"If you discovered a major institution of society absolutely
devoted to reducing humans down to androids, would you say that was a
significant problem? Would you admit that institution could radically
alter life and send it careening in the wrong direction?" (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)
This
article isn't about campaign issues or policy issues or who is
qualified to lead. It's about the presidential election season and who
runs that show:
Big media.Get used to
it. Every few years in the US (and other countries), the television
production teams swing into gear with their wall-to-wall series called:
"Let's have our robots talk to the robot candidates."
This
is what is delivered, and this is what the audience expects, in the
same way you expect to be served bad food every time you go to the same
bad restaurant.
And in case you haven't noticed, huge numbers of people keep going to bad restaurants.
Now,
the robot presidential candidates may not have started out that way.
Perhaps a few of them were genuinely passionate about this or that. But
the show called "Let's have our robots..." will fix that. By the time
the actual debates are broadcast, the debates that count, all the
candidates are blown dry and coiffed and powdered and reduced to a few
minutes of spouting ghoulish empty generalities.
There's no juice
left. Brains have been shifted into neutral. Castrations have been
performed. Any idiosyncrasy or sign of an actual individual present on
stage in front of the lights has been rubbed away. You in your home,
sitting in front of the box, could feel more life staring at a roll of
toilet paper.
This, mind you, is all by design. The candidate's
advisors, the pollsters, the party hacks, the donors all contribute to
the outcome. But the television networks, who devise the formats, bring
on the moderators, arrange the podiums, light the stage, place the
cameras, and construct a rolling image of "what the American people
need" from their candidates are the producers. They synthesize and
fabricate. They execute their android manipulations.
The media
don't just bury the truth inside of information. They obscure humans by
making them over into psychological, mental, and spiritual eunuchs.
That's why this whole set up needs to be punctured like an old colostomy bag.
So
let's start with Rand Paul. What are the chances, if he somehow
arrives at the final debates, that he can wreak havoc and disrupt the
whole show?
Close to zero. He's talking like a politician.
Forget his ideas for the moment. He's unwilling or unable to express
how he really feels in a way that causes sudden and irreversible
impact. He still seems to believe in the process. He may be on the
wrong train with right ticket, but he won't get off the train.
He
can show up with a buzz saw and cut through the IRS tome of
regulations, and he can say he'll close down a huge NSA facility if
elected, but in boxing terms, he's not mixing it up with his opponent.
He's not bringing the crowd to their feet.
Bernie Sanders is a
slightly more elusive case. He is attracting larger and larger crowds,
and he is getting them up out of their seats. But Bernie is still
committed to Washington DC because he's been there for 150 years, and if
you listen to him talk you can hear the ding-dong of programmatic
politics.
Bernie has a fiery edge, but he's a kind of a rebel
Commissar. If he makes it to the final Primary debates, he'll come
across on television like a little walrus on a modest dose of meth.
He won't tear the grotesque media format to tatters.
Understand
this distinction. A candidate can make himself look like an exception
to the rule, while still following the rules.
Or he can torpedo the whole show and reveal it for the vicious farce it is.Like it or not, the latter is what we need.
Think
of it this way. The television networks erect a funnel. At the wide
end, anybody with half an idea can get in. But as the funnel narrows
and the process moves along to major coverage and the major debates, the
survivors are scrubbed and sanitized and de-balled and shortened in
terms of how much time they're allotted and which execrable drone is
interviewing them and moderating them---until at the end they're a slice
of Wonder Bread with a thin coat of mayo.
Busting a real move in
this situation takes---and this may sound odd---indifference to the
whole show. Serene indifference. That coupled with authentic passion.
Then you can be in the moment. Then you can look around and expose the
charade itself. Then you can let the audience know what, underneath it
all, they already know. They're watching a hideous cartoon.
They're
watching a police chief standing outside City Hall saying, "The vehicle
was entered and controlled substances were recovered by officers. At
this juncture, this is all we can report, because the investigation is
ongoing."
They're watching a corporate spokesman standing in an
office miles from the chemical explosion that killed 100 people saying,
"We're cooperating fully with authorities in the investigation. We are
confident our tests of the product were correct and the product is safe
for home use."
Destroying the cartoon isn't something Rand Paul or Bernie Sanders will do. They'll fail. They'll stay in the cartoon.
"Oh, but who cares about the media. I'm voting for the candidate who'll being us positive change. That's all that counts."
How has that been working out?
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