This punch connects.
Irresistible is a scathing satirical roast of America's broken political system in which money is wasted on ceaseless campaigning (and often hijacked by the not-so-cottage industry that perpetuates the waste), leaving very little time for executing and evaluating policy and program efficacy, much less serving the people whom government [should exist] to protect or embetter.
Written and directed by Jon Stewart, it's got some bite—and rightfully so. I'm wildly patriotic, but equally discouraged and ashamed of American politics and its uselessness. Worse than that, our system has become so labyrinthine, so occluded, so infested, so mismanaged, so misguided that it's worse than inert: It's insidiously destructive like termites or dripping water creating cavernous wood rot, or saltwater corroding one's car.
On the one hand, I'd like to argue the actors and agents and forces enabling political brokenness are completely invisible, as if to assuage my guilt by rationalizing, "Oh, if I'd only known things were broken, I would have done my part to fix them" when, in truth, I see its flagrancy and have simply lost hope.
It breaks my heart that is the truth, but my mind understands conclusions drawn logically.
I once asked an elite, well-known political strategist and campaign operative for a word of encouragement or silver lining to winnow my woes, and instead he offered me Niebuhr's prayer of serenity: "God, please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."
As long as money is involved (and laziness, and entertainment, and outright blood sport), there will always be lions to eat the proverbial Christians; passive bystanders content to watch the parade go by (or the train wreck, if you prefer)...observing, nodding, or perhaps even shaking their heads, but rarely (if ever) lifting a finger to change the course of history in any lasting, meaningful way.
Morpheus was right, of course: "This your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."
We abide the matrix because—right on time like the morning paper—tomorrow's shiny headline will distract us anew and we'll gobble it up hook, line, and sinker.
