Greg,
> People seem to be willing to go along with whatever the
> government does, as long as they aren't taxed too much, they make
> reasonable wages, etc. I offer as evidence the general apathy towards
> the Monica Lewinsky scandal: many people were uninterested; others
> gave Clinton a high approval rating even though he had obviously lied
> under oath.
When they think they have set up an apparatus to do a certain job,
people tend to leave it to do get on with it, whether its a
government or a washing machine. What appears to have
happened is that the machinery gradually realized the people
werent actually judging by whether their clothes were clean or not,
but by the machine's idiot lights *telling them when they were
clean. As long as we dont have to wash our clothes by hand, not
many people care how much of the machinery is dedicated to
making the interface "user-friendly" -- so now we have sound-byte
circuits that tell us our clothes are whiter than white (and certainly
whiter than our neighbours, even tho we would really like them to
buy the exact same brand of machine!) and take up 3/4 of the
operating current to do it, while the motor goes putt-putt over in the
corner just in case somebody puts their hand on the frame to feel
the comforting vibration of Democracy in Action.
As for 'clinching' your case with Loose-Lips Monica, that's as
strong an argument the other way: despite the flashing lights and
spinning commentator dials that insisted that Democracy was
coming apart at the seams, the goldurned public simply never
expected its washer to be a sewing machine too, and told it to tend
to its knitting. And lies? Of course he lied -- everybody knows Ol'
Blue Lies(tm) is the only (nookular?) detergent in town. What's to
disapprove?
But I see my metaphor is unravelling - has anybody got some duct
tape?
kerry (known for having sewn up a pair of ruptured jeans with a
shoestring)
