Election 2020: Are we exhausted yet?

“Sick and tired of being sick and tired.” — 12 step program mantra

Politicians often say well into the last month of the campaign cycle, “the voter(s) must be exhausted.”

I say to the politicians, “stop projecting.”

Me? No, I am not exhausted, thank you. Maybe you are with all the bombast, debate rhetoric, dodgy interviews, masked train stops. Ok, my friends advise me to turn off cable news. I have. But even with. TIVo I can’t predict what innuendo-laced paid political advertisement warning me that my vote stands between me and the apocalypse is about to enter my visual field.

Makes one want to stay under the covers, assume a fetal position and “hunker down.” Makes one want to swear off cable and start looking for New England almanac-like musings as an alternative news source.

Exhaustion? No.

Disorientation? Maybe.

Alienation? You betcha’!

And how in 2020 does an alienated populace vote? For whom?

One candidate for President is determined to upend the voting process to claim another 4 years — something dictators do

The “opposing” candidate for President is reluctant to unveil his platform except as regards disaster relief, for fear of alienating a disappearing political “middle.”

Or so “it feels.”

Memo to the candidate(s) from the voter(s): we’re alienated.

Also, we’re victims of disinformation. Not misinformation, that human reckoning disorder. No, we’re talking intentional, blatant, table-turning DISINFORMATION. Think destruction of information. Think airtime calculated to conceal truth.

Think Russia, China, Israel, Saudi Arabia: these countries are learning FROM US!

All those election Eve palliatives — “accept the lesser of two evils,” “vote with your head not with your heart (it’s not marriage)” etc. — won’t satisfy this alienation, the alienation of the uninformed.

Information, the last human resource has been politicized, monetized and taken like a hostage for future booty. R. Buckminster Fuller explored this notion well over a generation ago: information will check the piracy of the environment.

And a generation later, here we are. We are bailing out yesterday’s dry cellar. We are struggling to “contact trace.”

One consequence of disinformation: unable to organize.

Second consequence: mistrust of external signs.

Third consequence: fatalism and immobility

Not pretty, America.

October 3, 2020