And Now for Something Completely Different...

My younger son and I have been watching an inordinate amount of Monty Python's Flying Circus in the past few weeks. Thank you Netflix! We watch, we laugh, we wonder at the crassness that was allowed on broadcast television in the early 70s. We often comment on the utter absurdity of the goings-on in each episode and marvel at how the comedy troop was able to weave the intricate tapestry of the surreal into each episode. It seems that some days we've stepped right into this realm of the absurd. The biggest problem, beyond singing Vikings and falling multi-ton weights, is that it just isn't funny in real life. Each day it feels that we are in for something completely different. And not in a good way.

Today hasn't been any different as we've taken another giant step into the absurd. The reports of potentially explosive devices being sent to prominent Democrats as well as George Soros and the CNN New York headquarters is surreal. What’s even more surreal are the rabid right-wing, Trump supporters who have jumped on these happenings as nothing more than a cynical false flag operation to divert attention away from the fact that Democrats fear losing the mid-terms despite funding the caravan steadily approaching the U.S. southern border so sent these “bombs” as a diversion.

If we’re playing the “Let’s come up with crazy conspiracy theories” game, how about this one? That this was an operation by Trump supporters at the behest of the newly self-dubbed Nationalist in order to sow even more chaos in an attempt to give himself cover to suspend the upcoming mid-term elections to avert a feared Democrat takeover of Congress? It sounds pretty good, right?

Here’s another one: Bernie Sanders personally traveled to each of these locations and planted the bombs in order to cause the right wing/alt-right to create their conspiracy theories in order to discredit the Democrats who “stole” the election from him in 2016.

How about the Saudi crown prince attempting to cover up the first cover up of the assassination in Turkey? Mr. Trump made it pretty clear that the initial cover up was “the worst cover up in history.” This was from someone who knows cover ups well. The Saudis have to get the Khashoggi story off the front pages of the newspapers and out of the broadcast news cycle. What better way than to create a stir in the U.S.?

This is all ludicrous. The sending of the suspicious packages, everybody trying to concoct their own conspiracy theories that fit their particular agenda, the fact that no matter what is turned up in the course of an extensive investigation, a large number of people won’t believe the facts. Regardless of the origin of these packages—do we even know if they were viable explosive devices yet?—people are only going to believe what they want.

I think that this is one of the most bizarro things, as well as the most depressing, about our current national situation. How can we ever mend the widening fractures in our society when we can’t even step back when potential bombs are being sent via the mail to national leaders and say “This isn’t right. Things must change.” Instead, there are those who applaud and cheer or peddle ridiculous conspiracy theories. I’ve even read unenlightened comments wishing that the suspected devices had all exploded, killing their intended targets.

This is the United States. This is not how we do things. At least it wasn’t how we’ve done things in the past. I guess it’s what we’ve morphed into as our diverging views and positions are continually stoked to white hot levels by the media, two political parties are doing whatever they can to hold on to the current duopolistic status quo and a corporate class is laughing all the way to the bank. Surreal, I tell you.