How's the View from Up Here? Cynical, thank you very much.

How many Californians remember that WE voted for the deregulation of the energy industry? Okay, how many take responsibility for that? It's sort of like leaving your car unlocked. Do we blame the thief or ourselves?

I am just as guilty as the next Californian. I skim propositions. I vote more or less along party lines. I pay little attention to the fine print, so am I a dope for being duped? Well yeah.

I'm 40 years old, and this is what I see. I saw an American public believing the Reagan administration when they spelled out the trickle down theory, despite the evidence of homelessness spreading throughout the country. I saw a report that gee, this country doesn't need to build any more bombs cause we have more than enough, then six months later, witnessed the public hunched over TVs watching the U.S. military drop bomb after bomb. And surprise! We're short on bombs now and we need to budget umpteen billions of dollars to replace those we dropped. But hey, we were there to repulse Iraqi forces gathering on the Saudi border. (Hmm, subsequent Soviet satellite photos showed NO FORCES GATHERING there. What? Bush Sr. could've distorted the truth to sell Desert Storm? *gasp* No way!)

I see an adminstration currently in office, who firmly believes that the American public is at best inattentive with a short attention span, at worst, just plain stupid and apathetic. This administration also believes that in general, mankind is selfish and will only take care of its own. This myopic viewpoint is sustainable simply because the person in charge IS this image.

Beware folks. If we vote this administration back into office, it validates their world view. See, these folks think that all we need is HDTV, satellite radio, Tivo, Xbox and other entertainments delivered right to our doorstep. We need not concern ourselves with other matters nor do we wish to, cause the proof is right there. WE FELL FOR THEIR LIES.

If we fell for it the first time and we fell for it the second time, what are they going to think. That we magically gained sense?

Look, the game isn't a game of winning or losing. The people in charge already won, what do they care about winning or losing? How did they win, you ask? Simple, they won by recognizing the game for what it is: A game of advantage.

What happened to us Californians with the energy rape of a few years ago is that we got taken advantage of on the legal side, then on the practical side. "You guys want to make sure prices on electricity is COMPETITIVE, right?" So we pass the proposition, rather like lemmings. And wow, who'd have thunk that these fierce competitors, would actually team up to fleece the public? Certainly NOT the Californian public.

So, for those of you who don't think the Administration is lying to us, oh excuse me, *ahem* misleading us... be aware that at some point the advantages they're scoring for themselves will skewer us, bit by bit, freedom by freedom, until we're all what they want us to be. Zombies in front of entertainment units.

Filed under Politics & B.S..