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December 21, 2009
For a fistful of dollars
Coming soon to an election near you:
"One of the saddest sights a man can watch is during election time in the Philippines when the poor are rounded up in dump trucks and rented buses and sequestered by politicians near polling precincts to vote. There they will receive ten dollars, if that, and an afternoon's worth of gin and peanuts. In exchange for this meager handout they will troop to the precinct and vote for the villain. The luckiest of that sad crowd are too stupid or drunk to care. But a substantial number know exactly what is happening; they are fully cognizant that the pittance they are about to receive will be taken back from them a hundredfold by the corrupt politician. They know it with the certainty of a sentient cow walking into an abbatoir. But they take the money anyway. They take it because they need the money and the forgetfulness today. Today the money will buy some rice; the gin will let them forget. Tomorrow is a luxury they cannot afford. Of all the tragic sights on earth, nothing is so pathetic as watching a man sell his dignity with both eyes open." -- Belmont Club ｻ Motor city
Posted by Vanderleun at December 21, 2009 9:41 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
Unless it is watching men buy dignity.
Posted by: james wilson at December 22, 2009 8:46 AM