We are so indeed so Romanesque in our lip
service to our symbols that once actually stood for a great deal more than they
do now. The hollow ring can be heard by
the discerning ear.
Circling the drain in smaller and
smaller circles are we, in GC’s words?
What a mind he was!
I believe Hedges would say that even if
a presidential candidate could surmount the poisonous influence of the money washing
over the shores of our politics, one can’t achieve very much if we don’t elect
a Congress of same broad general thinking as him or her. Even then, there’s a Supreme Court and lower
courts that will stymie some of what could be achieved. Our Framers may have given us a government
structure that is hard (but not impossible!) to impose direct tyranny, but it
is also one that when tyranny of a subtle sort creeps up and infuses the system,
it is extremely hard to overturn it.
This chapter, this chapter: It deserves
quoting extensively, and the first five pages of it in toto! There are a number of Americans who can still remember
that America of which Hedges speaks, before corporatism and plutocracy, already
strong enough, surged in the last 30+ years to their ultra-dominating positions. Yes, there were some things that were
artificially (and unfairly) advantageous about the America depicted by Hedges
in his opening starkness, but it had working classes and middle classes that
were strong or at least promising.
No longer. And to Hedges, the rot is so deep, the
stranglehold so interwoven and strong, he is not sure that the previous America
can return, even as he “pray(s) and work(s) and strive(s) for its return.”
(142)
But oh yes, bread and circuses (their
updated versions) still work for many, many, many! Yet my mother, who formerly loved the glamour
and anticipation of Oscar night, now says she finds it boring. The wisdom of age perhaps? :)
And I hereby pick up your gauntlet of
brevity and reclaim my reformist designation! Enough said! LOL
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