1. To "Wag the Dog," i.e., distract Americans from the worst economy since Bush père, and rally the Americans behind Bush fils and his cronies in Congress. (One for one!)

2. To give our "War on Terrorism" some kind of face, even if he didn't really do anything yet, and someone we can beat, unlike Osama. (Two for two!)

3. To feed the military-industrial complex. (Ker-ching!)

4. To secure American petro-interests by installing a puppet regime as the pro-Big-Oil steward of vast oil resources. (Coming soon!)

5. Oh and there might, may, could be some chemical weapons, somewhere. (Other than Putin's, that is)

Well, it worked. Polls showed that large chunks of Gore voters and "Reagan Democrats" voted for Congressional Republicans because they approved of the way Bush was handling the war. Sometimes the best tricks are the oldest.

As for myself, to quote Dylan again, "I used to care, but things have changed." I've turned off the television, and (quoting Eminem this time) I just don't give a fuck. At least not about the white middle class, with their prescription drug benefits and rising unemployment levels. Fuck them. I hope they and their five-minute attention spans, their widening waistlines and gas-guzzling people movers, they and their dwindling standard of living - I hope it all continues to go to shit, as the rich get richer and everyone else gets screwed.

Now, I do care about minorities being further oppressed by the plutocrats, and I personally worry about my own stock portfolio. I care a lot about global warming, habitat loss, and any other devastation being wreaked on the trillions of non-humans who did not vote for the Republican party. And I definitely care that the New York Times can run the headline "Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans," and yet feel the story is marginal enough to be below the fold on page A12. (Nov. 9, 2002) Finally, I care about the pork checkoff battle, replicated a thousand times on a thousand important, anonymous battlefields. We don't even know - that's the worst of it. Even those of us who think we know have only the slightest glimmer of the evil that is going on.

"Evil" is not an exaggeration. If cruelty is the worst thing we can do, and compassion the best, consider what the Republican party stands for: rewarding the most powerful, increasing inequality, militarism, ecological destruction. All in the name of the human desire to be more wealthy and more sensually pleased. This is what evil is. It doesn't wear a black hat; it doesn't go around cackling. Evil says there is no such thing as good and evil, only power and those to weak to use it. I'm quoting Lord Voldemort here, not Dick Cheney. But can you spot the difference in philosophy? I can't.

So, if I think we're fighting evil, why do I profess apathy? Because of my personal utter powerlessness. Really, my present alienation has two ingredients. First and most obviously is the result of the election, in which the criminals of 2000 were strengthened and endorsed by herds of morons. But the second reason, to quote another Dylan lyric, is that "I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range." That is, what I say doesn't matter; no one with my political views even gets on the airwaves or in the mainstream press. (Public Access doesn't count, and neither does Granta, the Nation, or Zeek.) It's not that I have to be on TV. But I'd like someone to call the Wag the Dog spade a spade. But no one on TV will do that because in order to get where they are, they've had to stop talking about spades and start talking about the earth-shifting technical support committee. By the time you've compromised enough to speak, you've compromised too much to really make a change.

And this threshold is getting higher and higher. While crackpots churn out the vituperative and impotent blogosphere, the voices of actual influence are increasingly narrowed to the clique of corporate conformity. The parameters of meaningful (that is, power-shaping) political discourse have been shrunk by focus groups, media conglomerates, and the soundbite needs of the mass media. There will not be change, because "the people" are getting fat, and watching TV.

Consequently, my only hope, and what I sincerely, honestly believe to be the planet's only hope, is that people start praying or making art or meditating or doing whatever it is they do to cultivate mindful spirituality, and start seeing God (the real God, not the projection of ego that tells you to kill your enemies) before it's too late. I don't think there is any other answer. Because until people wake up, they will keep falling for the same shit.

[1]       [2]       3       [4]       [next->] Top image: Still from "Wag the Dog" Bottom: Big Brother from "1984"