wrote in message
oups.com...
Jon Carrol
SFGate

snip

Someday, we may look back on this and laugh. How exactly did this guy
get to be president? Not that he's the first empty suit to occupy the
office, but he's the first empty suit with really smart advisers
servicing really greedy constituents.

He was appointed. Undoubtedly the first time and most likely the second.
Remember the "dangling chad" incident that so co-incidentally occurred in
the
state under his brother's watch? and the "whoops! we didn't mean to purge
thousands of democratic voters from the lists in Ohio, sorry about that"
incident that occurred when thousands of black voters with similar names as
convicted criminals were *accidentally* removed from the voting rolls in
Ohio?

The issue is not so much why we have a President who probably needs help
with his zipper every morning or even why people tolerate corruption as much
as it is why the people of a country with so much going for it would opt to
be dumbasses in front of their television sets when they could be
contributing to a more prosperous way of life for now and the future. Maybe
I should say - the sheeple of this country. A large number of the American
population are so busy entertaining themselves with their feelings of power
and personal glory that they don't even know who their neighbors are - and
they don't care. Another large number of the American population is so busy
paying off the debt that it acquired while trying to attain feelings of
power and personal glory that they don't have any focus on anything other
than that. We have enough abundance of opportunity that we as individuals
can easily dictate the direction of our lives, and the majority of us choose
self-service instead of communal awareness.

One of the fundamental reasons that helps define sheeple in the first place
is the lack of emotional evolution. I see the children of today visibly
evolving at an amazing rate in their abilities to coordinate brain/hand
functions (watch a 5 year old tackle a video game) and their abilities to
reason at much higher levels than the children of the past. There are a lot
of arguments that define why this phenomena is occurring (not the least of
which is the availability of technology) but I digress. This noted evolution
of functional ability is exclusive to the emotions. Our emotions don't
evolve. The same love or fear that people feel now is the same love or fear
that has inspired or driven people for thousands of years. It doesn't change
because it works. Love and fear are the driving forces for everything we
choose to do in life.

Enter greed. Greed is an odd, convoluted mix of love and fear in that the
greedy love the power and the things that the greed brings them but they
have a natural fear of consequence and a natural fear that they are
unaccepted because no one likes an asshole. The latter part of that last
statement would be irrelevant except for the fact that we are pack animals
by nature and the concept of self worth is a determining factor in how we
perform and behave in society. Whole books could be written on the greedy
and how they wield power and how they protect themselves. The fact that we
allow the greedy to rule our lives with their written laws and their sales
campaigns is yet another thing that helps define sheeple.

Chiefs and Indians - yet another assistant in defining sheeple. The simple
fact (whether or not it is a good thing or not is debatable) is that by and
large, people like to be told what to do. It's a big, nasty Universe and if
someone has a way into the light, we'll take it. Anyone that has ever worked
on any kind of team will attest to the reality that you have to have chiefs
and Indians. I am the captain of my boat, and everyone that goes sailing
with me respects that and looks to me for answers when it comes to decision
making about what the boat is doing and where it is going. Without
leadership, the ship would be a mess.

Loyalty. Now there is a puzzler. If you look at it on the surface, given the
constantly changing nature of the world and people around us, it seems odd
that anyone would ever have any loyalty to anyone or anything at all. If you
look deeper you find the love and fear in all of us and then it all makes
sense. I have never seen a more loyal party than the Republican party. This
is a very powerful attribute for them and they know it. I know many
intelligent Republicans that will sit down in disbelief at some of the
idiocy that is going on in their party appointed government yet they will
always vote Republican come hell or high water. I remember a friend of mine
telling me what an absolute moron Bush was during his campaign for 2004 and
what a disgrace the whole American political system had become. When it came
time to vote - he dangled his chad in George's direction once again and the
only thing he could say about it was - "I had too". Loyalty is a great
shepherd for the sheeple.

The cancerous state our society is in and the fact that we have a government
that represents our condition so well is no surprise.

Ah, well -- maybe Halliburton will get the contract to rebuild America.
There's a win-win scenario.

Maybe?

- A -


..