Lies, Confessions, and Us

Lies, Confessions, and Us

An interview of a memoir

“You lied to me!”

“Not exactly; I told you what you wanted to hear.”

“Shouldn’t you tell someone that is what you are doing, before you do it?” We can’t all keep track of what we believe and what we don’t; beliefs can change daily, sometimes by the hour. Everything depends on timing, you should know that. I am supposed to keep track of what you believe I believe, for how long? You’re a big boy, build your own mouse trap.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means it’s time to start taking responsibility for your beliefs, if that’s what they are and actions. You can’t go through life blaming other people for your inadequacies.”

“Why not? It’s worked well for me so far. All you have to do is be authoritative about what you are lying about.”

“Loud, blaming, obnoxious?”

“Loud doesn’t hurt, although it is better if you look sincere while being loud, then everyone forgets to pay attention to what you are claiming or disclaiming. Also if you make it personal, but not too specific, people will believe you understand them, you are just like them, they are just like you, you are them, they are you; even though it couldn’t be farther from the truth. You must have realized that most people are insecure about their suppositions and want someone to tell them what to think. I am willing to do that. I don’t see what the problem is? I give them what they ask for, what more could they expect?”

“You don’t think being a hypocritical fraud will eventually catch up to you; you’ll be found out?”

“No, people’s attention span on average is about two minutes, and I’m being generous with my estimation. People are so involved with what doesn’t matter, they don’t have time to pay attention to what does. People living paycheck to paycheck can’t afford to pay attention. And what If it does catch up to me? What could they do? What would they do? I own the game! They are all just players in my game; you must realize that.”

“People are living in a state of chaos, what do you expect? You are the one stirring the orchestrated information pot daily, making sure that something new comes to the surface often enough that people don’t have more than a few minutes to digest the latest news before they have to move on to the next exaggeration.”

“You may call it stirring the pot; I call it giving them possibilities. The more choices you have when considering what you think is best, the better chance there is of you making a mistake. Everyone has the ability to find an excuse that fits their needs. People don’t like to make decisions. The fewer choices they have, the easier it is to pick one of my possibilities. That’s what is wrong with our election system, to many choices for some people, it’s confusing, so they stay home and don’t vote.They see it as a waste of their time; no matter who wins it doesn’t affect them. Ain’t democracy grand?

People get to vote for one of two people; someone they don’t know or trust necessarily, endorsed by someone else they don’t know, to be the champion of their interests. What if we had three, four, five, choices like has been suggested? People would then have to take time and actually attempt to learn something about the positions of the one promising to stand up for their best interests. It would require them to become invested in the process; and who has time for that? But better yet, what if we had only one person to vote for? problem solved.

Experience has shown that the two-candidate system has no interest for people. Less than half eligible voters vote. Can you blame them? You know as well as I that we aren’t going to allow our petrified system to change.My proposal to have one person to vote for makes it easier for everyone. They know what I stand for because I tell them what they want to hear and they believe me, because they don’t trust the alternative; truth Sayers have been proven unelectable, their message is too painful.”

“Yes, but your policies aren’t in their best interests, they appear to be in your own best interest.”

“To the victor go the spoils” they say, and rightfully so. Look at it this way. By making their choice a simple one, they don’t have to take time out of their busy lives to listen to what others propose to be in their best interest. I will have eliminated all that tedious research necessary to affirm their claims and people will have more time for football, baseball, basketball, tennis, golf…I could go on, but I’m sure you get the point; people love distractions. They vicariously indulge in others prowess through their sweat and tears. It is so much easier than having to be involved directly, and far less injurious I might add. Everyone needs a champion, don’t you agree?

Isn’t it better for everyone if someone that knows what is best is allowed to do what needs to be done, to make that happen? If you wait for the debates to choose a leader, it will only consume months of their time and accomplish nothing, each listener will crown their own winner subjectively. They will end up with the same dishwater government they have now. People don’t like having to think about what is best for them or their country, they want someone who knows what is best, to tell them what is best. It makes perfect sense.”

“What about the Constitution, the Bill of rights, justice, people’s right to choose who they believe will best represent them?”

“Don’t you get it? It doesn’t matter who represents them, all representatives over time become the same. Sure, they come out with all these grandiose ideas about what’s “good for the people,” but they realize quickly that a sheep in a body of wolves is not going to get very far; should he or she even survive initially. They have to learn to play the game with the rules that exist. Attempting to change the rules will only get you put out to pasture sooner than you’d believe possible or be deemed an elitist. The real policies that change the world already exist. People just have to be reminded that change is inevitable; therefore every few years we take turns being in charge, but the policies, no matter how you label them, or who you attribute them to, don’t change. Policies are recycled over and over, making them appear new and different. That’s what people want, new and different, not substantial change, that’s frightening, just the appearance of it.”

“You don’t see that as being deceptively fraudulent?”

“Fraudulent? Everything is fraudulent when you look at it that way. I look at it as saving the people from having to live in an environment that is disruptive personally, unless you can make the disruption appear to have a purpose they can relate to. People once used to disruption, will not only accept it as typical, but will welcome it. People hate to be bored. If I give them something that stimulates them every day or two, they forget not only their present problems, but yesterdays as well and don’t think about tomorrow. People crave something different, new, out of the ordinary; they just don’t realize it.”

“What about the norms we’ve relied upon for 200 plus years?”

“Norms? There have never been norms. Nothing is normal, it is only viewed from different perspectives in a different time and place. Do you really think if we were to have another war like WWII, people would make the same kind of sacrifices they were asked to make then? They can’t even get their heads around the trickle-down concepts of the past thirty years which set the stage for what they complain about now. How would they ever understand the need of sacrificing for the good of their country?”

“Your saying that rising water raises all ships?”

“God, no! I’m saying people bought the Trickle-Down concept. Think about it. It takes a lot more water to raise my yacht than it does to raise your row boat. The concept is wonderful, but then so is the idealism behind democracy. There has never been a democracy. There has been an idea of what a democracy should look like, but no real democracy.

There has always been a king or a cabal of leaders who crank up the dancing distraction. You can’t see them, but they are there, represented by the one person they chose. People should know, they are the ones that put them there and allow them to stay; sometimes for forty years. They become for the people, what a remote has become for the television; it allows them to not act in their own best interests.

You must have heard the statement about everyone having an opportunity to succeed and become a success, in the land of the free and home of the brave? Who do you suppose made up that advertisement? People will play along with anything as long as they believe they are included, and they have the opportunity to become part of the class they aspire to. They have even been cajoled into believing the “elite,” the educated, are who pull the strings, when just the opposite is true. Money is the God that pulls the strings.

You need money to make money, I’m sure you’ve heard that. Well the system has been arranged so that if you have money, you can’t lose, only win. It couldn’t have been more plain than the “too big to fail” crisis with banks and businesses, during the last big so-called financial crisis. Once people bought the concept of too big to fail, they allowed risk incentives to be handed out with no consequences. You could bet on the stupidest enterprise and not lose; casinos, airlines, anything really. Your investors could lose, but you couldn’t.

Look at the bit coin fiasco. It’s just Monopoly Money used in a monopoly game. Monopoly, control of any enterprise, including government, gives you free reign to do as you please. Who’s going to object? Everyone involved has a role to play in the game and they aren’t going to curtail what they believe to be their own interests in favor of yours. Once the Supreme Court decided that corporations had the same rights as people, the game for everyone but a few was over. The for-sale signs were not hidden under some law or pork barrel legislation, they were put on the front page of every paper in the country for everyone to see, and the people saw them but did nothing.

You can’t play the game using the prescribed rules when your opponent is playing with a different set of rules; their own. Being cordial won’t get you anywhere. People like gore, they like a wrestling match regardless of whether they know it’s fake or not. People like the personification of strength, not co-operation.

What I was saying earlier about too big to fail couldn’t be more evident when the governing body of the most prosperous country on the planet can be purchased by the unregulated and untaxed members of a monopoly cabal and the consequences blamed on the educated elite. It was the biggest sleight of hand trick ever performed; bigger than the Devil convincing people he didn’t exist.”

“You are saying the monopoly game is rigged?”

“Rigged? Why would you have to rig something you already control the outcome of? It’s just a matter of moving the pieces around so it looks like something different has occurred. Nothing has changed. The only thing bigger than money owning government and its policies is the original scheme that took the intent behind Common Wealth and then added eminent domain for good measure and made it private. The right of people who have the most to gain taking from those with the least, and doing it legally, for their own benefit, is the cherry on top. But then they wrote the laws.

Most people don’t appreciate the fact that the Earth, Wind, and Fire resources we are charged for by privatized utilities, were actually envisioned as belonging to the people to be used to improve their lives without a profit. It was all lost in translation; lawyers.

We have of course become more civilized; we use the term common good in place of dominance. It implies everyone shares in the ideology which has been developed for the very purpose of keeping the game a monopoly. Education is the key to unlocking all the answers. Why do you suppose that for the past fifty years education has been targeted by those in power as a danger to the populace at large? And they believe it because they’ve been told to believe it. Education opens creative avenues, and those avenues lead only to dangers that make it more difficult to maneuver.

Originally only the wealthy and powerful were able to attend universities and obtain the expertise that would allow them to continue enhancing their family businesses at the expense of others. Once the doors were opened to everyone, the danger became apparent. Those with the most to lose began a process to close the doors. Allowing the socially and racially disadvantaged to receive aid in leveling the playing field, raised the red flag warning for those of privilege. Every time there is an attempt to make life equitable for all, it disadvantages those in power because it places the idealism behind privilege at risk, and advances the equality so proudly used to keep advancement difficult if not impossible.

There is a huge difference between what we claim to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and the practice inherent in that statement. The same could be said for all the principles we advocate for; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, equal justice for all, country first! It is all a commercial for a dead idealism that we are afraid to bury because the game would then be over. As long as we can keep it propped up and looking like it is changing for the better, no matter how slowly, people will continue to believe in the possibility that we are actually working toward the goals we proclaim we endorse.”

“You appear to be rather cynical about the fate of our democratic republic?”

“A democratic republic is part of the commercial we run for ourselves so we don’t have to do anything about it but complain when we find it impacts us directly, and only if it affects us more directly than it affects our neighbor.

Less than half the people in the country vote. God forbid if we ever follow the countries that make voting mandatory. People would have to pay attention, at least to a degree. It would put teeth in a democracy that now has only the illusion of having the right to vote.

Like it’s been said, “I am the truth and the light.” It has not been said about me yet but give it time. We have a civilization that is devolving from the values that allowed us to reach our present heights. From the shared responsibility for the good of everyone, to believing that individualism paves the way for success. The concept ignores the idea of all pieces of the puzzle contributing to the final picture. Extinction relies on your ability to not see the connectedness in all things and how they relate to the welfare of all.”

“You saying we are doomed?”

“You said it, I didn’t.”

“You are inferring people are disposable?”

“Everyone is disposable. The machine is in control. We may be the last sacrifice to the gods of technology, in hopes of a reprieve from earth’s all-inclusive revolution. I assumed you knew that.”

“Well, pardon me?”

“OK! If the price is right!”