Epic Banality

I like quotations. I’ve always liked quotations. But really, who doesn’t?

In the world or politics and government, quotes by famous people run rampant in debates and speeches. The reason for this is quite simple: quoting someone who is more well respected than you are adds perceived power and authority to the rest of your statement. In America, people from all across the political spectrum—although, so-called conservatives use the tactic more than anyone else—like to quote the founding fathers in an effort to demonstrate that anyone from Madison to Washington agrees with them and their particular positions. In debates this is used thusly, “Well, if you disagree with me on this position then you also disagree with Thomas Jefferson!” While this tactic can be valid and effective, it’s often played poorly and cheaply as nothing more than an arbitrary appeal to authority.

One of the foremost problems of this method of persuasion is the mindset of many of its worst abusers which can be summed up in the following statement: “John Adams agrees with me.” Most people hunting for quotes from authority figures aren’t generally interested in what those figures actually had to say but only in finding statements that strengthen their own position. While this sort of thing seems legitimate at first glance, beneath the obvious surface of what many of us have been guilty of at one time or another is a vast problem—the sort of problem that, if left unchecked, tends to pollute the thinking the philosophy of anyone.

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I was trying to figure out how to open this entry and I thought, “Eh, just skip trying. Let’s just dive into the meat.” So, for your viewing displeasure, I submit to you the following music video by Dennis Madalone:

The self-proclaimed “most downloaded Music Video on the internet.”

I’m sure, if you wasted the 5 minutes necessary to ingest this monstrosity, you’re thinking something similar to what I though: “What the hell?” This was followed by, “I should kill Boas for sending me this, but… misery loves company.” I would have done the same, as I’m doing right now by sharing this with you, so I guess I can’t actually strangle him.

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I’ve recently been bit by the writing bug, although I have a feeling those that have been reading around here would think otherwise given that I’ve said nothing for over a week. I’ve been writing elsewhere though. Last night and this morning I began work on a section of a greater essay, a political treatise of sorts, concerning voting which is what has spawned today’s rant.

It started like my normal writing sessions on political topics generally do. I go through some of my notes, read quotes, write a little bit and then generally decide to do some additional research to put my mind in gear and find a few other historical points and authorities for whatever it is I happen to be compiling. While I have a small library of quotes and references on some subjects—liberty, the right to bear arms, the evils of the consolidation of wealth and corporate power—voting is a subject I have very little on. I tried some Google searches which turned up nothing. So, I decided to plug in a portion of a quote I did have to see if I could find a collection of similar statements. That’s where things became very messy. Here’s the quote:

Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end to it. New claims will arise; women will demand the vote; lads from 12 to 21 will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level. — John Adams

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I suffer from some strange compulsions. There are the simple ones, like the fact that all the cash in my wallet must be sorted by denomination and series date and if I see some change sitting on a table or a counter I feel the need to arrange it in an orderly fashion. When I eat at In’n Out Burger I have two hamburgers—no cheese—and some fries and consume them thusly: burger, fries, burger. It must be this way. I generally like symmetry and order and my family has categorized me as “anal” since middle school. There are also the more annoying ones, like the resulting problem with the table IDs in Wordpress and the mess and hell that is the newest version (2.6).

Wordpress 2.6 introduced something that, at first, seemed like a damn cool feature: it keeps track of revisions. Every time I change a post it keeps a history of the changes. Cool, very cool. That is, until you combine it with their auto save feature and the fact that it’s just not a very well thought out system. It could be—and I hope they do something about it—but for now it grates on my compulsion for tidiness in data.

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I know there are is some kind of prevailing idea that maligning someone who has recently died is tacky, but I have to say, when someone dies in a way that’s all too fitting for their lifestyle or position, I just can’t help it. If this person has worked for the current White House administration then it’s worth bonus points.

Tony Snow died today. It was colon cancer that got him. All I could do was laugh when I read the headline this morning and exclaim out loud to my monitor, “Well Tony, that’s what happens to a man when he’s completely full of shit!” I realize that’s not a universal truth since the entire administration and everyone working for Fox News would be being radiated in a cancer ward somewhere, but still it’s nice when the grim reaper claims someone in a way that’s all too fitting. If only Dick Cheney could drown in a drum of crude oil. (For the record, I’m aware of the fact he’d been dealing with cancer for a long time, in fact I exclaimed the same thing when I first heard about it.)

Anyway, good riddance. One less Washington DC politician, one less media jack off, one less Republican and one less conservative.

With the 2008 election rearing its ugly head, I find myself viewing it with the same hopeless dispassion that I viewed 2004 and 2000 with. If there’s one thing the Bill Clinton to George W. Bush transition taught me—no, reinforced since this is something I already knew—it can always get worse and generally will get worse. To many people though, our current president has set a new standard for rock bottom and a lot of people think anything will be better. Do not, whatever you do, get caught up in this snare. There is no such thing as rock bottom.

The current “leader of the free world” is a bumbling fascist who is practically drowning in his own cronyism. He’s a war monger, a religious fanatic and a man who has the spoken eloquence of Beavis and Butthead. (”Heh, heh… heh, heh… we’re gonna bomb Iraq. Bombs rule! So do nachos.”) He’s also managed to have the kind of personality that could get him elected as the Governor of Texas and that, in and of itself, has a volume of implications and not one of them qualify as good. If you want to understand the true intellect and quality of George W. Bush you need look no further than the people who still support him. I realize 2 digit IQs make you special, but that’s not something anyone should really aspire to.

So now we’re left with John McCain and Barack Obama. Oh, joy. Oh, rapture.

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I hate flying. Actually, that’s not true. I’m indifferent about flying. When I’m in a hurry to get from place to place, it’s the best method of travel. What I hate—and I mean I hate—are airports. I never liked them pre-TSA and now, with the whole Homeland Security nightmare, it’s worse and it continues to get worse. I’ve never flown with ID and still do my best not to, though I fear my days are numbered in that regard. For those interested in the policy change, it can be found on TSA’s website.

Why on earth does someone need ID to get on an airplane? What does it prove exactly? I’m not opposed to better security scanning and random checks and such. Those are fine since they actually accomplish something. If I’m carrying an explosive in my bag, checking my bag will theoretically prevent that explosive from getting on the airplane. Checking my ID will not. This obsession with ID has become a point of insanity in modern life. So, let me explain my most recent fiasco.

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