The true mental zeitgeist of our age is an epidemic of cynicism. Today the average citizen is joined with the ideological theorist and the regressive elements in government, joined in a single great supposition: "Governance fails. Business-as-usual is toxic. Leadership is suspect. High hopes are thwarted by the need for approval from the irrational masses. Grand vision is mere propaganda."
It reminds me of the old joke about American Republicans: They believe that Government doesn't work and when they get into office... they prove it.
The worst regimes behave precisely as if they believed what the cynics and radicals proclaim -- the system does not and cannot function. It should not function! This viewpoint is a demand. This pervasive Operating System is complicit in the Great Crime. It normalizes the attitude which itself imprisons the change potential within our social mechanisms.
A leader stands before a great crisis, shrugs his shoulders, saying "What can I do? The people will not let me do anything! They system will not let me do anything!" This is the complaint of the progressive and of the cynic. This is the claim with which the fascist seizes control, the excuse offered by the monolithic state. It is the obscene chuckle shared by the regressive members of parliament. They all believe it.
It is the 'bad self esteem' of society. Though it thinks itself pragmatic, diagnostic, progressive, it accepts and reinforces the idea that the entire body of social functions cannot succeed. Is this not equivalent to a doctor examining a patient and saying, "Your brain "leader" says you want to be healed but I just don't see it happening. It's business as usual throughout the rest of your body -- so the only thing I can recommend is a radical dis-engagement with the structure of your body, setting your cells free to reform into cooperative networks... if they can."
And then the body oozes onto the floor...
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