In The Who’s 1971 hit, “We Won’t Get Fooled Again,” Pete Townshend wrote a battle cry to awaken us to the notion that when people promote radical change (revolution), it really doesn’t change anything in the long run. He asserted that whoever takes power can’t avoid becoming corrupted themselves. As a result, the masses and (even the revolutionaries) end up no better off than before.
If only this wisdom had caught on, but it hasn’t. We keep getting fooled over and over.
We get fooled at election time when Pennsylvania “floats out” the idea of opening the primary to registered independents, or the idea that emissions testing will go away. Even at tax season when it’s hinted that property taxes will be eliminated or the state will pause the gas tax and so on. Yet nothing changes.
The Feds are good at fooling us, too. They’ve created an environment where citizens are ostracized and labeled as “kooks” or “conspiracy theorists” when they nail topics the government wants kept quiet. Thus, many were fooled into believing Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, UFOs didn’t exist, the CIA doesn’t operate at home, building seven wasn’t a controlled demolition, Saddam Hussein had WMDs, the border was secure and covid didn’t come from a lab.
It’s much easier for folks to pretend the continuous, farcical mind control isn’t happening. So the new boss really is the old boss with different stripes. The uni-party always wins. Perhaps it’s time we give the conspiracy theorists a crack at it?
Tim Kazmarek
Natrona Heights