Commenting on politics is not my first avenue of expression in the world, as I usually take a lot of it with a grain of salt as a combination of public spectacle, civic sports event, and egotistical mental masturbation. However, there are some things that come about that cause me to prick up my ears and pay attention. Filtering the cruft from the cream is, however, an effort of constant vigilence.
Most recent in the news is the invocation of the Military Commission’s Act of 2006 which, besides other things, provides for the elimination of Habeas Corpus, or the right to be brought be before a judge to let a court decide if you’re being held in a lawful manner. I won’t go into why this is a Bad Thing™, but suffice to say that it is a pretty fundamental right that has been conveniently, and without hardly any fanfare, been swept under the rug and ignored. If you need convincing why this is a big deal, go to YouTube and look up the keywords, “Olbermann” and “Habeas” and watch Keith Olbermann’s terribly poignant commentaries. You’ll be spitting chips when you’re done, I guarantee.
The thing that I’ve been musing about over the past week or two is the fact that, despite the nature of this law and its potential (read: probable) misuses by the current, bone-headed administration, Americans (in general) have resorted to either being completely ignorant of the event, sighing at it as another one of those crazy “law things” that Congress does while it’s burning away tax dollars, or grumbling as their episode of “Dancing with the Stars” is interrupted by the nightly newscast. In short, the country has exhibited a collective yawn and gone back to spraying fake mud on our SUVs.
The rest of the world is sitting upright in their chairs, an incredulous look on their face, and yelling, “WHY??!?!?”
Few in the world have not questioned why Americans wouldn’t rise up against such a blatant violation of our basic freedoms, let alone allow a blender-brained, dangerous man like G.W. continue to stay in office. To be honest, I’m starting to get a little flabbergasted by the situation myself, but I had some time and thought about why this would be the case, and am taking a stab at it:
As long as it doesn’t affect the majority of lives, Americans will not take a sincere, concerted effort for or against an action.
We are, if nothing else, a people of inertia. That does not, of course, imply that we are standing still. Rather, it implies that once we have a direction, we tend to stick with it barring any major sort of event. Americans lead lives that are increasingly busy, some of us busier than anything we’ve ever seen before in history, simply due to the number of balls we must juggle. In general, if something is not changing the way we live, do business, spend money, and make ourselves happy, we tend to put it on the back burner in favor of things that DO affect us, directly, daily. This is easily shown by the sheer lack of retirement planning that many people have. When you’re 30 and aren’t in immediate danger of retirement, planning for it often takes a back burner to other things, such as a car payment.
Unfortunately, Americans also do this with things like religion and politics. They stick with the same religion, even if it doesn’t make sense or doesn’t do anything for them, and they stick with their politicians, or at least, the status quo, so long as it doesn’t interfere with their lives in huge ways. Although there are various people going over to Iraq and dying, most people are unaffected by this war. Gas prices go up and they bitch, they go down and we’re fine again. People hold rallies and so forth for soldiers leaving and returning, but while they’re gone or after they’re back, there’s not much said about it.
Simply put, our lives haven’t changed enough to make us sit up and think. Nobody’s getting hauled off to prison camps, nobody is suddenly finding it hard to do business or buy goods — there’s no shortage of metal or wood or cement — and nobody is staying awake at night, wondering if they’ll be invaded and captured or killed.
The danger inherent in this is, of course, the slow and methodical movement of the government towards a bad position. It is very similar to a chess game being played by a master against a very distracted youngster. The child doesn’t know that the master is setting them up for a huge takeover; the master loses a few pieces in the early rounds and the child gains confidence, assured by his small victories that large ones are in the making. He misses, however, the large smile adorning the chessmaster’s face as the larger plan unfolds and violently pins the pieces to the board in a stellar move, completely blowing away the game in one fell swoop. By the time the child has the faintest clue, it’s too late, they’re captured. Game over, man. Game over.
Unfortunately, I do not know how to turn the bulk of the intertia of the American people around. I am hoping that the current buzz, low approval ratings of the Administration, advertisements and discussions will bring on some sort of awakening. It is my greatest fear that at the moment we are in a very complex, very huge chess game of the worst kind and there’s either one of two outcomes: One, Bush & Co. know *exactly* what they’re doing and it’s all part of a very large master plan and by the time we act it’ll be too late, or Two, Bush & Co. haven’t a *clue* and think they’re doing ok, but they’ll stick our country’s neck out too far and someone much, much smarter will come along and hack off our head.
For those of you in a different country, I assure you that many of us Americans are just as confused as you are as to why this has been allowed to go on so long. We need to form dialogs with people when the subject comes up and express our concern that this country is headed in the wrong direction. But it’s a tough road, and the Titanic takes time to turn around. We’re in for a long haul, no matter how it turns out.
