the Black Hole of Political Action

Here in Madison, it is difficult to make the commute home after work without seeing at least one person on the corner picketing for Obama. Now given, this is Madison, so it makes plenty of sense. And I like their passion, you can tell that a lot of people here are genuinely excited about the prospect of his victory. The same is likely true of McCain supporters, but I am not sure – as I said, I am in Madison. Anyway, I see these guys on the street corner with homemade signs hawking Obama and it just seems like a huge waste of resources to me. These people have allocated their time to stand around so that someone they don’t know, and will likely never meet, will get a job. I get this sinking feeling every time I see them.

It is part of the American Psyche, I guess. If we have problems with something, we address these problems to our political leaders. We also (some of us) go out of our way to elect political leaders that we think get it right. There are a lot of problems with the assumption that political leaders will solve our problems in any meaningful way. This in turn means that if our assumption of a functional political system is flawed, then so is any political action.

You may be thinking, “what the fuck are you getting at?” Well, my thesis is pretty simple. There is a limited spectrum of ideas and possible actions that acts as a framework for politicians. This spectrum is somewhat fluid in that different ideas can come in and out of reasonability – slavery, civil rights for women and minorities, gay rights, nuclear power, government ownership of corporations, etc. The spectrum fluctuates, but within a very limited range and the introduction of new ideas is only allowed after a certain level of acceptance in mainstream non-political thought brings an idea from unthinkable to controversial. This introduction takes time and money, or in absence of money a shit load of leg work.

Now that you know where I am coming from, let me get back to my primary point about the futility of political action, why it doesn’t adequately solve problems, and what we should be doing instead.

I do not see political action as being a valuable use of time or money – in this case holding a sign on the corner is not likely to sway anyone to vote a particular way. For a moment, lets assume I am wrong about that thought – because there is something to be said for herd behavior. Now, if this type of political action is effective, what is the result of successful activity in this case. Success would be that enough people mobilized on street corners to get the word out that for Madison, the best thing to do is to vote for Barack Obama. So, they have achieved success, but what does that success mean for the guy holding the sign on the street corner? Likely, his life will be unchanged whether or not Obama or McCain is the next president. Regardless of who wins, that guy will be in basically the same boat economically (the president doesn’t control the economy in a free country). So the difference is really only emotional. If Obama wins, regardless of what he does or does not do (he won’t do much) the picketer will only derive some sort of emotional satisfaction from knowing that his guy won. It is like being a fan of a particular sports team. If they win, you feel good even though your life is just as shitty as when they lose. If you find my position that there is little difference between Obama and McCain, look at some issues and you will see that either they are the same, or the difference is nuanced.

So what if this guy (and all the other political campaign volunteers) actually spent that time and money addressing a problem facing their community. Madison has plenty of uphill battles ahead of them so why not make a sign that actually says something about your town? Even better, why not just fucking do something instead of standing around with a sign on a street corner? This is the essence of my beef with political action in America’s national political system. I just don’t see the point.

This may also reflect my general distaste for Madison. Instead of doing something, it seems that people here would much rather go to a meeting and talk about doing something. Or better yet, tell someone else that they need to do something about their problems. To me, direct action (actually taking an active role in bringing about some sort of change) is the solution necessary.

Political action is the byproduct of a brainwashed mass of people that are doing as they were taught. Under this type of thinking, if you want something to change, the best way to go about changing it is to publicize your position. That way, the people that you allow to make decisions for you might catch on and take your advice. This is fine under different circumstances, but if you understand the problems that we face in the future then you should understand that minds are not going to be changed enough to actually make things better. Society is broken. Government is broken. We can’t change it from within. There is no time and there is not enough support. The establishment is too strong in this country. Take the bailout bill as an example, it was extremely unpopular with the American people based on their gut reaction. They knew it stunk. But the people that we they selected to make decisions for them were under the influence of the true power in this country. That is why so few stood up to protest. The Iraq war was another good example as well. There was no way to make a rational case against the war to the politicians. They were briefed on top secret stuff (lies and distortions) that the public didn’t know about at the time. But the public could have easily listened to the likes of Scott Ritter and others who were speaking up and saying that there is no threat there.

The bulk of the American people don’t want to think about the future. It is an inconvenience. It gets in their way and bums them out. They also probably “don’t have the time” to think about it. They want it easy, clean and well-groomed. The problem is that the future isn’t making concessions for the ignorant.

It is only worth helping those that are willing to help themselves. I would add that they should also want to help you back.

If the people standing on the corner are any indication, we are fucked.

-Mike