Buffoonery

Let’s get another Political Beef started. I’m not sure how much you stay up to date on the latest political propaganda, but this week, a new book was released by a Bush administration member. I’m not going to talk about the book, or who it was about, or what the man has to say in it. What am I going to write about then you may be asking? Well, here’s the deal. Why do all of these no-name members of Presidential administrations feel the need to “voice” their opinion after the fact of their employment? In the past, I can’t think of any books written as a “tell all” about administrations. Over the last few years however, there are multitudes of them. A memoir here, an investigation there, an in-depth look here, a conspiracy theory in that one, and the list goes on and on. Is there any truth in any of these books? It’s a possibility, but I wouldn’t be looking for a published book for the honest truth.

Personally, I have a problem with all of these books coming to fruition. Number one, they do not solve anything. Well, maybe they do solve something. They make lots of money for both the publisher and the writer. It must be great to be on the New York Times Best Seller List. Number two, the majority of these books all make it look like the writer was the one true honest person amongst the wolves and they were forced to keep their opinions secret for fear of what, being fired? People in these positions are not mindless fools, they are there for a reason and their opinions and thoughts should be readily available to those in power. Why are they there in the first place? Are they nothing more than glad handers living on the coat tails of those who hired them? I should hope not. Number three, these books all seem to come out at “important” times during the political process. They know their window of opportunity is small for such a book and they feed upon the current issues and market their book accordingly. They produce “harmful” information at key moments and hope to utilize the public’s outrage as a marketing tool for both their book and their political stances.

If you noticed above, I said the books “possibly” contained the truth. Yes, it does have the writer’s real name on it. Other than that, the truth of the matter is actually just a matter of opinion or recollection. Is it true just because you think it is? How can it be verified? Do you have recorded conversations, a document trail, or a hard drive of valuable information supporting your “tell all” accounts of what went on inside the administration? So here we are, hearing about book after book coming out through the years with a few basic purposes. The purposes of these books revolve around money first and foremost. If you don’t believe it, believe the price tag on the back of that hardcover. Another purpose of these books involves discrediting people and organizations that are in power. They utilize the current political climate to ignite their sales. They are “using” the public and they are trying to alter your thinking by releasing these books at opportune times. Political orchestrators believe they can alter a vote by media and they are right.

So we end up with this, these books are published for money, power, and political greed. Did you think they were anything different? Were they books that were written to actually try and help the political process? Were they books written to help the country heal from a tragedy? Were they books written to support their so-called friends in the tough decisions that had to be made without 20-20 hindsight? No, they were not and will never be as long as the public and media views these “memoirs” as political gold. The media feeds us the damaging information in hopes of attracting viewers. Cutting edge journalism at its finest isn’t it? The media cannot survive without polarizing issues. They have to have a catalyst to focus upon. We, the public, are not completely innocent. By allowing the media to influence our decisions, we are actually helping them move forward with their agenda.

Did you catch that word agenda? It’s a very big word. These books and the media spotlight on them are the results of a political agenda. The people writing these books are politicians by nature, that’s their job. The contacts they have accrued through the years and the strings they have acquired allow them to create their product and add to the appropriate political agenda. Here’s a simplistic view of how the idea process goes. Member X becomes part of the political administration through both his relationship and his deeds, he’s a trusted confidant. Member X does his job but one day, has something happen that creates an issue in his life. Maybe someone stepped on his toes or didn’t recognize his authority or just flat out made him mad. Now, Member X has begun an internal scoreboard, keeping a personal list of potentially damaging issues for when the time is right. Over time, as Member X sours, his time as a trusted confidant wanes. Member X is either fired or “voluntarily” resigns. Then, a few short months later, the process of a “tell-all” book comes to fruition.

Motives and the agendas they support are at the root. Member X quite possibly started his job with the concepts of helping the country, but in the end, he is helping someone, himself. He is helping his own finances by providing his version of the truth which can NEVER be proven. I have no problem with books being written to provoke new thinking or new action to be taken to make things better. But you cannot just simply write books that have no substantial evidence supporting your claims. The most recent book that came out has claims from the author that even his most trusted friends have never heard. I’m pretty sure that the people closest to me know everything of substantial importance about me and that is similar with other people’s relationships. If there is something of great importance, people tend to talk about it amongst their closest friendships. Anyone can look back in time and make claims about anything. Doing this with a political book is wrong and is the most basic way of serving the needs of an agenda and providing the media a propaganda outlet.

Motives, as stated before are money, power, and political greed. The political orchestrators are actively looking for potential authors to help satisfy their agendas. When there is money to be made, there will always be willing authors. And so the merry go round turns. We will continue to see these books published and we will continue to see the media push them down our throats. Until we focus on the real issues we are faced with, we will continue down this path. The political machines know this and they feed us with information to continually distract us. If we are worrying about the past and “he said, she said” issues, we are not worrying about where our country is going. Focus on the now and the future. Let the past be the past, there are 100 different stories about what was true anyway. Well, maybe 100 plus 1.