Sunday, September 26, 2010

Guns, God, and American pundits.

The truest test of your beliefs is to get yourself out of context... way out of context, and see how ridiculous it looks when other people do it. For me, major voices of those actually in politics and the paid mouths of network pundits in the American political scene began to look quaint, like plastic figures in a snow globe... or like little cars and people viewed from the window of an airplane. As the old cast of characters fade into the horizon of stage right, new figures come onto the scene, a referendum as horrible as the Patriot Act is adopted, and a mob of religious fanatics assault art gallery patrons.

It was as God demanded in the bible: "The viewers of art and drinkers of punch from plastic cups shall be maced and beaten with sticks by a dim-witted mob."

The dumb junk that American pundits say, particularly the ones slow on foreign policy, sounds twice as dumb and removed from the world when it's broadcast over an ocean. It just lacks immediacy. Their work is for the semi-skilled; the non-expert who has a good voice and can put on a nice suit. The important tone of voice is present, but the issue begins to look silly when the picture gets bigger.

It's as though they're living in Plato's Cave, but instead of looking at shadows on the wall, let's imagine there is a tornado outside of a house:
The pundit says, "It's drafty in here. There are too many windows open."
The politician says, "My opponent voted to leave the window open. If elected, I promise to close it."

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