Where Has All The Talent Gone?

When I was young, there were hundreds of statesmen, perhaps thousands who had a talent for mediating and placating all sides of a debate to reach beyond the limitations of class, party or ideology. There were many hundreds more who developed a gift for singing their messages and creating interesting and diverse types of music to elaborate upon the culture that was available to them at that time. There seemed to always be a few who knew intuitively what would surely come next, if we all just cooperated. Since Ronald Reagan started slashing national education budgets twenty or more years ago, oh, wait back up to when he was Governor of California, there has been a concomitant dumbing down of American children. This is putting the most severe damper on our economy that many of us will ever see. The failure to prepare our children for the future might be the surest way to create either an all-out “Idiocracy”, or allow the wealthy to purchase our government outright. There have been “civilizations” that allowed the wealthy to drive them to ruin, do we want to become another example of what not to do?

By dumbing down the Republican Party, are we now trying to appeal to all the dumb folks we have not educated and can seeing stupid people running for the highest office in the nation help the stupid to feel better about their own limitations? We’re not running a corporate cheer leading session or trying to placate anyone. These are just a few valid questions that deserve thoughtful answers. Being trained as an educator, I have always sought to spread the good word to folks. As I have matured I have begun to like the motto: Comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable.  Those who feel themselves on a steady trajectory toward certainty need a bit of a shake up from time to time. Those in complete free fall into destruction can often use a bit of comfort. I by no means want to take anything away from some of the talented individuals, who remain, but the ratio seems to be way down, especially judging by what passes as music, film and art today.

Where will the race to bottom end? I have heard disturbing numbers of people saying candidate X, Y or Z would be their pick for someone they would like to have a drink with. Not the credentials one would hope for in a world leader. I have said it before, but at the risk of being boring, who decided to let all the cheaters who used to sit behind us in school gain access to the halls of congress?

After all, who can argue with people so ignorant of world affairs, that they think that knowing where Libya is or why it might be important is too much to ask of a presidential candidate? I declare the season of stupidity in full swing and we are fully one year away from the Presidential General Election. What will be left for the Republicans if they can’t find anyone of substance in the next year? If we all hide our heads in the sand a little while longer, we might be able to ignore the writing on the wall. The get big or get out crowd has run roughshod over local economies for nearly all of recorded history. The outcome is always the same. Redistribution of wealth can only come in one of two ways. One route to revolution is bathed in the blood of the martyrs, and of large numbers of innocents. The preferred route in my opinion is in taxing polluters to help pay for the social costs that unbridled capitalism has foisted upon the vast majority of the world population.

Lobotomies Must Be On Special

I have recently been distracted, as many others might be, by the recurring theme of those lining up to secure the Republican slate of choices for the United States' highest office. I do believe that we should hire the handicapped, just not for the position of President. In lieu of statesmen, ignorant and uneducated individuals are being held out as viable options in the realm of public opinion and political discourse. For all those Republican "candidates", let me explain, discourse is not about being on the wrong course, or even being relieved of a course, but actual give and take discussion. See figure "A".

Figure A

It has become something of a phenomenon to make stupid comments and to exhibit pride in the fact that what one is representing as fact is indeed an opinion. For instance, the guy who recently posted that he took a $25K cut in pay because his moral fiber didn't allow him to continue to take unemployment compensation benefits. I would like to know what kind of soul sucking job he had before that allowed him to collect over double the median income. I am still working, have been doing so for over thirty years and still have not broken out of the working poor designation. Each time I would knock at the door of getting out of poverty, they would raise the threshold. I think it is ironic that he could lose more income than I have ever made in a single year and in their new job still works sixty hours per week. Sounds like someone isn't being straight with us. Unless he is in a sub-minimum wage position, the numbers just don't add up. Poor people who think that republican ideology will save them are sadly mistaken. Remember who got us into this mess? Think hard now, but don't hurt yourself!
I am not the biggest fan of Obama, but he is our commander in chief, duly elected by the people. It seems to me that just as with the George Bushes, we get what we deserve. Sadly, the corporate dogs, the ones who are truly in charge, don't see fit to allow the rest of us to ever make ends meet. Now that the Supreme Court considers money as speech and corporations "people", with "free speech" rights, the only chance we have is in defeating any candidates they put their money behind. As far as the statement that "90% of taxes are paid by 10% of the population," stop lying to yourself. The burden of taxation falls much more heavily on the poor and disenfranchised. Corporate welfare flows liberally to the people who need it least. Considering the cost of money, those who "get back" all that they put in during the year are still getting ripped off for their interest! Try to find a bank that will loan you money without interest. Tax loopholes allow much of what you hear in the way of propaganda is either tax deductible for the very wealthy, or revenue generating for mock non-profit organizations. As difficult as it has become to educate one self, the value of knowledge has increased significantly. When people "serve" you information on a gilded platter, beware. Don't bite the hand of the masters who are serving you, but don't line up like lambs to the slaughter either. Greed and self interest recognize no boundaries. Ask, "Who stands to gain?" by each and every lie that gets perpetrated. You will very quickly realize that the ultra wealthy have made slaves of us all.
Tony C. Saladino blogs at: paganspace.net as Saladman, blogger.com as The Otherfish Wrap and at wordpress.com as Permaculture, ECO-ethics, Trees. He is a father, grandfather, husband, shaman, artist, writer, teacher, interpretive guide for ECO-Tours of Wisconsin Inc. (a local not-for-profit that has planted over 100,000 native trees across Northeast Wisconsin) a long time advocate of sustainability and a professional stagehand. 

At this time, I have been in the midst of remodeling my home for about two months and am trying to do it as much as possible with reused and re-purposed lumber, nails, cast offs from construction sites and sweat equity. It has led to a great creative release, but less time to blog, so if you read me routinely, be prepared for about twice as many posts in half the time, because I'm raiding my word perfect files for post-able stories and relatively topical material for use this month. Don't forget to go to your local #occupy events. It is time once again for us to take to heart the sentiment behind the phrase, We will hang together, or surely, we will all hang separately. Blessings to you and your loved ones and may our humble actions and inaction lead to the possibility of bountiful lives for the next seven generations