Serfs Up

Call me a cynic, but I can’t imagine that anyone who’s really in charge would be willing to send their own kid off to fight in a godforsaken war like the one in Iraq. This is, of course, assuming that the seriously delusional are never in charge – which is, I think, a fairly safe bet in these times. The role of the seriously delusional is to _appear_ to be in charge, but in reality to be the whipping-boy and scapegoat for anything that happens to go wrong while they’re “in charge”. Thus, “W” gets blamed for economic woes that have been building up for – how long? – eighty years at least. The truth is, he doesn’t understand the situation any more than the people who panicked when they heard the radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds”. The expression on his face is one of perpetual bafflement. (Other members of the administration are just as baffled but are at least smart enough to disguise it.)

But back to the war. Here’s Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, each sending a son into the valley of death. Biden calls it “sent into harm’s way” – a considerable understatement for him, I must say. And for Palin, sending her son into Iraq is about “defense of America, in America’s cause. And it’s a righteous cause.” Well, defense of America may still be a righteous cause, but this war has nothing to do with the defense of America – unless by “America” you mean “The American Empire”, which is all about money and power for the elite, and not at all about the welfare of ordinary American citizens. Our empire is built not only on the backs of the people we pick to be part of it -- the Iraqis being just the most recent beneficiaries -- but on the backs of our own citizens as well... again, not unlike that of the Romans or the Third Reich or the Soviet Union. Our diplomats and high-ranking military clink champagne glasses in forlorn foreign capitals, while people on the home front wait in bread lines (and yes, there are bread lines now – they’re back). Now, of course to be a part of all this – to “invest your son” as was said back in the Vietnam era – is good politics, no doubt. But the people who are really in charge don’t have to go nearly that far. In fact, they don’t have to risk anything. They just issue orders, and low-level operatives like Biden and Palin scurry to do their bidding.

So remember this when you go to the polls. You are voting not for someone to put “in charge” of anything, but for a figurehead and a scapegoat. So, basically, choose the most attractive figurehead/scapegoat, the one you won’t get sick of seeing on TV for the next four years. Because it really makes no difference – the people who are really running things don’t depend on your votes, or anyone else’s.