EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL

Got this pic off facebook, courtesy of science fiction author David Gerrold:



This is very much in keeping with the fact that Bertolt Brecht was a Socialist: as Marx said, everything is political. Personally, I think that's something of an absolute statement, and therefore not entirely true, but I certainly agree with the overall notion. That is, everything has a political dimension, or at least, a potentially political dimension, and once you've learned how to be on the lookout for it, you really do start to see politics everywhere.

Here at the end of the American Empire, most citizens don't understand this simple truth. They think that politics is something that other people do in other places, guys in suits at City Hall or in Washington, D.C., or on television. Most Americans think they don't understand politics and are therefore unqualified to participate in or even discuss politics. And a large segment of the population doesn't even advance the analysis that far; they just don't give a fuck and don't want to understand--"Let's not talk about politics, okay? It makes my head hurt."

And this is exactly how the powers that be want it.

The reality, of course, is that the simplest most mundane acts and utterances are profoundly political. Having sex, whether in or outside marriage, is political; getting married or not getting married are both political. Having children or not having children, too. Getting drunk is political. Watching television is political. Attending public school, or any school at all, is political. Sports are political. Getting gasoline for your car is political. And on and on and on. And these are just the most obvious examples. Politics runs right smack dab down through the center of your life whether you like it or not, and the political class continually struggles to bend your politics-of-everyday-life to its will. Whether you admit it or not.

It's tempting to simply castigate Americans as sheep, but that wouldn't do much to get people involved. I mean, think about the possibilities here: millions of sheep discovering that they're sheep and that they don't like it one damned bit, suddenly descending on Washington to drown all the scum bag politicians in their heavy fleece. That's what I'd like to see. Revenge of the sheep.

It could happen.

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