Has it ever occurred to the millions of emotionally charged opponents to the health care initiative that this entire kerfuffle might actually be a deceptive delivery device for something other than fearing a socialist government takeover of the health care system?
That it might be like the same deception which discombobulated the millions of blissfully ignorant yet slowly dying smokers who enabled decades of tobacco company profits, that cigarettes, far from being cool and benign as advertised, were actually delivery systems for lethal and addictive nicotine?
So, it occurs to me that the aforementioned kerfuffle (only one among several other kerfufflae) is a hollow fabrication of freedom of thought, something akin to Orwell's Two Minutes Hate, a mere echo of the long gone, genuine item. And a deceptive delivery system.
Because while, say, the media purports to be a bastion of entertainment and information, it's really just a delivery system for advertising. That there seems to be less and less dramatic content and more and more commercial content, the two concepts merging into a commercial-tainment hybrid, where commerce is inextricably woven into quasi-dramatic content, the sole intent of which is to implant the impulse to consume in the malleable and massaged viewer.
So when millions of scared, marginalized Americans are exhorted by media arms for the Republican party to attend tea bag rallies or question the birth of our duly elected president or spread misinformation about death panels and government intrusion and generally react like suddenly sentient turkeys on Thanksgiving, it's apparent that something other than what's on the surface is being delivered.
More and more, the successfully herded population of the United States is engaging in conduct which has nothing to do whatsoever with reality. "Anger" is something everyone feels towards authority. But when the fired-up mob is also--coincidentally!-- obeisant to said authority, there develops an utterly misplaced and self-defeating rage.
Behold, as millions of "energized" people stand up and argue--against their own interests!
Because would a sane person argue on behalf of unscrupulous oligarchs while decrying conspiratorial fears about governmental control and intrusiveness?
Would a truly patriotic American defend the practice of insanely profitable drug companies to charge exorbitant fees for medicines that the elderly and infirm cannot afford?
Would an educated citizen support a policy of governmental deregulation while decrying the lowering of wages and the loss of domestic jobs to overseas entities?
No. No. And no.
And speaking of deceptive delivery systems, here's a free prediction:
After four solid years of orchestrated insanity, the Republican party will nominate the steady, measured former governor of Florida Jeb Bush for president in 2012, heralding a conservative era of comparative stability and reason, rallying exhausted Republicans and luring frustrated Democrats.
And after four years of kerfuffling, it'll seem like a deliverance.