So, as the Presidential election draws ever nearer, we seem to be back to the old place with the same old choices : Democrats, Republicans or Ron Paul! It's like some kind of awful Groundhog Day with increasingly more dreadful consequences. But, does it have to be this way?Having been a lifelong Democrat, I've recently begun voicing my disapproval and concern over the actions (and inactions) of President Obama, in particular in relation to the notorious National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). I didn't think this would be an especially controversial point of view and yet I found I was deluged with angry messages from Obama supporters warning me of the evil I was about to unleash upon an unsuspecting public... Translated, these messages informed me that my cricticism of Obama would somehow automatically lead to the election of a Republican president, almost as though the voting millions really have no minds of their own and would be willing to be led by me! Unlikely as that scenario struck me, it did start me off on a train of thought about what the real alternatives were.I've long since had a sophistic issue with the two-party nature of our political system, it seems inherently undemocratic in some way that I can never quite put my finger on and yet, only recently, have I begun to see the true miasmic horror which lies beneath it. Corruption, control, erosion of liberties and financial meltdown to name but a few of those horrors. But whose fault is this? Have we all been conned for decades or longer, into believing that we are the lucky few in the world who have access to true democracy, is it all a big conspiracy?To set my cards on the table I'll say that I've never been a big subscriber to any conspiracy theories; preferring to believe in the concept of 'mess up' rather than 'conspiracy' but, now, I'm beginning to doubt myself.Some time ago, I watched a documentary by British film-maker David Sington called The Flaw and I would urge anyone who hasn't already seen it, to watch it as soon as possible. It outlines and explains the origins of the economic mess in which we now find ourselves and trails back decades quite literally following the money and, if anything demonstrates the scam that's been perpetrated upon us, this film does it. But I don't think it's so much of a conspiracy as a reasonably adroit trick, one which we might expect from some great illusionist, but which we perhaps did not expect from governments and Wall Street. For years we've been unable to see what's right in front of our eyes as our eyes have been cleverly diverted elsewhere. As a very old army friend of mine always used to say "whenever you see someone launch an attack in front of you, always make sure you're looking round the corner to see what else is coming from the direction you're NOT looking in". But, have we allowed ourselves to be duped, have we 'enabled' the illusion or have we been pulled innocently and naively along for the ride, believing everything we're told/sold? Or, have we just not been paying attention at all?Years ago, I remember learning about Karl Marx and managing in my youthful naivity to decide that his conclusions were at best out-dated and, at worst, that he was the biggest conspiracy theorist of them all. But nowadays I'm not so sure... I've never subscribed to Marxist theory and still don't agree with many of his conclusions but, more and more, I'm beginning to see startling parallels between the things he wrote and the things we are now experiencing. Marx's concept of historical materialism and his idea that societies ALL eventually come to revolution is beginning to come true in front of our eyes. Marx's theory is based on the idea that systems based purely on capitalism lead to a split between those who own the means of production and those who do not. Those who do not will always have to work for those who do and, with that reality, eventually comes chaos and crisis. He writes a great deal about the cyclical crises which affect this particular type of social and economic order and makes a case for the argument that, unless the means of production are owned wholly by the workers themselves, then crisis and chaos will always eventually occur. And that would seem to be a pretty close illustration of the situation we currently find ourselves in. So, was Marx a social historian or a fortune teller? The answer is probably both. As he says all too clearly in his various treatizes on materialism - capitalism always runs in cycles, it moves along reasonably happily for a number of years and then, at some point, chaos and crisis will always occur. I still remain unconvinced by many of the conclusions reached by Marx but I do think he raises some particularly poignant questions for all of us.And all of this is interlinked with the other big Marxian conspiracy theory; that of the Dominant Ideology Thesis which claims that society's views and common beliefs are formed by a ruling elite who control and/or own the media, the information sharing and somehow subtely dictate what we, the masses, both believe and think. In a way, the emergence of new organizations such as Readers Supported News, TruthOut, The Daily Kos and others, really exemplifies just how true the Dominant Ideology Thesis had become and how the need for truly independent voices was growing at an incredible speed. There were so few genuinely independent media and news outlets before their emergence, that we really only got to hear the most predominant views that the older organizations chose to allow room for expression. With such limited access to truly broad-spectrum views and information, it's little wonder that the debate had somewhat stagnated. And yet, I sometimes wonder about the newer media too – do we not run the risk of falling into a very similar trap? Is it ever possible to AVOID falling into this trap? There aren't endless people who want to write and espouse views and so perhaps it's predictable in a way. When reading through some of the above-mentioned sites, I'm often struck by the types of individuals writing there. I include myself in this assessment and it isn't the most flattering observation in the world. Many of us trying to 'get the word out' are old academics like myself, and we don't necessarily write in the most accessible way. I wonder at times if we're not just creating yet another group of people who feel duty-bound to inform others of what they should be thinking... A little like the wealthy, educated Marxist revolutionary who spends his life trying to educate and inform the 'underclass' that they NEED a revolution as he believes they will never realize this on their own! I hope very much that I'm wrong in that assessment, but I do think we need to be very careful that our attempt to open up the debate and to include new and independent voices, actually does achieve that. Rather than creating yet another strata of opinions, from a very narrow group of academics and thinkers, all ready and willing to create a new ideology for the public to subscribe to. The symbolic interactionist Howard Becker, illustrates this point very well although he certainly didn't intend to! He suggests that we are all just 'animals in a zoo' and that the sociological observer can sit on the sidelines and observe human action and interaction objectively and then somehow assess and comment upon it. The problem with Becker's theory is that he forgets that we, the observers, are ALSO animals in that same zoo and that we can never be truly objective about any of it! Every opinion comes with subjectivity, that is the nature of the beast.The problem we all now face encompasses a scenario that Marx, as far as I know, didn't predict : not only do we find ourselves in this battle with those who own the means of production but we also find ourselves wondering quite how or when this even occurred and WHO, exactly, is responsible for perpetrating it upon us. This time it seems like the usual suspects can be lined up with others from whom we did not expect such control freakery. The good and the bad are less easy to spot, they all appear to be a little blurry around the edges. And, beyond that, we now have to wonder which particular map will show us the way out of this seemingly circular route for, even if we now SEE the eternal conundrum which occurs when we allow money-making and personal greed to take over control of our rationality and good sense, what on earth can we do about it?I think many of us who loudly and vigorously supported President Obama during the 2008 election campaign, who stood on street corners and shouted "Yes we can" with great enthusiasm, honestly believed that things could and would change. We had very genuine hope for the first time in years and felt that we had achieved something. But now, with the passing of the NDAA, the upcoming SOPA discussion, the gradual erosion of our liberties and our rights to protest, and the utter financial mess which seems to be affecting 'us' much more than 'them', we find ourselves caught between a rock and a hard place. Disillusioned and disappointed in that same President for whom we campaigned and voted, somewhat muddled to discover he doesn't seem to be that different after all. Don't get me wrong, I DO believe that President Obama has achieved a great many things for our country, things which I feel proud to support and things which perhaps only he could have achieved and yet, my belief that some things were right, doesn't preclude me from stating that many other things are very wrong.So what are we to do now? What choices do we really have? Do we argue amongst ourselves in this never-ending two-party Democratic/Republican paradigm? Or argue with each other in the Democratic party and put the fear of God (or whoever) into anyone who dares to voice any opinion which doesn't seem 100% supportive of his Administration? It seems so. And, that must delight ALL of those currently in the Senate, from whichever party, because, while we all argue with each other and obfuscate from the sidelines, they can carry on doing just what they've done all along. They remain safe. They don't want us to see the way out of this, they simply want us to continue to believe that 'they' are acting in 'our' best interests. But Fear is just another way of controlling the 'masses' (that's you and me!) and so perhaps we shouldn't be quite so quick to put back on our illusory goggles and pretend none of it is really happening and that everything is great. We need to get AWAY from this du(o)plicity of thinking and believing. For too many years we have been the targets of duplicitous governments and politicians, bankers and businesses. Surely it's about time we started thinking out of the box and trying to make a move away from the two-party system of government that has not served us either faithfully or well. A two-party system is only ever as good as its opposition, and when the opposition and the government start to look increasingly similar, then you have to start to wonder if perhaps we need to change something far more fundamental about the whole system than just the names of the people.And, before anyone says "so you're voting for Ron Paul then, are you?" let me just be quite clear ... I have no idea at this moment in time WHO I will be voting for but I know who I WON'T be voting for! I could never, in all conscience, vote Republican and I would very much doubt that Ron Paul would be a serious option for someone with my own political and philosophical take on life. What I want is someone else, I just want someone who represents OUR interests and who listens to US. We are the electorate, let's do this job well...