If you are given a choice, you believe you’ve acted freely. This is one of the darkest of all psychological secrets. This idea of having a two-party system is much like having fifty-two cards using the same three cards.
I transcribed the above quote, by Teller (of Penn and Teller), from a podcast called “Stuff to Blow Your mind.” Oddly enough, despite the name, the podcast is indeed interesting. The one I listened to is about the art of magicology, which is almost entirely based on psychological manipulation of audiences.
It reminded me of the 2000 election where we were given a “choice” of Gore or Bush, with a real choice, Nader. Democrats screamed bloody murder. Why? It probably had to do with the darkest of all secrets, that by limiting us to two (virtually identical) choices, we imagine we are acting freely.
That, then, is the purpose of elections, and why we even have them. I suggest to the reader that if you want to understand our choice in the 2012 election, do not look for differences between Obama and Romney. Look for similarities. It is far more illuminating.
Piece of Mindful 
The game, I would suggest, is globalism. We invented it, invested heavily, and are losing at our own game — if you still believe in soverign nation states, that is. Globalism seems to favor state-run capitalism over what we have here — a corporate-run state. Capture of most all public institutions is near complete. The middle-class is shrinking, and losing net wealth to Wall Street at blazing speed. The rest of the globe is adapting, investing in education and infrastructure for the future as we canibalize what’s left at pawn-shop prices. As the Reagan-era bumper-sticker said: “I’m spending my children’s inheritance.” When comparing Obama and Romney to Reagan, I’m thinking Reagan looks pretty darn good by a mile. It was actually Clinton who took us off the cliff with no parachute.
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If capitalism is failing all over the world and it sure looks to me like it is and you equate capitalism with democracy then both parties must fight to save capitalism. It seems to me this is the context in which this election is being contested. They may have a few tactical differences but for the most part everyone agrees. Both major political parties nurture this system, support serial wars, appeal to the financial elites and debate over the size, scope and timing for further cuts in social welfare.
In his July/August 2010 article “America’s Ruling Class — and the Perils of Revolution” published in the conservative magazine The American Spectator, Angelo Codevilla :
“The leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations and opinion leaders, stretching from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to The Nation magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors’ ‘toxic assets’ was the only alternative to the U.S. economy’s ‘systemic collapse.’ In this, President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many if not most people around them also agreed upon the eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars. In fact, Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a similar presumption to dominate and have fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of income among one another than between both and the rest of the country. They think, look, and act as a class.”
Enjoy your class democracy.
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Codevilla is what I regard as a serious scholar, someone that I disagree with but who is so formidable he has to be taken seriously. He can change a person’s mind, like it or not.
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Teller is also a good shot.
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