I have been watching our politics and the whole silly process for decades…..and in that time I have noticed just how prevalent lies and silliness the whole process has become.
Today the silliness has gone from true concern for the nation to a dialogue on issues that do not exist….all in all a waste of time and a policy of obstruction…..leading the way in this stupidity is the GOP…..
How can this be?
Political misinformation — whether “fake news,” conspiracy theories or outright lying — has often been attributed to widespread ignorance, even though there are numerous examples of 20th-century propaganda aimed at those most attentive to politics. Books like Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” began to challenge that notion, as did the 1991 study of media coverage of the first Gulf War with the memorable bottom line, “the more you watch, the less you know.” In the age of social media, scholarly explanations have shifted to discussions of “motivated reasoning,” which could be defined by Paul Simon’s line from “The Boxer”: “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”
But the ignorance perspective has a deep hold on us because it appeals to the Enlightenment notion that we are motivated to pursue truth. We are “the thinking animal,” right? The important part of that expression may be “animal.” Human beings have an evolutionary history, and deception is commonplace in the animal world because it confers evolutionary advantage. There’s good reason to believe we’re not so different, other than the fact that humans are ultra-social creatures. In ancestral and evolutionary terms, being part of a successful social group was every bit as essential as food and water. So deception among humans evolved from group conflicts. That’s the thesis of a recent paper called “The Evolutionary Psychology of Conflict and the Functions of Falsehood” by the Danish political scientists Michael Bang Petersen and Mathias Osmundsen and American anthropologist John Tooby.
For some the “need for chaos” and the desire to watch the country “burn” are driving forces…..
Sadly NOTHING will change before I take a dirt nap…..and the country will be the victim of it’s own stupidity.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
agitator populus scriptor
In Saner Thought 
Chuq, you know we are both going to be long dead and no longer remembered before any of this crap changes. Whether in the USA, UK, or Europe, this is going to be a long haul before it evolves into something else.
Best wishes, Pete.
I know…..I just hope that we all wake up to the disaster approaching. chuq
Yes, humans are social beings.
However in every group, as long humans walk the earth, everybody had a role.
You mention only the warrior, but there were more, the wise to consult,the teacher, the gatherer of plants, the hunters etc.
Without that cohesion survival wasn’t possible.
What modern society has done is ignore several groups, like the wise men, the teacher.
The warrior has taken his role without consulting the wise men.
The teacher’s place, a very important place is taken over by the ignorant, bribed, decision makers,
I agree….the teacher is the most important person in any society….stupidity is terminal. chuq