Political snoozers
August 31, 2006News & Politics
I can’t imagine what it will take to jolt the sleepy, lackadaisical masses from their blissful ignorance, because if they wait to get outraged about the plans for massive detention centers until someone they know is actually relocated to one, it's too late. If they wait to get outraged until the redistribution of wealth until they've lost their own home to foreclosure, it's too late. If they wait to complain about dissenters being branded traitors until they object to something and find themselves at the blunt end of political marginalization, it's too late. Nothing seems to matter to Americans until it directly affects them, and, by then, it's almost always too late.
Instead, they will suffer all manner of indignity being imposed upon others to preserve themselves. Wiretapping other people without a warrant is fine. Holding other people indefinitely without access to an attorney or due process is fine. Torturing other people is fine. Maligning other people for dissent is fine. Disenfranchising other voters is fine. Rewarding corporations for moving jobs filled by other people offshore is fine. Destroying the environment for other generations is fine. Cutting federal funding for programs that benefit other people is fine. Denying equal rights to other people is fine. Using other people as a wedge issue is fine. Denying bodily autonomy to other people is fine. It’s all fair play as long as it's not being done to me, and you tell me it's keeping me safe and happy.
Mark of ChezLark is seriously pissing me off not because he's wrong, but because he's exactly right:
The death knell for our secular, balanced-power democracy will be sounded before a somnambulant, unconcerned, and flaccidly assenting silent majority. To pass off the final outrage, it will only be necessary to whip up the basest xenophobic terror. The Final Dismantling will be performed by bureaucrats promising liberty from a "new fascism" by imposing one. They will promise peace through war. They will promise freedom through arbitrary detention, and human rights through torture. They will label thoughtful discussion as treason, and careful analysis as unserious.
Sound familiar? That's because most of their work is already done.What has him in such a state of despair? Our president, explaining that the ruling of a Federal District Court is wrong, because it does not address to his satisfaction -- and according to his definition -- "the world in which we live." Our government, barringtwo American citizens from re-entering the country, because they refuse to consent to FBI interrogations in Pakistan -- interrogations which violate their civil rights. Our Secretary of Defense referring to administration and war critics as appeasers of "a new type of fascism." And all the bloody rest of it.
I can’t imagine what it will take to jolt the sleepy, lackadaisical masses from their blissful ignorance, because if they wait to get outraged about the plans for massive detention centers until someone they know is actually relocated to one, it's too late. If they wait to get outraged until the redistribution of wealth until they've lost their own home to foreclosure, it's too late. If they wait to complain about dissenters being branded traitors until they object to something and find themselves at the blunt end of political marginalization, it's too late. Nothing seems to matter to Americans until it directly affects them, and, by then, it's almost always too late.
Instead, they will suffer all manner of indignity being imposed upon others to preserve themselves. Wiretapping other people without a warrant is fine. Holding other people indefinitely without access to an attorney or due process is fine. Torturing other people is fine. Maligning other people for dissent is fine. Disenfranchising other voters is fine. Rewarding corporations for moving jobs filled by other people offshore is fine. Destroying the environment for other generations is fine. Cutting federal funding for programs that benefit other people is fine. Denying equal rights to other people is fine. Using other people as a wedge issue is fine. Denying bodily autonomy to other people is fine. It’s all fair play as long as it's not being done to me, and you tell me it's keeping me safe and happy.
