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Rational apathy

By Owen Paine on Friday September 29, 2006 12:22 PM

In my unending quest for higher, bigger, longer-lasting social verities, I was reading a pamphlet by the late Mancur Olson on Sweden and its robust welfare state (unfortunately, no pictures of the population at their leisure). There I stumbled over his use (and clever abuse) of the naughty anti-hoi-pollity notion of mass rational ignorance among the electorate. I.e.: it doesn't make sense to get informed about what your gubmint is really up to, when the rational expected benefit to you and yours is less than the cost in time and effort of its acquisition.

Well, it got me to thinking about Father Smiff's hobbyhorse: rational indifference. You get my drift. Orthrian politics, as much as anything else, is the politics of apathy enhancement. As J Alva might say, "no real choice, no real whoop."

And so, just 'cause I'm dry as a Tunisian creek in August right now, I thought I'd say, this Bud's for you, gang -- you in the rational majority: not kinky enough to see it all as monstrous great sport, like me and my blood brother the late Hunter T of Louisville (or is it Lexington), Kenturkey.

Your rational -- no, brilliantly rational -- indifference to the "issues" pending and the "stakes" on the table is a tribute to your good sense. I suspect that but for those innate moral sentiments essential to a troop ape, still strong in most of us, we'd all pass up the voting booth, like we'd pass up jury duty if it weren't compulsory. Something in about 45% of us keeps hope and solidarity alive, among us jobstrapped and abused millions.

I say break the habit. Drop out. What if they held a national election and only the ownership class, I mean the real ownership class, showed up? And now I'm at it, here's one for you, too -- this one a f...ing Diet Coke -- you, the propellerheads and forked-tongue worshipers that can get so into this pending ballot-box battle in November. May God rip you a new asshole.

By the way: my domestic partner -- who makes a nice living -- watches Dancing by the Stars. (Or is it with, or under, the stars?) At any rate, somehow she can root for the white hats of politics too. Not with the energy she expends over the latest scores for this coal haired Latin loopio she fancies on Dancing Through the Zodiac, but enough to be, well, irrational.

Then again, there are those Red Sox....

Comments (15)

bobw:

I finally get it! The domestic partner factor.
A blogger's political position is inversely proportional to his domestic partner's. (I say "his" because I think this only works for men.)
In my own case, the domestic partner is so far to the left in the conspiracy world that virtually every contemporary ill is evidence of a single network of evil. The stress of standing upright in this giant emotional grativational field forces me subtly back to the center in my political views -- "oh, come on, it's not just Bush, it's the system"; "you have to take the long view"; "they're not reading your posts on HuffPo. . even I dont have time for that." -- etc.
From this theory, I deduce that J Alva's domestic partner also watches Reality tv, or maybe even Minnesota football. God bless 'em, all domestic partners, they keep us for going over the edge.

J. Alva Scruggs:

I've lost interest in the dichotomy from hell from a consumer standpoint. I've actually gained interest in policy itself since then. You can watch people breaking the country and ponceing about only so much before you start looking for ways to fix things up. That's the other side of the rational apathy.

js paine:

j alva
what an imp
what a smartster

always gotta be one step ahead .....

just when father smiff
is about
to get zillions of donk thrawls
to opt for rational apathy
and force the orthrian blanket toss
into a credibility crisis

you gotta rekindle
the pikers hopes
for a better set of mouse traps

sadism has no lower bound
with u wealth bondables

J. Alva Scruggs:

Two divorces, Mr. Paine, and my one true love, my belovéd Jezebel, gone to her grave. Life is unkind and I, less so. When my Pandora's box is open, my pet wolverine comes snarling forth. Hungry! I suspect this confirms bobw's hypothesis, by the way.

js paine:

notice the slow drift towards charles addams in the alva males chitter

its a sign we're homing in on his secrets

Rowan:

And what of we single youngster types? Does that set me up to be politically unbalanced?

I love mr_xeno with all my heart. He posts on Daily Kos. Daily.

Enough said. :(

js paine:

rowan we'll eat you first

bobw:

Wow, what a silly thread! Who started this mess? JAS -- pardon me, I was only using you as an example of a strongly opinioned person. Rowan, you may say that about yourself, but I couldnt possibly comment! (favorite phrase of the arch-villain in the British tv political drama, House of Cards.)

I think the show you're thinking of is "Dancing With The Stars" -- or, as I like to call it after having seen the network promos, "Pantomime Fucking With The Stars".

But, seriously, folks.

Sam Smith, who writes the Progressive Review columns, tells an interesting story of an old Russian dissident he knew who showed up at another dissident friend's house and noticed copies of Pravda around the place; when asked, said friend replied that it wasn't just that he was reading Pravda, but that he "knew how to read Pravda".

The nature of my Dear Wife's work in enviro policy means she has to spend a lot of time "reading Pravda" (the term I've come to use to take in the entirety of corporate/establishment US media) to try and glean a few shreds of a clue about what's really going on, and the DW really is exceptionally good at reading Pravda, so I try not to get on her case too much about it -- except when I come down from the studio to bed to find that she's fallen asleep with Chris Matthews yelling in her face (is there not a single one of these talking-head commentators' shows left where they don't friggin' yell out of the set at you?).

One thing I did give the DW some grief about, though, was her seemingly irrational ecstasy over the release of the Al Gore cinematic PowerPoint presentation about Global Warming. This DW is normally a solid, clear-thinking woman -- a founding member of the DC Statehood Party (now the Statehood Greens), no less -- but put Al Gore in front of her, and she turns back into a sixteen year-old version of herself, waiting outside the Ed Sullivan theatre waving a Magic Marker and a copy of "Please Please Me" and shrieking "Paul! PAUULLLL!"

js paine:

iron mike:

so the DW
went
from paul to al ???

wrong beatle then

wrong beetle now

So am I the only left-leaning hetero female in America that doesn't melt at very the mention of Al Gore's name ? Well, that's all right. I don't care for George Clooney, either.

js paine:

ms xeno asks :

"So am I the only left-leaning hetero female in America that doesn't melt
at the very mention of Al Gore's name ??? "

what ???

rad gal
matinee idle ???

Al ????

now i know i'm living with absurdity
all around me these days
but he couldn't win a hunk contest even if youy restricted it
to undertakers

Don't blame me, jsp. My writing may not be too coherent at this hour. Still, I don't make the liberal blogland news. I only report it, and it's obvious from even a quick round trip that scores of its residents are practically salivating at the thought of Al bringing out his carrot and stick kit to use on them all over again.

I don't blame the ones who were too young to witness his pathetic tenure the first time out. It's harder when dealing with witnesses my own age to avoid visions of grabbing them by the collar and shaking them really hard until their tiny brains finally roll into a position where they might do the world some good.

js paine:

mzzz xeno
if it exists

i 'd attribute it to
a braod based yurning
for a man on a green donkey

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