Exactly how self-defeating have we become?
Last edited Thu Jun 9, 2016, 10:25 AM - Edit history (2)
During a Democratic Presidential primary, we will endlessly debate policies, personalities, etc. as though our very lives and those of our families depend on it--and they well may.
However, as soon as it at least starts looks like we may have a Democratic Presidential nominee, we pivot to "But don't expect anything much good to come after Inauguration Day because Congress."
We'll even accept and defend a Democratic President's nominating a Republican to the Supreme Court. Apparently, we draw the line only at a Republican President nominating a Republican to the Supreme Court.
But...why can we expect nothing much from Congress? Because Congress is not responsive to the will of voters, at least not sufficiently. Why isn't Congress sufficiently responsive to the will of the voters? Most humans seem to enjoy feathering their own nests and those of their relatives, friends and lovers; and politicians seem to love being elected and re-elected. Being elected and re-elected seems to require campaign donations from big business and the very wealthy as much or more than it requires representing more ordinary constituents. A feathered nest during post-public career often involves a lobbying job, sometimes disguised as a law firm job. So, legislators are loathe to annoy their potential future employers, aka big business and various business interest groups.
So, what do the majority of Americans do? We do not insist upon laws that will at least seek to cut into this undesirable pattern. We reject the candidate who talks AND WALKS accepting donations only from ordinary individuals. We condemn primary challenges and defend to the death every law, policy and practice that helps keep incumbents entrenched, thereby insulating them as much as we possibly can from a need to be responsive to voters. We even accept rigged voting machines and other shenanigans, especially if our candidate wins. If shenanigans cause our candidate to lose, we may grouse, but, in the end, we do nothing--at least nothing that requires us to leave our computers. Perhaps, we may send yet another oh, so very effective email or "sign" yet another one of those oh, so very effective internet petitions.
My conclusion: With everything in us, we want absolutely nothing to improve--unless, of course, our fearless leaders tell us something must improve--which they seem to do most when the opposite party is in the majority. When they stop rabble-rousing about that topic, so do we. Oh, and though we call them the "public airwaves," we allow them to be in private, plutocrat hands that only help perpetuate all of the foregoing.
For anyone who assumes this post is about 2016 or Senator Sanders and only about 2016 and Senator Sanders, you are mistaken: Not only do I intend to be alive in 2018 and well beyond, but I assume and hope that our children and other descendants will be alive much longer, environment willing, and the oceans don't rise (too much more).
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I think I love you 
And I love Merrily, too.
So on target, as always, merrily. 
And therein lies the hope.
I lean to social psychology. Lewin's original work (before we had terms like "empowerment" and "resilience"
was all about how oppressed groups can organise, care & support each other, and in the collective push back against the oppressors and claim a better community life. A theory of social change. What you are reaching for in your sense of "self-defeating" is anomie...isolation...not so much learned helplessness as habituated disempowerment. Read "Bowling Alone" to get a sense of how we have, as a wester culture, moved into a suburban desert of isolation. It is the self fulfilling destiny of the capitalist self-organising system...chasing soma and profit, building sentient golem corporations that feed us empty calories and urge us to sit in rows, staring at glowing screens. However numb we become, welded in our despair, the tonic is always within reach...other people in honest discourse in real time, in real flesh, in a shared pursuit of a real goal. You won't find it in DU, this is the proxy for real life, a virtual island of lotus eaters. Real life is outside, in the dirt, in your community. That's where an honest thought has a chance to grow into something that can change the world. Bernie was the latest reminder of just how powerful community can be. He won by losing. If you understand how that is true, you have the answer to the question behind your words.
