Americans Do Not Want Change
By James Rothenberg
24/06/08 "ICH" -- - People simultaneously desire and fear change. This is not a contradiction. The human personality is complex enough to exhibit many complementary tendencies. Public opinion polls seem to reveal that change is desired over a broad range of domestic and foreign policies. That this is the case gives hint to an asymmetry in our political system.
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The public is susceptible to overtures of change from politicians. It’s a selling point, the only one they have. Ultimately it means change from him/her to me. While the particulars of this or that change may be discussed, left unstated, and totally absent, is a prior essential. Universal agreement on the starting point. How can one gain an understanding of what something might change to without seeing it for what it is to begin with?
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But do we really want change? Change in the real America, not the America of myth and hymn. Are we ready to see ourselves as an aggressor nation (roughly 200 US military and clandestine operations in foreign countries in the past two centuries, excluding WW1 and WW2 – Global Policy Forum), a nation that sides with the rich against the poor, that slights the weak in favor of the strong. For over a quarter century, since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households (CIA World Factbook).
To see real change we must begin to think critically of our government, our institutions, our social policy, our foreign policy, and our economic policy. It’s not all bad and much of it is very good, but we must acknowledge the difference. Above all, “tell the children the truth” (Bob Marley, Babylon System). That all governments lie and that all advertisers lie and that governments and advertisers are in the same business and the name of that business is control. And that the greatest tool a child can have for understanding the world is skeptical thought.
Great change relies on questioning some of our fundamental assumptions. It’s a look in the mirror, always tough. There’s a handy way to glimpse the odds on dramatic change occurring in our current electoral system. Percentage wise it is at the low end of the “unsure” figure given above, probably best thought of as “greater than zero”.
Which of these two “greater than zero” chances for dramatic change has the higher probability of success? Electing a Ralph Nader? Or convincing a critical number of Americans to return blank ballots as a signal that they are living under a government that has made voting meaningless?
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20168.htm
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