( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Something is wrong with me. I am not feeling the whispering winds of engulfing unity.
The rhetoric of change has not hit me yet. Perhaps I doubt it is really coming. See it is nothing personal against the two Dem candidates, they might be fine people. Right now they are in the courting phase and whichever of them wins will continue the courting right up until they win, if they win. But whoever does win won’t be calling you in the morning to reminisce about what a good time they had last night. The have advisers and experts, and the advisers and experts like the system. They think it works great primarily because they don’t actually know anybody who might possibly be considered an average American or even an American who isn’t average, just in the process of getting royally fucked.
What nobody running for office wants these days is this….
They don’t even want a peaceful evolution. Whoever becomes the Dem candidate wants just enough change to make it look like they stand for something. The Dem candidate still wants you to be above all a consumer, not a citizen. Once in office, they don’t really want your “input” just in case you start asking for uppity things. What happens if you ask for something that isn’t for you, that goes against your self interest, something for your kids, or something for something you don’t even know? Won’t that be complicated.
We already know that whoever becomes the Republican candidate wants fascism with a velvet glove and an increased limit on the credit cards. John McCain wants to make sure your kids in kindergarten will have a war to fight in and Mitt Romney wants to force us all to give hand jobs to his corporate friends on a daily basis, as if giving up pensions and decent health care just wasn’t enough tribute. The future for your kids with those two is either a uniform or a bar code on their forehead.
I am not even saying we are fucked. I am fundamentally undecided on that issue. Besides, it is arrogant to make proclamations. For all I know, the rapture really will come and sweep up the annoying people, and we might be able to advocate for something grander than change. I do know this: conventional wisdom is not wisdom. Perhaps, the greatest thing ordinary folks like myself can to is to learn how to think, and in everyday conversations, to encourage those I come in contact with to ask questions. The problem with Americans is that nobody really urges them to ask questions probably because elites are afraid that the biggest problem is that Americans are not stupid. They aren’t afraid of an undifferentiated mob, they are afraid of a thoughtful one. And thoughtful mobs are not necessarily all interested in unity either.
Unity these days is being linked in popular mainstream dialog with silly notions about a post partisan landscape in which our differences are no big deal.
I don’t want unity myself. I want to argue. Sometimes I wonder if progressives, out of the boxers, and independent thinkers are all concerned they might not like one another or agree on everything and that might prevent the creation of a coherent vision. I am not sure there is a coherent vision. And we all have issues on a personal level, we just cannot compromise on. Even if we did all belong to an easily defined movement, there is nothing wrong with realizing one has to take a holiday to go work on projects that might not be getting the priority we think it should. Sounds contradictory doesn’t it? Because change is contradictory, ideas spawn ideas that seem impossible. We think we know what change we want only because we can clearly see what we don’t like. Maybe we don’t know yet.
I am more interested in democracy and what it might end up meaning than a candidate and I don’t see those who have strong feelings about one or the other as being partisan, we don’t even truly know what being partisan in the electoral process means any more because the choices are too narrow. They aren’t choices.
By the way, the lobotomy feels just fine. An easy post op recovery.
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wait… no curmudgeonly….
picture… just so you know you’re not going crazy
I’m pretty conflicted about all this myself. I know that none of these candidates will bring about the kind of change I’m looking for.
But I read Obama’s book, “Dreams From My Father” years ago. He bares his soul in the book about his struggle in finding an identity for himself in this racist society and his attempts to work with those most marginalized in Chicago. I just keep wondering if there is any part of that man that still lives inside him. And if there is, I feel a spark that he might move the ball forward a bit…not to where I want it to be, but at least forward instead of backwards. I don’t think there’s anyone else in the race that has that potential.
This might be coming from the part of me that wants so desperately to believe that its possible. Or maybe its just the part that thinks more rationally that we could staunch the bleeding a bit and that’s better than nothing. Either way, I’ve decided that I’ll do what I can to support Obama here in our caucuses next week. I don’t really see any other choice in this election other than to do nothing.
I think there is a coherent vision though. To paraphrase Robin Williams in his golf skit, here’s my idea for a f’ing coherent vision.
I am going to keep on living my life whatever way I feel like living my life every morning when I wake up. I am going to keep on doing what ever I want to do in spite of what anyone else thinks I should do. I’ll do my best to smack down and flatten, rhetorically or otherwise, anyone who tries to limit or demean me or anyone else, and I expect, actually I demand, that other people hold me to that standard as well.
Am I being coherent enough??? 😉
(not that I care really, it’s just that it’s early it’s hard for me to tell)
the lobotomy you had, UCC.
“Top Ten Choices for Lobotomy”
1.) UCC
2.) …….
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I won’t have much free time because my boss actually expects me to attend the conference but I will have an evening or so to hook up. I am hoping to take my camera and get a few pics as well.
If that funny feeling in the pit of my stomach could talk this is what it would say but it’s having a hard time putting it into words so Yeah Baby. I missed writing in the raw last night because the Hail and Farewell did last a long time. I’m sitting there listening at length to all the wonderful better ways to kill things that those who were leaving had come up with…….long speeches about terrific killers and I know that we do need a military but hell, I sat at that table last night and knew for sure I’ve had a seriously swirled crochet hook lobotomy 😉
As are we all…
The quest for numbers, large ones and a clear majority. How then does one bring up a real issue. Given the amout of corruption and generational mis-information of the American populace a real issue would lead to questions.
Why does the entire western world continue to pour money and technology into a totalitarian police state which sells political prisoner’s body parts on the black market?
Dems really Rethugs and Rethugs really Dems, no “stand” on the “issues” is discernable. What are the “issues”? Why, the “issues” are what media tells you. Who can argue with the exhaulted poo-bahs of media.
http://www.projectcensored.org/
Good, yet benign by my newer metrics.
Eric did a wonderful series on the IPDI, or the marketing of politics. As in Naiomi’s destructive capitalism, marketing has also destroyed the political process.
http://www.bushflash.com/ipdi….
One answer, a theory perhaps but nonetheless ringing far too true. It is literally etched in stone. These stones.
http://home.sprynet.com/~eastw…
I think they are the same thing, except that “laid” means getting and giving pleasure. Because otherwise they’re just fucking themselves.