My fellow Americans, 'tis with heavy heart ...

As my old friend Julius C. used to say, "alea iacta". For those of you who don't know Julius, "the die has been cast". The stage has been set for the 2016 US presidential showdown. It's all over but the shouting; that is, all the shouting can now begin.

Maybe it was having the measles in 1956 and suffering through the disease as well as the only thing on TV -- the Republican National Convention -- that put me off (TV for one, but presidential elections for another), or the mere fact that it really doesn't matter who runs or who is elected in the end -- let's face it, nothing really changes -- at least not for the better, but for whatever reason it was, in the end, I'm not excited about this year at all, maybe even less excited than usual.

Growing up I went through the same indoctrination as everyone else, but I couldn't get all excited about it. It just didn't make a whole lot of sense. All that talk about democracy and democratic processes, well, it just never really jibed with what I saw all around me. Theory is one thing, experience is another. To reconcile these inconsistencies, I told myself that one was the ideal, the other simply the reality that we were working on to eventually come up to the ideal. It didn't take all that long to realize that there wasn't a whole lot of working-on-the-reality going on. There are too strong interests in the status quo that were, and are, willing to let the little matter of democratic ideals get in the way.

Back in those measly days, the Republicans came across as liberals (fiscal responsibility, high taxes, support for Social Security and unions, etc.) and the Democrats looked like they couldn't get their act together (Jim Crow South, voter suppression, but support for social programs and a desire for some kind, maybe any kind, of change). Remember, this was prior to the long overdue Civil Rights Movement and the first shift, in my lifetime, of the political center in America. In many regards, it looks like the parties have switched places since then, but that's not all that surprising. We know that in everyday language words can exchange meanings (e.g., for 250 years or so, "awful" meant what "awesome" means and vice versa), but in the active world of reality in which we live, this could simply be a matter of becoming what you hate.

But none of that's important, really. The problems that were known then -- gerrymandering, excessively restrictive voting legislation, too much money in politics, the Electoral College, etc. -- are still with us today. That's half-a-century of awareness of very specific and very specifically undemocratic issues, and not a single one of them has been changed for the better. Oh sure, every now and then something cosmetic has been done, but nothing of substance. And, in some regards, the situation has gotten even worse. After all, we knew in which direction change-for-the-better lay, but that wasn't the direction in which we moved. And it's not as if it would be difficult to really change any of these things:

• a simple law outlawing gerrymandering could be passed
• another law designating a simple formula for determining representation (in the House of Representatives, for example), like "1 representative for every 500,000 people" and requiring fairer districting to reflect that could be implemented
• ending voter-registration requirements; attaining a certain age automatically gives you the right to vote

But none of that ever really comes up for discussion and I haven't heard anybody actually clamoring for that public discussion either (though you can find one neatly tucked away in innocuous corners of the internet). Granted, the Electoral College -- an institution that has certainly outlived its age, but certainly not its intent -- would be more difficult to tackle, needing a constitutional amendment and all (and we all know how idolatrously sacrosanct American holds its constitution), but that money-in-politics thing got changed the most: the US has shown -- and judicially upheld -- that certain forms of bribery are not only legal, but encouraged. How much more undemocratic can you get? Of course, most Americans don't get it, and are so caught up in their self-adoration that they don't even realize that most of the rest of the world has long caught on: America is really good at saying one thing and doing another. Sometimes I think they're trying to turn it into an art form. But it isn't and it's not going to become one.

It's not that people aren't thinking about how the system could be improved, or that it's all too difficult to understand the fundamental shortcomings of a two-party system But the system America has is the system an elite 200+ years ago wanted in order to keep "the people" in their place, so naturally, it's the system that the current elite are simply loathe to change. Why should they? It works very much in their favor. For example,

• 75% of Americans want terms limits for Congress, but there are none.
• 63% of Americans want to get rid of the Electoral College, but they've still got it.
• 58% of Americans want federally funded healthcare for all, but they've only got a system most of them don't want anyway.
• The vast majority of Americans support some kind of enhanced background checks for buying guns, but are they going to get any? You know the answer.

Let's face it, what the people want in America is hardly the issue. Any substantial, visible change has to go through Congress and it's obvious that Congress isn't about to do anything but work for its owners. The people just don't count. They're there for the show, and a show is what we're all about to get, once the real campaigns are launched. It may just be the worst show to be staged thus far.

In the midst of a system that is as overtly corrupt and undemocratic as this one, we also have a certain mentality at work that gives me pause to wonder. It is in presidential election times that one gets to hear the truly bizarre. America is the only modern, allegedly democratic nation in which the phrase "a wasted vote" makes any sense. The very phrase oozes with undemocratic sentiment, but it is thrown about and used as if it were somehow meaningful. The mere concept should be enough to make all our hair stand on end, yet in America it somehow does make some sort of distorted sense: in a consciously designed and implemented two-party system, third parties are per definitionem outside the system; they don't count ... and they never counted, and as long as the system remains as it is, they never will count.

(As an aside: Bernie never stood a chance. Had he not tried to elbow his way into the Democratic Party, he wouldn't have gotten even the minimal media coverage that he got. Don't believe me? Ask Jill Smith or Gary Johnson. Now that we know he never stood a chance in the Democratic Party, what option did Bernie really have? First past the post wins, and that's that. Now his still recalcitrant supporters who know they have been more or less blocked out of the system are being harangued not to waste their votes in this oh, so important "historical" election. Go figure.)

In the end, though, because of the way in which the system has been set up and in light of the fact that for as democratically inclined most Americans like to think themselves, barely more than half of the voting-age population ever makes it out to cast a vote for their delegate to the Electoral College anyway (which I don't take as a sign of a particularly healthy democratic mindset). And when we consider that traditionally, around 4% of these will waste their votes on a hopeless cause, and that, at least in the last 10 elections the winner has garnered on average around a mere 51% of the vote, we have the, allegedly, most powerful person in the world being elected by about 25-27% of the US voting-age population. That, my fellow Americans, is minority rule. It takes a vivid and creative imagination to spin that into an exemplary model of democracy.

This is, however, how a two-party systems works (and how it was always intended to work). Moreover, the most fundamental assumption underlying the system, the one that should, at least in principle, make it acceptable or at least remotely viable, is that whoever is running is worth voting for in the first place. There was a time -- in my measly and post-measles days -- when I thought for a moment that such elections were about positions and policies. We're all allowed to be naive in our youth. In the meantime, as this latest presidential primary circus has shown, positions and policies apparently don't matter at all. The whole affair has degenerated into little more than a popularity contest. One party has no real policies and positions at all, just a lot of hate and fear, and the other has some, but they're the same, old same-old, regardless of how "progressive" the internal opposition was in the run-up to the nomination. I find it exceedingly interesting that there's more talk now about unity and togetherness than there is about anything substantial. Trump is being sold as anti-establishment, though he's anything but anti-elite; Clinton is being sold as a rallying point, because she's established in the elite. Somehow I'm still missing "the people" in this alleged democratic adventure.

What is more, one has to search far and wide to find actual engagement with and analysis of the Democratic Party platform, for more than anything, this election is already being pitched as "historic" because a woman is running (though not alone, nor for the first time, but it just so happens for one of the only two parties that count). Already we are being encouraged, in particular women are being encouraged, to vote for the woman, merely because she's a woman. I don't know about you, but that strikes me as a particularly weak political argument, and there's nothing democratic about it. There's a lot at stake in this election, that much I will concede, and that's all the more reason in my mind to think really hard about if you're going to vote; if you are, how you're going to vote; and most definitely what you are actually voting for. The spin-wheels are already squealing that anything is better than Trump, but not why it is that only Clinton is that "anything".

And so, my fellow Americans, he we are, a decade-and-a-half into the 21st century and we're about to witness what promises to be one of the most unreasonable, dirty, hateful, mean, confrontational and potentially violent presidential election cycle ever. Oh, how far we have come. Oh, how rich and reasoned is our understanding of democracy and the democratic process. Oh, how proud we must be. This, my fellow Americans, is apparently the best we can do.

Though disappointed in my measly days, along the way I had hoped that we would learn and grow, just as all my adult guides expected of me. In my youthful naivite, I thought that's how the world worked. It doesn't. Learning, apparently, is what others are supposed to do. Still, I'm older now, just a little bit smarter in spite of it all, but not necessarily wiser. What I have seen this year will certainly be more than enough for the next four years, to be sure. I shudder when I think of the short-term. I'm concerned deeply for all our futures.

What I have seen that pains me most though is that we have apparently, been forced into submission to a "system" which has come to exhibit and represent all that it was meant to overcome.

My fellow Americans, thanks for the extra load of crap

It's not like I have nothing to do, nor that there aren't things I'd rather be doing. But, I'm not getting to them, because I have to spend way too much times "explaining" things that can't really be explained.

This week, the allegedly impossible happened: Trump was nominated by the Republican Party as their candidate for president. It's their good right. In contrast to lots of people I know, I'm all for democracy, even though I also know that it means you may get more than you bargained for or that you end up places you never wanted to be. I can live with that, but I don't want to have to live with trying to explain how things like this can happen ... in supposedly the most advanced country on earth ... in allegedly the greatest country the world has ever known ... in purportedly the zenith of Western culture.

My fellow Americans, you know and I know, even if the rest of the world hasn't caught on yet, that there is a massive disconnect between the marketing of a product and the actual product itself. After all, we grow up with exaggerated claims about everything. It's part and parcel of being American. The Greeks may have invented the word "hyperbole", but we filled it with life, everyday life. America is -- let's face it -- non-stop hyperbole.

It's hard to get that if you're not American. It's hard to understand that what is said has little resemblance to the reality it's supposed to describe and that what's shouted at the world shouldn't be taken all that seriously, for the most part. Words mean little in America. We're born pragmatists. It's in our blood: it's not what we say that makes a difference, it's what we do, and when you look at what America has been doing to the world since the last big war, well, you realize there's a reality there that lots of other peoples are having trouble living with. But that's a subject for another day.

Let's face it: the Donald -- the very moniker gives it all away -- is not presidential, and his wife isn't very first-lady-like at all. Oh, I'm not saying anyone else in the eventual race is cutting better figures here, far from it. You just have to realize that cute charm has worn off the American facade. Melania should have done her homework. I know students who almost lost their degrees for less plagiarism than she aired in her very short speech. In today's world of intellectual property, stealing others' words has become a mortal sin. Feigning ignorance, sloughing it off as cavalier, allowing for that much sloppiness at such a critical juncture is, well, inexplicable at best, but trust-eradicating at worst. Why do Americans expect so little of those who are going to represent them to the rest of the world?

And yes, the Donald ... sorry, I got side-tracked ... he's everything we imagine a leader of the free world is not. (OK, he's now got a Boris Johnson from that other wannabe empire flitting through the world distracting attention from serious issues, but that too is another story for another day). He is unstatesmanlike, vitriolic, incoherent, uninformed, and ignorant of history; he is unaware of his own effect on others, easily manipulated, insensitive to others, and of questionable ethics and beliefs. Yes, yes, I know that even the most seasoned politician can be any of these things on a bad day, but this is Trump on his good days. I used to think it was cute and somewhat funny when people made jokes about a senile Reagan getting to close to the nuclear button, but I have to tell you, I'm not the only one in my personal environment who is worried about Mr. I-don't-have-to-think-anything-through-because-I'm-great having such serious access.

You know, and I know, and I've said as much before, you don't live in much of a democracy, but given the wide range of more-than-life-threatening issues on the table, it is really not too much to expect that you'd at least offer someone up for office who gives you the impression he could be taken seriously. Too many of my Trump-supporting Facebook friends are tying to push his "outsider honesty", but a billionaire is never an outsider to elites and having no tact is not the same as being honest. There are too many Americans who simply don't know the difference, and this is the behavior we have come to expect from pubescing adolescents, but not from office holders whom we are supposed to be taking seriously and whose words and actions can cause major upheavals in financial markets or peace negotiations.

A lot of people I know once did -- and still want to -- have a high opinion of America, but between the apparent increase in good old police brutality, the lost-the-plot gun stuff being reported, the obvious über-aggression of US-led NATO, and now the Trump spectacle, it's getting harder and harder to explain to them why they should be taking American seriously. I certainly can't explain it to them, even if I wanted to, because my own head wags and my own jaw drops on a regular basis, but apparently Mr. Trump is what some people envision as the "most powerful person on earth". I get shivers.

Now, I'm fully aware that the other half of the gruesome twosome to be running for office in America has yet to be officially nominated. It's a done deal, though, we all know that. And no one should think it is any easier explaining Hillary to my fellow, questioning-asking German citizens. Yes, they know she's Bill's wife, they know she held political office, they know she was Secretary of State, but it's not like she left a lasting impression on anyone around here. Well, maybe on the politically elite, but I'm talking about everyday people with every problems who have an everyday understanding of international politics. But they know what Wall Street is, and they know what Goldman-Sachs is and they who has close ties to big money and who doesn't and, well, that just raises a whole lot of other questions that, to be quite frank, I have little desire to try and explain, even if I had a coherent explanation to offer.

No, my fellow Americans, you have and you are about to make my life much more difficult than it need be. I can't explain how Americans think, because I'm not convinced myself that a whole lot of thinking is going on over there, at least politically. I don't understand the gun fetish, even if there is an alleged constitutional amendment supporting it. I don't get the massive police violence that we're seeing on the news so often. I don't understand the too numerous killings of unarmed civilians. I don't understand how corrupt and manipulated allegedly democratic processes have become, be they the passing of simple legislation, the refusal to nominate a supreme-court justice, or the curtailing of voting rights, or the circuses you call the primaries. I don't get any of that, and neither do my German friends and neighbors, but I can't explain it to them either.

Personally, I have no vested interest in who you decide to have run or who you decide to field as presidential candidates. One thing I do understand, though, is something I can't explain to them anyway, namely it really doesn't matter in the end who is finally elected president in America: nothing is going to change anyway. Not only do Americans not elect its own president, as the primaries showed this time around, they really have nothing to say about who ends up being candidate. But it doesn't matter in the end. Yes, we all like to act like and think that the President of the United States has something to say, but other than little decisions, like who gets X'd off the kill list or which tie to wear to the press conference, the real decisions, such as whether there's a drone-kill list at all, are made by others. What everyone here knows and has no trouble saying is how badly money has corrupted America's political system, and my only real recourse is to affirm that they're right: America is not politically driven, it is money driven. If the right people or enough people stand to make a profit, it will be done, regardless of the politics of the situation.

Unfortunately, they really don't understand that either. Well, to be honest, I think they don't want to understand it. Nobody wants to think that at bottom it's all about money. My mother taught me, though, that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well ... I can understand that, even if I have trouble sympathizing with it. But we truly have to ask ourselves what real options do we have?

When you've run out of explanations, the best you can do, I think, is to motivate people to ask questions for themselves, so all I can do is repeatedly admonish my fellow German (and other European friends) to ask the only really relevant "political" question we have: cui bono? (Who benefits?) And that's the question I'm asking myself post-Republican National Convention: cui bono? That's the question everybody should be asking.

Even P.T. Barnum would be ashamed

The circus owner and operator P.T. Barnum once remarked that he didn't care what you wrote about him as long as you spelled his name right. He was a man of questionable character and less than scrupulous, but he billed his circus as "the greatest show on earth". Whether it was the "greatest", or whether it was just more colorful, louder and gaudier than all the others, I don't know. It doesn't matter, he was a shameless peddler of illusions, but I'd bet even he'd be gob-smacked by the even greater circus going on in his home country right now: that circus we Americans call our presidential primaries.

The jig is up. You've been found out. All that prattle about democracy and democratic process and the people's choice and even government by and for the people has been exposed for what it is: prattle: loud, hollow, foolish talk. America has just shown that by all reasonable standards, it has about as much to do with democracy as the old Soviet Union had to do with rule by the peasants and workers. Empty assertions, like lies, if repeated often enough, sooner or later are held to be true, but eventually, the truth will out, and when it finds its way to the light, the clowns of that particular circus reveal themselves to be Chuckys not Clarabells.

It's not just that they've turned a serious undertaking (the selection of public leaders) into a an adolescent popularity contest (I can't remember the last time I heard my fellow countrypeople actually discussing or debating an issue ... well, come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I heard them discussing or debating anything), and it's not just that they've scraped the bottom of the personality barrel (Trump and Clinton, just to name the most front-running mispicks) ... no, it's the shameless, disregard for the whole notion of democracy and democratic process that makes me ask myself whether it might not be something in the water in America that has blinded the whole country to what they are doing.

OK, I know that the United States was never intended to be a democracy, and that's fair enough, considering when it was established. I know that Benjamin Franklin is alleged to have told one of his local constituents that they had been given a republic, if they could keep it. But even a republic is a representative form of government, so it's supposed to represent someone, and I know as well that the likes of people like James Madison, one of our oh-so-revered founding fathers did his utmost to ensure that it would be the elite who's be represented. After all, the common folk are just to pesky, fickle, if not downright unfit, to govern themselves. Madison and his ilk have been patronizing that common folk ever since, but this time, it could just be that they went to far.

I mean, Citizens United should have been a tip-off, but apparently it wasn't. How can money be declared free speech? It boggles my mind, that is true, but I don't have access to the same water supply as my back-home compatriots. Money calls all the shots in American politics, and the few "independents" (by which I mean independent of major corporate campaign funding) are allowed to exist to "prove" to the world that Americans are still "free" to choose.

And now we watch how one of the most eminently unqualified candidates conceivable has secured the necessary delegates to gain the nomination, and his party is now scrambling and wringing their hands and distancing themselves from the man because he's unsavory even to them. It should be interesting to see how they are going to handle this in Cleveland next month. And just yesterday we have the other party prematurely declaring the front-runner the winner, even though all the votes haven't been counted. How is this considered even remotely democratic? Oh ... I almost forgot: in America you don't have to count all the votes, only the ones you want to count; just as the Supreme Court confirmed when Bush the Lesser was anointed president in 2000. It would appear the exception became the rule. But, I'm wondering how all those feeling the Bern are going to behave in Philadelphia next month as well?

I suppose I should be grateful, even thankful. The mask is finally off. All that pretense that you have to wade through when talking about anything political in America has vanished. It has become blatantly obvious, at the latest yesterday, when Clinton was crowned queen that both mainstream political parties in the United States have nothing but desultory disregard for anything democratic.

Emma Goldman got it right: if voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal (which the Republicans are still working on, quite openly, to be sure), but yesterday at the latest, all other illusions were shattered. America isn't a democracy and isn't democratic. Its true oligarchic face has been revealed. But, I know there are still quite a few fellow country people who will refuse to acknowledge that they have been exposed. Unfortunately, these people simply need more hope than the rest of us can give them. And the oligarchs apparently don't care. It seems that they have recognized that they don't even have to put on a show any more.

What would P.T. think? And what happens next when there's no show to go on?

I still owe you an answer

It would seem I got so wrapped up in the analysis of the question that I never got around to giving you an answer: should I be glad about all that political bad news or not?

Truth be told, I don't know. When looked at in a short-term context, the answer is probably "no". We've had protest votes before (for example, the Ross Perots and Ralph Naders, the Pirate Party, and more, come and go) and I'm sure we'll have more in the future (assuming, of course, that nothing is really going to change, and I'm pretty sure that most people I know won't be trying to change anything). What is more, there's always some movement left and right in modern politics (but that's because we're stuck in the 18th century politically and some places are so close to the edge (and I'm thinking about my home country here) they're going to go over the edge of the abyss before they step back from it), so nothing's really all that different. Mid-term? I doubt it. I find it amazing how people who will tell you every day that time is running out (for whatever reasons) have no trouble waiting through another election cycle to see if something does change (which it doesn't, and hasn't for the last 10 cycles they've been waiting through, but you never know, do you?) And when looked at strategically; that is, in a long-term context, well, anyone with the sense God gave a dog should see that we're not only digging our own graves, we're building and finishing the coffin and headstone, and are organizing the funeral as well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not Chicken Little: the sky's not falling, at least not now, but our inaction will ensure that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. As they say, it's always darkest right before the dawn.

And I think that's my problem. For all my gun-totin', militia-leaning, gun-owning, true-'Murrican friends: don't worry about it; you'll be dead before you live your dream of whatever it is you're dreaming. For all my, you-gotta-work-within-the-system friends: don't worry about it; before the system lets you change anything and when the "system" finally goes away, you'll be lost because that's all you know. For all my there's-nothing-us-little-people-can-do-about-any-of-this friends, don't worry: you won't have any input to make in the chaos that will most likely ensue and since you've shown you've got no imagination, your silence will be welcome when people are trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces and move on. You see, most people I know either think they're tough, don't understand the situation, or don't trust themselves in the first place. And that means that when things really do get tough, the tough-thinkers will be dead and everybody else will be more or less lost. Yep, that's my problem.

Things cannot continue as they are going now. Almost everybody's dissatisfied but hardly anyone I know has the desire, the willpower, the energy or the desire to start thinking about possible solutions. Things are certainly going to get worse before they get better, but there is every indication "out there" that better is possible.

The not-so-old American saying, "You can't fix stupid" is taking on new meaning. It's accurate in and of itself, and for that very reason, all those things we think are just given -- our economic system, capitalism in its current form; our political systems; our religions; our nationalities -- are what are going to break, and everyone who is holding on to any, or all, of these, is going to get hurt, when we find out how unsustainable all of them are.

So, am I happy about all this bad news? No, for the simple reason that too many people are going to get hurt. It doesn't have to be that way, but that seems to be the way we want it. You get what you pay for, and not enough people are investing the time and energy that is necessary to avert the obvious disasters that are facing us.

More bad news ... should I be glad?

This past Sunday, community-level elections (towns/cities and counties) were held here in Hessen. The results are in and they are, in a word, disturbing, but certainly not unexpected: there was a noticeable and unsettling shift to the populist right.

(For my American friends who live over on the right as a matter of course and who only have two party-candidates to choose from, these things don't make much sense. I understand that. In Germany, the general rule is proportional representation and any party accumulated 5% or more of the vote gets seats in the representative body. More often than not, no single party achieves an absolute majority (50+%) and so whoever wants to run the show needs to form a coalition with one or more of the other groups who had seats mandated by the election. The upside is that most often, extreme positions are tempered by necessary compromise; the downside is that if the coalition partners are close enough in program and ideology, you get things shoved down your throat anyway. Let's face it: democratic approaches are all problematic, but they're more problematic the fewer choices you have.)

All the established "people's parties" (that is, those that allegedly appeal to the broadest segments of the population), the Christian Democrats (CDU), the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens (G) all took noticeable hits in their votes and seats. There was, once again, a lot of protest voting going, with voters seeking alternatives to the status quo. Though the Linke (the Leftists) showed moderate increases (even if they didn't manage to get over the 5% hurdle), the majority of "protestors" jumped to the right: moderately toward the Liberal Democrats (FDP), who managed to get back into the city and county councils where they had been voted out five years ago), moderately to the Free Voter Associations (a loose association of independents), but drastically to the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-populist party that comes of short of having to wear brown shirts wherever they go. It would seem, the scare tactics sown by the governmental and mainstream media (though the AfD calls the mainstream press the "liar press") have yielded fruit. In (too) many places, they garnered 10-15% of the seats.

The naivists among you will be grumbling that if that's the will of the people it needs to be respected, but as is so often the case, what the people want and what political parties want are very different things. Granted, I've not been everywhere and I've not experienced every possible democratic system going, but I've experienced three personally and I've got to hear a lot about a good number of other systems from people who are trying to come to terms with their own back home. What all of them have in common is this: the party comes first, the members come second, and everyone else doesn't matter at all; thank you for your votes, even if you were protesting, but you don't count in the end.

Politics, by its very nature, is about power, and as Lord Acton made clear: the more you have, the more you want and the worse off you are because of it. I firmly believe that we need ways to organize ourselves to ensure that our needs are met. The level of this organization has to be more than just the single individual or family. We're social creatures, so social organization is necessary. Whether we've got systems that ensure that, well, I only have to look at the latest community-level elections here or the circus they call the American primaries over there to convince me that we don't. We have systems that ensure the system-players' interests and power. That's it.

We've been repeatedly told how far we have advanced and how technologically savvy we are, how smart we are and how many options we have, but for some reason, we can't get past a political system that can't get out of the 17th century. I don't think that speaks very highly for any of us. And so we're all driven to feel -- and then believe -- that there's nothing we can do about any of it, so it would just be best if we would sit back and passively accept our fate. Unfortunately, as it appears that things are developing in America and the poke in the ribs we just got here in Hessen make me think that it's high time we put our thinking caps on. Those in power are looking to keep it; those who are tasting it for the first time are looking to keep it; those who lost a bit of theirs are looking to regain it, and the rest of us ... well, we're just going to be pushed aside unless we stand up for ourselves.

Dark days are upon us

Dark days are upon us.

The heartless command, our attention at the very least. It may be a
madman with an Arabic name; it could be a finance minister whose
madness won't allow him to admit he is wrong.

Our minds are not being molded, they are being violated, bludgeoned,
abused, every bit as debilitating as any comparable physical abuse, but
as Stockholm taught us, it is possible to love one's abusers. It's not
mentally healthy, but it is a survival strategy.

Democracy hasn't been taken from us. You can't lose what you never
had. What has been taken from us, though, is our democratic ideals and
beliefs. In the United States, money talks; it's speech is free. Here in
Europe, we politicize instead - it's so much more sophisticated - and we
simply deny sovereign states their sovereignty. Both methods are
employed in the name of "unity", but we're not one, nor of one mind, nor
should we be, but we will be made to be alike.

It's not the silence of the masses that frightens me. What does
frighten me is the moment of their awakening to the realization that
they have been lied to, manipulated, and extorted. No, right now, what
makes me so uneasy is the silence of those who should know better.
Perhaps they have been bought; perhaps they have been intimidated;
perhaps they have simply lost hope. It doesn't really matter when the
results are the same.

The paternalization of society, not just here in the West, and
misguided feminism (only in the West) have made everyone just a bit more
manly: we're so easily distracted by shiny, glittering, but ultimately
worthless little things. We can argue for days about meaningless,
trivial, irrelevant details, yet we won't admit, neither to ourselves
nor to others, that there's a real problem that needs to be solved.
We're in crisis mode all the time. Men are, as you know, always in
crisis mode.

Dark days are upon us. And, they will not find the light as long as
we can be distracted, frightened, threatened, intimidated and bullied
into thinking that different is dangerous, that otherness is
ostracizing, and that only each of us can save him- or herself.

Almost the same sh1t, different day

It is probably clear to most readers that my American friends get tired of me picking on the USA. Oh sure, they provide ample material, there's no doubt about that, and in reality, the only real complaint that I have is the hypocrisy of it all: claiming one thing and doing another. In this regard, I can assure you, the USA are not alone. The most recent developments here in Europe have shown that we have learned well from our mentor and we can be every bit as hypocritical as our big brothers across the pond can be. So, today, as a change of pace, I thought I'd let off a bit of steam for many of the same reasons, but with a different focus.

On more than one occasion, quite recently in fact, I have taken a very critical look at what the EU has done and is doing to Greece. (If you missed that or forgot, look here, here, and here.) What I did not do in those posts, and what has been bothering as long as it has been going on, is the role that Germany has played in all of this. Yes, the dismantling of representative democracy in Europe, the quasi-colonization of a (once) sovereign state, and the oppression of a whole people has taken place under the guise of a pan-European project, but, the truth of the matter is, it was a German-led action. And that bothers me to no end.

To be honest, I don't care what the motives are, nor am I all that concerned with the "reasons" or alleged "justifications". I don't care about the political rationalizations. What I have long maintained and what I never tire of saying: I don't care in the least what you say, I'm only concerned with what you do. Actions always speak louder than words, and that is the purest case for my problems with the USA these days, and it is the same reason that I've been ruminating over Germany for a while.

Most of you are not aware that everything that any of hears about the situation in Greece is propaganda. Over the past few days, as the Greek government "debated" the latest "emergency financial package" and "more quickly than expected" managed to "pass the appropriate legislation" to allow themselves to be "helped", I had to fight back the desire to "projectile regurgitate" on whatever media I was engaging at the moment. Seldom in my time on this planet have I been exposed to so much BS in such a short period of time.

It could very well be that the Germans were forced into the euro. It could very well be that so many mistakes were made in introducing the currency that there's no turning back now. It could very well be that political solutions to problems are always messy and always miss the point. It could also very well be that I'm seeing motives where there are only reactions. But, the fact of the matter remains that the Germans (Merkle in the background, coward that she is, and Schäuble in the foreground, power-addicted know-it-all that he is) believed it was their right to do what they did. But it wasn't. It never was, it never is, and it never will be.

The crisis is far from over, regardless of how the media try to spin it. The damage to be wrought will become more than obvious. The suffering of the people will become more than apparent. But the propaganda machine is running at full power here, just like it runs in America 24/7.

And, all of this is avoidable, if we would only stop talking and start listening, if we would only stop griping and start engaging, if we would only stop fighting amongst ourselves and realize that everyone who believes that they have even the least bit to say, is doing their best to ensure that we little folk don't ever, ever realize how much we're being manipulated. And that's all I have to say about that.

It's not all Greek to me

Most folks have not taken the time to read the tons of documentation that has been produced in regard to the Greek crisis. Tsipras is trying to buy some time to get through the next phase of the storm, but has anyone seriously asked themselves what he's doing and why? I don't know. I really don't know, but what I do know is that we're being fed an official line of distraction and confusion, and they're using every trick in the book to see that it stays that way.

The Greeks have been forced to put up all their public assets for sale. Just over a week ago, Warren Buffet took advantage of the sale and bought himself an island for a mere €15m. Not unsurprisingly, just this past week, it was -- quietly, subtly, almost unreportedly -- that the Americans are going to be given access to Greece's (not insubstantial) gas and oil reserves (just like they silently and forcibly moved in and took over the Ukraine's). In the meantime, just like in the USA where Social Security and Medicare are on the block for the upcoming elections, top priority was given to privatizing and gutting the pension system and the Value-Added-Tax, the most regressive of all taxes, was almost doubled.

The official line is that these "reforms" are necessary to get Greece back on its feet. When you call a program whose sole results is the destruction of what was there before a "reform", you have to be pretty damn cynical at heart. In the five years of the crisis, and here, in the last round, where it was do-or-die, the creditors (as if they should be given credit for something) demanded these changes, but not once in all that time have they demanded that a tax on the rich or super-rich be instituted, not once have they demanded that the government immediately clamp down on tax-evasion. Instead, the Greeks have been encouraged to "modernize" their administration (for example, by issuing very limited, but very lucrative IT-infrastructure tenders to be implemented whenever) and over all this time, the Greeks had submitted to continuous reviews, all of which were approved by those very parties who decided it was time for the Greeks to turn over their democratic sovereignty to extra-democratic institutions.

In light of the documentation, and in light of the actions of the Greek government in the last couple of weeks, I'd say they know what's what. At the very slightest indication of non-cooperation, I would be willing to bet that what has so-far been accomplished below the radar will simply burst to the surface. There will be a radical, perhaps even violent, change of government right here on the edge of Europe. Greece is being made an example of, but there is growing distrust of the current powers-that-be, not only in Greece, but elsewhere, and it is very likely that Greece will begin living its myths and become Pandora's Box.

Just how insane does it have to get?

The past couple of weeks have been trying, at least for me that have been. I'm not talking about my personal life. It's as "normal" as it's going to get, but what I see going on all around me is taking its toll.

It's not just the colonization of a nation within the European Union; it's not just the war-mongering and sabre-rattling towards Russia including supporting fascists in the Ukraine; it's not just the Turkish flip-flop on not knowing whether the Kurds or ISIS is the biggest perceived threat to them. No, it's the insanity that accompanies even the smaller issues.

It's the sheer ignorance that comes with ignoring anything that looks like a fact and stating one's opinion as if it was worth listening to. It's the hypocrisy of claiming to help when all you are really doing is harm. It's the perverse way that history gets twisted to make us think that Iran, for example, was responsible for 9/11, or that we can't identify terrorism when it's homegrown, or we rush to suspect terrorism where there is none but it suits our purposes, or how it is possible to believe the answer to gun violence is more guns, or how it is possible, in the allegedly freest country in the world that a former general can float the idea of internment camps for those not loyal enough to America. And this, in the 21st century.

There can be no violence great enough that will make us believe that violence is not the answer. There is no belief so distorted that it can't hide reality from us. There is no self-righteousness so great that it can't allow us to believe that we're the good guys and everybody else is bad.

That's our world today ... day in and day out. It's not just that the inmates are running the asylum, they've got most of us cheering them on.

Was what just happened in Europe a coup?

The recent Greek situation was as close to a coup as you can get without involving the military. Let us recall, that a coup d'etat is, most often, when a democratically elected government is ousted by the military (our most common 20th century experience) which then sets itself up as a junta. No, it doesn't have to be the military, which is why Greece is so interesting: for the first time in a long time, the coup came about not from within and not by the military, but from without, by civilians, namely technocrats and bankers.

As part of the "deal", the Greeks must ask permission of the Troika (the current powers-that-be) even to discuss certain topics. If they want to pass a law, they must present it to the powers-that-be for their approval before it is debated. Think about it. The Greeks, for all intents and purposes, are no longer a sovereign nation. They cannot alone decide what is good for them, in their own interests, and they may not decide how they want to solve their problems. Others will now tell them what, how and why ... well, not why, for that would unmask the whole charade.

My American friends, no doubt, have trouble understanding the problem, I am sure. Oh, it's not as many of you think that they are somewhat ignorant and ill-informed. No, that's not it at all. They can't understand it because they've been living in Greece all along but never knew it. They have no national healthcare to speak of, they have private insurance that will soon take its revenge for the sins of Obamacare. They have no real unemployment or welfare benefits because they all know that whoever is out of work, for whatever reason, is solely responsible for his or her plight. If you had done better, you wouldn't be in that predicament. Americans have a rapacious tax agency, and point-of-purchase tax-collection agents (it's called sales tax for those not following). Americans are personally swamped by debt, lose their homes daily, "enjoy" (in the meantime) somewhat lenient bankruptcy laws (which are necessary when so many "citizens" have to take advantage of them), and Americans, even the Creationists among them, that social Darwinism is a mere fact of life.

That my American friends have been deceived, manipulated, cajoled, coerced, even brainwashed into believing that their oppressors are benevolent is clear to me and most people in Europe. You can't ever miss what you never had, whether it was a good idea or not. It turns out that social cohesion is a defining characteristic of humanity. Destroy that and you destroy humanity itself. And there we are at modern-day capitalism.

The "money" that Greece owes is a paper -- no, digital -- fiction. Every rule of economics as we were taught them in school has been violated to create the situation in Greece (and elsewhere, including simple American households). All the so-called "laws" have been twisted, contorted, bent and broken in order that a fortunate few can live in excess at the expense of the unfortunate many. And there is no dearth of die-hard cheerleaders, from all walks of life and from every social stratum, who are willing to praise these thieves, these merchants of death, these heartless, mindless, and senseless parasites as idols, heroes, demi-gods. If they could only get just a little slice of the pie.

At the moment, it doesn't matter. We need to pay attention. We need take heed of what is really happening. A modern, sovereign nation has been declared mentally incapacitated, but as Ken Kesey exposed over a half-a-century ago: it's the inmates who are running the asylum.

What just happened in Europe?

There has been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth going on around Europe the past couple of days, as well there should be. What is playing out is something for the history books, to be sure, but I suspect it will be reported very differently than it actually went down.

We've known since 2008 and since the leaks around the TPP, TIPP, and TISA that the banks and big business has taken over. This is not a conspiracy theory, it is pure and simple fact. There's not a government in the western, industrialized world that has 10 cents to spare for a single humanitarian program, not even for its own citizens, but there are tons of cash, in the form of bailouts, tax breaks, and subsidies for the most wasteful of things. What is different about the past few days here in Europe, however, is the fact that we have now seen (a) just how much power they possess and (b) to what lengths they are willing to go to deal with opposition of any kind.

I would be the last to maintain that the Greeks need to reform their governmental apparatus, start collecting taxes, and try to reduce unnecessary expenditures. However, in contrast to the EC, the IMF, the ECB, and the Eurogroup, I'm not willing to maintain that these reforms should be obtained at any price. For those of you both inside and outside Europe: this is not about the EU; this is not about the euro, as currency, per se; this is about power and what it means for us everyday little people.

The person in the street will tell you right out that without a land registry office, without a functioning tax system and tax authority, you cannot expect to get a grasp on your national income. Since 2010, the Troika -- the big players in the field -- have been placing one requirement after the other on the Greeks. If you take the time to look at the Memoranda of Understanding that direct this process, one significant feature become conspicuous by its absence: the demand, specifically, to set up a necessary tax infrastructure. There is a whole list of things To-Do, no question about it, but if placed in order of priority, it almost seems as if it has been inverted. Not the most necessary things to do were placed at the top, but the easiest to do. All the necessary reforms, the ones that may, perhaps, if everything went perfectly well, were placed at the bottom of the list. They are still to come, but there is other business to be attended to in the meantime, like bludgeoning the defenseless, cutting pensions by 30%, eliminating healthcare for a third of the population, driving the poverty rate from 26% to almost 35%, increasing unemployment to 25% overall and over 50% among the youth of the country, shrinking the economy by 25% and increasing the debt by over 25% as well.

In contrast to what is floated as common wisdom, neither Ireland nor the Baltic states were in a comparable situation to Greece, so they are not the success stories that everyone would like to maintain. Estonia, for example, had as good as no debt when their crisis hit; Ireland had a functioning governmental infrastructure. When the smoke clears, it's obvious that, well, a lot of folks are simply blowing smoke.

No, Greece had the audacity to elect a leftist government. That will not be tolerated. They had the courage to throw out the Troika. That cannot be tolerated either. They demanded reforms that work. And that cannot be tolerated in a world in which you are to do as you are told or you'll be squashed like a bug. In the end, the entire population said "no", and, strangely enough, when asked to present a list of reforms, the Greek government laid on the table, more or less, the take-it-or-leave-it agreement that the EC had dictated. The result: go back and do your homework, such a list is simply unacceptable.

So now, the Greek parliament has approved the plan they've been given. They had three days to do so. Private institutions and non-elected technocrats have desovereigntized a country in the 21st century, right before our very eyes. And that, my friends, is the Europe of today. It is not the Europe I migrated to (yes, I am a mere immigrant here), and it's not the Europe that encouraged me to say.

The message is clear: hold all the referendums you want, cry democracy and the will of the people all you want. In the end, it's the money people who have all the say. It's the simple Golden Rule: he who has the gold, rules.

End-of-the-year close-out

A long-term acquaintance of mine recently asked me why I'm so hard on Americans. My reply? They deserve it. Hey, they have it way too good and have no idea how good they've actually got it. Yes, yes, Thanksgiving has just past, but I didn't see (again) any sign that the celebration of the holiday had anything to do with its Spirit. For those who could: a big stuffed turkey and we're all a bit fatter, a bit dumber, and, of course, a bit happier.

C'mon. What do you say about a democratic nation in which less than 40% of the registered voters (notice I did not say eligible voters, or it would be even lower) turn out for an election? What do you say about a democratic nation that gerrymanders so that incumbents win and constituencies lose? What do you say about a country that overwhelmingly re-elects a legislative body that has an approval rating under 10%? I'll tell you what I say: it's just what I'd expect of a fat, dumb, and happy populace.

OK, OK, I'm being harsh again ... sorry. It's too easy, or, well, it's just too hard not to be. Oh sure, most Americans I know like to tell me that American society is so complex that no generalized statement is possible. They know, and I know, that such a statement is simply and blatantly absurd, but it's said anyway. Why? Because otherwise, somebody might have to do something about, well, anything.

Affordable-Care Act or no: 40 million un(health-)insured Americans; child poverty rate of more than 22% and rising; infant mortality rate ranked 34th (behind Croatia and Cuba); most extreme wealth-poverty divide in the industrialized world; world's 3rd largest population (whereby #s 1 and 2 have over three times as many people) but world's 2nd biggest polluter. Oh yes, there's just so much to be proud of.

It all wouldn't bother me so much if I didn't have so many other people I know telling me what a great place it is. When you look at it from the outside, it's anything but great, but the propaganda machine is churning both inside and out in a measure unknown ever before. I'd like not to be so critical, but I don't know how. With all that going on, I don't see a shred of evidence that anyone there really wants to do anything about anything. If the blacks protest (e.g., in the Ferguson aftermath), they're turning everything into a race issue. If Occupy protests against the banks, they are being radical. If one protests against Eternal War, one is being unpatriotic. If you feed the homeless on the streets, you go to jail. Give me a break. What about any of that makes sense?

No, the end of the year is upon us, and I'm going to turn my attention to other, more important matters. If Americans were all alone in their bubble island, I don't suppose I'd care, but they keep reaching out and touching the world, and what's even worse, most Americans think everyone else wants to be touched. No, if Americans want to do something, if Americans want to change something, then there's no better place than home. Get your own house in order before you start telling others how to clean up theirs.

And that's all I have to say about that.

On this day in history

Yes, on this day in history, November 22, 1963, more than half-a-century ago, John F. Kennedy, then President of the United States, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The assassin was allegedly Lee Harvey Oswald, but the circumstances surrounding this event, the consequences, the actual facts have been long obscured in conspiracy, fantasy, and delusion. We'll never know what really happened and why, and I'm not sure that it really matters in the end. Sure, I was an impressionable adolescent when it happened, and, yes, I think about that day from time to time (and sometimes when the date rolls around again), and, yes, it makes me wonder. (I told you: I wonder a lot; I always have and with each additional year of my life, I am given more reason to as well.)

So what am I wondering about this time? Simple: why do only Americans assassinate their major political figures? Sure, every once in a long while, someone flips out in the Middle East or in Israel and a well-known politician or Prime Minister is killed, but it's almost always someone "from the other side". No, Americans are pretty unique in that they elect someone to the highest office in the land, and then, later, for myriad, stupid reasons, they decide to end their term of office prematurely. Think about it:

• Including the current one, the US has had 44 presidents thus far.
• Four presidents have definitely been assassinated: Lincoln (#16), Garfield (#20), McKinley (#25), and Kennedy (#35).
• Two more presidents are at least rumored to have been assassinated: Taylor (#12) and Harding (#29).
• Two additional presidents were injured in assassination attempts: Roosevelt (#26) and Reagan (#40).
• And, there have been 13 assassination attempts on presidents not mentioned in the points above.

That's a pretty impressive list, if you ask me: 21 of 44 (that's 47%) have been killed, injured, or attempts have been made on their lives. Just how democratic is this? With the exception of Johnson (#36), every single president since Kennedy has been at least threatened with assassination. That doesn't make you wonder? It makes me wonder, I can assure you of that.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know what to think about that. My first reaction is, "the US is one violent society." Another thought that crosses my mind is, "why is assassination (well, murder, actually) considered a solution to anything?" More generally, "what does this say about the state of American democracy?" And the cynical side of me wants to know why America is held up as an example for anything political? Be honest. Who really wants a job in which almost half the holders have been murdered or someone attempted to murder them? And the country isn't even 300 years old! So young, so reckless, so irresponsible.

Yes, I wonder a lot ... more some days that others ... sometimes merely because the calendar gives reason to.

The gods of Mammon

Be patient, gentle Reader, be patient; I'm almost done.

Sometimes you just have to get it off your chest. Sometimes you just have to let it out. Sometimes, you just have to vent as well. But, sometimes, you have good reason to.

I think I've isolated the real heart of the issue, the reason why, at bottom, America is the way it is and why most Americans are the way they are. I hate to be the one to break it to you all, but the True Religion of America is materialism. Down-and-dirty, straight-up, unabashed, self-effacing worship of the gods of Mammon.

It's a long and complicated, deep-seated infestation from the Puritans, I am sure, but everything in America in America is measured in terms of things. Things, not just clothes, make the man. The house (even if it's a McMansion), the car (which says more about one than just about anything else), the phone, the tablet, the watch, the jewelry, the places one goes to eat ... that's what counts.

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to see friends from America from "way back when". What did we talk about? Property, investments, retirement options, cars (or pick-ups), vacation opportunities ... that is, pretty much things ... things that one can "have". Value(s) translate into dollar values. You are what you have.

There are those who would hasten to point out that my position on "things" is the result of the fact that I really don't have a lot of things. I don't own property. I do own my car (but it's four years old and over-mileaged). I don't have "investments" to speak of. And I'm about to start drawing modest retirements from both the US and Germany (in other words, two almost-halves almost make a whole ... though it may be more like a "hole"). But, I really don't mind. That's just the way things are. I don't feel like a lesser person because I can't measure up to all the things that others have acquired. It's nothing I ever really wanted to do, and in that, I can safely say, I believe I have been quite the success.

No, in my life, other "things" have been more important than things: what one thinks, what one believes and why, what one knows, how one treats others, regardless of one's relationships, whether one practices what one preaches, how open one is, how tolerant, how forgiving, how honest, how true, how loyal and devoted, how caring, show sharing, how loving, how humble.

In this regard, I have found that I have been pretty much of a rebel, no matter where I have lived or worked. That's OK. I don't mind being different. I wish that more Americans wouldn't mind either. I suspect that there are lots of potentials there, but besides the gods of Mammon, Americans have to also endure the Caretaker of Conformity.

But, it's time to stop. It's time to review and re-evaluate. It's time to reconsider. There are going to be hard times ahead (and this is not just my curmudgeonly cynicism talking), and we are going to need each other more than ever before in our lifetimes. Maybe it's time to convert.

Don't shoot till you see the fear in their eyes

Some of you are probably thinking that I'm being pretty unpatriotic at the moment. There, I suppose, you are right. Personally, I see it as being non-patriotic, not unpatriotic. America could be such a nice place, but it's like I said back in July: it's just hard to deal with all the hypocrisy. I happen to agree with Einstein: patriotism is pretty much an infantile disease, like measles. But, if you like itching, well, hey, who am I to stop you? Isn't that what freedom's all about?

Truth be told, I'm just a bit frustrated at the moment. Since most of you Americans have never been anywhere else, you don't know what it's like to the "token Ami". Yes, I'm the one that family, friends, and acquaintances turn to for the explanations as to why America is bombing this place, or what Americans have against universal healthcare, or how it is that some many apparent "idiots" (their term, not mine) get elected to public office, or why there's a race problem, or how can so many so-called Christians advocate the death penalty. (And, yes, dear reader, I've been asked about every single one of those issues, and many, many more. As the great comics have all noted: you can't make this stuff up.)

In other words, since I was born there and since I still carry a blue passport, I am somehow, magically supposed to know why America ticks the way it does. And all I can tell them is, I didn't really understand it all when I lived there, and now that I'm here and I see what's going on, I understand it even less.

One of the issues that parents, teachers, educators, etc. have to come to terms with when dealing with children and adolescents is how to make them see that their actions have effects on others. That relationship between "me and thee" is a tough one to grasp when you're young. We all know, however, that some of them just never get it. They grow up still not understanding this simple fact of life. And it is this behavior that so many "outsiders" (Americans call the "foreigners") just don't get.

America spends more on defense and less on actual humanitarian aid than any developed country. They have the audacity to demand that others follow suit. While Americans like to think of their country as a benevolent patron, what the benefactors of that "benevolence" experience is more like a mafioso patron. America has unmasked itself: drone assassinations of "alleged" terrorists, the deceits, lies and threats from the perpetual surveillance state, the economic extortion and terror imposed by American manipulated "organizations", such as the WTO, the IMF and World Bank, the perpetual war machine ... this is all America seems to know anymore, and that is, to put it simply, a sad, sad story.

There was a time, and maybe even rightfully so, when America was looked up as the beacon of freedom in the world. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but that beacon of freedom in more and more looking like a death-ray of terror. It may be time to regroup.

A deeper view from the outside

Let me say that I am fully aware that some readers were simply offended by the last post. How could I ... how dare I besmirch the image of "the greatest country in the world"? But who thinks it is? That's the party line inside the borders, and I know that for a fact from my childhood. But who else thinks so? Those immigrants who are so desperate to get anywhere other than where they are who sneak in illegally, risking life, limb, and liberty only to be thrown out again if they are caught? Maybe? All those brown people near oil fields who have been shot at, bombed, starved, diseased, assaulted, mishandled, demeaned, denigrated, and demoralized? I doubt it, but who knows?

How insulting is that very phrase, which is quick to fall from American lips for all those who did have the "luck" to be born there? Do Americans really think that there's no better place on earth? And upon what do they base that judgement: only 10% of the American population even possesses a passport, some never use theirs at all, and the majority who do use them to cross over into Mexico or Canada since the requirement for travel documents changed? So, who's seen what to know one way or the other? So again, we hear all the words, we know what each of them means, but together, well, they just don't give us much sense at all. Don't get me wrong, there are many positive characteristics about America and Americans ... and there are just as many for anywhere else and any other people, if you're willing to look. No, most of them never get out, and what's going on inside, well, that gives a lot of us on the outside pause for thought

What do we see? The greatest disparity between rich and poor in the developed world; lack of basic social safety nets (and a hard-line approach to getting rid of the rest of what is left); lack of universal healthcare; the most expensive healthcare system in the world; highest rate of child poverty in the developed world; highest infant mortality rate of the developed countries; a dysfunctional system of government; bizarros as holders of political office (and if you think Bachman, Cruz, O'Connell, Boehner, Gohmert, Paul, ... the list goes on and on and on); the gun fanaticism; the incarceration rate; the violence; the brutal police tactics; the science deniers; the religious fundamentalists who are forcing their beliefs into the school system; the most rapacious form of capitalism ever devised; the cult-like worship of money; the perpetual war machine ... you get the point. That's what it looks like from elsewhere. You need to maybe get out, take a step back, take a deep breath, and then look again.

It all wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so embarrassing for those of us who are asked why things are the way they are? Believe me, there is a lot of scratching-of-heads that goes on outside your borders. It also wouldn't be so bad if you would just stay where you are and only focused on yourselves. You could rape, murder, pillage and plunder each other all you wanted, and the rest of the world would have more than enough reason to respect your national sovereignty. Unfortunately, your government only wages its wars in other peoples' houses. The consequence is that when America implodes -- and it's doing its best to do so soon -- it's going to cause a lot of collateral damage, and the most likely victims are starting to get very uneasy about it all.

A view from the outside

It's that time again ... Americans are getting ready for their favorite unproductive activity: mid-term elections. Not being caught up on the inside, the view from the outside can be quite informative, if you allow it to be so.

Americans like to think they are special. They even like to think they invented modern democracy. What did the Greeks know? We' showed them, they say, and we showed everyone else how it's done. If it weren't for America, we'd all be oppressed in monarchical or tyrannical dictatorships or something of that ilk, or so the story goes. But, that view from outside is revealing in different ways.

Over in Hong Kong, students and others have been protesting and shutting down the commercial sector because the Chinese masters wanted to vet all candidates for their elections. The students asked what kind of democracy that was? And the answer is obvious: it's American-style democracy. Others, in secret or with a token show of transparency, determine who's going to run against whom. Where's the difference? And if that's not bad enough, the candidates selected aren't really all that different even if others -- mostly behind the scenes -- tries to color one of them red and the other blue. After all, how can you choose among more than two? So you're given the choice between red loser or blue loser. But, hey, this is America where losers can become winners! How long did it take me to figure that one out?

And then, right there in the land of the free, with all those billed rights: the highest judicial instance in the country decided that money talks, literally. It used to be one man (later, one person; most recently, one registered and validated ID-carrying person) one vote. Now the votes are counted in dollars before you even get started. Like I have long said, Americans truly have the best government money can buy.

The view from the outside shows us that in fact America has lost the plot. Yes, they love to think they are special, and the word they like best to describe that specialness (for there are negative kinds of "special" -- just think short busses) in positive and glamorous terms, so they call it "exceptionalism". But, let's face it: that's just another kind of "-ism", like consumerism, cronyism, or totalitarianism. And, let's not forget that aberrations are, by their very nature, exceptional as well.

Personally, I wish them a lot of luck in their predetermined game. They're going to need it. The world is watching, but rapidly tiring of all the senseless antics. It's time to get new clowns into the ring.

But, hey, maybe it isn't that way at all. Yet, it really looks that way from the outside.

Are we going to do it or go for it?

Sometimes things boil down to simple choices. This is one of those times. I'm not talking about an instant, a mere individual "now". No, the choice itself is simple enough, but it's timing is, well, a bit more profound. Any halfway reasonable person recognizes that we, at least as denizens of the modern, Western World, but maybe even humanity as a whole, are at a watershed. What we decide to do is going to affect us for a long time to come.

No, I'm not going Chicken-Little on you. I'm quite calm and collected, as a matter of fact, even though there are more than enough "reasons" for me to be simply ranting and raving. It's not about one thing, no single issue. We've painted ourselves into a corner and the choice is whether we want to get out of it or not. If we simply sit or stand around till the paint dries, the house will have been torn down by the authorities and we'll just get carted off for trespassing and obstruction. Nobody really likes to talk about it because too many others will just shout you down or declare you paranoid, but if you just stop, take a deep breath, and look around you will a clear, detached, unemotional view, you realize pretty quickly that we're in over our heads.

Too many things are broken to be fixed: you can't fix the government, because the game is fixed; you can't fix the economy, because the game is rigged; you can't save the environment, because of the fixed and rigged games; you can't expect justice in a world made up of just ourselves and our think-alikes; you can't get informed by watching Faux News or its equivalents; you can't get smart by only having your own opinions; you can't ask for or demand solutions to problems that only suit you; you can't be inclusive if you're an isolationist; you can't be tolerant if you're an exclusionist; you can't expect change if you're not willing to change yourself. And that, dear friends, is where we are.

This is, believe it or not, my 400th post. In almost all of them, I have been saying the same thing, but the responses I get (mostly offline, that is true ... or via other media) tell me that I'm not getting through. I am surprised how many people agree with most of what I have to say, and I'm just as surprised how unwilling almost all of them are to do anything about it. And that, dear friends, is the crux of the matter.

It is all well and good that you think something, but it doesn't make a hill of beans of difference unless you do something about it. If you're only interested in what you can get out of it, how you can benefit, then it is better that you do nothing at all. Too many of you -- maybe even most of you -- are willing to complain, fret and moan, and just about everyone I encounter has a bevy of "reasons" why they are incapable of doing anything about anything.

I have neither tolerance of nor understanding for that. It's a cop-out, as we used to say; it's merely an excuse, as we say in Standard English. The defining character of this moment is either putting up or shutting up.

Time to pack it in?

Sometimes I'm sure we all feel like there's just no use in fighting anymore. Things aren't getting better. What is any one of us, individually, supposed to do? After all, each of us is just one person. That's right. But, so what?

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but we humans are different from our animal cousins in a very important way: we can talk. We can communicate both concretely and abstractly. We can question and we can explore. Our language abilities give us a tremendous leg up in the evolution game, to say the least. But it is this special skill that we use to little.

There are a couple of preconditions to making talking effective, however. (For a lot of us, this is the hard part.) First of all, not everyone thinks like we do. Not everyone sees the world like we do. Not everyone believes the things that we do. And that's OK. In fact, it's an advantage, collectively, if we allow it to be. Second, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but not all opinions are created equally. Opinions should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it, so just having one means nothing. We have to learn to provide support for the opinions that we have. Third, we have to be open to difference. This means not only allowing for other opinions, but also for other ideas and approaches. Sometimes it's not one thing but a combination of a variety of things that provides the best solution to a problem. Fourth, we have to be patient. We need to allow others to express themselves just as we want to be allowed to express ourselves. But, fifth, related to this, we have to learn to listen. I don't mean we have to find out what's wrong with what someone else is saying but strive to understand what s/he really is saying. Language is by its very nature ambiguous. We can think we've said something clearly but it may still be ununderstandable to someone else.

In other words, we need to relearn how to talk with one another, not just talk to, and especially not talk at ... no we need to practice talking with one another again.

Some of us are able to do this within our families, though Lord knows there are enough families in which this doesn't happen anymore. Some of us can do this with our close friends, but have trouble doing it with strangers, and this brings us to a sixth precondition, namely, all talk is personal. Every time we open our mouths (or write something like this blog) we are sharing part of ourselves with others. This takes a certain amount of courage. We can't be afraid to share.

The seventh, and final, precondition to be met is we need to be on the look out for what's common, not what separates. These days we focus too often what makes us different, not what makes us alike. For as different as we are, we humans have an awful lot in common. It is the commonalities that we find strength. In the differences we can find new ways to make the strengths stronger.

Why do I think this is an answer ... something as simple as learning to talk with one another again? I believe I'm on the right track for the simple reason that it is very easy to say, but we all know, it is extremely difficult to put into practice. That's a dead giveaway.

Afraid of the game?

Don't get me wrong. I know you are all readers of integrity and courage, of moral fortitude and strength of character. Still, I know, and you know that deep down, we shake in our boots. While putting on a calm, determined and fearless countenance to the world, inside we're mush. If we're honest, we're afraid of everything.

If we're working, we're afraid of losing our job because we can't live without the next paycheck. If we're unemployed, we're afraid no one will want us and we'll be forced onto welfare or worse. If we're healthy, we're afraid we'll get sick, especially if we're Americans (because we know a serious illness is the end of life as we know it). If we're successful, we're afraid we'll fail. Some of are afraid of appearing weak in any way, shape or form. If we have anything, we're afraid someone will steal it or tax it away. We are afraid of what the terrorists are up to. We are afraid of being mugged, raped, or killed just walking down the street. We don't like to admit it, but we're a fearful lot.

I hear this undercurrent in almost every discussion I have, with just about anyone, and the actual subject of conversation doesn't make the slightest bit of difference at all. The truth of the matter is, we live in constant and -- too often -- abject fear. We spend the better part of our waking hours just whistling in the graveyard. (You remember those times as a kid, having to walk through the graveyard at night. What do you do? You whistle. Why? Because even though you know there is no such thing as ghosts, a bit of sound overcomes the oppression of silence and the maybe-if-I-make-noise-they'll-leave-me-alone.) Oh, it's not reasonable and rational behavior, but we do our best to give it that veneer. Hey, whistling is harmless, after all.

This is what amazes me about life these days. We're supposed to be such an informed, enlightened, intelligent society. We Westerners have allegedly put all superstition behind us. We live in modern, democratic societies, where freedom is writ large, where liberty is a God-given right. Yet, we give up those rights voluntarily, we transfer our personal power to others willingly, and we shut up rather than put up. If we speak out, others will think we're jerks. If we're too adamant, others will think we're bullies. If we're passionate about issues, others will think we're obsessed. We worry a lot about what our neighbors think of us. Why? Because we never really talk to them about anything that matters, because most topics -- religion (most likely), politics (most definitely) -- are just taboo. After all, there's always the weather, the local sports teams, vacation plans, and yard work.

TPTB know this and they play on it readily. They can feed it (after all, they control the media and who goes searching for alternative news sources), they legislate it, they convince us that they are helping us out. They're not. They never have, and they never will.

It's a pretty hopeless situation, when you get right down to it. Well, actually, it's just sad.