Way back when I had a real job, I was part of the hiring process for certain positions in the local branches. One of my tasks was to sort the resumes that came in through various recruiting programs. Once a week I would spend a few hours opening mail, reading the resumes, and sorting them into buckets. After a while they would start looking the same. My job was not to evaluate them at that point. I was just sorting them and then sending them on for further processing.
It was a boring task, but once in a while a wacky one would come through to make the few hours’ worth it. One time I got a resume from someone who had worked in local politics her whole life. It was very well done and had a nice cover letter. The letter explained that she had been in local politics for twenty years but wanted to transition into a private sector position. The thing that struck me about the letter is she indicated she was best qualified for a management position, given her experience.
Her experience, however, was entirely useless in the private sector. Her life had been spent working on committees, campaigns, and staffs for local pols. The titles she listed were meaningless gibberish to me. Imagine someone claiming to have been the “The Deputy Assistant Centurion of the Alpha Quadrant” in charge of “nebulizing the remulac” and you get the idea. I read the job descriptions carefully trying to figure out what the woman actually did in the listed positions. No luck.
At the time, I just thought it was a strange resume, but over the years I have come to realize that the world of politics and our world disconnected at some point. There has always been a separation of politics and regular life, but with enough movement back and forth to keep both sides tethered to one another. There was also the practical reality of politics depending on popular support. If things got bad for the people, they may try to hang the king, so the king had to keep an eye on them.
Today they are completely different worlds. I have a segment on Liz Cheney. Her life may as well have been lived in another solar system. Technically, she is supposed to be representing the interests of Wyoming in the people’s house. In reality, she is the Cloud People’s representative to the Dirt People of Wyoming. She may as well correspond with them via video link, like the alien overlords in sci-fi movies. “People of Wyoming, this is your humanoid representative. Obey and listen to instructions.”
Again, all societies, regardless of the form of government, have a ruling elite that is often at odds with and out of touch with the people. That is why there are subsystems that provide feedback to the decision makers. That is the problem that parliaments are supposed to solve. How best to keep the rulers and the ruled in communication so both sides understand the other enough to avoid conflict. Today, those feedback loops no longer exist. The political system operates in isolation from us.
The result is we have the Dirt People thinking they live in a representative democracy where their votes dictate public policy. The Cloud People think they live in a novel form of dictatorship where their decisions are applauded by the masses. It is why so many of the Cloud People are convinced there is an evil conspiracy afoot to rile up the masses against the system. Why else would they not be clapping? From their perspective, the system is running as expected, so the opposition is illogical.
The Dirt People, having been trained their whole lives to think the humanoids they choose between in elections care about their votes, are baffled by why those humanoids never following instructions. Unable to question the logic of the system itself, they come up with novel theories about why the Cloud People are doing the things they are doing. At some point, the right answer is “they are not us”. That is always the answer when the Cloud People float too far away from the Dirt People.
This week I have the usual variety of items in the now standard format. Spreaker has the full show. I am up on Google Play now, so the Android commies can take me along when out disrespecting the country. I am on iTunes, which means the Apple Nazis can listen to me on their Hitler phones. The anarchists can catch me on iHeart Radio. I am now on Deezer, for our European haters and Stitcher for the weirdos. YouTube also has the full podcast. Of course, there is a download link below.
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This Week’s Show
Contents
- 00:00: Opening
- 02:00: Driving Home Some Points
- 22:00: Salad Bowls
- 37:00: Cloud People (Link)
- 47:00: Novel Fascism (Link) (Be Like Me)
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