Got the Smoke. Where Are the Mirrors?

This photo recording the lovely chaos underway in the Ukrainian parliament illustrates more than the obvious.

The state is a deceptive enterprise which makes use of the magician’s smoke and mirrors method of deception, using various tricks of the trade to create a false reality. The “smoke” is used to obscure the truth, while “mirrors" refers to the propaganda, political discourse, and spin used to embellish the state’s version of the truth. Politics is nothing more than a theatrical veneer, artfully hiding or disguising the underlying chicanery of a predatory beast.

Journalist Jimmy Breslin, in his Notes from Impeachment Summer, 1975, writes:

"All political power is primarily an illusion... Mirrors and blue smoke, beautiful blue smoke rolling over the surface of highly polished mirrors... If somebody tells you how to look, there can be seen in the smoke great, magnificent shapes, castles and kingdoms, and maybe they can be yours."

"The ability to create the illusion of power, to use mirrors and blue smoke, is one found in unusual people."

Unusual people, indeed. Political operatives more than make up for their lack of knowledge and common sense with a keen ability to deceive and manipulate. If you can’t rationally explain your thoughts, ideology, or agenda, you can at least bluff your way to acceptance. Tell the people what they want to hear and promise to deliver. The politician’s credibility is considered strong, merely due to the fact that he/she has been “elected.” The smoke eventually clears to reveal that once again, you, the individual, has been had.

But, a new wave of performers awaits just off stage promising “change” and “new ideas.” Certainly, they must be worthy of a listen.

And the band played on…………