on demics

 

It occurs to me I never have liked demics – academics, epidemics, and covid-19 ain't the only pandemic – there's the cyberdemic, going viral for quite some time – been known to suck people's brains right out their head, in extreme cases replacing it with a solid mass called blockhead, also associated with peanuts. When's the CDC going to deal with that? We're engulfed in a polidemic, infected people unable to think so they practice thinking by thinking about politics and sometimes this builds up and spews out and we all have to hear it, about the Republican'ts and the Demic-rats and this is how it spreads, no mask can stop it; and it's horrible, aiggh, the horror. There's the policedemic spreading slowly and insidiously among the masses masquerading as an antidote to crime, wealth the only truly effective vaccine. If we must have a pandemic, give me a frying pandemic and some good old breaded shiners. Or some frying pandemonium. That's all I need. I suggest some new demics – how about a fundemic just for a start – why can't we ever get one of those? WelI, I suppose if we ever did, they'd get that under control right quick.

 

I figured out what it is about Donald Trump that some people like: he doesn't patronize the general public with the illusion that we mean something to the government beyond supplying the labor. He doesn't put a happy face on governmemt. He puts the ugly face on it that fits it.

Peaceful protests are supposed to be allowed in this country to show we have freedom. Show the whole damn world that we're free to walk around in the street and wave our opinion around. Yeeha! With a permit of course. Protests are a valve that lets off steam so we don't get too riled up and rebel. Trump sees a peaceful protest in Washington and he says I have a Bible in my hand so get the %#@& out of my way and has them tear gassed. People are then appalled at this violation of our right to protest. But that's not what it was. It was a demonstration that we have no such right. If we did, we wouldn't have undemocratic elections. We can't even protest with our ballot.

We are taught to revere the war dead and the government pays lip service to this concept – not because it reveres the war dead but because this puts a good face on more war dead for the next time. Governments care more about the dead than the living. So much so that they specilaize in making one out of the other wholesale. But hey – here's a medal for you. All this tomb of the unknown soldier and stuff – it's to keep us lining up for more. Donald Trump just doesn't get that war is a sacred cow. He apparently doesn't care if the myth gets perpetuated or not. He says dead soldiers are losers and suckers. What part of that is inaccurate? They took the bait. If this viewpoint could get out there and grow, why it might be the first baby step toward that much- advertised dream of ending war. But right now, even by thoughtful people, these opinions are seen as damning. Yep. It's all well and good to be “liberal” as long as you keep that sabre rattling. We don't want too much truth.

Of course this is all common sense to the common folk. We just never heard it from a president before. Doesn't make him a great man or a good president or even a terrific pedophile but it may be the key to his appeal – why it didn't hurt him to diss John McCain. I don't expect to miss Trump – I certainly hope I don't – but I think there are some things about him I'll miss.

 

Democracy these days is nothing more than a battleground where corporations fight over the wealth produced by the masses. What's the difference if it's an American corporation or a Russian one?Corporations inhabit their own global nation. As do the masses.  If you vote, don't gripe.

pretty cold however you look at it.

 

It occurred to me that a lot of words we use represent abstractions, ideals to be striven toward which have no actual foundation in the world. Justice seems a good one. We've all been hearing it or saying it for years – “with liberty and justice for all” - such brazen malarkey. Even the concept of justice requires oppression – a higher power presiding over us meting out punishment or reward. Yet this is the pinnacle of society's hopes. We assume it our birthright and justification for all manner of violations. This word keeps the rabble confused and on an endless scavenger hunt, trying to locate it so we may stand under and be subjected to its purifying power. You, too, can receive justice, my son.

Lately the search has been refined. Now we're looking for “social justice.” Many of us still searching for the regular kind must look up from the old quest and move to a new one, having received no instruction for how to tell one from the other. Just my luck, now I'll probably find plain old justice. I wonder if it still works. But hey – maybe I can pretend it's social justice and nobody will be the wiser.

One useful ability would be to recognize crumbs when we see it. Crumbs from the giant cake eaters above us who need not waste their time searching for justice, lacking any need of the stuff. It's not for them. They strive for real things. To them it's just ice.