Amerika

One reason that European-descended people have gone insane worldwide is that they are trying to win at the game of democracy.

To win at democracy, a person must appeal to a broad section of people by being both harmless and seeming iconoclastic, different and unique in a way that others want to be.

Perhaps the best example comes from the iconic film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) in which a school secretary reveals the ugly truth of popularity:

Grace: Oh, he’s very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads – they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.

Everyone — no matter what race, caste, class, activity or status — loves Ferris Bueller because he flatters them by projecting the people power myth. In that myth, authority is the problem, and people are good, so all those restrictions just need to go away.

At the same time, Bueller offers something that appeals to everyone. We all want to be different, creative, not following the rules, and gliding through life easily while having an excellent time.

All of our politicians play into this mythos. There has to be a certain amount of bad boy, including hypocrisy, and a sense of having a charmed life. Everyone wants to be Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan.

But at the same time, what we worship is illusion. Just like in the market crash before the Great Depression, everyone in the herd is chasing the dream while ignoring the fact that it comes to very few, and followers get nothing.

Tags: democracy, ferris bueller