Must it be Always the Same Song?

"Should we have one politician who thinks not of his future, but thinks of his morals, it would be the largest cataclysm to reach any government, and we would long after remember it as the greatest thing ever."

~ Codex Anima

I will, and have on frequent occasion, conceded that I don't like many politicians. It's not that they lie about everything, or that they make campaign promises that never get fulfilled. It's because of the reason they do these things that I generally dislike them: survival.

Now, let me explain, as a politician once put it to me. A person goes into politics because they see a system that needs to be changed, or because they see things in their country which they believe can be changed for the better, only to find out that none of the politicians who represent them are willing to sign on with their ideals. (This is a hypothetical scenario only intended to represent a percentage of those of good quality in political office - the rest of them are Conservatives.)

So, they beat the campaign trails, they make their enheartened speeches about what they see wrong, and how they intend to change it. Then what happens next but the damn fool gets elected. He gets to Ottawa / Washington, DC / London / et cetera, only to find the reason no ideas he put forward made it anywhere. Every politician has their own agendas, which they frequently sell parts of, either by casting out their campaign promises, or by voting for/against certain agendas of other politicians, in order to accrue those critical votes to get their One Big Idea through with at least 30% of it still intact.

And more often than not, their One Big Idea still gets beat down, or never comes up for vote before they're forced out of office for not fulfilling their campaign promises. (You notice how so many politicians plunge daggers into each other over campaign promises broken?) So their great plans to benefit society are laid to waste simply because other politicians tell them they need to be enticed.

Then there's the lobbyists, the backroom cloak-and-dagger types who whisper in the ears of politicians to get what their corporations want in return for massive campaign contributions, or perhaps positions on their Board of Directors when they leave public office. Brian Mulroney himself sits on the Board of Directors for seven major corporations, which by my research is a record for any Canadian politician. These lobbyists come from places such as the pharmaceutical companies, the modern-day oil barons, and many other such places. And the politicians listen, and vote the way the corporations want them to. (And you say corporations don't run the world?)

But just today, I saw something, a glimmering beam of hope shining from the one place I never expected to see it: the United States Congress. Of course, it came from a Democrat - would you expect anything else? John Boccieri (D-Ohio) stood before the cameras of CNN today regarding President Obama's 'Health Care Reform' while standing shoulder-to-shoulder with three of his constituents who have been denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. He told the cameras on live television that, while it would most likely be political suicide to do so, he will be voting for the bill to pass.

Not his exact words, granted, but close enough. An American politician, even a Democrat, stating that he was going to gamble his political career on something that would be of benefit not just to his constituents, but to the country as a whole. In all my life, I have never heard a politician openly say he was going to vote a certain way simply because his own ethics demanded it so. To be quite honest, I thought I was dreaming at first. Then I accidentally dropped my cigarette on the back of my hand.

All I can really say beyond this point is that I sincerely hope, for the sake of those he represents, that he survives the next election, and keeps his morals with him. Who knows, the type of future we all so desperately hope politicians can bring just started on CNN today.

But I still kind of doubt it.

Memories of Swine Gone By...

"And if you're not going to have a clear health threat, you don't want to panic people."

~ William Scranton

From the latest figures released thus far, 'Swine flu has claimed at least 16,173 people around the world since it was uncovered,' according to the World Health Organization. (AFP, 13 March 2010) This came less than a year after CNN reported 'thousands of flu-related deaths since January' 2009. Those were all the dreaded H1N1 as well, right? Wrong. Those deaths were your standard, run-of-the-mill influenza that makes its rounds every year.

Now, you ask, 'What's the sense in pointing that out to us?' To this, I am forced to answer, 'To add perspective.' And it's true - from everything I've seen thus far, the major global killing threat swine flu was destined to become by God Himself has yet to materialize, and there is already evidence to suggest that we're already through the second wave of contagion.

This should certainly stand as a lesson to all: history repeats. Quite out of left field on that one, aren't I? Very well, let me set the stage. It's 1976: the would-be assassin of then-President Gerald Ford is sentenced to life in prison; Palestine has been allowed to speak at a debate in the United Nations - but not vote; the world's first supersonic passenger jet, the Concorde, saw its first commercial flight; and, NBC has just introduced its new logo. That's just in January alone.

19 January also saw the first emergence of H1N1, which was predicted to take the world by storm and end all mankind as we know it, at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Vaccination programs are launched across the United States as quickly as it can be managed, one of the largest ever to date. The flu burned itself out in 21 days, having never left Fort Dix, with the vaccinations having had no effect to stem its spread - because it hadn't spread far enough.

History now knows it as the Swine Flu Fiasco, because the flu only killed 13 people. The more ominous thing about the flu was the vaccine itself, which killed 25 and caused five hundred cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, an extremely rare (2 out of 100,000 people) medical condition which causes ascending paralysis, usually causing death when the paralysis reaches the diaphragm. That's right - it causes you to suffocate if left untreated. Nice vaccine, eh?

The point I'm making is this: just because a major outbreak of some 'dangerously infectious and highly lethal disease' is anticipated to roll through like Captain Trips (see Stephen King's 'The Stand' for this reference) doesn't mean you need to pack up on canned foods, get every inoculation medical science has to offer, and hermetically seal your apartment for the next 250,000 years. Mass panic and mob mentalities have probably killed more people than bubonic plague in the last thousand years.