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| Image Source: IMDb |
Topics: Democracy, Exceptionalism, Internet, Oligarchy, Republic
We are now days from the first debates of the presidential cycle - The Cycle, NOW with Alex Wagner and the Ed Show cancelled on MSNBC due to executives kowtowing at the arcane Nielsen altar, which worked well when you had only ABC, CBS NBC and a few UHF channels: on-demand television and cable viewing, Net Flicks, Amazon Prime et al and pretty much NO ONE in America working a standard 9 - 5 whereby they can park and watch Walter Cronkite at 6:30 pm has somewhat changed the game for the non-Fox audience that's not older, whiter, more conservative and semi or fully retired. We've been in the throws of reality television since Candid Camera in 1948. It has been the recent advent of Internet technology; instantaneous gratification by pointing and clicking that allows us all to "vote" for our favorite dancer/singer from the comfort of our living rooms that have allowed us all to participate in what used to be merely voyeurism with the boob tube. I currently have several apps on my smart phone, one of them allowing me to order a sandwich - days in advance - and pick it up at the shop at an appointed time and on a "rapid pick up" shelf.
"The Donald": a self-made billionaire with cheap toupee or poor comb over inherited his fortunes from his self-made millionaire father, and continued in the family business. He's had a triplet series of traditional marriages and far more bankruptcies. Someone at a New Hampshire focus group said: "he's just like us" while another woman said "he was classy." Unless you are worth billions and have a string of marriages and business bankruptcies, he's not "just like us"; and madam: if a bloviating bigot is your definition of "classy," I fear you need to get out more.
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| Image source: Super Mario Wiki and this blog |
The Donald is a reality TV star - part of a long list of reality shows I don't watch - host of The Apprentice - and publisher of several books on his business philosophy and self-importance. He's been around notoriety-wise since the 1980's when he was much thinner and had exceptionally more hair. And now, his time has come. We have been conditioned like Pavlov's dogs from the sixty-seven year onslaught of filler television programming to consider his bid for the presidency genuine. We had a B-movie actor - why not The Donald? Conventional wisdom is he would have imploded by now and slinked back to his show with a boost in draconian Nielsen ratings. He's not doing it now. The oligarchs are likely quite confused, amused and nervous. As the departing Jon Stewart remarked [paraphrased]: "as a 1%er, he's supposed to BUY politicians, not actually become one." For the likes of the Koch brothers, the sock puppets Scott Walker and Chris Christie are "their kind of guys." The Donald is a loose and unpredictable cannon, following the formula that gets your reality primary high ratings. By going with the top 10 averaged in national polls, it encourages bombast and outrageous behaviors such that it is essentially what the GOP primary has become.
From above: "I currently have several apps on my smart phone, one of them allowing me to order a sandwich - days in advance - and pick it up at the shop at an appointed time and on a 'rapid pick up' shelf." Question: if we can do this with apps to get food and vote for our favorite contestant on "reality TV," why are we NOT doing it for the voting franchise? With mobile technology, ~90% of 311 million people voting would be a far louder voice than "corporations are people" Citizens United decisions that ushered in this current non-democratic (or, republic for that matter) model. Former President Carter disabused us of any illusions if we weren't already.
Answer: it would be "too much democracy." Now, that sounds horrifying on its face, but as a nation, we're somewhat prone not to reason, examination of facts/details/data and debate, but someone who sounds confident; "the decider" who "goes with his gut"; rides tall in the saddle even though he had as many deferments as Dick Cheney during the Vietnam conflict. The aforementioned, underlined link in the first sentence is one of many I found just searching on the term itself. Carnival barkers of Trump's mold - like used car salesmen - don't have to BE genuine, but like reality TV, they MUST at least sound genuine. We are ripe for an authoritarian, carnival barker or otherwise.
George Carlin - public intellectual, ever timely and prescient of the current election cycle with his stand-up: "Dumb Americans." American Exceptionalism is the mythology we tell ourselves, and provocateurs like Trump - strides in and yells it loud to adoring crowds. He has no solutions; no specifics. His hand gestures have become caricature, yet his appeal is due to the systematic dumbing down we've experienced for a little over two generations now. Science and technology - paramount to our survival - will exist in a parallel reality, its warnings ignored, as obedient Pavlov hounds bay at the previous month's blue moon and the rich wolves count the dividends they will send overseas, away from these shores, its crumbling roads, schools and infrastructure.
To quote Lawrence Lessig, we are a Republic, Lost.
An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens. It should be noted, that when Jefferson speaks of "science," he is often referring to knowledge or learning in general.
"Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens," Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page
