As IF Times

Why are such incompetent people elected to public office?  Given the epidemic of incompetence in political regimes worldwide, but especially in the West where supposedly the most advanced democracies exist, we have to wonder; how can the ‘leaders’ be so inept?

There’s an old saying that you elect who you deserve as your political leaders, but is that really true?  Who really elects them?

Taking the case of Canada for an example, it’s not true that the nation decided that out of 40 million people, they collectively concluded that someone like Justin Trudeau is the best qualified person to run the affairs of the nation.  This is not a political view, it’s simply one of logic.  Someone whom has never run a business, nor had any training in management and whose only asset is that his father was once Prime Minister of the country is placed in the role of national leader.

As is the case in the United States, Canada has only two or three political parties that effectively control who people get to vote for. The system has evolved so that elections are like going to Costco. At Costco they only stock limited brands of any particular product. There is no wide selection of any given product unlike in grocery stores or large supermarkets.  Someone in management makes an economic decision to stock Brand A’s product instead of those of other brands. Thus, if you want to buy beans, it’s Brand A…or nothing.

It’s quite the same in politics.  Since there are really only two (at most 3) parties to choose from, the choices are made for the public by a very small cabal of party insiders.  Thus, if you’re part of that cabal, the leverage you have on the rest of the nation is gargantuan.  Logically, if you have enough money at your disposal, you can exert enormous influence simply by leveraging those in the cabal; forget the public. Of course, this is obvious now as corporate interests drive all elections. This process has been in place for decades, but it has becomes more and more refined with each election cycle. The illusion of choice to the public is thus perpetuated even as people become more disillusioned with the process.

Political strategists know that name recognition means much more than actual policies when it comes to voters.  Most will go into a polling booth and be discouraged by the list of names offered and just tick the box for the names or parties they recognize. It’s like buying Heinz ketchup at Costco.  It may not be the best, but you know the name. If we had an election today, Taylor Swift would win an election over almost any qualified candidate based solely on name recognition.  Yes, people are that level of dumb.  A guy like Joe Biden spends his entire career as a politician, elected only because he’s been elected enough times for name recognition, but makes it all the way to the top job while being on the wrong side of every major policy issue in his career….and often on both sides of the same issue.

An even more absurd example is the current mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow.  The mayor’s claim to fame is that her late husband was a national NDP politician and after his passing, the political halo effect was passed on to his wife.  Of course, now with revelations of her ruminating about taxing the rain on property holders as well as her police department advising citizens to keep car keys near their unlocked doors for easier theft, her unsuitability for political office is revealed.  Too late, she’s in.

We’re kind of seeing some of this nonsense in the US. There has been ongoing speculation that the wife of former President Obama, Michele, can somehow be qualified to step into the Presidency.  This is the same illogical mindset that thought Hilary Clinton would be a good second act for Bill.  Or that the Kennedy family has a permanent place in political office. This is the road favored by Monarchists who are able to pass on their reins of power to ensuing generations.  Queen Elizabeth knew this wasn’t a good idea, so she held off passing her reins as long as she could.

The whole idea of living in a society with representative governments is that people who have power and influence reflect the wishes and values of the citizens.  The US at least, was founded on this principle.  Now it seems as if the political winds have shifted back towards the monarchist model where people are considered to be ‘rightfully’ ensconced in power.

In the case of Costco, they have implemented a program of creating their own house labelled products to compete with the name brand products. What’s notable is that these house labelled products are often better and cheaper than the big label brands.  We need the Costco model for politics.  As at Costco, we should be able to return the politicians if not satisfactory.  There definitely has to be a better refund policy.

If you were an alien who just showed up on this planet and took note of the activity among all regions of the globe, you would make some very strange observations.

You would notice that a very large part of the population live in rather mean circumstances, that is to say, with barely adequate housing, marginal sanitary systems and simple, perhaps difficult regimes of food acquisition.  For many in the non-affluent parts of the planet, not having a dirt floor means you have achieved a middle class existence.

A smaller part of the world’s people live in relative affluence with access to shelter, education and mobility considered rightful entitlements. As far as food acquisition, it’s more likely to be a Costco run than setting traps in the tall grass. For the sake of discussion, we can characterize the divide as between East and West, but this labelling refers to political rather than to geographic situation.  There are of course many people living on the margins in the affluent West and there is ample wealth in the non-West.

Perhaps it’s more accurate to characterize the divide as that between the affluent and the poor, for certainly, the majority of the planet can be considered ‘poor’ by the simple yardsticks mentioned earlier.  We use East and West only because most of the looney ideas that drive world events these days emanate from the ‘West’. Woke-ism, Gluten-free-ism, LGBT-ism, CRT-ism, Global Warm-ism, Covid-ism, all creations of the enlightened West.

If you were to peruse the narratives from people living in the privileged part of the planet, you would think that the lives of everyone on earth are threatened with dire existential issues from virtually every quarter.  This is not hyperbole at all.  Just watch TV news for one day and you will conclude that the people for whom the struggles of daily existence are non-issues appear to be constantly on the edge of extinction…at least in their minds. There is a disaster ready to befall mankind every hour, on the hour.  Of course, some of these imminent threats can take decades to happen, if and when they do.  We’re waiting for the asteroid crashing into Earth scare to rear its head.

The astute alien would notice that the high priests of doom are always from the affluent segment of the planet and, despite their doom and gloom messages, live rather well and in direct contrast to the messages they spew.  People buying beachfront properties while warning of sea level rises may be a dead give-away. Someone pays for this and you guessed it, it’s the people who don’t have as much as the high priests and who in fact contribute to their wealth.  The most conspicuous of these hypocritical charlatans are such as Al Gore and John Kerry who have been flying around on jets for years telling the poor people to pay more taxes to save the planet while their own circumstances improve exponentially.  No one seems to notice that the solution to almost all problems is through paying more taxes and fees.

If there’s one person that personifies the mentality of the West, it would be Taylor Swift.  This singer has made her fame and fortune bleating about how bad her experiences with boys have been but meanwhile continuing to produce songs about ‘toxic’ relationships and crying all the way to the bank.  It’s all about them. Many of those who live in affluent nations are hopelessly naïve or just plain narcissistic.  Their sheltered lives have no resonance at all to the vast majority of people on the planet. No one would even care if not for the fact that their delusions influence social policies which makes life miserable for everyone else.  As if using paper straws and bicycles will be of any benefit to the people living in Mogadishu.

Nothing succeeds like success and thus imitators have popped up in other facets of people’s lives as well.  The pharma industry have been carving out their niche now, selling the fear of illness and death to the masses.  We’ve been witness to the terrible destruction this industry can wreak over the past 2 years.  Even while the majority of people on the planet are struggling to even marginally improve their lives, those fortunate ones above them on the ladder of life will find ways to prevent their climb.  Restrictions and prohibitions and drugs for all….you know, to save mankind.

In the entitled nations, there is preposterous discourse about which bathrooms to use, whereas in much of the world, having an outhouse that’s shared by less than 10 people is a luxury.  In the wealthy, educated parts of the world, they have to wrestle with a plethora of new genders that are suddenly available.  Yep, mysteriously, in the rich nations, affluence has produced a bounty of new gender categories while the rest of the world lives with a measly 2.  Wouldn’t you know, the rich nations get more choice again! Funny that through the millennia, with mankind managing to get along with only 2 genders, the appearance of new ones just ballooned in the last 5 years!  What are the odds?

Back to our mythical alien, he (not them, their) would notice that the population in the poorer parts of the planet are striving to improve their life conditions for themselves and their families.  Yet the affluent parts of the globe seemingly pursue every avenue possible to destroy the societies and institutions that they’ve successfully built, pushing their societies headlong into self-destruction. The poor are building and the rich are destroying.  As the famous alien Mr. Spock would say, ‘fascinating…’