Our lords and masters and tools

At the moment it appears that Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin(R-Teabag)has pretty much stepped into the hornet's nest. He's been governor of the state for less than two months now and the whole place is at a standstill -- statehouse circuses galore, and so forth. Further, he was caught sucking his master's Koch, not even recognizing his master's voice (to be fair, it's easy to fake having a cold or something as your excuse for not sounding the same as "your" last call). He has, in short, done a lot of very stupid things that have backfired badly on him and... why?

I'll tell you a secret, one that is well known amongst certain circles but not widely known outside them: The majority of our lords and masters, and the tools they accumulate to do their dirty work, are, to put it bluntly, not the sharpest tools in the toolshed. They've never had to be. They've never had to figure out how they were going to get their next meal -- they had their every need catered to from early on. They've never had to figure out how they were going to pay the rent because they spent the rent money fixing the car so they could go to work to pay the rent, because they've always had more money than they need for their every need or want.

In short, they're DUMB. There's exceptions, certainly -- generally the ones who came up from humble beginnings and did it all on their own -- but when you see people like David and Charles Koch who've never had to work a day in their lives because they inherited millions, you can pretty much bet that they're dumb. Not because they're genetically stupid -- but, rather, because they've never had any reason to exercise that gray matter, given that anything they could ever want is at their fingertips anytime they want it.

So what are they doing with this exercise in venality that is the Koch-funded Teabagger conquest of Wisconsin and other governor's offices? Well, simple. Being dumb doesn't make you good. They have lots. They want more. They want more just because. Because they can. Because they like it. Sometimes they might profess belief in some Libertarian philosophy that excuses their behavior, and claim "greed is good". But it's all an excuse, in the end -- an excuse for them to do what they would do anyhow, Libertarian philosophy or not, simply because that's their nature.

And let's not underestimate just how crafty they can be in this project. They aren't the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, but neither is a coyote, and a coyote can still manage to evade most traps that human beings put out for them. You don't have to be smart to be vicious -- just mean and crafty.

So if you want to hold out any hope for our country, it's the fact that our lords and masters and tools aren't very sharp. But then you realize that neither are most Americans, and...

-- Badtux the Too-smart Penguin