Here.

Now, don't get me wrong. I vote in every general election. As far as I can recall, I've never voted for anyone with any enthusiasm. There's something weird and strange about being enthusiastic about a politician. If you're not holding your nose when you're pulling the lever, I have no use for you.

The politician is just like the plumber to me. I call the plumber when the big porcelain bowl won't empty. You all seem to want to sit right in the bowl all day long, every day, and are amazed and angry to discover that others don't want to forego having a well-adjusted, autonomous life and climb right in there with you. Guess what that makes you in the hopper of life. All government is the least worst thing you can make it. If you like the government, don't just tolerate it -- you're daft.

...I read with amusement from time to time a news item that queries the average person about the names of the holders of various political offices. There is always a lot of consternation, masquerading as pity and disgust, about how ill-informed the average person is. The word sheeple gets tossed around.

I have news for you lovers of the political: Normal people shouldn't have much interest in the government. East Germans needed to know all about the government. Free, autonomous people do not. To persons that view politics as a sort of all-encompassing bloodsport, you don't just know the names of various political personages. No, you always have a handy cut-and-paste trove of information archived about them, savaging them or defending them against savagery in any forum you can find that allows dyspeptic diatribes after the information bell is rung. I'd rather live in a country where 99% of the populace couldn't name the third guy from the left in a picture of the Supreme Court, than one filled with a sizable minority that keeps a folder on their virtual desktop filled with nasty tabloid-grade factoids about them.

When average people are required to pay close attention to the government, because the government is the source of all succor or pain in their lives, the country is doomed. No well-adjusted person should be-- or should be required to be-- interested in politics very much.

Come to think of it -- none are.

Ouch.

I'm visualizing a lot of us sitting around on folded chairs near a pot of coffee, sheepishly raising our hands when someone asks if there are any OCPDs in the room...