Distracted from distraction by distraction
Filled with fancies and empty of meaning
Tumid apathy with no concentration
Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind
-Burnt Norton, T.S. Eliot
We are distracted from distraction by distraction. While all we hold near and dear, our freedoms, justice, humanity are being reconstructed in a world similar to Orwell’s 1984. We have become distracted by things that at the end of the day will no longer be of consequence. By then, will have bigger fish to fry. I am not minimizing the importance of the issues that have become enmeshed in our political dialogue. They are not unimportant, but let’s face it, re-visiting abortion, discussion about religion in educational institutions governed by a Constitution that clearly delineates state and church won’t matter too much when we are ruled in an era reminiscent of medieval times. Roe. v. Wade is now decades past us, yet it became the driving force of the last Presidential election. Terms defining the issue of abortion, such as “legitimate rape”, became commonplace. The election was pure theatre, superficial, as we flitted around like social butterflies. The debates lacked any real attempt to undercover and explore the candidate’s position on policies that, if elected, would shape the nation. With that said, the debates certainly entertained us.
We face significant challenges that will impact the nation for decades, perhaps centuries to come. The economy is not undergoing any significant improvement nor will it. The cited increase in employment represents a clever, yet inaccurate picture established through the distortion of raw data. Why would employment surge when the nation willingly gave away the store via NAFTA? We, as a nation, no longer make anything, while choosing cheap Chinese imports where not only the standard of living is extremely poor, the workers are exploited to the point where employers install suicide nets atop buildings. The only winners in that game are the Corporate set, that of the 1%.
Issues effecting this election cycle, the US was still engaged in Afghanistan over a decade after its initial assault, Gitmo remains open and civil liberties and constitutional rights became codified. We are less free today than yesterday, yet we failed to note the occasion. Rather than honest discussions about the direction of United States foreign policy, we heard rhetoric about Iran, the alleged existential threat to the existence of the State of Israel, the State that exemplifies all things evil and their single-minded purpose to obtain a nuclear warhead. There has been no concrete evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear weaponry. Even if Iran did arm itself with a nuke, what are they going to do with it? They are within striking distance of a nuclear superpower in its own right. The US presence surrounding Iran is extensive. Ehud Barak, official within the Israeli government, stated that if he were Iranian, he too would want a nuke. Hasn’t it occurred to anyone that the amped up Israeli/US rhetoric about a strike on Iran, the palatable US presence that almost completely encompasses Iran might possibly want a nuke for themselves? Who actually is threatening whom? This too dominates the conversation. It seems we need to have an enemy.
While DOMA and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell are issues both fiercely debated across the nation, we failed to note that we were partaking in drone strikes on people whose names we don’t even know. We defined the validity of target, people we were legally entitled to kill based on their gender and age. In Northern Pakistan, the United States government considers any adult male to be a militant, thus a valid target. I believe in marriage equality for all and firmly believe that no one should ever have to hide or pretend to be something their not in order to prevent making others uncomfortable. It certainly is an important issue. My point though is that by now, we should have evolved to the point where same sex marriage was a fait accompli and no one cares whatsoever if an active soldier is gay or not.
We can claim the powers to be are idiots, but they certainly have accomplished what they set out to do, to distract us. While we bickered over things talking head Michele Bachmann claimed, or statements made by socially sluggish Mitt, or even ridiculous and yes, offensive, statements uttered by Todd Akin, they held shiny objects up to distract us while redefining the core beliefs of the nation, the fiber which held us together - now forever changed.