Some Basic Rules

I thought that having some rules for how a game should be played is pretty much a prerequisite to the existence of the game. Those rules maintain order and establish a framework for civil competition.

If the rules are poorly administered, we lose our shit on the referee, umpire, line judge or whatever other title the rule enforcers choose to adopt. Without the rules properly enforced, a team can steal a game or a politician can steal an election, and the resulting injustice invite reactions ranging from an instigating penalty to a revolution.

Unfortunately the basic rules are mostly unspoken, and as such are both unenforceable and as Mr. Trumps behaviour would suggest, optional.

The unspoken basics are comprised of trivial shit like honor, truth, civility and maybe some recognition of hypocrisy. Prior to the times of Trump those basics I mentioned were generally accepted as necessary attributes to aspire to public office or to any role that demanded leadership.

Or maybe not.

Maybe the evidence has always been in front of me but I’ve been lulled into a state of ignorance from the barrage of fair play, social justice, parity, equality, and general Canadianism that I’ve been exposed to for the last few decades? Maybe this unspoken rule that our leaders are supposed to be saintly and wise isn’t probable or effective?

The more I think about it the more I’m believing that you can in fact be a pussy grabbing, lying, cheating, conniving, racist, world class douche bag and still lead.

Donnie doesn’t even come close to the biggest prick at the party though. Not now and not historically. Maybe the emergence of right wing douchebaggery is the wisdom of the herd at work. Maybe we’ve reached this collective and unspoken conclusion that to deal with the rest of the pricks we have to appoint a prick to lead us too?

Consider that democracy in competition with autocracy has always been disadvantaged. We pride ourselves on our adoration of rule of law and a good chunk the rest of the world thinks we’re fucking crazy. Russia, china, Pakistan, Iran, Vietnam, the Philippines, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and any country in Africa or the rest of Asia is laughing their ass off at our naïve ideas that religion should be separated from the state or that individual freedom is paramount.

So, maybe the collective consciousness of North America has concluded that free enterprise and free elections and freedom of choice and speech are not something the rest of the world even conceptualises, never mind aspires to. Maybe the herd feels collectively threatened and talk of social justice and freedom has become secondary to making the threat disappear.

Maybe the herd has decided that the majority of the rest of the world are self serving assholes and the only effective counter measure is to appoint our own assholes.

Or maybe we’ve always had assholes in charge but were never in a situation where their assholedness was instantly available for us to see.

Einstein was a brilliant asshole in terms of todays standards. He banged his cousin and knocked her up and then left his wife.

Jefferson in writing said that he believed black people sweated urine. Sounds kind of assholy.

Gandhi liked to sleep with his underage nieces and believed that semen had healing powers.

Thomas Edison was a thief of intellectual property long before we started accusing China of the same behaviour. And yeah, he electrocuted an elephant once.

Christopher Columbus captured native women and children and sold them as sex slaves to his men. Sometimes to break up the monotony of pedosalia, he hunted the natives and fed their bodies to his dogs. And rumor has it that his crew delivered syphilis back to Europe.

John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition act back in the day and Trump would love a similar document if he had a fucking clue that it existed. The act made it illegal to criticize the government in case Donnie’s wondering.

Feel like hating on some Jews? Then buy a Ford because Henry hated them almost as much as Hitler.

And the list goes on and on and fucking on.

I still maintain that there’s a leader out there that can be firm and still operate with some honor. But, it’s difficult to find that person. I think that once you get the leader job that you quickly become jaded to lofty principles, assuming that you weren’t prepared for the job by being pre-jaded.

But we’ve got to keep looking for those people regardless of how hard they are to find. In the interim I may grudgingly accept that we need an asshole to counter the rest of the leader assholes. But, wouldn’t it be refreshing if we manage to locate an asshole that isn’t a stupid asshole?

That would be good I think. Maybe only nominally, but if I have to accept an asshole I would prefer a smart one. Not a smart ass but a clever intellectual asshole.