The Fix Is In

I'm reminded of the Bill Hicks routine where the new President is shown into a dark room, where he sits at a long table surrounded by portly industrialists. A movie screen descends from the ceiling, and a recording of the Kennedy Assassination is shown, in full color, from a completely different angle, with stereo sound. The film ends, the screen rises back up, and one of the industrialists asks, "Any questions?" The President responds, "Just what my agenda is."

Reading Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" is like taking regular sips of really bitter medicine. I don't like the process, but I keep doing it. I dont totally buy her thesis-that Milton Friedman and his cronies sow seeds of violence around the world, so they can use the ensuing chaos to install policies that make the elite (who Hunter S Thompson called the greedheads) rich. But she has her facts and her history down-and there is no doubt that these University of Chicago schooled economists have wormed their way into powerful places around the world.  I have no doubt they are more than willing to see preexisting chaos and take advantage of it in the name of reform.

There's a scene in Bob Woodward's The Agenda where he describes Bill Clinton, during his transition team meetings, exploding in anger that he didn't get elected to serve the bond traders. Increasingly, I'm beginning to see that he's wrong-he absolutely was, and so have all the other Presidents.

I am starting to feel like the fix is in-politics, and Congress, and David Gregory on the White House lawn is all a dumbshow-bread and circuses to make people think their opinions matter. They don't. As George Carlin put it, the country was bought and paid for years ago. You and I are just grist for the mill.

"Soylent Green is people."