The Hyperbole Level

I confess. I do it myself. Engage in hyperbole and polemics, that is. But mixed in there will be a grain of dispassionate truth, at least I hope so. From time to time, anyway.

But as the Debt/Deficit Issue becomes overloaded and quite overripe, the level of hysteria and hyperbole has reached a dissonant crescendo.

We are not about to go over the edge of the cliff, People.

We already went over that edge a long time ago. We hit bottom. Now the survivors, such as they are, are trying to sort out the mess.

As is almost always the case, the High and the Mighty are the ones to sort things out first, and not surprisingly, they are doing so to their own benefit while the rest of us are checking with one another to see who is all right and who needs help, we're fighting with one another for whatever scraps of the past we can salvage from the wreckage, and we're trying to figure out where do we go from here.

Part of the massive level of hyperbole of the moment is the claim that "They're trying to dismantle Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Social Safety Net@!!!!" Hit the phones, people. Sign this petition!!!

Uhh. What? No, they're not trying to "dismantle" the social safety net. It doesn't really do all that much as it is, but they're trying to get you to think they're taking away what little is left, so that you'll fight among yourselves over the remainder. Hello?

Why would they want you to "fight among yourselves?" Simple, the Proles are much easier to control when they're fighting one another for the little bit they're allowed to hold on to, and furthermore, it's much easier to steal what isn't battened down (and a good deal that is) when the Proles are fighting among themselves. Hello?

And it's even better when we're panicked about this or that OUTRAGE!!!!™ being perpetrated (or at least threatened) against us.

We, being herd animals at base, are so easy to panic, after all.

No, they're not "dismantling" the social safety net. What they're doing is a classic case of "squeeze." They're making it harder and harder to access what few protections there are for suffering Humanity, and they're doing their best to take what money there is in Programs (those that haven't already been privatized, don'tchaknow) for themselves.

The Social Safety Net will still be there, it just won't work very well.

But the hype is otherwise; it's all in, all or nothing, this is the End, People! FIGHT!

But fight whom, for what exactly?

Set aside the hype and ponder that question, and maybe an Answer will be forthcoming.

At the moment, the hysteria and hyperbole are preventing any useful Answer from being revealed...