Voting For Evil With A Mask On

Confronting power, really confronting it, gets messy. Power doesn’t want such a confrontation, but it doesn’t run away from it either. It would prefer to remain in the shadows like a vampire, or to appear as a good and beloved citizen that only wants what’s best for others, like a child molester. Truth be told, the powerless aren’t real thrilled about confronting power either. Therefore, power wears a mask of kindliness and concern for others, pretending as though it bore the troubles of the world upon its back rather than forcing the world to carry their weight upon its back. And the powerless, provided they are not directly and brutally forced to carry too much of the burden, tend to gripe and do nothing. They sometimes question what lies behind the mask worn by power, but more or less they have come to accept the mask for the reality.

Power is always making promises to the powerless it never intends to keep. It doesn’t matter that the powerless are eternally disappointed, they live on dreams. So long as it is some other sap who is getting it in the shorts, they can participate in the illusion. Whether it be dead Palestinian children or people in the black community who keep getting shot for being black, they help perpetuate the illusion by expressing concern about the people who are dying at the hands of power. They pretend they want to do something for them and that masked power would…