Politics Inside and Outside the Matrix

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Politics Inside and Outside the Matrix
August 28, 2006
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by Steve Bhaerman

When I was a kid, my favorite funny writer -- outside of the Mad Magazine gang -- was H. Allen Smith. His name may not be a household word today, but I remember him as a writer with wit and sharp insight into human nature. I learned a lot from him.

Smith grew up in a small town in southern Illinois, and as a child he would wander downtown to watch the men gathered in front of the general store. One day, a proverbial “city slicker” came to town and had the men mesmerized with a shell game. Time and time again, the men would place their bets where they thought the pea would pop up, and time and time again the slicker would lift the shell -- and no pea. Young Smith watched for a while, and suddenly a thought occurred to him. With the innocent perception that has caused emperors to go running for their pants since the dawn of intelligence, he piped up, “Maybe it ain’t under any of ‘em.”

The gaggle of men was struck silent. Game over. The slicker hastily packed his peas, and the townsfolk were simultaneously impressed and embarrassed by a child’s voice that cut through the trance.

So what is the significance of this? Well, every time I think of our two major political parties, I remember those words spoken nearly a century ago: “Maybe it ain’t under any of ‘em.”

Like the townsfolk mesmerized by the shell and the pea, we Americans have been hypnotized since birth that our choice is between the Democrats or Republicans. It’s either chocolate or vanilla. And when the unsuppressed child in us pipes up, “But I like strawberry,” there’s always that voice of authority who says, “Strawberry? What are you, some kind of pinko?”

It’s Not Red State vs. Blue State, It’s Red Pill or Blue Pill

Now, however, as the “up-wising” continues to take hold, more and more Americans are looking beyond the shell game and starting to notice the movers behind the shells. To update the analogy, think of the movie “The Matrix.” In this futuristic fantasy (with elements all too present in the present), the population lives under the control of the machine and remains conveniently unaware. In the parlance of the movie, they have taken the “blue pill” of blissful ignorance and live lives that are mere reflections of who they could be. Their energy -- both as workers and consumers -- serves as fuel for the machine.

The movie revolves around Neo -- and his mentor Morpheus -- who have taken the “red pill” of wakefulness, and are trying to liberate themselves and the world from the “matrix.” In the most general sense, the “matrix” is our human mind, our habitual ways of thinking that keep us boxed in our limitations. More specifically, the matrix can be seen as the world of the man-made where the machines we humans have created now rule us -- and most people don’t even notice.

So it is that politics today exists both inside and outside the matrix. Inside the matrix, politics is the shell game of Democrats and Republicans and their tweedledweeb and tweedledumb platforms. It’s the world where there are “serious” conversations about how this politician or that politician can raise their approval rating, and there’s no innocent child to point out, “Doesn’t that mean which one is doing a better job manipulating public opinion?”

Politics inside the matrix means pretending that all votes are fairly counted and tallied, that the war and now the occupation in Iraq is to liberate the Iraqi people, that 9/11 really was a surprise attack, and that if we’re not comfortable with the Bush agenda, the Democrats will save us. There’s a telling moment in the dark satire, “Bob Roberts” (see it, and you’ll realize why the neocons hate Tim Robbins, who wrote and starred in the movie) where Gore Vidal playing a Daniel Moynihan-type Senator breaks character and talks directly to the screen. “Democrats or Republicans, it doesn’t make much of a difference. If the National Security Agency wants it to happen, it happens. If not it doesn’t.” He then goes back into character, and proceeds with the movie.

“Bob Roberts” was made more than fifteen years ago, during the first Iraq war. What people didn’t get then -- or didn’t want to get -- they’re beginning to get now. Like the classic Twilight Zone episode where the E.T.’s manual “To Serve Humankind” turns out to be a cookbook, the corporate military complex we’ve learned to put our trust in is now devouring us

The Up-Wising Continues ...

So what do we do? Our first small step outside the matrix is to hearken back to the language and intent of our Founding Fathers. In the Declaration of Independence and later the Constitution, they make it clear that we humans are sovereign citizens, not subjects. The government serves at our pleasure, and it serves to protect its citizens and the commonwealth. It is sad indeed that the words and concerns of Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and Madison now stand starkly irrelevant in the face of fear-based self-inflicted totalitarianism. Until we face this tragic truth, we cannot really liberate ourselves and government of, by and for the people.

Secondly, we must strengthen the field of awakening and “up-wising.” This means, calmly and courageously speaking our truth and asking the right questions to enable others to discover their truth for themselves. The article I wrote about David Ray Griffin in our local weekly, the Bohemian, elicited over 125 letters of gratitude from all across the country. Never has the Bohemian received even 25 letters about anything. I had hoped that other publications would pick up and republish the article, and a few have. But the really interesting thing is that the field of awareness has expanded.

How do I know? Well, first is the case of Kevin Barrett. Kevin teaches Muslim Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is also the head of Muslims, Christians and Jews for 9/11 Truth. Two months ago, word got out that he was teaching “an alternative view” of the 9/11 story and several state legislators loudly called for his firing. Two things happened. First of all, the University has stood by Kevin, and public opinion has come down solidly behind him. More importantly, he has gotten publicity for the story -- something which he could never get until he was attacked!

In another “coincidence,” Vanity Fair -- the bravest and the boldest over the past three or four years in speaking out against the Bush machine -- has published in their August issue an article about the young men who produced the most frequently downloaded movie on the web, “Loose Change,” which also offers an alternative view of what happened on 9/11. Has the story finally broken through the “soundless barrier?”

Well, consider where the voting fraud story was before R.F.K. Jr.’s brave article published in Rolling Stone. Not only has the story broken through progressive news services like TruthOut and Common Dreams but my God -- even DEMOCRATS are starting to talk about it!

Time to Let the “Tail” Know Who’s “Dog”

Finally, those of us willing to see outside the matrix must take our outside-the-matrix perspective and apply it to inside-the-matrix affairs. Elections, for example. Instead of being at the effect of two political parties that have outlived their uselessness, we the people have to “remind the tail who is dog.” In other words, we must look at voting for either or neither party as a strategic act designed to restore rule of the people. It should be obvious that at least on a national level, the Republicans have proven themselves unworthy of our trust. But that doesn’t mean the Democrats have proven themselves worthy, does it?

So the first thing we must do is release now and forever any “hope” that the Democratic Party will save us. It cannot, and it will not. But we Americans can and will save ourselves, our Constitution, and our country, and in the process we may save the Democratic Party. Or not. Once we stop thinking of the Democrats as our only alternative or the prime vehicle for political action, we take ourselves out of the passenger seat (or the trunk) and put ourselves in the driver’s seat.

Again, it’s the tail and dog conversation. Instead of automatically rallying behind the Democrats as so many of us did in 2004, we must now invite the Democrats to rally behind us. With them or without them, a growing number of aware Americans are seeking a government of truth and transparency, a courageous foreign policy that offers a true alternative to domination through warfare, sustainable local economies and development of renewable energy. Because of the clear and present dangers facing us -- from global warming to global hot spots to fascism in our own country -- we have decided to put aside divisive cultural issues and work together for the things 80% or 90% of us agree on: Government of, by and for the people where the government does our bidding, not the bidding of the highest bidder.

I am calling this new movement the Front and Center movement, where folks who decide to use their intelligence intelligently, leave the comfortable and obsolete positions of “left” and “right,” and come front and center to face the music and dance together. To hearken back to the principles of our Founding Fathers, we are here to work together for the good of all and in the process be free to pursue happiness for ourselves. It means, as Albert Einstein suggested, seeking solutions at a higher level than the problems.

The Front-and-Center Strategy for 2006: A Vote of “No Confidence”

Unlike the parliamentary system most European countries have, there is no Constitutional mechanism for giving an American administration a “vote of no confidence.” And yet, a majority of Americans seem to have no confidence in the current regime. What can be done? Two things. First -- as an important strategic step -- we must do all in our power to give the Democrats a majority in Congress in November. This, by the way, is NOT because the Democrats deserve it, but because we the people deserve it.

A Democratic landslide in the Congressional elections will be the wake up call in the “up-wising.” It will demonstrate to the powers that be in power that the American people are now awake and paying attention, and may well be the first step in slowing the regress of the regressive forces and initiating progress for a change. On the other hand, it will expose the Democrats to finally be “for” something instead of ineffectually hedging so as not to put their own policies to the test.

No matter what the Democrats do or don’t do, the Republicans losing ground in Congress will be the first step in the American people rendering a “vote of no confidence” to a regime that has violated Constitutional law, international law and the moral values we claim to live by. As an agent of “education,” the Bush regime has served a valuable purpose: It has demonstrated that America has now fully betrayed our Founding Fathers and has become just another self-serving empire.

The rest will be up to us, the people of America. Should there be election fraud again this time -- and all indications are there will be -- it will be up to us to point out discrepancies between exit polls and poll results. (Exit polls and poll results matching has become the international standard for determining election fraud. There were some striking anomalies in the 2000 and 2004 elections.)

On another front, every week the official 9/11 story loses a little bit of it’s mythic “halo.” Last week, for example, a Republican Congressional candidate in New Hampshire called the official 9/11 story “a hoax.” Even more significant, this was the first time that the progressive online news service, Truth Out, has run any article on anyone questioning the official story. Meanwhile, David Ray Griffin has published a new book, Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action. The significance of this book is that it was published by Westminster John Knox Press, the official press of the Presbyterian Church. (As I scanned some of the press commentary about this, I noticed that any questioning of the official story is trashed as “Islamist propaganda.” I suggest you check out Griffin’s book for yourself -- particularly the recently-released transcripts from eye witnesses and firefighters who likened the buildings falling to “planned demolitions.” Oh, and by the way ... whatever did happen to that anthrax investigation?)

No matter what the outcome in the 2006 elections, the up-wising will continue. No one is going back to sleep. The Vote of No Confidence movement will very likely lead to a bipartisan grassroots movement to impeach the Bush Administration. Whether or not it succeeds in removing the President before the end of his term, the movement will be an important step in revitalizing the body politic and giving America moral credibility in the world once again.

Three Front-and-Center Candidates

For this upcoming election, I have chosen three candidates who exemplify this Front and Center movement. One of them is running as a Democrat, one is running under no party banner, and the other is running under a whole bunch of them. All of them have wisdom, integrity and are bringing an outside-the-matrix perspective to the inside-the-matrix world of electoral politics. I ask that you support these candidates in any way that you can.

Tony Trupiano I’ve already written about, so I will be brief. A former union organizer, business owner, and radio talk show host, Tony represents the qualities of thoughtfulness, balance and reliability characteristic of the midwest. He was the first Congressional candidate to come out in favor of impeachment, and did so in a district where this stand wasn’t necessarily to his advantage. As a talk show host, he’s given voice to the likes of David Ray Griffin. His demeanor is balanced and conservative, but he knows where he stands. He fully understands where we are and what we face as a country, and affirms that we must now take a “we’re-all-in-this-together” stand. He is someone whom I would tacitly trust to represent “we the people.” Tony Trupiano for Congress website.

Brad Blanton is someone I’ve known for more than ten years. Having spent a quarter century as an “inside the Beltway” psychotherapist (“I saw a lot of lawyers in psychotherapy,” he says, “and I can testify that most of what they say about lawyers is true: 99% of them give the rest a bad name. Seriously, they are trained professional liars and it generally costs them their lives”), Brad wrote a best-selling book called Radical Honesty, and has led courageous and controversial workshops based on the book’s premise: Our systematic habits of lying not just to others, but to ourselves is what keeps our system of unhappiness and injustice in place. The solution is disclosure and forgiveness.

For a number of years, Brad has sought to apply the principles of Radical Honesty to politics -- at first glance akin to a celestial harp salesman choosing hell as his sales territory. However, honesty being such a rare and cherished commodity in the political realm, he achieved instant success. In 2004, running in a conservative rural Congressional district in Virginia, with no team and no money, Brad got 25% of the vote against Eric Cantor, a neocon Republican. This year, Brad launched a full-blown campaign and even sought the Democratic Party nomination for a while. However, since Brad was fully forthcoming (no pun intended) about having led nude encounter groups, the Democratic “leadership” decided they couldn’t risk being involved with anyone like that (even though he was the strongest and most articulate candidate in the field), and decided it was better to let Eric Cantor return to Congress instead.

Seeing this as more of a liberation than a setback, Brad has launched a campaign as an independent and sees his mission to bring face-to-face discourse and participatory democracy to a rigidified and tightly-controlled political system. Brad Blanton for Congress website.

John Murphy, who’s running for Congress as an Independent in Pennsylvania’s 16th District (just outside of Philadelphia) has put together a unique alliance of alternative parties (Independent, Green, Libertarian, Reform and even Socialist) around the key issue of “ballot access reform” so that third, fourth and fifth parties could garner votes yet not be “spoilers” as Ralph Nader was said to be in 2000. Through instant runoff voting, voters could mark their first, second and third choice and have their vote default to the second or third if their top choices are eliminated. Thus, under this system (which has been adopted locally in cities like San Francisco for example), a vote for Nader in 2000 might have defaulted for a vote for Gore if Nader didn’t get enough votes to qualify. Or, a vote for Pat Buchanan might have defaulted to a vote for Bush. In either case, voters would be able to choose their top candidate without compromise, knowing their vote wouldn’t be used to elect a candidate they despise. (For a more detailed discussion of this and other reforms, please check out the new book by Steven Hill, Fixing Elections.)

Murphy’s strength is his versatility. His first political memory is at age 6 campaigning for Republican Dwight Eisenhower. He later was the president of the Young Republicans club at St. Joseph University. The escalation of the war in Vietnam caused a political rebirth for John and he became an active antiwar demonstrator during the late 1960's and early 1970's. He later taught high school history.

On the business side, he holds an MBA from Drexel University, and was an adjunct professor in the MBA programs at Temple University, Rutgers University and St. Joseph's University. He’s worked for major companies; including Michelin Tire Corporation and a subsidiary of W. R. Grace. He was an independent management consultant for 14 years, and he is a past president of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Marketing Association.

The thrust of his campaign is antiwar and pro-civil liberties, and he is actively reaching out to “true conservatives” who are alarmed about the so-called Patriot Act and the willingness of Americans to sacrifice true liberty for false security.

Says Murphy: “We will win for a variety of reasons. The people on the 16th Congressional District are sick and tired of the lies told to them by the Bush administration. They are frustrated because they are no longer secure in their jobs or in their nation. They are ready to get rid of the incumbent but would never replace him with the candidate the Democratic Party has chosen, a candidate who agrees with the Republican on most of the major issues.” John Murphy for Congress website.

May the FARCE be with you,

Steve Bhaerman
(707) 525-0711

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