Slogan Solutions: the Deadliness of The Easy Fix

The Flat Tax

Slash Government Waste

Entitlement Society

Just Get a Job

Adoption Not Abortion

Trickle Down!

Make America Great Again!!!

Wipe Out the Terrorists

Show of Strength

Let Go and Let God

We are not encouraged to think critically. We are trained to listen to our elders, our leaders, our superiors, from the second we are born till the moment we die. Crowd control is really the basis of every single ideology- political or spiritual.

Crowd control.

Every ideology has its own goals and agendas and every one of them depends on getting the largest amount of people on your team. When there are small numbers of people involved, positive reinforcement works. Talk your team up, show people what works and how their life will be better if they sign on, positive reinforcement is a great way to individually affect lives and effect growth for your cause. One on one. One at a time. A solid foundation for the future of your goals.

But, damn that's so slow. It's slow and tedious and requires actually, you know...talking to people and living all the good parts of your philosophy your own self as an example. Whew, that's exhausting and honestly kind of boring.

Humans being mammals, and of a community (herd) persuasion, the one thing that gets everyone's attention and action in a heartbeat is fear. Good old fashioned Fear.

Fear of death, fear of attack, fear of privation, fear of eternal damnation...Fear.

Now here's the good part.

Just something that causes instantaneous panic- like an earthquake, or tornado, or Facebook going down for an hour---all that Fear needs to be directed at something to be effective. So we also need---An Enemy.

The Enemy has to be an entire demographic---something big enough to rally anOTHER entire demographic into action.

Liberals, Nazi's, blacks, gays, conservatives, women, men, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Japs, Spics, Yankees, Rebels, Educated Elites, Rednecks... every single group can be demonized and utilized by another one. If they look, talk or live differently than you ALL THE BETTER to make them seem less like you, like your family, less human.

Now you have Fear, and an Enemy. People are afraid, confused, possibly panicked, and looking for an answer, and they want it to be easy, and blunt, and seemingly air-tight. Enter the Slogan Solution.

They are astounding in their stark simplicity.

So we have our Slogan Solution, and we have an Enemy. It's so easy, especially if the topic is all twisty and gnarly and somewhat painful to consider---merely cave to the Slogan Solution and it'll all be better in no time.

Now the hard part.

Take any one of the slogans above and hold it in your hand. Turn it over and around and really consider-

-what is the real issue it's addressing?
-what caused or is causing that issue?
-what caused THOSE circumstances in the first place?
(I know- this is hard. Keep going.)
-what can we do to address the original issues- NOT what's in front of us now, but what caused it? Treating the cause of a disease instead of merely masking the symptoms, as it were.
-what can we do, going forward, to make sure those original causes aren't given the environment to thrive?

The operative word that should come out of every mouth when given a Slogan Solution is "HOW?"

How are you going to do this? What steps exactly will need to be taken and what's the toll it will take on all involved?

You may think that 'Let Go and Let God' doesn't fit with the rest, but it does, unless the same above steps are taken. If a situation is so hopeless that all you can say is 'let go and let God', you need to be damn sure you have already done YOUR OWN SELF everything possible to remedy that situation and that means going thru the above steps. Let go and let God at its finest is saying, "I have done everything I can and everything I know how in order to make this better. That's either good enough or it never will be."

Slogan Solutions are great things to throw around, to rally behind and to wave a flag or holy book to. Catchy, inspiring, seemingly completely sensible.

But what does it do to your Enemy? Remember, your Enemy is an entire demographic of mothers, fathers, children, families who are in reality all insidiously exactly like your own. No 'buts'. Exactly. Like. Your. Own.

So hold their feet to the fire, these Slogan Solution Spewers. Demand that they tell us HOW. Insist that they relate to us the cost in dollars and human lives.

Refuse to be blinded by the simplicity of an Easy Fix.

Don't live in Fear of the Fire.

Stop, drop and roll.

Stop being afraid.

Drop the big questions on the fear-mongers.

Roll over their sorry asses and support your fellow humans.

All of them.

Spoiler Alert- The Real Winner Will Be...

Two days.

We're down to two days before the elections and the only thing I know for sure is who will be the real winners.

I know it because of what I hear people around me saying. Because of what I read, and what I see.

I know it because this country is so fragmented, so divided, so absolutely and completely exhausted from working so hard, for so little, for so long while being pummeled from all sides with the frenetic activity of an election season- a thing that may start out in fairness and nobility but that ends up inevitably like a street fight-

both combatants weary from an interminable slog of following the rules of civil engagement and finally ending up down on the ground, jabbing thumbs into eyes and biting each other in an effort to just be the last one conscious- all illusions of a fair conflict followed by an honorable victory ground into the dust they're rolling in at the end, spitting curses at each other.

I cannot remember a time when fear and Faith have played such a big role in elections- and it's the Faith that's fanning the fear- bringing God into the political process when the Founding Fathers made it very clear that God is cool if that's what you want to believe...but not to determine the laws of OUR land- because not everyone believes in the same god you do, or has the same moral codes.

But that does not make those different from you second-rate Americans who don't love this country as passionately as you do. And it for damn sure doesn't mean that those who have a different Faith than yours (or no Faith at all) do not deserve the exact same representation in the government as you do.

And it's that very vocal, very opinionated, very suspicious-of-all-things-secular-governmental group of people who will pick the REAL winners come Tuesday night.

"If Romney wins, there will be rioting in the streets- every black neighborhood in the country is going to explode into a firestorm of rage. Make sure you're prepared- with FOOD and WATER in case of power outages and with GUNS and AMMO, of course."

"If Obama wins, he will immediately enforce martial law- rounding up Christians and putting them into concentration camps. Make sure you're prepared- with FOOD and WATER to bring with you into your secret hideout where you can avoid persecution and with GUNS and AMMO, of course".

It's a fact that the sale of all survival supplies, but most of all GUNS and AMMO went through the roof after Obama was elected in '08.

See where this is going?

Come Tuesday night, we'll either have a President Romney or a President Obama.

But the REAL winners will be the sellers of survivalist crap and GUNS and AMMO- those bottom feeders who make their livings off of encouraging and exploiting the fear of people.

The NRA never had a better friend than Barack Obama.

The Summer of Our DisEnchantment

So the election season has begun, and everyone politically inclined is crowing pre-mature victory, cackling at the real or imagined disasters of opposing parties or quaking in their boots at the prospect of being unseated and summarily dismissed after the votes have been counted.

A while back, we had one party in control of our governmental decisions. Some were good decisions, some were very very bad decisions. That happens all the time, no matter who is in charge. Because the government is made up of people, who are flawed- no matter what they say or believe or how they've lived (or claim to live).

Government is Big. There's no getting around it unless all the states decide to secede and try to survive in the world on their own. Government is Big because this country is Big, with alot of people and issues, and whatnot.

So for that period of time, one party (lets call them Republicans) were in charge. Any time the opposing party (lets call them Democrats) tried to have any sway or influence on some of the really big, possibly bad decisions, the Republicans swatted them with a rolled up newspaper and sent them packing. They called this Majority Rule and said it was the American Way, and called them a buncha whiners.

After a while, things started to go sour and the State of the Nation began to curdle.

The Republicans said "Hey- nothing happens overnight. It's a Big Country. We just need more time to turn this around- give us another chance".

And the American People did.

After another 4 years of the same dismal downward spiral, the American People got alarmed.

The Democrats said "Yanno- we could do better than THAT".

So the American People decided to give them a chance.

Here's where it gets weird.

Instead of saying "Well, the American People- those who actually, yanno, OWN the country and pay our salaries- have changed the balance of power in the Government. This happens all the time and is not, in the grand scheme of things, a Really Big Deal. We'll work with the new powers and get behind this administration because that's what we, as Americans, do", people everywhere, in Government and outside of it went

completely

batshit

insane.

The same people who said "Hey- nothing happens overnight" were the first to scream Foul and Ineptitude when the new administration couldn't deliver immediate and sweeping changes. Conversely, the same people were the first to scream Foul and Dictator-tude when the administration DID manage to make some of the changes they'd promised.

Instead of swatting the opposing party with a rolled up newspaper, once the Democrats got into power they acted like they didn't even HAVE a rolled up newspaper and did everything imaginable, including watering down important legislation to keep the opposing party from growling at them. And they did more than growl, they did more than whine- they screamed "HEY!- the Dems are being mean to us and steamrollering everything through without regard for our tender little feelers".

*what the Hell?*

People who know full well that they themselves couldn't pass a cursory background check are screaming that the President isn't a US Citizen. Really? Just how did THAT happen?

People are using the words Nazi, Communist, Socialist, and Marxist interchangeably. People who can't spell the word Muslim are being taken seriously, not because anyone in power really believes what they are screaming, but because it makes for good News/Entertainment and fosters the fear needed to get their Power back.

The pollsters are hollering that there's going to be a slaughter for the Dems and the Republicans are hooting and joyous- because that will mean less fear of unemployment...for THEM.

Here's the Thing.

America- this big chunk o' real estate that's inhabited by people, not constituents, not voters, not demographics- is scared shitless.

The economy is not getting better, but it's mentally safer to call bullshit on the President's citizenship.

We're bogged down in not one, but two wars overseas that have no sight in end, but it's mentally safer to focus on which political party has acted worse (trick question- they both completely suck eggs).

Here's what we need. We NEED the President of the United States to stop telling us how much better it's getting. Because it's not yet. Tell us it will- tell us how- be honest about how long it'll take even if it's not what we want to hear- and do it.

We need the Democrats, the ones in charge of the government right now, to do what they believe in to fix the problems- stop worrying about the barking Republicans and swat 'em away like they did to YOU.

The reason YOUR supporters (or former supporters) are angry and fixin' to send you packing is not because of what you've done so far, but because of what you HAVEN'T done- and that's to take charge and do what you told us you would.

Some Americans have said that the only reason we're in this fix is because last time around, the country was disenchanted and voted not for the Democrats, but against the Republicans, and we're fixin' to flip back come November.

If it does swing back, it will NOT be because the Republicans are so much better at running this country, because they're not- they got us into alot of this mess we're neck deep in while they were throwing their weight around, ignoring the Democrats and the actual people who live here and making sure their wealthy cronies were taken care of the last time they were in charge and there's no reason to believe they've learned anything.

And they all know that. They know full well they will be winning not on the power of their positions and stands and beliefs, but by the lack of confidence in the current way things stand. They know it because that's precisely why THEY lost last time.

And they don't care. They don't care about you. Or me. Most of 'em don't, on either side.

And at this juncture, America doesn't even need someone who cares. America needs someone who Gets the Shit Done that ordinary Americans (not the banks, not the corporations, not the War Machine) need.

Mr. President and the current pols in power- I hope like hell you get another chance to actually do what you said you were going to.

It'd be nice if you did it because you cared. But even if you only do it in fear of your own employment, that works too.

Because right now- here's what most Americans feel like-