A quick primer on politics

On this page have been warnings that America is being infected by a political uprising virus sweeping the world that started in Tunisia with the first Arab Spring. And just like a medical virus, the world is a small place, and any virus popping up across the ocean will reach here with full impact.

In the recent past we’ve seen this disease, the Arab Spring Syndrome (and yes, you can make an acronym out of that), spread through Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran (to a certain extent; only a mild infection) and possibly though countries that were already in a similar pandemic (so the A.S.S. might not be discernable from strife already in place): Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Niger, Georgia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and so on.

The problem is, people have been assuming it could not happen here. And like the word “assume,” it can make an ass out of you and me (“ass-u-me”). And an additional problem is that the virus has struck its first seriously impregnable, “could never happen here,” country: the United Kingdom. Studying that seems to be a media passion, as if they can actually find out what happened to make previously sensible, well-educated people act so uncharacteristically radical. Welcome to the viral symptoms: adherent stupidity, no consideration for the long-term consequences and disregard for moral authority. Of course, Scotland wanted to stay in the UK as the UK was part of the EU. Now that EU membership may no longer be the case, Scotland wants out of the UK. Northern Ireland is thinking this may be the time to ditch the UK too. The A.S.S. viral infection has serious lasting handicaps and deformities.

Meanwhile, back home in the rock-solid USA, we’re thinking such radicalism is unlikely. But there’s no vaccine for this virus. One of the symptoms of the virus is gleeful hysteria at how unlikely it is, how much fun it is to talk about the stupidity of people who welcome the virus. The media is, particularly, unaware of their personal financial beneficial needs and therefore role in stirring up incubation reasons for the virus’ promulgation … the more they talk about the virus and after-effects, the more they give a viable platform to the virus to alter what is into what can be. Never mind that “what can be” is completely unknown and chaotic … what the virus seeks is a host that will destroy that which is, no matter how destructive the process, clearing the status quo and allowing a new viral breeding ground of absolute uncertainty and chaos upon which the A.S.S. thrives, multiplying its effect — thereby assuring that A.S.S. can and will spread to the next territory around the world.

Where’s a CDC for social diseases and political viruses when we need it? Oh, no, wait, that’s called responsible adulthood and intelligence — both of which seem to be lacking in the current political debates around the globe. Someone is going to get seriously hurt.

Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.