Douglas Rushkoff: Loss of Belief

[Adam Shand]

Source: http://www.rushkoff.com/2006/07/loss-of-belief.php

Loss of Belief
7/10/2006 09:34:00 AM

No, this isn't about religion or God. I'm losing belief in the most  
basic stuff: the stuff we hear on the news every day.

I can't bring myself to believe Ken Lay is really dead. It's too  
convenient for himself, his family, and the administration (Lay was  
in on those early and likely treasonous energy/Iraq/oil-price  
meetings with Cheney). He strikes me as too rich, powerful, and  
pathological not to get out of it. Find a body, pay off a coroner,  
and go to the beach. It's not a terribly elaborate conspiracy.

That same July 4th, when news of North Korea's launches was  
broadcast, I didn't feel sure we were being told what was happening,  
either. Not that news agencies can really know, either. Did they  
launch? Were they thwarted by a US counterstrike, or by their own  
ineptitude? Do they know? Do we?

I'm not saying one thing or the other happened - just that I stare at  
the news and don't believe anything they're saying. I've got no idea.

And I find I can trace this sense of uncertainty to the 2004  
election. The 2000 election was crooked, but the fraud was rather out  
in the open. We watched hired thugs stop the Florida recount by  
trying to break into the room where the counting was happening - and  
delay the process long enough for the Supreme Court to choose Bush as  
the President. But the 2004 voter fraud in Ohio, now fully documented  
by Robert Kennedy Jr. in Rolling Stone, was an entirely more hidden  
affair. Diebold voting machines, teams of fraud squads, and election  
officials too afraid that disclosure of what happened will turn  
people off voting forever.

It's sad and confusing not to live in a democracy, anymore, and this  
is part of what leads me to question coverage of any events that  
involve our government. And while it's quite plainly true, it's a bit  
too unthinkable for most sane people to accept. It goes in the same  
mental basket as more outlandish thoughts -- such as dynamite on the  
WTC or no airplane crashing into the Pentagon -- even though it's not  
conjecture, it's just plain real.

So what I'm coming to grips with is accepting that I don't live in a  
democratic nation, and that the propaganda state attempted in 1930's  
Europe did finally reach fruition. Maybe I'm just old, and have a  
very idealistic view of democracy. When I was a kid, we were all told  
that this is a government of the people, and that our votes provided  
a check on the power of our leaders. That's why we called them  
"elected."

But I don't think I'm that out of the ordinary. And instead of trying  
to feel better about all this, I'm going to allow myself to feel  
worse. See where that takes me, and if I find it brings me somewhere  
more capable of changing the situation, I'll attempt to instill that  
feeling in others.

It does go back to belief in religion, on some level, because those  
replacement fantasy ideals can satisfy a person for a while - prevent  
final disillusionment. But final disillusionment is probably required  
to enact the kind of changes required of us if we want to attempt the  
democratic experiment again.

If not, we can just return to our regularly scheduled programming.