“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power” (Benjamin Franklin)
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives” (James Madison)
“There’s a sucker born every minute” (P.T. Barnum)
Here’s some sage advice that should be applied by every person who is going to vote in the upcoming elections. I’d like to add another: “I don’t know everything, just enough to know when I’m about to be screwed”.
It seems to me that personal truths and personal pride have become the bargaining chips for swaying votes. Every politician tries to appeal to your sense of outrage over how the other candidate has lied to you or how they will insult your pride by pushing some viewpoint. Both left and right try to conjure up images of a bogey-man who will attack you in the middle of the night and destroy what you hold dear. In their defense, if voters aren’t smart enough to see when they’re being sold a bad bill of goods, why should they stop?
I hate being sold anything. When I go into a car showroom, I want to to look myself and ask questions when I’m ready. If a salesperson approaches me, I try to stare them down. What makes them think that I want them to sell me something?
The influence of advertising on the American psyche has created a population that begs to be sold to. The public has lost the ability to listen dispassionately to facts and draw conclusions. Thus, the candidates treat them like a servile class that needs pictures to understand every issue. So, if an issue likes taxes isn’t making the impact they want, they create ads that appeal to the base desires of greed and avarice to generate outrage in voters who someday may be rich even though that day will likely never come. The masses buy this sales job and parrot the message as an attack on them even though it really isn’t.
Locally, we have the issue of rail and the message is, “rail doesn’t benefit you and it takes your tax dollars away.” They cite polls showing disapproval and a route that only goes from Kapolei to Downtown Honolulu as a reason to vote for a candidate against it. Again, this appeals only at a personal level. They fail to say that voters already approved rail. That the 1/2% sales tax is a minuscule amount of money to just about everyone. Or, that making public policy based on polls is anathema to democracy where decisions are made at the ballot box or by duly elected representatives.
When you go to vote, don’t be that sucker. Look for candidates who make sense, try to listen to voters, and will act in the best interest of
everyone; not just you. When they say, “
trust me“, be afraid.
So That's Life?
Turn of the Screw
08/02/2012Posted in commentary | Leave a Comment »