It's Thursday, so it's time
for my
my weekly random question...
So, I was perusing Facebook like I do from time to time, and one of my friends linked to this:
(Yeah, it's a bit long. I'll wait...)
This stuff is important, but that's not why I'm posting it. (I hope you saw it somewhere else by now. If not, you really should take a look.) You may have noticed that it's Thursday. And it's time for one of my questions. This one comes from the video.
John Oliver said (and I'm paraphrasing): If you want to do something evil, make sure to bury it in something boring.
And that got me thinking.
What if politicians made government boring precisely so that we wouldn't pay attention? (Then again, this might already be true.)
Thursday, June 19, 2014
11 comments:
I appreciate your comments.
I respond to comments* via email, unless your profile email is not enabled. Then, I'll reply in the comment thread. Eventually. Probably.
*Exception: I do not respond to "what if?" comments, but I do read them all. Those questions are open to your interpretation, and I don't wish to limit your imagination by what I thought the question was supposed to be.
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I watched John Oliver when he was on The Daily Show and he's so talented. I'm glad he's taken his talents to his own show and making a difference. I get a little depressed when I watch The Daily Show--our politicians do the craziest things and there's nothing we can do about it.
ReplyDeleteWe can do more than we think. I think they try to make us think we can't do anything, but if we band together about something we feel is important, nothing can stop us. It's just we're so easily distracted...
DeleteYeah, I'm assuming that's how it already works. Congress has a ten percent approval rating, yet they all keep getting reelected. That's the only explanation that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI'm guilty of tuning out when it's so technical or boring or so full of legal jargon that I can't figure it out. I am always glad when someone can bring things like this to light and entertain me AND give me something I can do about it. (love Ronan Farrow for that too) Thanks for sharing this info.
ReplyDeleteI think as a society we're kind of spoiled that way.
DeleteGovernment ISN'T boring. It just seems that way. I agree that it seems more entertaining to see what Kim and Kanye are doing, or watch football, or Episode VII, or whatever.
ReplyDeleteBut that's because people don't understand what government does. If people understood that in the past week the government continued the process of making the Internet more like your cable company and less like your cell phone, while at the same time rewarding a company for making books MORE expensive, while also committing us to a new part of a war that we caused and hasn't yet ended,
... well, they probably STILL wouldn't pay attention. I don't know why that is. People don't want to pay attention. If you had John Boehner and Elizabeth Warren marrying in France and Gwyneth Paltrow started talking about net neutrality, "People" magazine would have Boehner/Warren on the cover.
I don't think we can blame government for our refusal to pay attention to what the government is doing.
Good question, though.
It's one of those things that we have to kind of make ourselves get into, and once we do, we're present. Some people just don't try.
DeleteMy entire family is very politically minded and love a good argument while I sit in the corner like a dumb cluck with not the slightest bit of interest. I know I should pay more attention but it's so dry and boring to me.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple TV commentators that can make some of this interesting. When I have time, I watch them.
DeleteThat's an interesting question. But first before I answer it because I'll forget this if I don't say it first, I don't know why I sometimes don't get notice of your blog entries until a day later. I do the Google Dashboard system and this is the second time I didn't get your entry until a day later. Weird.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm not politically minded, my husband is so I let him keep track of all that stuff politically and the just ask him questions if something seems interesting. I don't find it boring, just not interested in it. Does that make sense?
betty
I think this is their motto! They want us to be bored so we never know what they are truly up to
ReplyDelete