Schmeltz
09-17-2004, 04:21 PM
Facts distorted in Bush, Kerry campaigns (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040916/ap_on_el_pr/bush_kerry_fact_check)
Increasingly it seems that political discourse in America, rather than serving as a forum to genuinely address political, social, and economic grievances, is nothing more than a means to an end - power. The factual truths behind the discussion of any given issue are less important than the manipulation of that issue, irrespective of the facts, in order to produce a voting populace that makes decisions based on emotive sentiment rather than intellectual substance. The entire process is an affront to both the dignity and intelligence of Americans.
More than anything else, this must illustrate the growing gulf between the American people and their leaders, and the consequent loss of respect for the former by the latter. Yet another irony of our postmodern age - at a time when the political process is more accessible than in any previous era, actual political participation in the world's most prosperous nation has lost almost all of its meaning. We have more range of choice in selecting laundry detergent or television channels than we do in selecting leaders and statesmen. The confluence of material prosperity and intellectual bankruptcy cannot herald anything but the rise of decadence and the decline of the true moral fabric of our culture.
But how can we reverse the trend? Is it even possible? Or are we doomed to perpetual confinement within a concentric spiral? I'd like to think that we could defy a gravity of our making, but maybe it just can't be done.
Increasingly it seems that political discourse in America, rather than serving as a forum to genuinely address political, social, and economic grievances, is nothing more than a means to an end - power. The factual truths behind the discussion of any given issue are less important than the manipulation of that issue, irrespective of the facts, in order to produce a voting populace that makes decisions based on emotive sentiment rather than intellectual substance. The entire process is an affront to both the dignity and intelligence of Americans.
More than anything else, this must illustrate the growing gulf between the American people and their leaders, and the consequent loss of respect for the former by the latter. Yet another irony of our postmodern age - at a time when the political process is more accessible than in any previous era, actual political participation in the world's most prosperous nation has lost almost all of its meaning. We have more range of choice in selecting laundry detergent or television channels than we do in selecting leaders and statesmen. The confluence of material prosperity and intellectual bankruptcy cannot herald anything but the rise of decadence and the decline of the true moral fabric of our culture.
But how can we reverse the trend? Is it even possible? Or are we doomed to perpetual confinement within a concentric spiral? I'd like to think that we could defy a gravity of our making, but maybe it just can't be done.