|
i'm pretty sympathetic with the point that host makes--this despite the fact that terms like "ptb" say so little that is concrete that i find it problematic to use them--the result is that sometimes it takes a while to get off the subject of a sentence and to the verb---which i get away with in publickhouses better than i do when i am writing stuff. like anyone i suppose.
there is no doubt that the american class system--broadly construed to move it away from simply referring to folk who have capital--constitutes an oligarchy which is split into factions and that those factions manoever around the two political parties in order to influence differently the distribution of resources to their own advantage--it is also obvious that there several ways of understanding what advantage leans on--in general, the neoliberal set tends to see it as decontextualized (in ideological terms) and the rest in more contextual terms--so there are differences over what kind of attention should be paid to system maintenance and how much of it should be paid. and there is little doubt that these are tactical fights.
this is the american political spectrum. nothing else.
this spectrum is a function of the political history of the united states spread over the past 150 years or so. one of the main features of that history has been a sustained war on political opposition to the system itself.
it has been a differentially successful war, depending on how you look at it---from 2008, though, it's hard to see it as other than a reactionary triumph and that the sorry state of affairs we find ourselves in as other than an effect.
there's nothing particularly Amazing about recognizing the fact of class domination in the united states. it IS kinda amazing that once you say: there it is, sports fans, right in front of you---you position yourself outside the dominant political discourse.
and the machinery grinds on either way, no matter what you do.
if you decide: "this is fucked up"---and it is---and then opt out, the machinery grinds on anyway.
traditionally, low voter turnout benefits republicans.
so you may hold your nose and play this absurd game anyway---and no matter what you think, the machinery grinds on. we're all free like that.
that's the way in which we are free.
sometimes i imagine an organized and vocal voter boycott of a national election that's just too obviously about nothing, that is too obviously itself nothing---i imagine it taking hold, so that the turnout of registered voters is down to, say 10%--and i imagine the television infotainment coverage, whichj would treat that 10% like it was 100%--there's no outside. that's how things operate. we're free like that too.
the 24/7 "news" outlets treat the election like its an actual contest because 24/7 is alot of time to fill and you don't want to talk too much about bummers like the wars in iraq and afghanistan, or the dick-waving at iran, or the economic crises, or various social crises---24/7 is alot of time to fill and what you fill it with determines alot about what us free and free-thinking americans think freely about freedom. so a nice sporting event election is good for ratings, good for television, good for 24/7 because a nice sporting event election shows you that everything's ok. you can't have sporting events if the world around them is too outta whack and so there we are, sporting event election. "what's mc-cain goona say next" is a whole lot smaller a problem than is "what the fuck is the bush administration doing with respect to iran?"....but it's theater and we all know it's theater. it's july, for chrissake.
all this is the case, i think, but it is still true that not having another republican administration is preferable to having one.
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
|