E.G.

From CT:

Backword Dave notes, cogently:

I hate those in power. I look up, and others see the stars; I see the shit up our leader’s arses.

I actually think the star-metaphor is more apt.  A star is remote and gigantic.  It can affect you (as when, for instance, the sun gives you a sunburn), but you cannot affect it.  On the other hand, very few "arses" are remote or gigantic; you can easily affect someone’s arse, e.g. by kicking it.  Looked at this way, Backword Dave’s statement is actually kind of hopeful.  It expresses the sentiment that government is something bad, and corrupt; but it also expresses the sentiment that its corruption is something personal, local, and changeable by ordinary people.  Changing the government, the metaphor seems to suggest, is nothing more profound or impossible than wiping after a bowel movement.  Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case.  The government is remote and gigantic; no one of us can affect its course.  One may as well try to stop the stars from twinkling.