Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Neo- de-Constructiondisestablismentliberarian.

If I'm selling you a used car I'm going to point out all of the advantageous features of my 'good as new' vehicle. I'll tell you about gas mileage and how it was maintained; the little old lady who sat in it while she was thinking about driving to the store. I'll point out the reputation of the model in terms of longevity and resale value, even though you are already buying it from someone else. I've been known to lie.

If I'm selling you a house I'm going to tell you things that will not be the same things you will hear from the man you hire to come in and check out all the hidden areas. He's in a different business than I am. I've been known to lie too.

It's like having two psychiatrists at an 'excitable boy' murder trial. "I found the murdering scum to be as sane as any of us." compared to, "This young man was driven to these acts by an unfeeling society which he felt compelled to bring to a deeper understanding of the wounded bird in all of us. My client deserves a job in social engineering, not a death sentence."

If I'm a six year old and I break a lamp, the chances are the dog did it, my playmate knocked it over or, "I don't know."

We don't have absolute proof that you can't catch Herpes from a toilet seat and we've had ample proof in this life of your lying eyes.

It seems that in the progression of this particular stretch of History, circa 4000-something B.C. that we have refined a lot of things. We've certainly upgraded tools, weapons and underarm deoderants. We haven't found anything to take the stink out certain acts but you do have a remote. But one refinement that addresses that issue and has been overlooked is that of stupidity. We have refined stupidity to a point that it has learned how to argue against recognizing conditions right in front of the observers nose.

Once there was a fairly wide acceptance of the difference between right and wrong. Oh sure, much wrong still got accomplished and justified by people and nations as a necessity of doing business. But you suspect they knew it was wrong. Back then doing wrong was more about eminent domain. If you didn't catch me before i got control of it I had already morphed into landowner or patriot. Then you were forced to use the accepted channels of redress and for that there are always lawyers. Of course, you could just do what I did...and that went on too.

But now it isn't a matter of right or wrong anymore. It's a matter of how often it gets repeated. It's a matter of drumming the mind into surrender.

Today you can say anything and be confident that someone is going to believe it. If you have the mechanisms in place for wide disemination you can count on a good 30% across the board and you can probably strongarm the rest of what you need.

The key appears to be controlling information. The guy on the street corner screaming in outrage is not going to reach the audience that a television station does. It's a simple thing.

Someone recently led me to believe that a particular morally bankrupt writer, a known shill for the worst inclinations in all of us, was more legitimate than I because he had a connection with a prestigious university. Well, it wasn't a stretch for me to see then that if name recognition and connections are an indication of greater worth and veracity; game show hosts, billionaires and advertising mavens are to be considered a more viable source for what is real that lumpen proles like ourselves. It appears that fame and it's attendent power is all the proof we need as to the value of the work. This is a clear indication that limbaugh is not only brighter than Chomsky, he's also better.

It also means we should probably just give up and bend over, sooner or later you'll inherit the Earth; most likely after everyone else is through with it.

I'm really only left with one question about it all. I haven't been able to convince myself whether those lying for their own ends and those lying for the liars and those believing and repeating the lies... I haven't been able to determine if they clearly know they are lying or whether they just spend all their time convincing themselves that the lies are true. But would you have to convince yourself? I also can't decide if the people who believe the lies are really as stupid as they appear or whether they need to protect themselves against the result of real truth showing up and messing with their plans. Now here I become more confused because I know you can't protect yourself against that. You can't avoid it either. It's often slow coming but come it does.

But do you think any of these people ever stop for a moment and ask themselves, "Hmmm, what if I'm wrong?" Do you wonder at their capacity to digest enormous lies; lies that are proven to be lies right in front of their noses and yet remain invisible?

There's got to be some kind of attrition that accompanies this. I wonder if they know what that is?

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