Stooge

We recently published an essay entitled – “Victimhood.”

That particular post was rattling around for many years and it seemed to be an appropriate time for release given the well embedded American cultural shift from responsibility to victimhood.

One thing we usually do when preparing an essay for release is check out spelling and definitions and other such dreary necessities to avoid obvious errors.  In other words, we try to avoid doing something that would make us look stupid – relying instead on our presentation of the subject matter of the essay to fulfill that mission.

We looked up the dictionary definition of “victim.”  The first category was crime victims described as “a person harmed, injured, or killed as a result of a crime, accident, or other event or action.”  We  were not writing about that form of victim. 

The second category read as followed:  “a person who is tricked or duped.”  Actually this category didn’t fit either because our version of victimhood had to do with those who willingly and knowingly pursue the path of victimhood – no trickery or duping required.  But we read a bit further and found the list of synonyms – a synonym is a word which has the same meaning or closely matches the definition of the subject word.  Here are the synonyms for “victim:”

loser, prey, stooge, dupe, sucker, quarry, fool, fall guy, chump 

Every time Mr. Obama makes one of his vote buying pitches; be it women’s health matters or immigration concessions or raise the minimum wage or extend unemployment benefits or paid leave for parents or spread the wealth around or let the women hire lawyers and file lawsuits if they feel they have been paid less than men – the list of vote buying schemes coming from this one man has been endlessly inventive for over five years now – every time he tries to buy the votes at the expense of America taxpayers he does this one thing – he gathers a stage full of stooges around him, mostly behind him and makes his pitch. And the stooges stand there and smile and nod and applaud and carry on as if they were paid extras in some Hollywood performance who were told when to smile; when to frown (always after a reference to republicans); when to clap; when to appear serious.

Governance is not a Hollywood show – it should not be about vote buying – it is not about rounding up a stage full of stooges to add some fake theatrical drama to one more expensive giveaway program that can be bandied about as if it were a momentous occasion of accomplishment and progress.

We wonder if this act of stacking the audience with stooges; let’s just call it stooging, is an outgrowth of our propaganda culture and governance?  We know that the human condition can descend to low reaches – just watch the manipulation of an audience at a Jerry Springer or Maury Povich show (no we don’t mean watch all 60 minutes; two or three will suffice.)  We also know that American education now shuts out most debate and opposing viewpoints (student stooging.)  We also know that horrible consequences have come out of a governing political party that moves its masses to believe their victimhood is the consequence of someone or some group.

Using stooges to fake leadership is a sorry substitute for direction – for discipline – for priority setting – for growth and improvement.  And it often has dire consequences.  It's also indicative of a weak leader who knows he needs props to support his weak plans, proposals and ideas.