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.

The authoritarian mind

Most of you have most likely never have heard of Bob Altemeyer, but he is, I think, probably the most knowledgeable person on the planet when it comes to the authoritarian mind. What is that, you ask? It's the kind of mind that you find in people who are either authoritarian themselves or would prefer to an authority they can turn to who will make their decisions for them. Whew! I hear most of you saying, so you're not going to like it one bit when I tell you I'm probably talking about you. I also know that those of you who are still willing to read on will doubt much of what I have to say, so here's a link to his definitive work, The Authoritarians, freely available online, so you can read it for yourself, and you can check the science that backs it up. I'm not blowing smoke.

I know, I know, you're riled that I would even suggest that you're not a freedom-loving, freely acting, self-defined and voter-ID-carrying individual, a person who does their own thing and doesn't take crap from anybody. I know that's what many of you think, but that's not the person you say hello to every morning in the bathroom. It's the person you would like to say good morning to. I know that too.

Let me tell you whom I'm thinking about: a person who likes things to be clear-cut, black-and-white, right-and-wrong, because, hey, that's how things are supposed to be; a person who has standards they uphold for themselves and those close to them, people who know what's good for themselves and for others; a person who is willing to give anyone a real chance, even if it's clear that some people are more deserving of that chance than others; and finally, a person who has strong beliefs (and opinions) are a number of important issues and doesn't (or won't) recognize that these beliefs and opinions are at odds with each other or perhaps even contradict one another.

Humor me. Take a look at the following statements and see how many you agree with:

1. The grand-jury verdict in Ferguson was appropriate.
2. Obama's executive actions on immigration is an overstepping of executive authority.
3. Harsher punishments deter crime.
4. Most welfare recipients have become dependent on public assistance.
5. Though there might have been some wrongdoing, the banks really are too big to fail.

The more statements you agreed to, the more authoritarian you probably are. You would prefer strong, clear, decisive action be taken against those who deserve having such actions taken. Be honest. Ever since we gave up the rod, we've been spoiling the child. Every time we tried to be more sensitive to the feelings of others, the more they simply take advantage of us. Local authorities can do no real wrong; they have a tough job. National authorities too often overstep their boundaries and put us all at risk. That's how most people tick these days.

More distressing than anything else is the fact that these days things are just messy. Too many boundaries have been blurred, too many people are living at the expense of others, too many sound, helpful principles and simple rules are being ignored; it's high time we start doing something about it. Authoritarian-minded individuals tend to have stronger opinions are the types of things that I've mentioned herein, and they tend to be less tolerant of deviations from accepted norms. They also often feel that they're being pushed into a corner and they really don't know how much longer they want to put up with it.

So, let me remind you of a wise, old adage: You become what you hate. So stop, take a good look at what you're irate about, and then keep in mind ... that'll probably be you before it's all over.