The Political Universe Is Multi-Dimensional.

Theoretical physicists believe that the universe is multi-dimensional. That is, that beyond the ordinary dimensions we humans perceive as well as time, there exist many other dimensions predicted by theory even though our limited senses cannot directly regard them.

Why is the notion that political views are always bi-dimensional so ingrained in our societies? Why do we persist in the stubborn idea of left VS right? Is it intrinsic? – Born out of our view of the physical world? Why do we always seek to simplify everything?

There’s the old adage “There’s always two sides to every story". Why only two? Maybe it’s tied to so many things that we see as binary – only having one of two possible states – like on/off, true/false, black/white, hot/cold, left/right. Why does “human nature” dictate this line of thinking? Would we reduce everything around down to one singularity if we could?

Some concepts seem to be immune to this line of thinking and yet we deal with them just fine. We all know and recognize that there are many colors in the rainbow. There are more than two kinds of fish. No two snowflakes are alike, and so on. When it comes to opinion – especially political opinion – I believe that I am witness to many sides of the argument(s), not just two. How could anything as diverse as this be lumped into only two buckets without being forced artificially? Is it accidental, coincidental or by design? If by design, then what are the motives? Are they benign or malicious?

The current day American political landscape is ruled (sometimes forcibly) by either Democrats or Republicans. Everything – every problem, every solution, every answer, every hope, is delegated to one of these two factions. Liberal or Conservative. Left or Right. No matter how complex the issues that face us, they can all be split down the middle and defined by one of these two groups.

I guess I wouldn’t ponder this aberration if this two-party arrangement were actually doing any good. Once empowered they set about to line their pockets, consolidate their power and pass laws that reinforce their control and create formidable barriers and obstacles to any alternative view or plan. You’d think they’d get it narrowed down to one party – and they still might – but for now at least, they need each other. Each party needs an opposition: someone to point fingers at; someone to criticize; someone to run against.

Even more insidious, they need to maintain the illusion of choice. They need to make you think that you have choice whenever election time rolls around when in fact, they are two sides of the same coin. At the same time they go out of their way to discourage so called “third-party” candidates. What are they afraid of, a little competition?

"Republican or Democrat - not a dimes bit of difference between them"
- George C. Wallace.

Given our recent experiences with the “banksters” (gangster + banker = bankster) and their plundering of the national wealth, it is illuminating to go back to last year’s presidential election year and survey who contributed to whom. You’ll find virtually the same well-connected lobbyists contributing to both candidates, both parties not only in the presidential race but the Congress, Senate and local races too. Hmm, looks like somebody wants to maintain the status quo.

“That is why you have so little differentiation between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, because they both are going to the same sources of money. And they're both serving the interests of wealth.”

“…I think that the Congress represents what I would call the frightened rich, the people who think that the democratic experiment has served its purpose, run its course, gone far enough.”

- Lewis Lapham, interview with Bill Moyer

My own take on this two-party thingy is that it represents yet another level of diversion. The average person seems to be woefully ignorant of politics in general, instead relying on looks, charisma and popularity or just voting the way they always did. Too much trouble to research issues and make decisions. Since the Democrats can always blame the Republicans and the Republicans can always blame the Democrats, once they have enough people thinking the same way they’re free to do whatever they want anyway (one or the other is always in control) and they can count on that large number of people to be so distracted by this epic Left VS Right struggle so as to completely tune out anyone daring to voice any other perspective.

But that’s the whole point I making here: political discussion and ideas are too important, too critical to our future to be dumbed-down in this way. Seems like too many folks, if they even bother to vote, just vote Republican or Democrat and then go back to their can of beer and TV set, don’t even consider that someone outside of this inbred system might have another idea, a better idea. The two-faced ruling party system will marginalize those candidates anyway, make them out to be kooks, too extreme for all you red, white and blue folks.

The two-faced, ruling party's candidates have fine-tuned their political rhetoric to tell you whatever you want to hear, whatever it takes, to get elected. Then, it's back to business as usual. Go back and check up on the campaign speeches of recent winners - Obama or Bush - and see how many promises have been forgotten or broken, how many were just bold-faced lies.

Maybe it's time to think outside the box. Maybe it's time to consider the multi-dimensional model.

“Few of the people present had any use for politicians who weren’t paltry, for the perfectly good reason that non-paltry politicians disturbed the status quo. Nor did they wish to engage in serious discussion of any issues that might seriously inhibit the sovereignty of money.

The country was being asked to vote for TV commercials because only in the happy far-off land of TV commercials could the American democracy still be seen to exist. But understood as ritual chant, the remarks at dinner sustained the nostalgic remembrance of time past.”

- Lewis Lapham, “Lights, cameras, Democracy!”

Ralph M

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
- Will Rogers