his second term and face down power to the point of real and necessary change?
Will Romney in his first term destroy the world and usher in the Mormon Zombie Apocalypse?
Stay tuned and find out in the next exciting episode of The Game Of Politics.