The System is Flawed. RANT for Tuesday

Politicians are temporary. Established systems are permanent. Let us take two examples: the Military Industrial Complex and Law Enforcement.

MILITARY

An Army (Military Industrial Complex) is in place and it stays in place, year after year, and decade after decade. The Military Industrial Complex is made up of career men who want their systems and programs to grow. Budgets must be maintained and expanded. These men live in a self-perpetuating closed system, and that system, like every organization (organism), wants to grow and survive. Projects are added, budgets grow, and the system becomes a Frankenstein monster made up of career soldiers and contractors.

Along comes an idealistic politician (we'll ignore for this example the corrupt politicians, who are already part of the system). The idealistic politician is really only good at doing one thing: winning popularity contests. He may try to change the system, but the system has no intention of changing, and it has seen the likes of this newcomer before. The system has a survival instinct, and those within the system have been there a long time, and they know about wide-eyed politicians. They will not be pushed around.

So the politician whose only survival skill is being popular is attacked: He obviously doesn't know how things work "around here." He obviously doesn't care about national defense if he opposed Projects X, Y, and Z.

They don't produce anything. They don't improve anything. They scare us into giving them more money. Yes, we need a national defense, but that is all. The Soviet Union is over. Stop with the Cold War budgeting.

So FNG (Friggin' New Guy) is given a quick lesson on how the System works, and the Military Industrial Complex gets its huge amount of tax money, and the Status Quo is maintained. The military budget continues to eat up all of our resources, while social programs go into the toilet.

Every time there is a war, somebody makes money. The same people who profit from war are also the ones who influence those politicians who are only capable of winning popularity contests.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Law Enforcement and the Prison Industrial Complex work the same way at Federal, State and local levels. Someone is elected Mayor, but Police Commissioner X wants new riot gear and crowd control equipment. He wants cameras and squad cards and the power to use these toys without warrants. The Prison Industrial Complex wants longer sentences for more minor crimes because that is how they make their money.

They make money by throwing people in jail.

The more people they can throw in jail the more money they make. They don't produce anything. They don't protect us more by throwing more people in jail, because when they run out of real criminals, they start looking for law abiding citizens and then they change the laws so they can make more money by throwing more people in jail. As long as incarceration is profitable, we will see more and more people thrown in jail for minor offenses.

People who argue that pot should be legal because it is "harmless" are missing the point. Pot isn't illegal because it is a drug; pot is illegal because its very criminality provides the Prison Industrial Complex with more prisoners. It may have been made illegal in the first place for "moral" reasons. It may have been made illegal because the Alcohol Lobby saw it as a threat. The initial reasons are not important. What is important to realize is that it is kept illegal simply as a source for more prisoners. Too many people (wardens, guards, congressmen, bureaucrats) are making too much money throwing harmless people in jail. Every time some pothead is thrown in jail, somebody else makes money. Whenever the "need" for a new jail requires us to build a new jail, somebody is making millions of dollars.

THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM IS MEANINGLESS

It isn't that the people are bad; the system is just flawed. Our two parties, Democrat and Republican, are part of the system. They are the system.

Bush, Obama, Pelosi: all of them are part of the system. Any politician who isn't' part of the established system (Ralf Nader, Ron Paul, Ross Perot) is labeled as crazy and dismissed out of hand. Third party candidates are refused a place in the debate by the media (the media is part of the system) and so no third party candidates have a chance to enter the system.

The system is not a conspiracy. The system is not evil. It is simply a seriously flawed and possibly unsustainable system made up on the fly by a bunch of primates who have no idea what they are doing. It is simply how our society has evolved over time. It is the flawed way we have organized ourselves.

Bands of chimps have a system. Ants have a system. Flocks of birds have a system. We have a system.

No one sat down and drew this system up on paper and decided that this is how things would be.

The men who comprise the "Founding Fathers" mythos borrowed examples from existing systems. The Constitution is not some magic document. It works only as long as it serves those in power. It is ignored when ignoring it is necessary or expedient.

GENERAL POPULATION

As long as the general population behaves itself and does as it is told, the illusion of "rights" is maintained.

These are the four functions of the general population:

1. Pay Taxes
2. Produce and Consume Goods and Services
3. Obey Authorities
4. Provide Troops

Culture, religion, drinking and sports are acceptable activities allowed to kill time when not involved in the four functions listed above. Churches and schools perpetuate the ideas of obedience and deference to authority.

Military hierarchical systems exist in all social strata. "A List" celebrities, corporate chains of command, even baristas in coffee shops have a hierarchical pecking order.

Again, this may sound like a sinister plot. No one alive today came up with the System.

Those with influence are simply filling roles they think they think need to be filled. People born to influential families learn to wield influence. People from the lower classes learn to fulfill their functions, sometimes as professionals, technicians, artists, or criminals.

While there are diverse groups within society, "patriotism" bolsters the idea of maintaining the system. Each collection of populations (nations) is told that their system is the best, and must be maintained, although the system to which they belong is worldwide. "Tradition" bolsters the idea of filling designated functions within society.

But if this system is flawed, what is the alternative?

There is no alternative. There has to be a system, otherwise chaos would ensue.

With six billion people running around without a system would result in total chaos.