I knew I was going to get kicked off

Talking Points Memo ^ | August 23, 2009 | davidfarrar

[DavidFarrar]

Kabuki Nation

by William K. Wolfrum - August 23, 2009, 7:49AM

"Here on the outer layer of the onion known as the United States, free men and women are arguing over health care reform. It is the latest debate. Previously, we debated issues like torture, war, and the economy.

"It's all pretend, of course. It is Kabuki theater of the highest order, with American citizens playing their part as they always have. We are a Democratic nation, after all. Appearances must be maintained.

"Think about it. The "will of the people" is almost always completely ignored when it comes to massive moral and economic issues.

"The U.S. is now a nation that knows for a fact that our government has tortured people. The latest torture story involves threatening prisoners with electric drills. Yet the GOP now says that the U.S. will be attacked by terrorists if there is an investigation into any of the crimes. And President Barack Obama has made it relatively clear that he has limited interest in the crimes of the previous administration.

"Americans are also aware that the U.S. - which still has troops in Iraq - is now gearing up to accelerate its latest failed war. The lessons of Iraq, Vietnam, and of course, Afghanistan, teach us that this latest attempt to create a mini-U.S. in Afghanistan will result in little more than a waste of taxpayer money, lives, as well as ongoing chaos in that region of the world.

"Most in the U.S. are also aware that profit-hungry investment banks created an economic disaster. And we rewarded them with obscene amounts of money. And the biggest of them have had their hands held until they have resumed making profits, to much applause from both sides.

"And with health care reform, we should all be well aware that it is a battle of health insurance corporations versus the American people. And, thus far, the health insurance corporations are winning. Handily. And politicians - with pockets stuffed with Health Insurance Corporation cash - will work as hard as they can to insure that, in the U.S., sickness will always equal profit.

"In the film "Quiz Show," contestant John Turturro takes a dive on the show, and laughs when asked if it's possible that he cheated while his opponent didn't. Torturro replies by asking what sense would it make giving the answers to just one contestant? If you are going to throw a fight, both sides must work together.

"And that, in the end, is the situation the U.S. is in. We are a two-party system. And corporations learned long ago to bribe both sides.

"With an impotent (if not complicit) media, a President that seems desperate to hold on to the status quo on the biggest issues, and a citizenry that is arguing over issues that don't even exist, we have become a Kabuki Theater of Dunces. We have kept ourselves on the outer layer of the onion, having been long-ago convinced that there is nothing underneath.

"How do we end the play? How do we change our perspectives? We probably can't. After all, the election of Obama was supposed to be a massive victory for intellectualism. Problems would no longer be ignored or overwhelmed by rhetoric. Clarity would reign.

"Yet, here we are, in August 2009, and the biggest debates are about whether we are becoming a socialist state, whether we want to kill Grandma, and whether Obama was born in the U.S. For now, most other topics are conveniently being left off the table.

"In the end, what it comes down to is the fact that most U.S. citizens are comfortable in their Kabuki roles. This is by no means to say that there aren't many Americans out there trying to fight the good fight and help the citizenry. But they are playing by rules that may have never actually even existed.

"At this point of U.S. history, the status quo could not be more safe. The very few will continue to take the majority with them in their search for never-ending profits and their strategies to forever stay on top. And the majority will continue to let it happen, as the corporate media keeps them too afraid, self-satisfied or oblivious to look any deeper. Americans will continue to play their roles, while those that run the nation are working from a completely different script.

"Because it's all Kabuki. Period. And the show will go on."

-WKW

Crossposted at William K. Wolfrum Chronicles

What follows is my re-posted article, entitled:

"An excellent analysis of a democracy in a two-party system."

"As fiscal conservatives know -- since we have had plenty of frustrating experiences during the Bush years to learn this point -- our two party system acts to divide the People's' voice rather than bring it together. And yet, the true strength and wisdom of any democracy comes from the collective voice of the people themselves, as James Surowiecki's book, "The Wisdom of the Crowds" points out. I like to quote here from Frederic Bastiat's seminal work: 'The Law' to gain a perspective on this issue: "For when people's true political aspirations are accurately reflected by their political parties, all will seek the common good."

Before we rush to blame the political elites of both parties for the present state of affairs, let me hasten to add, they are as much victims of our two party system as anybody else. They are simply playing the game as it is written.

"To cut this dissertation short, it is important to realize something very profound has happened recently that for the first time in history may allow this democracy, our democracy, to become effective operating in a two-party system: the Internet! As I point out at my website: The National Online Party, "The tool to take back our government is already in our hands. All we have to do is use it." We must give We the People a voice, allow it to speak and to be accurately heard as a functioning part of our democracy.

"Just a final note here: I don't expect anyone to rush over to my website and join up. My website isn't designed to do that. It is simply there for discussion, and, hopefully, bring some doers and shakers together to get it done for the good of all."

ex animo

davidfarrar

ps: For an interesting read on the politics (re: money) involved in the Health Care debate, entitled: "The Baucus Caucus: PhRMA, Insurance, Hospitals and Rahm," please click on the Travolta gif above.

[Kansas58]

What the hell is wrong with profit?

Profit motives have given us the best health care in the world.

There is NOTHTING immoral or wrong about making a profit!

[gwilhelm56]

If you’re going to trash profit, you’ll get no sympathy here!

[hinckley buzzard]

The stuff in boldface was passionate enough but lacked coherence. As for the rest, I guess your point is that you want to form an "online" party? Fine have at it.

[martin_fierro]

IBTZ

[Bigh4u2]

This is the part that did you in....

“As fiscal conservatives know — since we have had plenty of frustrating experiences during the Bush years to learn this point ..etc....”

[freebilly]

You’re either a RINO or a DINO. Maybe you’re a DRINO, but since this is a conservative forum you’ll find little agreement with your post....

[DavidFarrar]

No, there certainly isn’t anything wrong with profit. But profit, just like fire, profit needs to be controlled or it will consume itself.

ex animo
davidfarrar

[reagan_fanatic]

The best way to regulate profit is not by government intervention, but by competition. Period. End of story.

Anytime the government gets involved in ANYTHING, matters get worse, not better.

[Publius6961]

This the subtlest of indoctrinations. It seems to usually work, too.

"Look at the terrible mindless socialist drivel that is being posted" handwringing, while exposing us all to the socialist crap, bordering on fascism:

Throughout world history, people seeking dominion over other people have always claimed that their desire for ultimate power served some greater common good.

Yeah.
And it has a precise name.

Fascism

It is impossible to grasp the true concept of Fascism without returning to an age of clarity and facts vs opinion and editorializing; before personal definitions, euphemisms, the puerile, self-serving age of "depends of what the definition of "is", is.
According to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Collier-Macmillan, Volumes 3-4, 1967, pp182-183 et seq.:

...whereas Liberalism, socialism, democracy, and the other progressive movements of the nineteenth century had asserted the rights of man, the selfish claims of the individual, Fascism sought, instead, to uphold the moral integrity and higher collective purpose of the nation. And whereas liberalism saw the state simply as an institution created to protect men's rights, fascism looked on the state as an organic entity which embodied in itself all the noblest spiritual reality of the people as a whole. Fascism opposed the laissez-faire economics of the capitalism and the bourgeois ethos which went with it. But fascism equally opposed socialism, which preached class war and trade unionism and thus served only to divide the nation. Fascism could tolerate no organized sectional groups which stood outside the state, for such groups pressed the supposed interests of some against the true interests of all...
... fascism set up corporations which were designed to integrate the interests of particular trades, industries, professions and the like into the wider harmony of the state.

Sound familiar?

[Publius6961]

Bottom line: this clown is posting Obamacare arguments through the back door.
I don't care how much he "criticizes" it we are being exposed to propaganda.

Troll alert!

[ccmay]

But profit, just like fire, profit needs to be controlled or it will consume itself.

What bilge. Profits are the signal that tells society there is an unfulfilled need and drives deployment of our cumulative labors and resources in the most efficient possible manner. So long as there are no barriers to competition, there should be no controls on profits.

[bamahead]

But profit, just like fire, profit needs to be controlled or it will consume itself.

And who do you advocate as the 'controller'? The Federal Government? How about letting the free market regulate itself through competition?

What else do you advocate the FedGov being the 'controller' of?

[stylin_geek]

Get back to me when you can define “too much profit” or “out of control profit.”

Profit controls itself, via the market place. You seem to think the buyer has a gun held to his head, rather than it being a voluntary transaction.

[radioone]

“At this point of U.S. history, the status quo could not be more safe.” I’ll give the American Voter one more chance(Nov 2010) to dispel that sentence.

[Outlaw Woman]

Am I still on FR?

[DavidFarrar]

No, not really. But I do think our democracy needs to use the Internet to gain the collective voice of We the People. In a sense, to take up the function of what the “freedom of press” was supposed to accomplish in our democracy, but has failed.

Just recently I read of a website that had collected 55 million members because it offered free music, or access to free radio stations, or some such thing. Fifty-five million members, all participating in a deliberative groupware site, designed to move the good ideas upward while lowering the bad ideas, in a sense to harness the Wisdom of the Crowds, cannot help by strengthen our democracy.

My only point, which is what my website is committed to, is to have people understand, now, for the first time in history, we do, indeed, have a powerful enough communicative tool to give, not just a few people a voice, but all of the people a voice; that now, for the first time in history, we do, indeed, have a powerful enough communicative tool to allow not just a few of the people’s voices to speak, but all of the people’s voices to speak; and that now, for the first time in history, we do, indeed, have a powerful enough communicative tool to allow not just a few of the people’s voices to be accurately be heard, but all of the people’s voices to be accurately be heard. This has never been possible before. If applied correctly, it will strengthen democracy as much, if not more, than the movable type and the printing press allowed not just a few people to acquire knowledge, but all of the people to acquire knowledge.

Newt Gingrich touched on this same subject at one of the GOP Tech meetings. If I can find the tape, I will post it.

ex animo
davidfarrar

[DavidFarrar]

No one in their right mind believes unrestrained capitalism will regulate itself, as the recent mortgage crisis amply demonstrated.

Capitalism is a powerful tool, surely the most powerful tool yet devised for creating wealth. But just like any powerful tool, it has the ability to accomplish tremendous good, if used properly, or reek the most unimaginable damage if used improperly. Thus it becomes the function of the state to regulate capitalism properly in order to insure the common good of all.

ex animo
davidfarrar

[DavidFarrar]

Bush was a lot of things to a lot of conservatives, but he wasn’t a fiscal conservative by any measure.

ex animo
davidfarrar

[TaxPayer2000]

No, there certainly isn’t anything wrong with profit. But profit, just like fire, profit needs to be controlled or it will consume itself.

Controlled by whom? And for what purpose?