the topic came up elsewhere and for the first time in a very long time, what i was thinking i was actually willing to say.
the question was ‘why do people think it’s so bad?’ granted, vagary at its best… all the same, i think it’s common enough that the sense and meaning are implicit. so. my answer.
here, the irony is simply this — were those who broke away from England and declared independence alive today, they’d be arrested, publicly discredited, humiliated, and stuck in some federal prison to rot their lives away.
it is interesting to me that to even speak of the topic those men did so much more than speak of is, itself, an act punishable by imprisonment and possibly, death.
the things those men said are considered today as ‘lunatic fringe’ ideals. the spirit and intent of them are primary target of every aspect of the federal government in every moment and have been for well near 100 years.
representative government has long ago sold out to the political lobby, the only time anything less than this can make a difference for more than an evening’s news broadcast is when some politician has been shamed into doing what they should have been doing all along.
the balance between the states and the federal government was broken via subsidy and federal funding… and the system itself not only has become self-sustaining at the expense of all else, it has become something that by existence and activity immediately corrupts the ethics and aspirations of any who in any way become involved with it.
splinter groups and separatists, segmented lobby and the almighty dollar, the appearance of superiority rather than the simple, humble wish to be honorable, and the usurpation of just intent by ‘whatever will get me re-elected’ have combined to create an atrocity of self-righteous, self-serving, utterly selfish rulers. this country has not been led in so long that anyone who might be a leader is too repulsed and disgusted to attempt it.
it isn’t a matter of brainwashing. and it didn’t start with any active oppression. but the result is the same. and the blame is easy enough to find… simply look in the mirror.
most people couldn’t even tell you who their representatives are. they only pay attention to elections long enough to identify ‘their issues’ and have permitted themselves to be utterly manipulated by lobby tactics that are carefully sculpted to match ‘their demographic’. so long as they can get what they want, when they want it, they’re more than happy to either vote the party line or stay home and leave it to someone else.
there is no longer any ‘one reason’ for this mess. the reasons have layered and woven together in ways that would defy any mind to successfully unfurl them.
the ultimate irony is that anyone who would be willing to work toward change has been either co-opted out of the arena by culture, societal pressure, or abject disgust. the glimmer of silver that remains is that those people are once more finding themselves… quietly… in their neighborhoods, in their communities, in one another, in proximity. and perhaps there will come a day in the not too distant future when they are as angry as they are weary in this moment… willing once more to do more than complain to one another.
as always, time will tell…