Saturday, August 15, 2009

Deluge of Diluted Delusion

I like the idea of universal health insurance funded from tax money as elucidated by Ralph Nader. I also like the idea of unilateral, rapid nuclear disarmament as elucidated by Daniel Ellsberg. But when I get emails from big political emailing lists on just these topics, there is something strange about it. I got an email about President Obama's health reform initiative--which includes watered down sort-of-universal health insurance funded by tax money--from David Axlerod. And I got an email about a strategically savvy-worded, glossy Nuclear disarmament petition signed by Zbignew Brzezenski and Philip Zelikow. David Axlerod is a giant media consultant millionaire who was Barack Obama's campaign manager. And Zbignew Brzezneski is a longtime spooky "national security advisor" to Democrat regimes who rallied the fundamentalist jihadists in the 80s and has been playing at international power politics for the last twenty years while Philip Zelikow has failed so completely as to be suspicious as executive director of the 9/11 commission.

Maybe this is a good lesson for the times of Obama, as we all have to learn to cope. Great ideas on national direction, when pulled down from those heroes who have had the courage to act on a national and personal concern based on what they felt was right--like Daniel Ellsberg and Ralph Nader--are eventually transmitted to the wheels of power "as it has developed." However, the wheels of power have developed in a terrible, deceitful and corrupt way. When this happens, the powerful "as it has developed" through their support of these ideas detract from the power and vision of these good ideas because they are dragged down by the anchor of the means they used to establish themselves at the wheel.

There is something that makes me hesitate to sign in support anything that Philip Zelikow has signed in support. I think this is because I wonder how someone tasked with such a monumental and important position ignored the obvious nature of the events of September 11th, 2001--and how subsequently botching the investigation he can now sign on in support of a nuclear disarmament petition. This seems to say: yes, we should disarm our nukes, and no we should not seriously investigate an event that killed three thousand or more Americans and traumatized millions still today. Similarly, I wonder how the campaign manager for President Obama--who brought health industry C.E.Os to meet in his first healthcare initiative's public hearings and stifled any "single payer" consideration for health care reform--can now send me emails urging support for "healthcare reform."