Theater of the Absurd

K A B U K I : The figures in the foreground remain motionless. When action is reqquired, the sets and props and the characters are moved about the stage by black-clad eminences of great power and grace. Many of the dramas have very martial, bellicose themes, but the fighting characters stand in one place on platforms, and are moved around by "unseen" forces.

You're not supposed not to notice that you're not supposed to notice them.

Obama and the corpoRats are conducting a ritual performance of many similar attributes. His criticisms are poetically acute and pointed. The seem to reflect the vernacular of the 'left' which is (justifiably, if probably futilely) hyper-critical of the CorpoRat dominance of the machineries of the State. He wields a rhetorical flaming sword.

Meanwhile, his corpoRat 'refutiators' are obvious and bombastic. Caricatures, almost: slick/oily, like the corpoRat litigators they all are. They assail him as "hostile," and "unfriendly to business," and other affronts and disgraces.

It's a show, a political rhetorical exercise about as meaningful in a real sense as kabuki, or a passion play: a ritualized, instructive, didactic drama. Because the obvious, but elided truth of the whole drama is that the the deed is done. The deal is done gone DOWN! St. Barry didn't issue any threats, didn't throw down the glove in his "criticism"; he gave us a summary,--mayhap a running commentary--describing only what was already the case...

Orale!

From any kind of an a-partisan, interstellar anthropologist stand-point, his signal accomplishments so far--HCR and FRR--upon closer examination appear mainly to have been aimed at reifying and strengthening the status quo, while sweetening the deal with some cosmetic/symbolic attachments. Both initiatives bear exactly the same spoor.

The C'Rats don't have ANYTHING to fear from St. Barry. Think about it: The market (which is for chumps anyway) is volatile, but corpoRat profits (where the REAL money is) are WAAAAAY up. They're coining money off reduced labor costs occasioned by the recession they caused, and by not hiring; personnel is the biggest chunk of ALL corpoRat expenses.

St. Barry knows, as does anyone with more intelligence than a bivalve, that it's too late for anything but rhetorical brickbats; so he's tossing red meat to the faithful, showing he RILLY RILLY IS one of US!!! The C'Rats gotta respond the way they do to make St. Barry look brave.

Why? Cuz it sustains the national fantasy, without which they'd have to resort more to overt means... which are soooo messy.

Weekly Address: No Corporate Takeover of Our Democracy from The White House on Vimeo.