Pissing Into The Wind

The modern day Conservative Movement has convinced millions of otherwise smart and sensible Americans that to help their neighbors and fellow citizens is an evil so profound as to be neigh on par with that age old bogeyman, Socialism. If lower middle class children got used to having ready access to health care, then poor children and even adults would expect to have access to health care that borders on the Universal and well, we all know how bad that is. Just look at Europe! With their lower infant mortality rates, longer life expectancy and lower rates of obesity and chronic illness, plus all those doctors on call 24/7, why it’s a veritable Hell of Socialized Medicine! It’s a wonder that they don’t flock across the ocean for our American style, sub par health care with it’s built in hidden fees, byzantine bureaucracy and outrageous prescription costs.

How exactly Socialism got the stench of evil about it is a long and convoluted story. Mostly, it’s lingering word association games played during the early twentieth century. Socialism was something that the lower classes engaged in. It was foreign. Never mind that Germany’s National Socialism party was built on a foundation of free market fundamentalism, Christian identity politics, racism and rabid nationalism and that the Nazis imprisoned Socialists along with Jews, Gypsies, Commies, Gays and anyone who pointed out that what they were doing was neither in the best interests of the nation nor actually socialism of any variety. Oh, and stark raving evil.

Nevermind that the late twentieth century saw a melding of democratic principles with socialistic ideals that created a dozen solid examples of what it means to be egalitarian, humanitarian and truly democratic. To listen to most political douchebags, you’d think that Europe was a floundering shipwreck, casting off starving survivors forced to gnaw on the bones of their own sick and dying children just to keep their wine glasses full in th afternoon while they sat around discussing Sarte and not going to “Church”.

What about the angry mom whose kid is sick and no one will treat them because their paperwork isn’t in triplicate and preopproved by some jackass in a Bangalore Basement staring at a computer screen prompting him to shuffle on to the next case because this one is costing the Trial And Error Big Healthcare too much money?

But, instead we get platitudes. Every politician admitting silently that helping people is Socialism. And Socialism is evil. So, fuck you grandma and little Joey. You’re broken hip or persistent cough will probably kill you because to help you would be to commit the unforgivable sin of following Europe’s example. Because if it wasn’t Made in America (but manufactured cheaper in China), than it’s just not an option.

I bet most of you wish I would just shut the fuck up, because I’m just a proll who should accept my place and thank the media outlets (all six of them), for allowing me the pantomime of free press.

But here’s the thing: if you’re reading this right now, you’ve already decided for yourself if you’re going to be offended by my loose language and run to the swooning couch and have Mommy fetch the smelling salts, or read through to the end to see if I make a valid point or not. And that’s all the bloging ethics I’ll ever need. Read my words or don’t. Agree, or don’t. You can agree and leave a comment to that effect or disagree and call me names. And maybe I’ll respond and maybe I’ll delete your trollish rants. But it’s up to me to decide because it’s my fucking blog. You don’t like my perspective? Go write your own blog and call me names on it. Maybe I’ll read it, maybe I won’t. But if you don’t like what I write, you’re under no obligation to read it. And the thing is, I figured this out pretty quickly, on my own, years ago.

The problem is that the Internet is a free medium and that scares the shit out of some people. It means unpopular opinions that might have some validity have an opportunity to get heard and to spread and become popular opinions, all without gatekeepers or some authority figure giving the thumbs up. It allows for culture to be spread and evolve organically, in the hands of anyone with a desire to contribute, not just the monied elite who, for most of human history, were the arbiters of taste and expression. Now that it is no longer so, there is fear that we, the unwashed, foul mouthed masses will have a say. And that, my friends, means the end of the way things used to be. The order is rapidly fadin’…

Not that any of this matters because most of you arent even audacious or astute enough to challenge any ideas. You pusillanimous bootlickers!

~ by davenewworld on November 1, 2008.