Some Thoughts. And Voter Fraud. (Redeux)

Really, how did I get into this crazy conundrum, this neverending state of absolute astonishment towards the current administration's??? rabble rabble and freakish lies. Maybe I've been reading too much of that leftist conspiracy babble, or maybe I've finally opened my eyes to the gross contradictions that are inherent to a culture whose members largely thrive on competition. Maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

I could break this all down to some biological necessity; the nature of competition, that is. Everywhere I look , somebody is competing. From multinational corporations, to all of their subsidiaries, to many "popular" t.v. shows like The Swan and American Idol, to record companies and national armies, to smalltown businesses, to pharmeceutical companies, to the job market, to the homespun pizza joint down the block; on and on and on and on, it's like a disease. All of them out to make the other look "less than".

Simply rational animals, we humans decieve ourselves by thinking we have control, by thinking that we are not subject to the laws of nature, by thinking that we are somehow "separate" from the rest of nature. In an effort to control our surroundings, we create the illusion that we can control everything outside ourselves; this mindset works against us because we are a built in feature of nature and there is nothing in existence that isn't. We can't say that there's trees over here in one nature and humans in another. Even if we could jump to the other end of the universe, we would still be part of it.

While attempting to control our reality we might say that this or that is natural or unnatural, but there seems to be know way of knowing. What was "natural" yesterday is unheard of today in many cases -- the ball keeps rolling, and reality keeps changing. To say that we have an authoritative voice over everything else is to say that we have such a voice over ourselves. Similarly, one can't make an assertion about the whole without considering its parts. To say that this is the "right" way is to assume that we have some kind of divine right over all of nature... and subsequently, ourselves. Catch-22, anybody?

The point I'm trying to make, if any, is that competition is a commanding force, driven by the assumption that there is "a" way out there -- "the" way in any case. Things start to get messy when people insist that their way is natural, that they are somehow enlightened by their idiosyncratic experiences which presumably can never be transferred onto another mind in the way they are concieved. Even more jumbled do things get when people start doing everything they can to get people to see things their way, even if it means creating different realities that utterly contradict each other.

After reading some news about electronic voting fraud (we didn't see that one coming, did we?), I started thinking about this issue of competition and what it does to some people, what some will do to "get ahead". In the end, I imagine a whole slew of giant Wal-marts, filled with all of the companies that merged with or were purchased by them; everything one ever needs under one slop of consolidated consumer competition warehouse. Of course, this will probably never happen (never say never, right?), but if people don't start realizing that a form of competition which promotes winning at all costs can be damaging and/or counterproductive to one's cause, we will just see the cycle replaying itself over and over, getting worse every time. I'm not saying people should be amoral, it just seems like there has got to be a better way; not "the" way, but a "better" way.

Of course, people on both sides in the realm of politics are guilty of promoting this air of competition, though as many of us know, some are more guilty than others, and in entirely different ways.

Bob Harris provides us with some convinced speculation (is that an oxymoron somehow?) over the latest reports of voter fraud, as well as some handy dandy links to such instances, and a link to links of yet more instances. Check them out, you won't be disappointed to find that your suspicions of widespread "mechanical errors" are confirmed -- wait, you will be disappointed.

It may be in our nature to compete, but if we can make conscious decisions based on this illusion, then can't we change the illusion?

Okay, I've stopped making sense and I'm going to bed, ciao.