Vaclav Havel, playwright, poet, and the first President of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003, said of Czechoslovakia under Soviet rule that it was “a world of appearances trying to pass for reality.”
When I heard that today, I had to pull over beside the road and write it down. It is a description of present-day United States. We keep hearing about our democracy, but we know that a few oligarchs like the Koch Brothers can swing elections, we know that U.S. Senators like Toomey don’t care a fig about democratic values, we know that although a majority of people support gun safety legislation, the NRA keeps Congress in fear.
Yesterday our intelligence agencies warned us that the Russians, flush from their success in skewing the 2016 elections, are planning to do it all over again in the midterms. Instead of worrying about that, many legislators are doing their best to suppress votes, gerrymander districts, and cater to lobbyists. We live in a world of appearances trying to pass for reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment