I am put off by this election cycle we’re in. Not so much by the candidates, they are politicians, I don’t expect much from people who are willing to lick the asses (metaphorically, mostly, I hope), of the multitude and will sell their honor, dignity, souls and self-respect for a chance to “serve”. That they are choosing to serve a power structure is sad of course, but that so many of us believe them when they say that they want to serve the people, is equally sad.

(Feeling a little pessimistic tonight, Giants and Mets tied in 8th)

No, the politics of it all hasn’t changed in thousands of years. Read Thucydide’s History of the Peloponnesian Wars (circa 430 BC), and read the orations of the leaders of the time. Same words, same manipulation, same fear mongering; ad nauseam.Nothing new. That was old Then.

So, whats my gripe?  None really, because there is nothing new under the Sun, except perhaps that everyone’s opinion today can be accessed by millions should they choose too. So we also get the opinions of people who normally only reach their families, co-workers or the guys on the other bar stools, or the six or seven readers of their personal blog (Gulp), and what amazes me is the vituperative, venomous opinions that are flashed about and proffered as insights. Everybody’s opinion is equal. Like a vote.

So, some might think that I’m referring to the Super Right Wing Conservative Ultra Nationalist Warmongering Haters of Everything. Nope I’m talking about all those Mellow Nice Educated Left Leaning Types who spend their time being surprised and stupefied by the blindness and mean spirits of the opposition, but they use basically the same tone, inflection and rhetoric of the Other Side, which they are upset with.

The old saying that, if you point a finger at others there are three fingers pointing back at you, is true. We ALWAYS point out faults in others that we ourselves have, and are aware of, but don’t want to face.

Facing ourselves and seeing that we are the enemy, like that old cartoon character used to point out in the “Pogo” comic strip by Walt Kelly. I think the line was “We have met the enemy and he is us”. (A humorous take on Admiral Perry’s message regarding a Naval battle: “We have met the enemy, and he is ours!”)

Facing the observable phenomena that we become the thing that we hate is very difficult when we are using emotion to process thinking. In other words, always saying  what we feel, instead of saying what we know and stating the context for that knowledge; which strikes me as the vital key to actual discourse, i.e. speaking authoritatively.

We are meeting the “enemy”, and it is us. There are no innocent bystanders in this national drive-by.

“The faults of others are easily perceived, but those of oneself are difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour’s faults like chaff, but his own faults he hides as a cheat hides the false dice from the gamester.”  

Attributed to the Dhammapada; sayings of the Buddha