We are starlight and step moms,
Salvation and sandwiches
Monsters and moonbeams
Midgets and Mondays
Frostbite and failure
Fresh fruit and falling
Reason and love,
And all the cackling cowl eyed creatures
Of the nowhere spaces in between,
We are life,
The only useless metaphor
Galvanism (the religion of Modern America)
Apathy is the greatest terrorism. This is my current social catch phrase. I waggle it in the faces of the politically inept, and those I judge morally bankrupt. These are also the words that veil my lack of conviction. The only thing worse than lacking conviction is having conviction about other people’s lack of conviction. This is my most ironic hypocrisy. Recently it has become my most enlightening as well.
In 1824 John Quincy Adams defeated the American war hero Andrew Jackson in the presidential election without winning the popular vote. The American masses were incensed. Jackson (arguably the most popular American military figure of the 1800’s), was said to have been cheated, and the election stolen from the people by Adams and the Republicans. The Democrats (as they would soon be called), spent the next four years uniting their members in a singular cause, winning back what was rightfully theirs. American’s staggered across an inexorable divide. Republicans enshrouded the president in empathy and praise. Democrats lavished him with hate, and there was no middle ground anywhere in sight.
Sound familiar? One hundred and eighty years later it’s happening again, and no one seems to mind. There are presently two America’s. In one America, George W. Bush is “God’s man” (a Texas Jesus) sent from the heavens to put prayer back in schools, quell the rising tide of Islam, slay the homosexual dragons of the Earth, and to unite the world in the blessed pleasantness of late 50’s America again (with more black people this time).
In the other America, George W. Bush is a demon (maybe even the devil), harvested from the Texas oil fields to burn crosses on our lawns, v-chip our children to death, kiss the well manicured feet of HMO’s, Arms dealers, and Pharmaceuticals, while slaying the ozone layer and oppressing the beleaguered masses of the Earth in an orgy of petroleum driven warfare (baring the discovery of weapons of mass destruction of course).
What’s disturbing is that neither side genuinely believes either of these versions even resembles the truth (excluding nut jobs). I’ve discovered that both sides actually have a vested interest in dressing this absurdity up as truth.
What is this interest you ask? The answer: apathy. Not traditional apathy, where people sit on their sofas watching Maury Povich and doing nothing, but an all new shinier apathy, that I call Galvanism.
The word galvanize is defined in Webster’s dictionary as “to stimulate or to excite into activity or animation.” In laymen’s terms this means to make move by exciting. Scientific galvanism is achieved by electricity. An object is shocked until it’s completely coated with something else. All of these interesting implications relate quite profoundly to the process of galvanizing a person.
People like to feel like they believe in things. To have poignant and personal opinions that are both interesting and original. Basically, people want their thoughts to matter. This means finding a cause and making that cause the compass of all your moral activity. In the political sense, causes present themselves daily, the war in Iraq, the issue of gay marriage, the abortion debate, the problem of National health care, the current boom of unemployment, the amorality of modern entertainment, and the failure of American education. These are all issues. Support or oppose, affirm or deny, but interested American’s make a choice. Or at least they think they do.
Due to the extreme political rift between Democrats and Republicans at present, I expect to see a similar rift reflected in the two candidates. I expect diametric opposition. Well measured recontextualization of the issues into presidential debate. But, you know what? It hasn’t happened. Despite all the partisan posturing, most American’s believe that no matter who wins the real issues of America will not be solved.
I took an informal poll of 77 random American’s of various ages (completely unscientific). In the poll I asked specifically what they each thought were the issues in America that most concerned them. The answers they gave were diverse. Then I asked, if they thought that issue would be significantly improved by either candidate. Most leapt towards their candidate of choice. Saying well I think Bush is more suited for this, or Kerry is more suited for this or that. But then I asked if they thought anything would genuinely change after the election. 68 of the 77 said no. (The other 9 had answers ranging from comments about terrorists getting theirs to finally having a president who cares again.)
But the sad truth expressed here still remains. Most Americans don’t believe the president will fix any of the real issues of society. No matter who he is. So why the galvanism?
Because letting Americans argue the extreme absurdities of the status quo blinds them to the realities of the status quo. Galvanism gives Americans a sense of involvement and power when nothing could be further from the truth.
Take the biggest political issue of the moment for example, the war in Iraq according to 67% of registered voters. The Democratic Party opposes the war. Republicans support it. This issue contains enough potency to turn the upcoming election according to most major journalists. An issue this polarized must certainly see both candidates in complete opposition. Sadly, however it does not. Both Senator Kerry’s and President Bush’s plans resemble each others. The timetables are only slightly different, and most of those differences have been exaggerated. This is because both candidates know that any extreme change in the current situation would be suicide.
Removing all American troops at this point isn’t even an option for Kerry. Making massive new troop deployments without UN intervention would be politically disastrous for Bush. So in short, both candidates are stuck. On this, the “decisive” issue of the election in 2004 there is no real debate. No matter who wins the outcomes will be essentially the same. This is unsettling.
The political powers that be are bargaining that simple minded American folk won’t notice. They want us to keep dealing in abstractions divided between impossible extremes. They want us galvanized. The irony of the current political situation is that activism is the new apathy. Extremism is the new way to cop out, and the shady power grubbing consortiums behind both parties love it.
I don’t trust them as far as I can kick them. I don’t believe in them or the candidates.
I do however believe in us. We don’t have to play this game. We don’t have to be galvanist pretending to be incensed over issues that aren’t real. Over the next four months there’s going to be a lot of show, entertainment in the form of public discourse. Don’t fall for it. Search for real issues.
I plan on sharing a few actual issues to vote on in a few months, but until then spread the word. Force yourself to peer through the veil of absurdity and apathy clothed in passion. See through the galvanism to the truth. It’s out there somewhere. We simply need the courage to find it.
