Frustration and Fractals

Nazi or Republican? You Be The Judge:

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

-Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Göring (during the Nuremberg Trials)

Yes, it's a Nazi. Did you really think George W. Bush would be that smart a strategist--or that Dick Cheney would be that open about his tactics? They've been going by the Nazi Playbook all this time, haven't they? Our pride in this great country and our feelings of patriotism are the choke collars they use to keep us in line. Suddenly I feel very sad.

Here is more insight into the Bush administration's control of the American people from one of the highest-ranking Nazis to be captured and brought to trial. (He was found guilty, of course, but escaped being put to death by instead committing suicide.)

We got around to the subject of war again and I [Gustave Gilbert, a German-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners and who interviewed Goring at Nuremberg and then wrote this account] said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war [. . .] That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

A Sense of Frustration

Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, I did spend the day compulsively looking at The New York Times politics and opinions pages and writing rants and comments to the columnists.

Here's something I wrote in response to a columnist who wrote about the amount of smug rancor exhibited by the Republicans during their convention and how a party led by a decrepit multi-millionaire and his heiress mistress trophy wife has managed to label a biracial individual from a low-income, single-parent home an "elitist":

When will we learn to look behind--rather than being seduced by--Republican straw men?

These are the same people calling us "whiners" for worrying about our livelihoods. These are the same people who berate us for wanting to live with dignity. These are the same people who live in gated communities to keep themselves from having to be our neighbors. These are the same people who want our children to be fodder for their wars. These are the same people who skated through Ivy League educations while convincing us that we need not even acquaint ourselves with scientific ideas. These are the same people who have convinced us to stay at home, cringing in fear, because we can do nothing to keep ourselves safe.

They may be filled with anger and hate toward us, but that we keep voting them into office proves that we are filled with complaisance at best and self-hatred at worst.

We can't have any more of this. We must change.

Here's something I wrote in response to Caribou Princess Palin's regurgitation (during a campaign stop) of the speech she gave on Wednesday:

“John McCain doesn’t run with the Washington herd…”-Palin

Good for Palin, spelling out the way for the Democrats to proceed. That’s the real key to this hunt, isn’t it, Palin? First we split him from the herd, then we swoop down in a helicopter, take aim and FIRE!

“It’s over.” –Peggy Noonan

You know, I'm not nuts. I may be in danger of turning into one of the overly opinionated cranks whose letters are the bane of every op-ed editor's existence, but I'm not nuts. I'm not a super rah-rah-Obamabot. I actually call them Obamaniacs; frankly, their cultish devotion often both enrages and frightens me. (I feel the same way about the women who worship Oprah, by the way.) I supported Clinton in this election and I will still be supporting Clinton when she runs for the White House in 2012. And truthfully, I don't care if people vote for McCain/Palin. (Though of course I do think, to quote someone much folksier than I am, that anyone who is not a multi-millionaire (e.g. McCain, Romney, Giuliani, and so on and so on, ad nauseum) voting Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.)

So what's my deal?

Here's my deal: I don't care about anything but the truth.

I don't care about anything but the truth, so I want people to have access to enough information that they are able to discern truth from lies. What they do with that truth is their business, but I want people to have the opportunity to make decisions with their eyes open, not blinded by lies, not unbalanced by equivocations. (I want this for all people, in all situations, at all times, not just during election years.) In light of my devotion to the truth, here's something that really bothers me about the McCain/Palin ticket: Palin is now refusing to give interviews to the press.

Not only is Palin's refusal to give interviews her way of flipping the bird and snarling out a big fat "Fuck you" to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (which exists in part because Thomas Jefferson recognized that the press itself and freedom of the press are both absolutely necessary in a democracy), but it also doesn't bode well for American voters who want to find out the truth about her. Stonewaller Sarah's handlers report that we, the American people who she would serve if elected, can absorb all that we need to from the speeches that she gives. (She didn't, incidentally, write the speech she gave on Wednesday. It was written by one of George W. Bush's former speech writers.) At her last campaign stop, she posed for photos while ignoring the questions asked of her by reporters. She simply walked away from them when she was finished having her picture taken.

Solely on the basis of the decision to stonewall the press and the actions that followed, I'd vote against her. But there is so much more there to despise: TrooperGate, BridgeToNowhere Lie-Spouting, HandicappedBabyTrig Showboating, CommunityOrganizerAt Sneering.

I'll get to that, of course, but--ahhh, I'm tired, so not right now.

Today my obsessive loading and reloading of and posting to and ranting at the Times was interrupted by this:



FRACTALS!!

Yeah, Baby!

Kelly Workout, Dave, Jan & Jean, their friend Carol, and I all trooped down to the planetarium to look at some fractals and listen to some groovy music.

I love fractals. Love them.