Power and Politics

You may have noticed I talk about politics a lot, that is because for me, almost any large topic comes down to it in the end, I am not simply talking about the process of putting people in charge of countries, though that of course plays a large part, I am talking about the whole institution and the network of lobbyists and corporations that exist within it in a symbiotic relationship. It is pretty much all encompassing and more and more, it is inexcusable for those of us at the bottom of the power structure to not have an idea of what is going on at the top.

If you think politics doesn't effect you, you think wrong, if you think you don't play the political game to a greater or lesser extent daily, then you are simply playing it poorly. I realize of course that for the majority of the population it is simply impossible to play it well, we don't have the contacts, patrons, and of course, wealth that on needs to be influential. But a I have said before, in aggregate, we still have a great deal of influence that those in power must treat with respect.

We live in an information age unequaled in history, nearly infinite knowledge is out there for those willing to look, and if we can't see all of what happens behind the scenes, it is very easy to know the general course of events and extrapolate from that.

This was a wise investment

For instance: The current Republican primary situation featuring Donald Trump, he broke into the race in perhaps the worst way imaginable, but by speaking honestly (if horribly) to his base, he is a surprising front-runner now. This is easy to see of course for even the most casual observer, but the process leading up to him entering is clear to see as well and dates back to the Reagan era in the 80s, on might decide from this that he is the candidate the establishment wants, but that would be entirely mistaken, and here is where people can read between the lines a bit. Even a cursory glance at Fox News coverage just after the first debate showed and almost desperate unwillingness to admit he won it very solidly, and the money is lining up against him as well, being uninvited from major donors conferences and recently being the subject of numerous attack ads an even a flyover from a plane, all paid for by JEB!'s exceedingly well funded SuperPAC. From this we can tell that the establishment doesn't really want him around, but as I have said before, there is nothing much they can do about it yet.

But it isn't limited to pure electoral politics like I said I wrote a bit about climate change last night, and in it I accused politicians of taking bribes from the leaders of industry, it is both more and less simple than that of course. Fossil fuels and industrial agriculture were important technological stepping stones, but the companies that grew to dominate those fields were largely unregulated at their beginnings, and barely more so now, what laws to get passed to constrain them are regularly ignored, and unenforced, unless some major disaster puts them squarely in the public eye, and even then it is even odds if the public will care as long as it doesn't happen within their own country.
These organizations should have died or evolved years ago, but they gained so much influence, so fast, that they became able to enforce a stranglehold on scientific research on the consequences of their work, and on the development and implementation of new technologies that would open up other areas that might compete with them, basically they got here first, and damned if they aren't going to cling as hard as they can to what they have.

Since they were indispensable to industry, and that industry was itself indispensable to winning a couple of World Wars, they found themselves with more influence and control than anyone should have, they were able to buy politicians to help enforce their monopoly, literally once upon a time, and slightly more subtly today, the days of obvious bribes are mostly over, at least in the USA, instead we once again must read between the lines, donor lists are still public knowledge, and it is possible, with a little effort, to track what lobbyists have access to what politicians, additionally seeing who votes, or doesn't, on related bills in the House an Senate can be enlightening as well.

The thing to keep in mind with all this is politics isn't about money, and money isn't about politics, after a certain point money means nothing other than a way of keeping score, it comes down to power, and while real power requires money to get started, money is not itself power. Power is different things to different people, but for those who have the most power these days, it seems to only be something you seek after for its own sake, the banks hold vast amounts of wealth, and immeasurable power, enough that it would be impossible for them to exhaust it in any reasonable number of lifetimes if all they did was hold what they have, but they don't, they use it to get more, and the consequences, such as the Recession, don't matter to them because they end with more power after all, indeed today they are even more wealthy than ten years ago. The Bush and Clinton families have had more power and influence than anyone should have over the last couple decades, and yet here we are again with two members fighting it out for the highest position in the country, why? For JEB it seems to be pretty much just for powers sake, it is possible that Hillary actually is motivated by an agenda she would like to see enacted, but honestly it is probably more of the same there too.
They seek it, and they cling to it, and for so many, the reasons it was sought out in the first place fall by the wayside.

The comic Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis, follows the story of a reporter as he covers a presidential race between two men he dubs "The Beast" and "The Smiler" of the two, the Beast is a caricature of right wing "values" being a straight talking "man of the people" who reaches office on a wave of popular support generated by his lowest common denominator appeal, and behind closed doors he exercises vices that would appall most of us. But he has an agenda, it is terrible and hate filled yes, but it is there all the same, his opponent The Smiler does not seem to have that at all, being a cipher, saying and doing whatever he thinks will make people like him more at the time, and with no agenda other than power for its own sake. Remember this was written starting in 1997, so no, neither of these people are Trump, Mitt Romney, or Hillary.

In the comic, all this stuff about the candidates was known, and available on the web for anyone who bothered to dig enough to find out, yet almost nobody did. That is what we face today, the information is out there, knowledge of our political masters is our only weapon, we can use it to direct our votes and our spending, both of which absolutely matter to those in power, so far anyway, but the longer we slip into complacency, either by assuming everything is fine, or by assuming nothing will help, we get closer to losing that power.