By Nathan Barton

For years, one of the major “values” of the Fifty States’ – and especially the FedGov’s – politicians has been their entertainment of the masses.

The rise of Trump has, of course, made this even more obvious.  Just as Ronald Reagan’s political career merged the entertainment media with government (as did Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne Johnson (the Rock)), the election of a wealthy real estate magnate with a side career as a reality “star” further demonstrated the situation.

No doubt we should consider this to be deplorable and pitiful.  Especially after this last weekend.  From Freedom News Daily comes this story:

Grammys: Failed presidential candidate trolls the guy who beat her (Source: WQAD 8 News) – “Hillary Clinton made a surprise appearance on Sunday night in a Grammy Awards comedy bit that took a jab at President Trump. The former presidential candidate, along with Cher, Snoop Dogg, Cardi B, John Legend and DJ Khaled were among those who read excerpts from Michael Wolff’s ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,’ the hit book about Trump’s first year in the White House. … Clinton’s face was covered by the book when she first appeared on screen in the pre-taped sketch, but the crowd cheered when she lowered the book to reveal her face. Clinton read the famous line about Trump’s love for fast food: ‘He had a longtime fear of being poisoned. One reason why he liked to eat at McDonalds. No one knew he was coming and the food was safely pre-made.'”

The idea that this woman was a “serious contender” for the White House is even more improbable than she seemed in 2016. She isn’t even a good clown. (Yeah, scary maybe – as too many clowns are these days. But funny? Entertaining? Not to anyone with any discernment, brains, or a sensitive stomach.)

Honestly, I wonder if Trump PAID Wolff to write this book – it serves as such a wonderful “weapon of mass distraction.” Like his popular Twitter postings, like the various and always highly-publicized antics of various members of the Trump Administration, this book has distracted his political opponents in and out of Congress while he works his deals and carries out actions which are often ignored until someone suddenly puts 2 and 2 together.

As with the “revelations” regarding deal-making on the “Dreamers” and the border wall, and so much else, Trump (for all his ego and seeming gaffes) seems to be outmaneuvering his political opponents on multiple levels.

Meanwhile, those same political opponents – Democrats and Republicans and even Libertarians and “independents”) play into his hands and provide entertainment value by doing exactly what he seems to expect/anticipate them doing. Behaving stupidly and predictable to his jabs and taunts and silly games. Demonstrating that they are equally or more silly and stupid.

Again, we are supposed to be shocked and dismayed by this. After all, we are talking about the government! Of the world’s most powerful nation! Of history’s greatest empire!

Well, I’m not shocked. I’m not dismayed. Neither should you be. It is exactly what has been coming for decades – for a century or more. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Not just in the usual sense of corrupt actions and cronyism and all that. But in the sense of decay of value, of worth, of functionality.

And don’t even think about the corruption of Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment media, internet, broadcast and print (what is left of it). Is it possible to have a level of entertainment that is LESS than the “lowest common denominator” and therefore providing only a simulacrum of “entertainment” value?

Government, and the media, are decaying rapidly before our very eyes: the value of both institutions is dropping as fast as the value of the Confederate dollar did in 1865. And this is a good thing. The faster that government and media decay into uselessness, the faster we can learn again to live without either of them. And the better and more free each of us, and our societies as a whole, can be.

The biggest concern that I have is the same thing as we find in nature. Decay is necessary for the ecosystem, to provide nutrients for life to continue. But there are points when the dead bodies of deer or the standing dead trees are dangerous. Both because of physical threat (that tree is gonna burn) and disease (that deer carcass can be a cesspool of microorganisms that can spread disease and pollute water and air). In the same way the decaying carcasses of media and government present a threat to the health, the well-being of our society, of our communities. The sooner we can deal with the dead institutions, the better.