College of Political Knowledge
Professor’s Classroom
Subject: Political History/Government/
Paper #24
A government of the people, for the people and by the people……but is it? In the grand scheme of things, especially politics, the people are everything…..at least that is the illusion that is portrayed….and yes, I said illusion!
All government rest on the consent of the governed…at least that is the illusion that we all live with…..look at the beginnings of the country…it took almost a generation for the people to actually vote for a president…….it was 1824…I am sure we can find a wealth of excuses for this delay, but the simple one would be that after so long the established way to pick a president was totally accepted..the electoral college. For 36 years it was NOT that important that the people have a voice in the choosing of the leadership of this country….that gave the illusion of popular support time to take hold.
All government needs illusion. No? Take a look at the past presidential election…Obama promised to bring change if elected and so far all his change has not come to fruition but the rhetoric has strong…giving the illusion of change when in actuality NOTHING has changed…not in FinReg, not in war, not in health care, so far not anywhere. All American political history is choke full of illusion.
All government needs illusion……
The illusion of that the American people have an actual voice…..the illusion that the the elected representatives of the people are the people…..the illusion that politicians are the servants of the people……the illusion that all men are created equal….all government needs illusion.
If one pays attention to the politics of the US then they are seeing just how much of an illusion that government is…..they will see the reps voting in THEIR best interests not the country’s……this is not a new phenom but rather something that has been occurring since the very beginning of this country……the only good thing to point to is that the internet has made it more possible to check these guys and their claims instantly…..thanks to the worldwide web their illusions and misdirections are easily detected and exposed……it is a shame that it is NOT used more.
Good post and good observations. In truth, representative democracy will never be significantly better than you have stated – and illusion – all smoke and mirrors…
The system simply doesn’t work for the majority – or in fact for anyone who is neither very rich nor very poor.
Thanx my friend….the illusions thing was something that got my into the political thing….back in the day when I was a young radical I could see why everyone was so excited about democracy….it seldom works the way it is promised…..I just expanded on my notes from 1972….damn I am old!
I also find it interesting that a post about a comment on the tube gets some action…either in defense or opposition….it seems the whole illusion thing is fairly accurate and has helped lead us into the toxic emissions coming from our so called leaders. Another thing that I find interesting is that the comments on a opinion piece gets action and when I basically call people idiots they will not defend or oppose….but they will jump all over a comment about O’Reilly or Olbermann or whoever……
Well, yes. But then, does it not appear to be the case that the Murdochs of this world seek to rule everything via the media – and are succeeding?
To anyone who believes what they see on TV, I would simply say this – go see a sci-fi film and think about the spcial effects for a few moments – THEN decide if you can take ANY goddamned notice of what you see on TV. These days they can easily make anyone appear to do, or say, anything at all using ever cheaper and simpler CGI.
Now see…that is well said! But people will not do as you suggest…they would rather let someone else do the thinking and then they can say….”well, O’Reilly said it was so” makes them guiltless for their stupidity…..