> Robert wrote: > The Democrats pooh-poohed the whole notion of Sandy Berger being a thief > as ridiculous. Well, it turns out the press was right: >
Here's my off-the-top-of-my-head Op-Ed. My point is, I think it's time to start solving problems but to do that we'll have to remove the money from politics. Polarization - It ain't just for Penguins ------------------------------------------------------------- "Polarization" has become a popular word when discussing politics these days. So why is it that we're so polarized all of a sudden? Because modern American politics has become like Amway. Companies such as Amway are examples of "network" or "multi-level" marketing and they offer anyone the chance join and "get rich". They align themselves with all types of products and/or services like Primerica for financial planning and Excel Telecommunications for long distance service. To some degree they all work the same way: a friend, acquaintance, or ad offers you the ability to run your own small business by selling products on your off-time. You'll quickly become a millionaire since, due to low overhead, the product is an exceptional deal. If you dig deeper you find out there's a small catch: to start your business you have to pay an up front fee for "training materials" or "advertising" which is usually a few hundred dollars. Then you find out that you can quickly make that money back by simply finding a few friends to join since you'll get a cut of their upfront fee. Even better, if your friends get their friends to join you get a cut of THIER fee. And so on, and so on, and so on. Anybody who's paying attention quickly realizes that to make the real money you don't sell the products, you just sign up friends and encourage them to get their friends to sign up. These multi-level marketing companies are, in fact, just Ponzi schemes operating under the guise of product sales to stay legal. Which brings us back to politics. Modern American politics has become a collection of special interests operating for profit under the guise of fixing social problems. And the profits aren't just for special interests anymore. Growing levels of professions have begun to figure out that they too can profit by aligning themselves with one side or another. For example, it used to be implicit that when you claimed to be reporting news you were also claiming to be a journalist, and when you claimed to be a journalist you were claiming to be objective. No longer. In February The National Press Foundation honored Fox News' Brit Hume with its Sol Taishoff award. The 4 person committee that unamimously elected him called him, "an excellent journalist." The trouble is that Mr. Hume isn't objective and was said to practice "ideologically connected journalism" by Geneva Overholser, the former ombudsman of The Washington Post. Isn't "ideologically connected journalism" an oxymoron? I guess not. Of course Mr. Hume would claim he's only "balancing" the tilt of other media outlets. Here's the key: what he wouldn't say was that he was being objective. Why not? Because that's less profitable. Why? Because millions of people are also profiting by attaching themselves to his political party and they want to hear what their side has to say; both to gather their talking points and to justify their behavior. They've figured out that when you align yourself with a party you get favors, attention, and profit. And the politicians at the root of it have to pretend to be solving social issues to keep this Ponzi scheme legal. Just like Amway. So why all of the polarization? Because increasingly it's the only way to make money in America. Don't be surprised if during your next job interview or client meeting they ask you which news channel you watch. But then you'll probably know just how to answer. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:152533 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
