An Open Letter to imaginary politicians...

[Maxmars]

To: No one in particular
From: No one you usually listen to

Subject: Your continued path

This letter is meant to address observations I humbly submit as the least of your citizens.

I offer these thoughts to you in the hope that perhaps, if you should ever consider them, you may find it meaningfully useful to recollect.  I understand that you almost never read such things, unless it has publicity value, but I expect you won't ever know me.  I don't lust after notoriety, and I can assure you, people such as me really do exist.

Your profession hails from a distinct line... but until relatively recently in history, has lacked the amplification it now has... the entertainment value. 
It is because of this, specifically, that your kind have embodied the pejorative "clown show." 
This is not a function of your character, only your participation. 
You can easily refuse to participate, only you know the consequences that might precipitate.

I urge you to consider your current position. 
You are entrenched within a class of society which has already damaged itself, insofar as thriving with your very reason to exist. 
That class of individuals has a very distinct reality to contend with... not commonly recognized or discussed by you or your colleagues. 
I refer to the "culture" which has coalesced around you. 
You are mostly operating between bubbles...
Do you think about how those around you identify as varying interest groups, how all contact with them is conducted, what has been planned for you, what are you obliged to do.

It is the life of a servant. Did you sign up for that?  Or do you notice the many entitled deviations from it, everywhere around you? 

Prestige is a drug, the addict is the weakest of you all.
But who better than the Media to offer them what they need? 
Some of them have all they need... so they deal in it. 
They metricize it, like a sport... they obsess over it.

The media has it's hook deeply implanted in your world.
And I mean deep.
These are not "nice" people. NONE of them are.
They can't help but lust for power.

The younger generation was broken, and it manifested here... where you work, where you play. 
Can you fix it? 
You know you can. 
But you have to want to...

Thanks for your time,
No one

[UltraBudgie]

i like to think that everyone is a nice person

[UltraBudgie]

Dear No One,

Never before in history has no one craved no thing so deeply. If we present you a post-scarcity society, could you accept it? The thirst for spectacle and projection has existed in human veins for millennia, the past you describe is not so different as you may think. What has changed, exponentially, is the distance and reach of that desire. No longer content with village gossip about the local manor lord, today's technology-enabled peasant treats the world as stage for them to judge the drama they require. They demand a larger theatre and continuous showings to whet their never-slacking jaded appetites. New characters to deconstruct, new plots to unravel. Who is it who makes this a clown show?

What would you have? Representation? You have it. Perhaps you think you want faceless efficient bureaucrats, neutrally tasking themselves to the business of the public. Where would you look then to judge their actions? From results? Please. I think you can see that the general public only ever measure that from their own lives and couch-seats. Rare is the individual who looks wider with their own eyes, and not through any of the myriad-coloured lenses they demand be provided for them. Give the public bread, and they will complain about the circus. Give them more and better circuses, and they will complain about those, too. Give them reality, and they choose demagogues instead, or go insane in the isolation of their rejection.

So we play a role, often thanklessly, as we always have. As do our peers in industry, media, and all the institutions of your "culture". If we are too responsive to your needs, we are called puppets, if we are not, we are called subverted. You may think we've won, but we can't win. There is no winning with you; we know that. Each day is just another time-slot in your agenda, another projected evil and outrage to embody response to. It depressing, and often we don't even try any more. Trying to keep up with you would drive anyone crazy. We've constructed polling apparatuses, focus groups, institutes of policy analysis, forecasting, coherent messaging because frankly the job is too big for any one person. We respond to them, they respond to you. It is what it is.

Yet you want it different? Okay, go ahead. Live your life differently. No one is stopping you, except from tearing each other apart. You claim to fear totalitarianism, coercion, eroding liberty, but where do those fears manifest in your actual life? In options for personal responsibility that you will not shoulder. Avoiding autonomy has become an art form. Can't handle the mind control and brainwashing? Well, control your mind. Wash your brain, don't depend on us to do so. Grow up. Or enjoy the show! You're paying for it, after all.

Sincerely, and with love,
No One



(ETA: "My dearest Wormwood...")

[Maxmars]

I am delighted that my friend UltraBudgie was able to intercept the response to anonymous letter I posted. 
If through some magic, any of you could convey this response:



Never before in history has no one craved no thing so deeply.

Clearly, I have misunderstood the nature of your tenor in the offices of government. 

I do not fault myself for misapprehending your purpose. 

The nature of your profession is often displayed as serving with honor, under the parameters of a documented and stringent set of controls. Your devotion to the common good is a hallmark of your 'job description.' 

It is never specified that your pursuit of that common good is dependent on political contributions, 'arrangements' for your posterity, financial opportunity for you or by proxy.  In fact, those things are specifically described as outside the parameters of public service.

There is some misunderstanding... with no true oversight or accountability...

Who is it who makes this a clown show?

The producers, the directors, and the actors.  You are an actor.  What you collectively "produce" has no value to the people you are oath-sworn to serve.  You waste time, money, and human lives on the production... for it's own sake.  (That's the "Media" in you.)

What would you have? Representation? You have it.

No, we have party representation.
The people are not the party, and the party is very far from being "the people."
The "party" seems to be 'for sale'... it's members seem tools (some of whom take 'other' oaths to the party itself.)

Perhaps you think you want faceless efficient bureaucrats, neutrally tasking themselves to the business of the public.

In theory, that might be a solution with room for improvement, as opposed to no solution at all.

Where would you look then to judge their actions? From results? Please.

Is your solution that we ask you and your ilk to be judge?  Are you even capable of judgement, given your implicit bias? In your narrative we are all your cattle, no?  The public is comprised of deplorables and illegitimates, needing to be herded and corralled?  And henceforth to be the subject of the carrot and the stick?  Or is it the trope of bread and circus that you have elevated only yourselves above?

Your narrative exposes your cultural bias, your prejudice, and your preference of 'class.'

So we play a role, often thanklessly, as we always have. As do our peers in industry, media, and all the institutions of your "culture".

You needn't be thanked for volunteering to work for the public... you thank yourselves with ample abundance.  Are you harkening for more money?  You and your peers in those industries are quite well appointed to 'change' and 'influence' our culture at every turn... and craft audacious narratives explaining how "it's what the public wants."

If we are too responsive to your needs, we are called puppets, if we are not, we are called subverted.

What you call each other, and why you do it, is not relevant to the service you vowed to perform.   How you've engineered your bubble is your own problem to fix.

You may think we've won, but we can't win. There is no winning with you; we know that. Each day is just another time-slot in your agenda, another projected evil and outrage to embody response to. It depressing, and often we don't even try any more. Trying to keep up with you would drive anyone crazy. We've constructed polling apparatuses, focus groups, institutes of policy analysis, forecasting, coherent messaging because frankly the job is too big for any one person. We respond to them, they respond to you. It is what it is.

Is that a complaint I hear?

"Awww... it's too much to bear.. we can never win... it would dive me crazy..."

This is the vow you took... the promise you made... the task placed before you...  You speak in memery and tropes of the public "unworthiness" to be served, the fear fodder of consequences of a world without your devices and policies... except none of you really "make" policy... that's what representation is... it means your prestigious successes are not yours, they never were...

Except for the media, no one would ever "celebrate" you.  And you began to think like them, talk like them, behave like them, and ultimately become them. 
They don't persuade, they sell...  Now it's all you do too.

We could bloviate about the extremes of human folly all day, in the end your employers want you to serve them as you said you would... stop serving the party...

SCREWTAPE