Over the weekend (yeah it took me this long to write this), I was scanning the headlines of the blogosphere and a puzzling question kept reoccurring in the back of my mind. Have we gone too far as a society to turn back? It bothered me and in some ways haunts me because the answer has a direct bearing on the world both mine and your children will inherit. Being a skeptic and pessimist naturally my conclusions are a bit darker then most after recent revelations about the secret deals the White House made with big pharmaceuticals, my hopes crashed and burned. With the elections last November I had a brief moment of hope, but as I continue to observe our so called "democratic process", I am struck by the complete hypocrisy and farcical stage show put on by our leaders. It is not only our leaders though, it is a reflection of our population as a whole, from the single voter right up to the media and corporate governors.
Cross posted from idealthoughts
How did we get here and does anyone realize the cliff we are driving over? Some of the headlines that fed my worry followed this line. In the great debate over health care reform, actual debate is stifled by mobs of people who chant about their "first amendment rights to speak", yet deny that right to everyone else. A recent New York Times article summed up the situation, and the tactics used by opponents of health reform ( I do not use the term "care" with our current health practices). So rather than discuss what is needed to reform the health industry, opponents suppress discussion and questions that might be informative. Democracy? I thing not. Totalitarianism is more descriptive, where you strike down any view that doesn't coincide with your own. Again though how did we get here? Was it the Newt Gingrich revolution where the term "liberal" became synonymous with traitor? How about the election in 2000 when the recount in Florida was disrupted repeatedly by rioters known as the " Brooks Brothers Brigades". Recently, Robert Gibbs the White House press secretary began to refer to the unruly crowds in these same terms. Recently it has been alleged that protesters were either paid or organized by the insurance industry and big pharmaceuticals..
Then there are the individuals who make up these protests. As the debate heats up we see violence and intimidation on the rise at what is supposed to be a public forum. These tactics are all being endorsed by conservative groups, and frankly admitted to by them. You can see examples here, hereand here. So where does this lead us? The question goes far beyond the health reform debate. Some of it is the same old tactics used by politicians for ages. They make promises and then forget those very promises that got them elected counting on the voters short term memory not to bring up previous falsehoods. The complaint often echoed as a refrain of the voter as reported in the media is, "my vote doesn't matter" and "corporations run America not the voter". As hard as it is for me to say this the only politician truly honest about this hypocrisy was Dick Cheney on November 9, 2006 when he responded to a reporter's question about public opinion with the now famous "so". A statement he uttered several times when questioned about the American voters wishes.
There are several avenues in modern social psychology for our system of democracy to go, and quite frankly none of them are good. What I see through the eyes of someone who was trained in social psychology is the effects of "learned helplessness" as first published by Martin Seligman in 1965. The anger at losing an election, the anger beginning to be expressed by both sides at not feeling their views are taken into account, the continued back flipping by politicins who openly take money in large amounts from lobbyist representing corporate interests and then pass meaningless legislation in the name of reform, but without any language that adds teeth to that reform. Then there is the issue of personal responsibility which over the past few decades seems to have disappeared, except in cases of vengeance. Many of these land mark changes come by way of the courts and trial lawyers as exemplified in the now famous "twinkie defense" of Dan White. When you are powerless in your own eyes the end result is depression. How an individual responds to that depression varies but one of the most common and profound reactions is alienation of the self and lashing out with anger and hostility. All of which accomplishes nothing in the end. Politicians and their advisers are well aware of these theories and on techniques to sort of "divide and conquer" the voter. Their behavior was noted as early as 1930 by a psychologist named Herbert Lasswell in his famous book Psychopathology and Politics. With our tendency to find excuses to excuse poor behavior and seek another cause for that behavior, the individual is stripped of accountability, and from here I think you can see the snowball effect.
So this brings me back to this article's original question of have we gone too far to turn back? What will it take to stop the current madness? Before my liberal friends go finger pointing remember we are just as guilty (remember Code Pink, the Vietnam protests, etc?) as the conservatives are. What we are seeing today is that a major political party is encouraging this now, but when they were recently in power they curbed political protests with so called "free speech zones", far removed from the actual event or speaker. The media, in order to capture the public's attention actually promotes conflict and allows complete fabrications and exaggerated lies to get publicized (Sara Palin's recent remarks about "death panels"), rather then reporting the statement then reporting the lie that is. The fact that the media publishes such nonsense should be an affront to all. Then there are the pundits on both sides that feel they must step up to the camera or microphone to justify, analyze, criticize and debate the statement. John Q Public out there becomes rightly confused, disorientated and so the main issue under discussion becomes pulling the plug on Grandma, or first and second amendment rights, abortion, etc and the original topic was improving our health care.
This is just a small example of the over all problem yet looked at in these terms the problem seems huge. If we continue down the path we are going now we will end up in a chaotic situation with riots, violence, distrust and eventually the complete loss of the freedoms we have professed to hold so dear. Government will have to intervene to restore peace, politicians will become totally authoritive, and the type of government will spring up that would give Dick Cheney a hard on. It is not just the fault of the right or the left, but the fault of the individual voters who accept what is given to them by the leaders they employ. Right now Congress has been changed by both parties to keep true legislative action from ever occurring. This accusation specifically goes the Senate, so legislators can come back with a failed mandate and say "it wasn't my fault" and escape the accountability they deserve. We the voter go along with this, and every year it gets worse. Answer the following if you don't believe me; What happened to banking reform, credit card reform, legislation to prevent the mortgage scams that helped lead to this financial crisis? What happened to the return of respect and honoring the Constitution that recent legislation ruined (i.e. the Patriot Act, the Protect America Act, etc.). It was promised to us by this most recent slate of Democrats we elected. What happened to the end of rendition? It was supposedly for high level king pin drug dealers and the most dangerous terrorist. Recently under President Obama it was used on some low level contractor in Afghanistan who knew about bribes, but wasn't the one offering the bribes! So please don't say "we won't do the same things they did". This will only continue and get worse unless all of us wake up and do something to stop this dangerous slide over the cliff. Is this the type of future you want for your kids? I know I don't.