Age of Non-Authority : A Political Rant

When future U.S. citizens look back at the early 21st century, what will they think of?

Ridiculous gas prices? Wars in the Middle East? Y2k? Double-yuh? I see it more as an age of non-authority. Now when I say "non-authority", I am not hinting at anarchy in any way. Rather, I am referring to a time when those who were once considered authoritative in their field are no longer viewed as such. When no one has authority, everyone has it, which means that everyone is a subject matter expert on everything, and you are expected to just accept that fact and never challenge it. Because if you challenge their authority, they will challenge your authority to challenge it. You can't question why your government does the things that they do - you can only read about it forty years later in-between blacked out lines of public release embarrassment.

For example...
The effects of climate change have been well documented by renowned scientists the world over. Yet, opposing factions (like our current government configuration) manage to find (invent?) contradicting evidence and convince those with "blind faith" in their political party that the changes we are experiencing are just part of the normal climactic evolutionary process. There is no hole in the ozone...and as adaptive human beings we will slowly (but surely) grow accustomed to 120 degree summers. The US refuses to work with the rest of the world on any kind of global earth resource management, because we put our economy (or those who run it) first. If there is no problem with climate change, why can't we get on board to prevent it from becoming a problem in the future?

For a supposed "Christian" based society, we sure make money a priority.

On another front...
Investigators who discover evidence linking our own goverment to terrorist groups are also discredited. Rebuttals issued by the government state that they did not train Osama and his men. We, instead, trained other middle eastern militant groups who will likely come back several years later and join the ranks of anti-US radicals (further empowered by the specialized military training that we funded). Nice.

Instead of gazing at the smoke and mirrors being configured by the excuse makers, and accepting their words that we only train "good" foreign militant groups, not the "bad" ones, we should instead be asking them why the hell we are funding support for any of these groups in the first place. After all, those who are on our "allied" list today, grow to hate us tomorrow. The answer that we are supposed to believe is that we are helping to spread democracy and that we are helping to ensure the future of all of these poor people in other countries who don't live like we do (most of whom hate us and feel that our way of living is a sin). Sure - that's a great cause. Sign me up. Look what it's done for the people of Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran so far!

Meanwhile, we allow our own poor to rot in substandard living conditions, allow our elderly to be reamed over the cost of medical insurance and prescription drugs, and we laugh at the social security system that everyone is funding with a big chunk of their weekly paychecks, but nobody will benefit from. We allow crippling taxes on goods and income that our forefathers would have started a revolution to evade (and they did), and we base our entire national identity on the amount of money we spend on crappy products assembled by slave markets in other countries.

I'm sorry to rant about this, and I'm sure that the last thing you need to hear is more anti-government sentiment.Come to think of it, I better be careful. The attack of 9/11 basically reinstated "red scare" and I'm treading on thin ice for not agreeing with everything that our government has done (that we know about).

We just need new government. We need somebody that didn't grow up with a silver spoon in their ass and a nuke button in their playpen. Unfortunately, the filthy rich and "connected" are the only types of people who can afford to campaign these days. We need somebody with a realistic no-BS healthy-at-home policy, who is willing to re-establish the voice (and authoritative vote) of the working middle class on issues beyond just the 4-year monkey race.

The Republican leaders won't give it to us. The sponsoring corporate puppetmasters would never allow it. The Democratic leaders are all talk, with little foothold in reality, it seems. Spirited individuals with occasional good ideas and an affinity for neither party are unlikely to succeed at any time in the future, thanks to the token third party running mate that Nader has become in the however-many-decades that he's been running for president now.

I wish I knew the answer, but as I eluded to in my first post - burying my head in the sand seems like as good an answer as any other. Sure, it's giving them what they want - less impedance, less rocking of the boat...

There's a reason why people aren't voting.

I may get some responses about this from all of you die hard "blind faith" Bush supporters. Before you respond and send me some note challenging my view, please evaluate your own "faith" in our government and their supposed "Christian" ways. Would Christ have supported the war on Iraq? I don't care for Bush, but then again, I don't care for anyone who wants to be involved in the current corruption bank disguised as a working government.

I am not a Democrat or a Republican. When it comes to the political process, I am nothing - an uninformed (by my government) but entertained (by its pretend news media) non-viable spectator. Just because you vote, do you really think that you are part of it anymore?

Big corporations run this country (by way of the government) and everyone knows that corporations only see people as numbers, so why should treatment by their government facade be any different? I used to think that lobbyists were the fundamental key to our problems. Then I realized that they are just another cog in the wheel, easily replaced by another faster set of gears when it would be profitable. The day that they disallow corporate sponsorship of political campaigns is the day that corporate America finds a cheaper way to control the country.