Political Theater is ubiquitous and it is getting louder, and 'hotter', it seems, with each passing day. Theater has a cast of characters, and this is ours:
An army of politicians, and their cohorts, of every conceivable stripe - the elected, the defeated, the retired, the convicted, the wannabes, the Elephants, the Donkeys, the Greens, the Tree Huggers, the Anarchists, the Separatists, the Neo-Cons, the Compassionate Conservatives, the White Supremacists, the Tea Leaves, the Libertarians, and the Independents.. One gets the point.
Brigades of men (and women) - the Henchmen, the Bogeymen, the Strawmen, and the Conmen, retained and compensated, at times, by dark and mysterious forces, roam the Capitol's steps, and hallways, currying favors, depositing campaign funds, trying to influence the 'debate', and bend policy, and ideology, driven law making to the benefit of their sponsors - Industry/Trade Associations, PACs, and the wizards sitting in 'Think Tank' Ivory Towers, and their likes.
The so called talking heads - anchors/journalists/reporters, and the Policy Pundits, the Social Savants, Economic Experts - regardless of being 'in-grace', 'fallen-from-grace', or 'dis-graced', appearing daily, and at times several times a day, on leading (?) networks like CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc. Amidst the din and clutter of 24x7 socio-politico-economic commentary, across such radio/television/cable/satellite/new media channels, anchors and their guests spin political ideologies, present selective and distorted statistics to rationalize their surreal claims, and elected officials dangle red-meat rhetoric as if we were prehistoric carnivores, unafraid to deploy bigoted demagoguery to manipulate mass sentiment and the appeal to the lowest common denominator of all - raw emotions.
Our National, and regional dailies, and their editorial pages. Much of what passes as news, is in-fact opinion (just ask Rupert Murdoch).
And, last in line - 'We the People', who do not seems to matter anymore.
Most, if not all, of the noise is speech making. Speeches can be the most effective rhetorical tool, or can embody the worst of human kind. Listening to all of the escalating tempo, of late, tells me that our country, the United States of America, seems united only by our history. The divide between people - neighbors, towns, counties, states, etc. is deep and quite caustic.
I am yearning for some Great Speech-Making, some truly moving Speeches. Yes, for rhetoric. But of the kind that is based in reason, and tries to unite and move this country forward. Short of that, I think we are stuck in this rut. Short of that, we are in big trouble.
History is a great teacher. Here are some truly Great Speeches. I can use a few more.
#1. Abraham Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
An army of politicians, and their cohorts, of every conceivable stripe - the elected, the defeated, the retired, the convicted, the wannabes, the Elephants, the Donkeys, the Greens, the Tree Huggers, the Anarchists, the Separatists, the Neo-Cons, the Compassionate Conservatives, the White Supremacists, the Tea Leaves, the Libertarians, and the Independents.. One gets the point.
Brigades of men (and women) - the Henchmen, the Bogeymen, the Strawmen, and the Conmen, retained and compensated, at times, by dark and mysterious forces, roam the Capitol's steps, and hallways, currying favors, depositing campaign funds, trying to influence the 'debate', and bend policy, and ideology, driven law making to the benefit of their sponsors - Industry/Trade Associations, PACs, and the wizards sitting in 'Think Tank' Ivory Towers, and their likes.
The so called talking heads - anchors/journalists/reporters, and the Policy Pundits, the Social Savants, Economic Experts - regardless of being 'in-grace', 'fallen-from-grace', or 'dis-graced', appearing daily, and at times several times a day, on leading (?) networks like CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc. Amidst the din and clutter of 24x7 socio-politico-economic commentary, across such radio/television/cable/satellite/new media channels, anchors and their guests spin political ideologies, present selective and distorted statistics to rationalize their surreal claims, and elected officials dangle red-meat rhetoric as if we were prehistoric carnivores, unafraid to deploy bigoted demagoguery to manipulate mass sentiment and the appeal to the lowest common denominator of all - raw emotions.
Our National, and regional dailies, and their editorial pages. Much of what passes as news, is in-fact opinion (just ask Rupert Murdoch).
And, last in line - 'We the People', who do not seems to matter anymore.
Most, if not all, of the noise is speech making. Speeches can be the most effective rhetorical tool, or can embody the worst of human kind. Listening to all of the escalating tempo, of late, tells me that our country, the United States of America, seems united only by our history. The divide between people - neighbors, towns, counties, states, etc. is deep and quite caustic.
I am yearning for some Great Speech-Making, some truly moving Speeches. Yes, for rhetoric. But of the kind that is based in reason, and tries to unite and move this country forward. Short of that, I think we are stuck in this rut. Short of that, we are in big trouble.
History is a great teacher. Here are some truly Great Speeches. I can use a few more.
#1. Abraham Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
Fellow-Countrymen:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.
One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment