What you know, what you don't, and what you don't know that you don't know...

[countybear]

With the spindoctors in Washington cranked up in their cubicles, charging ahead in campaign rhetoric at fool speed (pun intended), we, as competent, reasonable, and conscientious Americans must wonder... what is fact, what is fiction, and what is just left shredded on the floor for the janitors to sweep?

Our news media (regardless of which direction you believe it is slanted), covers (with pubescent vigor), each and every aspect of the candidates platforms, lives, histories, likes, dislikes, apparel, appearances, disappearances, flubs, pratfalls, and schtick, but let's admit, the more that they cover, the less we seem to really know. Why? Quite simply because they seem to either sugarcoat, editorialize, quip, embellish, repudiate, incite suspicion, and even aggressively attempt to prognosticate each and every beleaguered point that they make regarding our political choices (or lack thereof). They report the temper of the candidates, the temperature of their homes, and the faithfulness of their spouses, who paid what to whom and for what, how much was paid, and in what denominations... or do they?

And what, one may ask, is the end result? Those who pay even tertiary attention to the news have seen Mayors re-elected after drug arrests, Representatives re-elected after obvious pay-offs, Governors indicted and elected again, and Presidents' lies told with glazed gazes to the cameras, people, and even the government itself, while those who are not-so-gifted as to be 'of the clique' have their lives and careers destroyed for certaiinly much lesser offenses.

In truth, our expectations of those who lead, guide, direct, advise, and administrate our daily lives has hit rock bottom. We expect the worst, and could honestly care less, it seems. We have such a wealth of information at our very fingertips now, that we seem derelict in seeking truth. We have seemingly forgotten that word, truth, its meaning, its usage, and even the existence of the morality and honor that such terminology is attached to.

We, my friends, are disenchanted, disenfranchised, displaced, and disillusioned. We have become lost in the 'perfect storm' of selected, refined, manufactured, and copiously disseminated information, a whirlwind of immeasurable speed and substance, such that it robs us of our very orientation. The goal is ambiguity, not substance. Let each apply his own understanding, rather than creating a universal understanding. The media does not educate, it merely pontificates. This is not proprietary to the media, not at all. The media has simply become the mouthpiece of those they support.

I remember some years ago, the political 'catch' phrase was "family vaues." This, I believe was perhaps the modern inception of ambiguous appeals for our political misunderstanding. No one qualified (or quantified) what the term meant, (i.e. Manson family values or All in the Family values, or Family Guy values...), but it was intended to be ambiguous, so that we all could apply our own understanding to the term. This is perhaps the goal, actually, not to educate, but to foster the individual assumptions of the masses to roam, yet slanted by catch phrases and ill-definable terminology, guided by assumption into unknowing acquiesance. We detest 'earmarks', 'pork-barrel spending', 'entitlements', 'trickle-down economics', and 'tax-and-spend', but can we define them? Clearly? Do we honestly even within ourselves have the capability of mind to relate to another what is meant by each and every item of the platform we espouse when we vote?

Do we honestly even now know why military operations were undertaken in Iraq, or even Afghanistan? I'd be willing to bet that we all can repeat vague points of what partisan pundits have touted, but I'll challenge each of us, (myself included), to ask five people today and five tomorrow this one simple question: Why did we invade Iraq? Let me predict the responses... "Bush lied", "... because of 9/11", and (perhaps from the honest that may you encounter), a simple "I don't know." Think of it, we undertook military operations which have (to date) resulted in 4,186 confirmed U.S. military deaths, and you will find that the majority of your neighbors in this country are not simply informed enough to relate the causes for the undertaking to begin with. Many may grab this statement and run amok, claiming that this proves the effort was futile, but what it does honestly prove is that the sources of our information are flawed, that facts simply are not being accurately reported clearly, and that the people are being ill-informed, misinformed, and sometimes honestly, they themselves do not care enough to take the time required to sort through the smoke and mirrors in order to be informed.

For you of that third category, you are easy prey. You are lambs in a slaughter-field. You are precisely who the spindoctors and confus-ologists aim for. You will not take it upon yourselves to be anything but victims of the roar and din, the clamor of shields, and the squeaking of the very wheels which roll over you so much that you now must enjoy it.

Through the smoke of the battle, there is truth, though, my friends. There are universal values, which transcend all anonymity and ambiguity. There is good, and there is bad. There is darkness and light, not only the seemingly dull gray fog that we are being compelled to drift through. The problem is multi-faceted, in that we cannot trust our sources anymore. We must seek out the motivations of our informants, rather than simply weighing the information. Who is paying the bills? Who is funding the surveys? Who is profiting by the speaking of the word?

Who more closely represents "right" to you, is perhaps, (to a degree), a matter of choice and personal opinion, but remember that there are fundamental 'rights' and 'wrongs' in life, regardless of how the circumstances are dramatized. Not everything is relative and situational, not everything is as you are being told and led to understand. It is essential that you take upon yourself the personal responsibility, (yes, yet another 'catch phrase') to filter the smoke, move the mirrors, and see clearly what lay before you and your community, your State, and your country.

Do not let the poets, pundits, anchors, authors, and songwriters weave your reality for you, take it upon yourself to study your world and those who seek to rule it.

[Jenna]

Another excellent rant, countybear!

Funny how we can totally agree on these points and yet come to opposite conclusions.

[countybear]

Funny how we can totally agree on these points and yet come to opposite conclusions.

Denial is a topic for another day, Jenna, and thank you.

[Jenna]

Denial is a topic for another day, Jenna, and thank you.

Is that something I don't know that I don't know, or is that a river in Egypt?

[dadyswat]

I tried to give you a rep but I need to spead it around first. Good post.

[lewisipso]

I am usually fortunate enough to get a preview of CB's posts prior to publication as I was with this one. (The benefits of being one with the department) I said it to him and I'll say it here. Excellent read. (as usual)

[lewisipso]

I tried to give you a rep but I need to spead it around first. Good post.

Got him for ya. No charge.

[Captain America]

I have the perfect training necessary to be a good American voter. I'm a cop , I'm used to everybody lying to me.

[Jenna]

I have the perfect training necessary to be a good American voter. I'm a cop , I'm used to everybody lying to me.

What about when people claim they are lying to you? Does that mean they're telling the truth? If so, does it mean they're really lying (which means they're really telling the truth....)?

[Terminator]

[MacLean]

What about when people claim they are lying to you? Does that mean they're telling the truth? If so, does it mean they're really lying (which means they're really telling the truth....)?

I'll second Terminator's WTF, and raise a fuckingholyhell!

[countybear]

What about when people claim they are lying to you? Does that mean they're telling the truth? If so, does it mean they're really lying (which means they're really telling the truth....)?

Um... yes.

[armsmaster270]

Say What?

[Jenna]

Um... yes.

Well it's no more paradoxical than "What you know, what you don't, and what you don't know that you don't know!"

See how we yet again agree on so many things, yet come to opposite conclusions? It's as if I'm a backward sleeper program in your cybernetic brain!

[Buttercup]

Excellent as always, CB.