• Home
  • Perspectives
  • Articles
  • Columns
  • Platform
  • Poetry
    • Literature
  • Shop
    • Cart
    • My account
  • Support
    • Donation Confirmation
  • Write for us
Search
58.4 F
Los Angeles
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Privacy Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Media Monitors Network (MMN)
  • Home
  • Perspectives
    • Jerusalem Israel Palestine Dome of The Rock Golden Dome

      The Abraham Accords undermined much-needed peace with Palestinians

      World Map

      Global disturbing disparities

      Globe Algeria Niger Mali Africa

      There is always a price to pay for befriending the Zionists

      Illegal Israeli Settlements

      Antisemitism claims mask a reign of political and cultural terror across…

      The Flower - Pakistan Monument at Night

      Israel in the vanguard of India’s mounting conflict with Pakistan

  • Articles
    • Man studying religious book

      Ishmael and Isaac: An Essay on the Divergent Moral Economies of…

      Mahmoud Abbas

      May Your Home Be Destroyed

      Netanyahu Lighting Hanukah Candles with His Wife and Sons

      Bibi’s Son or: Three Men in a Car

      The Map of Greater Israel

      The Man Who Jumped

      West Bank - Palestine

      Cry, Beloved Country

  • Columns
    • Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won’t Defeat Trump

      Progressives Can’t Depend on the Congressional Progressive Caucus

      Progressives Must Fight With -- and In -- the Democratic Party

      Biden’s Unhinged Call for Regime Change in Russia

      Stripes USA Flag

      From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don’t Justify Each…

      Corporate Media Are Focusing on Race -- and Dodging Class

      Bob Dylan and the Ukraine Crisis

      Corporate Media Are Focusing on Race -- and Dodging Class

      U.S. to Russia: Do as We Say, Not as We Do

  • Platform
    • Hanukkah Lights

      Hanukkah is not hypocrisy

      The Washington Post

      “Preemptive war could risk millions of casualties. But….”

      When they shout: "We strongly condemn…"

      68

      Why Iran won’t attack Israel

      Is One Iraqi’s Self-Hatred Newsworthy?

  • Poetry
    • Literature
  • Shop
    • Cart
    • My account
  • Support
    • Donation Confirmation
  • Write for us
Home Perspectives Cloud-Cuckoo-Land
  • Perspectives

Cloud-Cuckoo-Land

By
John Chuckman
-
October 10, 2003
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
WhatsApp
Linkedin
ReddIt
Email
Print
Tumblr
Telegram
Mix
VK
Digg
LINE
Viber
Naver
    31

    California has just elected an adolescent fantasy as governor. One imagines fans, used to paying for Schwarzenegger’s image projected on a screen, leaving rallies feeling blessed at having glimpsed him in the flesh – dyed hair, induced tan, eyebrow-waxing, capped teeth, and all – much as winners from a church bingo go home feeling blessed.

    The model for American society is fast becoming a set of gigantic lotteries, the final reduction of the American Dream. While I dislike most nonsense about dreams and visions, at least the line about the American Dream did recall an epic struggle in a brave new world with its waves of vibrant, migrant population.

    For years now there has been a growing view in America that opportunity consists in every citizen getting a lottery ticket for some dazzling pay-out. It’s an idea implicit in think-tank pamphlets and in the behavior of many American corporations. Of course, lotteries only work because almost everyone loses, but they are fun along the way, taking your mind off unglamorous reality, and anticipation is hyped-up for each new draw.

    The lottery-society idea now has been extended from the economy to government itself. The people of California voted to eject as governor a perfectly competent man overtaken by a wave of adverse economic change. Never mind allowing him to make changes and adjustments – that is, allowing him to govern. Never mind orderly government. He’s a loser, get rid of him. We want it all, and we want it now. In his place, bets are placed on a celebrity whose every utterance is a cut-and-paste slogan from the Internet site of some American think-tank.

    And it doesn’t seem to matter that his past is littered with nasty behavior. The right-wing is like that: ceaselessly preaching morality, but when one of its own is caught, as it were, with his pants down, he always somehow still qualifies to govern.

    The current President had a history of substance abuse and rich-boy drifting, but a few mumbled references about the Lord made him a Christian warrior-President. And so Schwarzenegger’s life-long lousy behavior towards women and past Hitler-admiration are swept away. I don’t know that he ever mentioned the Lord during his campaign, but clearly he is needed for the Lord’s work.

    Despite the tired slogans of his campaign, Schwarzenegger’s opening gambit, as of this writing, is to demand money from the President for California’s financial plight. Now there’s an original idea. I wonder how many drawling, sputtering Republicans over the last thirty years have excoriated liberals about money and "the damned fed’rah gov’ment"? Well, this is a sophisticated new breed of Republicans. They’ve discovered a magic formula: it’s okay to spend more, lots more, as long as you also cut taxes.

    Of course, Schwarzenegger will have an entrée at the White House the former Democratic governor could never have had, but it does seem an awkward time to ask for money. The new Governor may have to stand in a long line of diplomats from countries seeking early installments of their War on Terror bribes, from Pakistan, Turkey, and Poland to some thirty or forty others. There are scores of corporate representatives lined-up, wanting their first bloated payment for screwing in light bulbs or replacing taps at American headquarters in Iraq. There’s also an impressive contingent looking to donate to the President’s upcoming campaign, providing some understanding over contracts in Iraq can be reached.

    Well, Schwarzenegger probably will get in ahead of some of these people. Bush does want a warm greeting in California during the re-election campaign. Could it be that the principled Schwarzenegger is using political leverage for a bribe? No, this is the business of the nation, as conducted between Republican governments.

    Well, a no-account, ranting, army-nut drifter in Germany about seventy years ago did set Germany back on the rails from the Great Depression, just before he proceeded to blow up the entire rail system.

    People do get the government they deserve, and California has elected a circus, complete with heady whiffs of elephant manure and an obscene cabaret act. My God, there’s even America’s Political Gothic, the ghastly Borgia clan from Massachusetts, taking bows as toothy, sequined performers, drawn to new sources of power the way vampires are to fresh blood.

    Oh well, they can always have another recall, can’t they?

    • TAGS
    • about
    • abuse
    • account
    • ahead
    • almost
    • along
    • always
    • America
    • American
    • another
    • because
    • becoming
    • before
    • behavior
    • between
    • bingo
    • blessed
    • blood
    • bribe
    • business
    • California
    • campaign
    • caught
    • change
    • changes
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Pinterest
    WhatsApp
    Linkedin
    ReddIt
    Email
    Print
    Tumblr
    Telegram
    Mix
    VK
    Digg
    LINE
    Viber
    Naver
      Previous articleUncertainty and Disquiet Mark Intifada’s Third Anniversary
      Next articleTwo years after the US invasion, Afghanis facing unprecedented terror and abuse
      John Chuckman

      John Chuckman, a free-lance writer, is a retired chief economist for Texaco, Canada. He contributed this article to Media Monitors Network (MMN) from Portland, Maine, USA.

      RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

      Jerusalem Israel Palestine Dome of The Rock Golden Dome

      The Abraham Accords undermined much-needed peace with Palestinians

      World Map

      Global disturbing disparities

      Globe Algeria Niger Mali Africa

      There is always a price to pay for befriending the Zionists

      Google Search

      MMN @ Google Play Store MMN @ Amazon Appstore

      MMN @ TwitterMMN @ FacebookMMN Feed

      EDITOR PICKS

      Tax Revelations and Corporate Media Won’t Defeat Trump

      Progressives Can’t Depend on the Congressional Progressive Caucus

      April 26, 2022
      Progressives Must Fight With -- and In -- the Democratic Party

      Biden’s Unhinged Call for Regime Change in Russia

      March 27, 2022
      Stripes USA Flag

      From Moscow to Washington, the Barbarism and Hypocrisy Don’t Justify Each...

      March 23, 2022

      POPULAR POSTS

      167

      The Origin of Freemasonry: The Crusaders & Templars

      April 23, 2003

      Sharon to Peres: We Control America

      November 20, 2001
      Qibla - Kaaba

      Direction of Al-Qiblah

      February 23, 2003

      POPULAR CATEGORY

      • Perspectives13733
      • News6192
      • World5566
      • Asia4764
      • Columns1363
      • Articles857
      • Africa683
      • Health470
      • Australasia455
      ABOUT US
      Media Monitors Network (MMN) is a non-profit, non-partial and non-political platform for those serious Media Contributors and Observers who crave to know and like to help to prevail the whole truth about current affairs, any disputed issue or any controversial issue by their voluntary contributions with logic, reason and rationality.
      Contact us: [email protected]
      FOLLOW US
      • About MMN
      • Disclaimer
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms and Conditions
      • Contact
      Copyright © 2000 - MMN International Inc. All rights reserved.
      Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
      All other brands, logos, and product names are registered
      trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
      ResponsiveVoice-NonCommercial licensed under 95x15
      MORE STORIES
      Recognize ‘enormous challenges’ facing northern Nigeria to forge new hope, Guterres urges

      Recognize ‘enormous challenges’ facing northern Nigeria to forge new hope, Guterres...

      May 4, 2022
      Minister warns against illegal presence of nationals in Iran

      Minister warns against illegal presence of nationals in Iran

      May 4, 2022