How American

Let's talk about cell phones.

I'll start: I hate them. They are bad for us, and I'm not talking about ear cancer.

They make us increasingly insensitive to the needs of those around us, as you can see here in a particularly egregious and disgusting example. She is not only oblivious to her child, she is oblivious to everyone else in the store: no one else matters. Other examples are everywhere, and hardly newsworthy anymore- people text while driving (!!!), talk on the phone in movies, libraries, and restaurants, as well as intentionally social situations like at the mall or in line at the grocery store, where we could more easily be connecting with the other humans around us. We are social animals: we need multi-dimensional (verbal and visual at the same time, maybe even to include tactile) social contact in order to maintain our internal balance. Hermits and recluses have never been known for their likability. Cell phones are -at best- one dimensional social contact.

This flat one-dimensionality contributes to, and encourages, our feelings of alienation and rejection, while feeding our own egos with the notion that 'I am the center of the universe!' Those feelings are what led this guy to do what he did, and I assure you, he wasn't alone in feeling that way. Those feelings are also squarely to blame for most high school massacres, "post-office" shoot-ups (though they're not in post offices so much anymore), and road rage. When you don't think of the people around you as 'real' people, they're that much easier to dispense with. Life becomes a video game. Shoot 'em up.

Frankly, I think that heightened insensitivity has also led us to this:

5 facts about the anti-reform mobs

1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies who fear that health insurance reform could help Americans, but hurt their bottom line. A group run by the same folks who made the "Swiftboat" ads against John Kerry is compiling a list of congressional events in August to disrupt. An insurance company coalition has stationed employees in 30 states to track where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings.

2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies. These crowds are being riled up by anti-reform lies being spread by industry front groups that invent smears to tarnish the President's plan and scare voters. But as the President has repeatedly said, health insurance reform will create more health care choices for the American people, not reduce them. If you like your insurance or your doctor, you can keep them, and there is no "government takeover" in any part of any plan supported by the President or Congress.

3. Their actions are getting more extreme.Texas protesters brought signs displaying a tombstone for Rep. Lloyd Doggett and using the "SS" symbol to compare President Obama's policies to Nazism. Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hanged in effigy outside his district office.Rep. Tim Bishop of New York had to be escorted to his car by police after an angry few disrupted his town hall meeting -- and more examples like this come in every day. And they have gone beyond just trying to derail the President's health insurance reform plans, they are trying to "break" the President himself and ruin his Presidency.

4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation. Protesters have routinely shouted down representatives trying to engage in constructive dialogue with voters, and done everything they can to intimidate and silence regular people who just want more information. One attack group has even published a manual instructing protesters to "stand up and shout" and try to "rattle" lawmakers to prevent them from talking peacefully with their constituents.

5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to "a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress."



Cell phones aside, I see two realistic ways to interpret these events:
1) Lobbyists for the insurance industry and Big Pharma have ginned up the propaganda machine in order to instill fear and agitate low-information voters and conservative conspiracy theorists (you know the ones- John Birch society members, Glenn Beck/Michael Savage/Sean Hannity/FOX 'news' fans, people who see "black" helicopters and attribute them to an armed UN presence, etc), or

2) the people involved are really scared- of African Americans, of low-cost easy access to health care, of losing Whitey's place at the top of the socio-economic ladder.

It may be a little of both.

It seems that our opponents -the Old Guard-- now know that their time has come; that they're now outnumbered; that they're boxed in to a corner. Force your opponent into a corner, and he will come out fighting, and that's what we're seeing. It is a last-ditch effort, and as such will almost certainly fail. But, then again, it's their last gasp, so they're going to try their hardest to make us feel it. American politics are about to get uglier than they have ever been. And I mean ever. I'm not looking forward to it. Violence will ensue; 'conservative' talking heads are already advocating for it in their broadcasts.

This is not a revolution. This is not grassroots organizing. This is top-down, centrally-planned (Soviet-style) demonstration. The exact opposite of grassroots. The exact opposite of Democracy.

They are the organized ones, but their side is a weak coalition of unethical moneyed interests, and moralistic evangelicals and church-goers. We simply need to pit the inherent religious/moral objections to wealth and greed, against the wealthy, greedy insurance industry.

Almost no one disputes that the American health-care delivery system is broken. Almost no one disputes that it is not the hospitals, or doctors, or nurses that are broken- no, we all agree that the problem is insurance: affordability, coverage, dependability, timeliness, and yes, bureaucrats putting profit margins before quality of life.

So why are we talking about 'fixing health care' and not 'fixing insurance'? Because the same people who own the news sources, also own the insurance companies. In other words, insurance reform is about as likely as media reform: ain't gonna happen.

Our only recourse against the insurance industry appears to be, to ignore it. Starve the beast. But, can you afford to drop your coverage and depend on the charity of hospitals? I don't know about you, but I can't afford not to: I simply can't pay what they're asking.

Are you aware that we've been trying to get public health care in the U.S. for a hundred years? A hundred f*cking years! Teddy Roosevelt first proposed this. A Republican! What is so wrong with trying to make sure that your neighbor, or your grandma's neighbor, can go to the doctor to see about that nasty cough (which might actually be communicable tuberculosis)?

Why are we being so resolutely, selfishly cruel to each other? Someone is going to come between you and your doctor- would you prefer a greedy insurance rep, eager for that christmas bonus based on how many claims he turns down, or a salaried civil servant who won't profit from your pain? Your choice.

Finally, how "American" is it, to try to make the country fail? Is that really patriotic? Is that really what you want, Republicans? Really?? Just because you didn't win an election?