I’ve mentioned this here before but back in 2000 in the midst of the election dispute, a co-worker told me that he had a theory. That the whole dispute was a fake so that the government could call off the election and take over.
I looked at him for a second and asked, “So you think the United States government is secretly plotting to take over the United States government?”
He said, “Well when you put it that way it sounds stupid.”
I agree with **Oy! ** that it doesn’t work like it does in the movies, where the secret masters sit down, decide on an agenda, and send out the orders to their minions. Yes, there are powerful and influential people. But most of these people aren’t secret, they are in the newspapers every day. Take, say, Karl Rove. You and I and everyone on the dope knows who Karl Rove is, and what he’s done, and the kind of influence he had. But most people going about their lives may have heard the name Karl Rove, and maybe they know he’s a buddy of the president, but that’s about it. All it takes is to pay attention, and you too can learn about these secret masters.
Of course, many of them are even more behind the scenes than Karl Rove. But political reporters and political junkies know who these people are. They aren’t secret masters, they’re just obscure to average workaday people unless the secret master has a liking for appearing on TV.
But the most important thing is that the Illuminati don’t have a secret plan. The Illuminati don’t play well together. Each Illuminatus is serving his own agenda, and that agenda is typically not exactly secret to anyone paying attention. What’s the agenda of Lanny Davis, or Karl Rove, or Rupert Murdoch or Bill Gates? Just read the newspapers to find out! The catch is just that you have to read the newspapers and pay attention.
And of course, just because an Illuminatus is powerful and connected and has and agenda, that doesn’t mean that the Illuminatus knows exactly how to serve their agenda. Look at how Karl Rove’s master plan to create a permanent Republican majority came crashing down in flames. Look at Tom DeLay’s K Street project and how it got him indicted. Look at how Bill Clinton’s penis got him in trouble.
And lastly, of course voting isn’t going to change anything. The idea that you can influence things by paying attention, thinking things through, and every two years pulling the correct lever is just silly. That’s not influencing things. The way to influence things isn’t to vote for the positions and candidates you agree with, the way to influence things is to convince everyone else to vote for the positions and candidates you agree with. By, say, arguing on message boards. Joining advocacy groups. Creating advocacy groups. Working on a campaign. Running for office. And so on. You’ll never get anywhere with your one vote, because there’s one of you and 300 million of us. The way to change things is to convince 150 million of us to vote the way you want us to.
One person CAN make a difference, it happens every single day, just read the newspapers. But it takes a lot of work, and there are no guarantees, just because you passionately support something doesn’t mean you have a hope in hell of convincing anyone else. But maybe you do. Look at all the advocacy groups out there: PETA, Greenpeace, The Nature Conservancy, the NRA, NOW, NARAL, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Nation, National Review, all these were started by a small group of people or one person who organized others. You could start a political magazine tomorrow, and that political magazine could change the terms of the debate the same way William Buckley’s magazine did. Or, if that seems like too much work, you could go back to reading the newspaper and complaining about how the Illuminati are keeping us down.
Story here.
I think most other methods have been made illegal. Maybe driving slowly in the fast lane.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are a lot of people who are going to be real suprised at Mr. Obama’s policies when he is elected. I have been reading his web page since the 2004 convention speech and to say that he is a liberal leftist socialist is way off base. By and large his overall views do fall left of center but not that far. Of course this is only my opinion but time will tell (indeed it may be telling already).
As for change, that addresses why I support Obama in the first place. There is nothing that the POTUS can do to change the country. The office is one of a leader and a spokesperson, not an activist or author of change. If we want someone who can really change things we should focus more on the senate or the SCOTUS, they have more real power anyway, the prez can always be overruled, out voted, even the veto can be reversed and rendered useless 1).
There is something a president can do to elicit change, that is to be an effective orator. That’s why I support Barack Obama, he is in my opinion an awesome orator. If we give him the opportunity to rally congress, to rally the troops, to rally the population in general then he will have the best chance of bringing change. But, the bottom line instrument of change is us.
Yes, big business holds the reins and we are sheep in their eyes. If they put something out there and tell us to like it we will. They tell us when to shop, what to buy, what to celebrate, when and how to mourn, who to love, who to hate and often who to vote for. You really want change? Start celebrating Christmas in July. Move Easter to sometime in May. Men start wearing dresses, women start smoking cigars and become a major demographic in sports marketing.
Hell, disband and disrupt the sports marketing leviathian and return academic focus on… um… academia. Yeah, bust the sports monopoly and you will see some major change in this country all across the influential demographics.
Quit paying Basketball Guy millions and millions of dollars and becoming Basketball Guy becomes less attractive. In truth it should be less attractive now, it is just another lottery system anyway, but lotteries are big in our current society. If it becomes less attractive then more young people have to pursue higher interests.
Of course we as a society have to hold up our end. The opportunities have to be there, we cannot be lax in creating new opportunities and pursuing new ventures. We also have to ensure fairness and equal treatment for everybody.
Yeah, if you want change, then change stuff. If you want a politician who can change stuff then elect one but be warned: If you ask someone to show you their warts then they may, don’t be suprised if you find yourself focusing on the warts and not even noticing the changes they make.
There are a few things the head of the Democratic Party can do to change the US, though. I’m looking at domestic initiatives, for example. I expect to see quite a few more organic, bottom-up investments that’ll pay off in 10 to 20 years.
Yeah, but I’m sure that after the Supreme Court ruled that there cannot be any further recounts, somebody called Al Gore and told him that he couldn’t do any more recounts. So, you see, the world really is ruled by a secret cabal of illumanati.