Some Meandering Thoughts

Reading through comments at various blogs I find some comments remind me of how people drive their cars. For some reason ensconced inside those metal and plastic guided missiles we call cars people feel freer to be rude or perhaps to just let their inner self emerge from the niceties of normal human intercourse. The impersonal aspect of communicating via the internet seems to act like the car shells of drivers and people feel more free to take liberties with other people than they would normally in a social setting where all are together in the body. This all gets stale after a while. Politics is always contentious and people can take it very seriously even when they don’t have a clue as to what they are talking about and or only repeat what others have already said like so many parrots.

It’s almost funny in a way, like when you run across what I call the dictator type commenter. I’m thinking of one in particular that I came across recently at a favorite site and if you so much as hinted at a suggestion that one tiny part of a long winded comment might possibly perhaps, maybe a one in a million chance, that there could be a whiff of disagreement, this person would explode into a tirade demanding proof of this that and the other that he might have been wrong on one eensie bitsy fragment of his comment. It was all in his, shall we say, hyperactive and fevered imagination. I wonder how many bloggers see themselves as striding across the universe spreading truth like some cosmic Johnny Appleseed spreading seeds among the stars of the heavens. The only thing missing is a big red “S” on their chest and a cape to match.

Politics are an ugly subject regarding ugly people, in my opinion the worst society can produce. For the most part politicians act on their own behalf which is a really boring thing in my opinion. While people who don’t really pay attention may have some accordingly ridiculous ideas about the reality of politics and power they are perhaps a bit saner for their ignorance. On the other hand I think people really should pay better attention and this is where I believe the positive side of the internet comes into play. Good information is found on the net amidst tons of useless crap and tasteless garbage you just have to know where to look. I wonder in this militarized police state we inhabit why big brother hasn’t taken control of the internet to render any independent voices silent. Most likely they just don’t see it as a threat yet as the most popular blogs are either rubber room right wing dingbats or delusional liberals who are so happy to have their man in the White House that you could sell them the Brooklyn Bridge five times in a row without raising suspicion. Even paying more attention than most is no guarantee that we can get things “right” as it were. However if the ruling elite ever see the internet as a direct threat to their rule you can bet the internet’s days would be numbered at least in the form we are now familiar with.

One conclusion I draw from this is that this lack of concern on the part of the elite is proof that the internet has not really been effective in countering the mainstream news media. The simplest reason being most people get their news from their local TV news stations, the absolute worst choice for a reliable news source. Indeed, we find ourselves plunging headlong into ever more military adventures overseas even as the economy continues to crumble even as our leaders concentrate on war and by that I mean I include Congress who is as guilty as or guiltier than Obama and frankly I favor the latter more than the former. I find their recent appearance of resisting sending more troops to Afghanistan to be feeble and too laughable for words. A lot can happen in the coming months and years of Democratic leadership. Anything is possible for example the draft could be reinstated, a brutal form of mass murder sending ignorant youth to an early and bloody death while the wealthy old bastards sit in their castles glutting on the blood of others like the parasites that they are. I expect social security to be put on the chopping block in the grand tradition of health reform whereby reforming social security either renders it a ghost of its present form or dismantles it entirely. Individual states are broke or going broke so it is difficult to see them taking up the slack.

By the year 3,000 a presidential election would probably consist of candidates dressed in loin cloths their skin painted in garish colors brandishing swords and spears dancing half naked to a pounding rock song complete with strobe lights, fog, and smoke machines. The winner of the election will be the candidate that can bite the most chicken heads off in a one minute period. The losers would naturally be drawn and quartered, hung by the neck until dead then burned at the stake and served up for dinner. Yes, humanity is progressing nicely. On the other hand it might be more honest.