General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This is not about Obama or Snowden, this is about the corporate takeover of our democracy [View all]Gregorian
(23,867 posts)It's that first step that I keep addressing. When everyone is so comfy and happy (which it appears they are not, but really are in an absolute sense), they are unwilling to do the lifting it takes to improve their own lives, and that of the country.
I smoked cigarettes until I was confronted with patients smoking through tubes in their tracheotomies. It didn't take long before I realized what my habit was going to get me. I have slowly progressed through the decades to where I am nearly 60, and a competitive athlete. But years went by where I dissipated, not knowing what I was doing to my body.
This is happening in American public life. Coke, lousy food, retched entertainment, declining education, legal bribery as you mentioned...
Unconscious does not mean blind. It means a kind of blindness though. It's seeing something from another perspective.
I think the catch 22 is the consequence of propaganda. Post WW2. Then repealing the Fairness Doctrine. The drug war. Yes, that was more about giving gov't bigger control than anything to do with drugs.
How do we turn it around? How do we do what you propose? That is, how do we get people to actually vote in their best interest? The 1st Amendment won't let us pull Fox off the air. But it seems to me it's an education process. And judging from how well people have learned about global warming, I have to wonder if there's any hope. But it is possible. And I say that because I know people are being coerced into believing the propaganda. I always use this example- if even a tea party person goes to the doctor, and he says they have to have a coronary bypass, they'll believe the doctor. So it's not that they're just stupid and resist the fact that what they're doing to the planet is going to kill their grandchildren. It's that they've been programmed by their leader.
How do we turn this concerted effort to keep people stupid around? Because that is what it's going to take to get them to vote for politicians who are willing to stop the encroachment of corporate money into our public governance.
OK, now it's time to ride a mountain bike for a few hours. The redwoods await me!