Shut Up And Listen 168

Notes From The Underground

Do you always do what's best for you? What's for the greater good? What fits into what will ultimately benefit you the most? Well, do you?

I'd bet anything that you don't. That often, you know what will be better for you, but you choose to ignore it because . . . well, because you just don't want to do it. Like when it comes to eating healthy. You know, I know, every person out there knows exactly what we should all be eating to stay healthy, trim and fit. But how many of us eat like that?

"Ah, but what about other considerations besides health, like taste and desire?" you ask.

A fair point. All that does is raise the larger of question, do we even know what's best for us? Are we capable of judging such a thing? What is more important: taste and desire or health? Is one even more objectively important? Quality or quantity? Who is fit to judge such things?

I will tell you who thinks they are, and they are the politicians. It is election time here in Canada and the politicos are out in numbers, all clawing and fighting for their chance to let you know that they know what's best for you. Oh yes, they know what's best for you and they're just itching to tell you. Do you want to know what's best for you? I may not be them, but I do know what they'd tell you and am willing to pass along such information. Are you ready for it? Ready for the answer above all answers?

What's best for you? Why, they are, of course.

That's the game, my friends. It is said politics is the art of controlling your environment, and exercising total control as such means that you know what's best ultimately. Look at our political system, it's not direct democracy, it's representative democracy. That means we don't actually get to make decisions, no, we pick others to make decisions on our behalf. We are telling these people we elect that, yes, they do know what's best for us.

That said, who's best for Canada? Who is the man (I would say "or woman" but none of the major parties have a woman leader this time around) that knows what's best for all Canadians and deserves to be in charge? Well, I've taken a good, hard look at all of them and I've come to the conclusion that we are fucked. That's right, fucked. They all suck and none of them are worth following at all.

There's Paul Martin, the Liberal candidate and current Prime Minister. He's a pompous, narcissistic asshole who is in the Liberal Party just because his daddy was and wants to be Prime Minister just to be Prime Minister. His actual beliefs lean far enough to the right that he should be a conservative and when he was finance minister, billions of dollars were basically stolen from the taxpayers, so he's either corrupt or incompetent.

Then there's Stephen Harper, the leader of the new Conservative Party of Canada. At a rally of his earlier this week, a gay protestor was hit with signs and punched in the face. Harper was behind the move last fall for parliament to pass a bill that reaffirms the traditional definition of marriage that excludes same sex couples. Though, now, he would like you to know that people aren't interested in what his views on that are. Now he's happy to tell you how he's going to decrease taxes while increasing taxes. We all know that works very well.

And finally, we've got Jack Layton, the leader of the NDP. He's a total media whore who never really says anything. His strategy seems to actually make he NDP a viable party by copying the Liberals and moving closer to the centre rather than capitalizing on the fact that there's a good chance the Liberals will form a minority government, thus forcing them to make an alliance with the NDP. Also, every time I see the guy on TV or in quotes, he's just tearing down others and never building up the NDP. And fuck, he's the closest thing I can see myself voting for.

Each of these men say they are what is best for Canada and Canadians. That's bullshit, okay? Don't trust people who say they know what's best for you and are actively seeking a position where they can act like they do. Although, I can take solace in that most of their initiatives are relatively the same, so it doesn't really matter which one wins, because we're going to have the same shit happen anyways. Maybe they do know what's best for us. I just wish there was a way we could choose not to do what's best for us.