The Land of Optimism Is in the Dumps, But Refuses to Accept How It Got There
Not since Watergate has such pessimism afflicted Americans. They want politicians to lift them without facing the cause
On April 27 1968 the vice president, Hubert Humphrey, announced his presidential candidacy. It was a particularly troubled moment in America’s recent history. Just three weeks after Martin Luther King’s assassination, the cities were still scarred by riots while the country as a whole was deeply divided over the Vietnam war.
Presumably seeking to capture the mood of the nation, Humphrey started his speech thus: “Here we are, the way politics ought to be in America, the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose, the politics of joy; and that’s the way it’s going to be, all the way, too, from here on out.” Within six weeks Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated.
America’s self-image as the home of unrelenting progress - a nation of historic purpose and unrivalled opportunity where tomorrow will always be better than today - is the linchpin of its political and popular culture. Optimism, it seems, is a truly renewable national resource. It was used to build Bill Clinton’s “bridge to the 21st century” in 1992, and powered the alarm clocks for Reagan’s “new morning in America”.
“The American, by nature, is optimistic,” said John F Kennedy. “He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.” This optimism is the source for much of what makes the US simultaneously so revered and reviled, dynamic and deluded, around the world.
On one hand it articulates a hope, bordering on certainty, that a better world is not just feasible but already in the making. Released from the hogties of tradition and formality, such confidence is driven by possibility rather than the past. Winston Churchill once said he “preferred the past to the present and the present to the future”. An American politician who wanted to get elected would say precisely the opposite. This optimism underpins the notions of class fluidity and personal reinvention at the core of the American dream. Where others might ask “Why?”, it asks “Why not?”. Such is the root of so much that is great about America’s economy, culture and politics.
On the other hand this optimism has within it the notion that the US is the exclusive repository of these hopes and the sole means by which a better world can be made. Unfettered by history, consensus or empirical evidence, it is driven by myth rather than material circumstances. Even as class rigidity entrenches and personal reinvention slips, the dream remains. Like Stephen Colbert’s spoof of George Bush, it has the capacity to “believe the same thing Wednesday that [it] believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday”. It posits America as the world’s future whether the world wants it or not. Such is the root of so much that is terrible about America’s economy, politics and foreign policy.
This sense of optimism has been in retreat in almost every sense over the past few years. According to Rasmussen polls, just 21% of Americans believe the country is on the right track, a figure that has fallen by more than a half since the presidential election of 2004. Meanwhile only a third think the country’s best days are yet to come, as opposed to 43% who believe they have come and gone - again a steep decline on three years ago. These are not one-offs. In the past 18 months almost every poll that has asked Americans about their country’s direction has produced among the most pessimistic responses on record - a more extended period than anyone can remember since Watergate.
America, in short, is in a deep funk. Far from feeling hopeful, it appears fearful of the outside world and despondent about its own future. Not only do most believe tomorrow will be worse than today, they also feel that there is little that can be done about it.
There are three main reasons. Closest to home is the economy. Wages are stagnant, house prices in most areas have stalled or are falling, the dollar is plunging, and the deficit is rising. A Pew survey last week showed that 72% believe the economy is either “only fair” or poor and 76% believe it will be the same or worse a year from now. Globalisation is a major worry. Of 46 countries polled recently, the US had the least positive view on foreign trade and one of the least positive on foreign companies.
The sense that things will improve for the next generation has all but evaporated. Another Pew poll from last year found that only 34% of Americans expected today’s children to be better off than people are now - down from 55% shortly before President Bush came to power.
Second is the Iraq war and the steep decline in America’s international standing it has prompted. A global-attitudes Pew poll from last year showed that 65% of Americans believe the country is less respected by the rest of the world than it was - double the figure of 20 years ago. The fact that only half those polled thought this was a problem is telling.
For if the war in Iraq were going well then this probably wouldn’t matter. But it isn’t. All surveys show that for some time a steady majority of the public believe the war was a mistake, is going badly and that the troops should be withdrawn. One of the central factors in which America’s self-confidence was predicated - global hegemony based on unrivalled military supremacy - has been fundamentally undermined.
Last week Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top commander of US troops in Iraq, spelled out the national despair, branding the war a “nightmare with no end in sight”.
Which brings us, finally, to the political class. Once again the American public have lost faith. The rot starts at the top. Almost as soon as they elected Bush in 2004 they seemed to regret it. Since Katrina, his favourability ratings have been stuck in the 30s and show no signs of moving - or at least not upwards. Bush’s only comfort is that public approval of the Democratically controlled Congress is even worse, hovering just below where it was shortly before the 2006 elections. In other words, however Americans believe their country will return to the right track, they no longer trust politicians to get them there.
Little suggests that anything will change any time soon. After four years of being told they were winning a war they have been losing and are better off when they are not, Americans are more wary of political happy talk than they have been for a long time. But that doesn’t mean they want to hear sad talk instead, even if it happens to be true. For the central problem is not that they were lied to - though that of course is a problem - but that they have constantly found some of these lies more palatable than the truth. Bush may have exploited the more problematic aspects of this optimism. But he did not create them. Enough of the American public had to be prepared to meet him halfway to make his agenda possible.
Herein lies the challenge for the presidential candidates in the coming year - how to respond to this pessimistic mood without reflecting or discussing its root causes: to lay out a plausible explanation of how Americans can get their groove back, without examining how they got in this rut in the first place.
Gary Younge, the Alfred Knobler Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the New York correspondent for the Guardian and the author of No Place Like Home: A Black Briton’s Journey Through the Deep South (Mississippi) and Stranger in a Strange Land: Travels in the Disunited States (New Press).
© 2007 The Guardian
“The United States is a society in which people not only can get by without knowing much about the wider world but are systematically encouraged not to think independently or critically and instead to accept the mythology of the United States as a benevolent, misunderstood giant as it lumbers around the world trying to do good.”
Robert Jensen
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“The United States has only one party - the property party. It’s the party of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican.” Gore Vidal
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“Throughout the twentieth century and into the beginning of the twenty-first, the United States repeatedly used its military power, and that of its clandestine services, to overthrow governments that refused to protect American interests. Each time, it cloaked its intervention in the rhetoric of national security and liberation. In most cases, however, it acted mainly for economic reasons-specifically to establish, promote and defend the right of Americans to do business around the world without interference.” Stephen Kinzer
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Lots of good material is here:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/
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What’s going on in the world?
http://www.Share-International.org
“Enough of the American public had to be prepared to meet him (Bush) halfway to make his agenda possible.”
Simply not true, Bush didn’t legally win either election and his approval ratings hover in the high 20’s low 30’s. Congress’s approval ratings are even lower. In 2006 the people put the Dems in power hoping for change that didn’t happen. Does that sound like that enough of the American public were prepared to meet Bush halfway to make his agenda possible?
Lobo Gris
Lobo - the richest/greediest 5% of the American public is enough. It’s all that was needed to unleash the goliath war machine on their behalf. The rest of us are like cows and sheep to them.
I assume the author’s last sentence is a subtle, satirical stab at our political system: the need to address a problem without upsetting anyone in the process in order to avoid being called a pessimist by hollow pundits and therefore win an election on the usual false pretenses. What we actually need is honesty. One of my favorite exercises is to have several people in a group make up a health symptom and then play the doctor who goes around and prescribes the same treatment for every one. That is what our elections are like. That is why we keep going down the same bad road.
Gary Younge (author)
The factors you list do not include the most important one on my list, with the exception of this:
==Bush’s only comfort is that public approval of the Democratically controlled Congress is even worse, hovering just below where it was shortly before the 2006 elections. In other words, however Americans believe their country will return to the right track, they no longer trust politicians to get them there.==
First, you are correct about America’s optimism. America was founded on the dream that people would be free under democratic government to become their best selves. That dream has continued in the national democratic fabric and flowered, with more or less success since then.
Second, it is Congress, in particular the Democratic members of Congress who promised to stop the Bush agenda, that has created a “lack of optimism” among the people I know and associate with (though despair might be a better description). We KNEW that if a majority in Congress was committed to stopping Bush’s unConstitutional agenda, they could do that with the tools at their command. We knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park, but an all-out fight. We knew this isn’t mice in the cupboard; it’s tyrannosaurus rex in the living room. We thought the elected Democrats knew that, too.
But the Democrats didn’t do that. They didn’t even try with the tools at their disposal, claiming they couldn’t win without a larger majority and asked for people to vote more Democrats into office in 2008. Instead they took impeachment off the table, negotiated with the WH and its supporters on criminal elements in Bush’s agenda that could have been stopped, and voted FOR unconstitutional bills. Why would anyone vote for the Democrats again when they haven’t fought when they have the majority now? Why would anyone trust the Democrats again? This is the core of my personal despair and that of many other people I know.
When your representatives join the criminal element, what’s left? An overthrow of the government?
==For the central problem is not that they were lied to - though that of course is a problem - but that they have constantly found some of these lies more palatable than the truth.==
Not many — most Americans know they’ve been lied to, and the lies are NOT palatable. They’re enraging Americans because they humiliate us.
Sometimes I’m really discouraged, simply because there seems to be no lawful way for American citizens to change anything now that we know Congress won’t listen to us. Then my optimism rises again since there are courageous souls in our midst, and people are really looking for change now.
Can Impeachment be proposed in the Senate???
If not, why not???
The US House of Representatives in DC, and particularly the madam speaker, is NOT doing their job.
Peace,
Ken Hausle
If any progressives are looking for something to cheer them up, they should read about the revolution in Latin America and the great work being done by the Hugo Chavez and his group at the links below. To the horror of the corrupt, heartless bastards in the global Oligarchy, democracy is breaking out in Venezuela and Latin America. Apparently the men in Latin America are superior in some ways to the gringos up north - who are still getting screwed by their mastuhs.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Venezuela_page/US_Fears_Chavez_Example.html
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“I swear by the God of my parents, I swear by my nation,
I swear by my honor that I will not allow my soul to rest,
nor my arm to relax until I have broken the chains that
oppress my people through the will of the powerful.
Free elections, free land and free men,
horror to the oligarchy.”
Oath used by Hugo Chavez (when he was 28) and some of his revolutionary friends. (Page 80, !HUGO! by Bart Jones)
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“The time for war has past…
Man must change or die.
There is no other course.”
The World Teacher
The author leaves out a major, fourth source of pessimism: Global Warming. The scientists say we had to act yesterday, and meanwhile we’re all still stuck in rush hour. Personally, the thought of this is more depressing than all of the above combined. Economics, the war, our ridiculous political system …kibbles and bits compared to losing the icecaps.
One planet….. that is undeniably true and also inevitable. Despite all government and religious divisionery preference to the contrary, it is the one great Truth. Oneness of world, oneness of people is where we will go, denial of that simple obvious conclusion is absurd and creates absurdity in little, damning fits of chauvanism. Nationalism from any source will drive one crazy in these times. Everybody, even the most reticent or monastic person cannot help but be beware of that, there are no hidden corners now, but where there is profiteering to be done in order to pad a stature then for sure there will be much suffering by the many to preserve the preferences and privleges of the few. We are One and that integral realization is the parent of the next round of Wonder. We enjoy or suffer through eonic cycles currently un-rememered or un-imagineable by the muliplicity groaning under the mounting pressures of material wants and necessities but at last awakening to our true nature. We are to be one in many….seemingly hard to get to, but Time does Will it. Sticking to the Truth of that Oneness is the quickest way to make the transition. Where any individual can realize that, so can all. Resistance is self-abnegating and futile. Be well pleased and smile. Love. The sixtees were but the first glimmer.
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aum33 October 15th, 2007 11:45 am
“Lobo - the richest/greediest 5% of the American public is enough. It’s all that was needed to unleash the goliath war machine on their behalf. The rest of us are like cows and sheep to them.”
I agree, my argument was with the implication made by the article. That somehow large numbers of the population have agreed with Bush’s agenda.
Lobo Gris
I’ve read a fair amount of Thich Nhat Hanh’s work. He’s got some nuts-and-bolts approaches for anger management, frustration, etc. The one metaphor that comes to mind is the lotus. It thrives in some icky and decayed habitats.
Progressives are the first responders, the first alerters, the modern prophets. It’s clear that if this country continues on its present course that we’ll have that fetid habitat in which a lotus might bloom. Unless D.C. begins to pay heed to our alarms, the way to change will be the harder path. It’ll take Joe Sixpacks to awaken from his slumber.
I think the corporate parties are hoping to give him another sleeping pill with a Democratic president, but it will ultimately be to little avail. The country needs genuine reforms & modernizations.
Ken Hausle October 15th, 2007 12:03 pm
Can Impeachment be proposed in the Senate???
If not, why not???
No, because the Constitution lays out the process for impeachment and it designates the House of Representatives, supposedly because they are closer to the people, as the impeaching authority. The Senate conducts the trial.
Lobo Gris
To see what we are or what we aren’t, we must first and foremost look into our hearts. If it’s the first time, we might see something shocking: we are not what we thought we were. The blame game is one of the easiest to play. When we go to the store, what do we buy? That’s what we are supporting. If we smoke, and a tax is proposed to pay for health insurance for children, how do we react? That is an indication of our true generosity. If we’re asked to curtail unnecessary driving and drive smaller vehicles to reduce the usage of fossil fuels, do we actually do it? That’s how much we really value conservation.
So what kind of example are we REALLY setting, aside from what we give lip-service to?
Recently, I’ve been hearing about a lot of tainted toys from China, how many parents will actually quit buying toys from these same manufacturer(s)? You see, the truth is always there if one is willing to look.
Whether we realize it or not, corporate America and the educational system has strongly conditioned us. Perhaps the best way to see ourselves as “Americans” is to travel abroad and listen to the buzz, or better yet to go to those countries who’s economies and infrastructure has been devastated in our name.
Once the truth is seen, it becomes increasingly difficult to stand aside and blame others.
Stilba
Good point, though I believe it’s too late to do anything now except slow it, and that doesn’t seem to be an American political priority.
I must admit that I’ve done a lot of map-searching to see what lands the rising seas will cover. Most of the vacation islands in the Atlantic and Pacific will disappear. The Netherlands may disappear. Coastal areas will disappear and highlands will become coastlands. Crops and pollinating insects will be affected.
It’s almost too depressing to think about.
Pollution is also a much bigger problem than people have faced. The Inuit birthrate for boy babies has plummeted, with the rate for girls now double that for boys because of pollutants flowing into the northern regions. http://environment.independent.co.uk/lifestyle/article2953456.ece
So while the earth suffers and all life is threatened, the Bush-criminals cause destruction, death, and mayhem everywhere. It’s hard to know what to attack first, the immediate problem or the larger problem.
“Herein lies the challenge for the presidential candidates in the coming year - how to respond to this pessimistic mood without reflecting or discussing its root causes: to lay out a plausible explanation of how Americans can get their groove back, without examining how they got in this rut in the first place.”
This is indeed the challenge. Any candidate who risks discussing “root causes” or “examining how they got in this rut in the first place” will surely lose any chance of being elected. That in itself is the root cause of America’s psychological and political decline. “Destroying a village in order to save it” applies only to other countries, not America.
It is very hard to be optimistic with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton being the three most important democrats. Reid and Pelosi are complete idiots and Clinton is a warmonger.
zoya
Do you believe the “root cause” of America’s “pessimistic mood” is its optimism? That seems to be what the author is saying, though I may be misinterpreting it.
Or do you think he’s saying that housing, the economy, the war, and politics are the root cause for America’s present pessimism? If so, why would anyone lose an election because they addressed these issues?
I think I’m missing something.
The article itself is hopelessly American in its belief that this new pessimism is unnatural, something to be cured. The root cause of this pessimism is America getting bitten on its collective and obese ass by reality. It’s the same pessimism that children experience when they find out Santa doesn’t exist. The world never was our oyster, you can’t be anything you want (you might just need talent, experience, luck, connections, etc.), and some day, no matter how much you jog and eat organic produce, you’re going to die.
We were lied to (or at least, sadly misinformed) by our parents and their parents and their parents about what America’s role in the world was and what our lives as Americans could be.
It isn’t pessimism. It’s called growing up.
anney: you didn’t ask me but I think what he’s saying is that the combination of the economy, i.e. the disappearing middle class and the lack of trust in the current political system to change anything is the root cause of America’s pessimistic mood. There’s a great op/ed piece at the Christian Science Monitor that parrots this thinking.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1015/p09s02-coop.html
After reading that piece I realized that the author is quite correct in his analysis of the outcome of the 2000 election. I won’t be voting anymore, it’s pointless and I no longer believe the elections are “fair”. But this author and Garey Young fail to note that one of the results of current malaise is the growing number of Americans who, like myself, are disillusioned to the point of approaching being “Anti-American”.
glide
Thanks for the link, which I read.
You know, this crisis in American politics reminds me of a conversation I had several years ago with a woman. At the time I lived at the last end of nowhere in a coastal area. I suppose it would be listed as “rural America” but it wasn’t even that mainstream. Most people made a living by fishing and crabbing.
In this area, it was remarkable to me that almost nobody voted in elections, which were faithfully held, not even for local politicians. I asked this woman why she didn’t vote, and she replied that “there ain’t no need to vote. Them politicans don’t keep their promises to us, so they can do it without me voting for them.”
Admittedly, these people believed local politics had far more impact on their lives than national politics.
There must be millions of people disillusioned with political promises in America, but not just because of the current political disaster in America, but the ongoing and historical reality of broken political promises. It may be why so many people don’t vote already.
You don’t see these people out marching or complaining about the government. They’re poor and know it won’t matter. They just get along, cheat the government when they can, and present a kind, bland face to the world. They survive, one way or the other, mainly by relying on others in the same boat.
God, I don’t want to be forced into that position. I’d rather go out in a blaze of glory!
Philip K. Dick - Paycheck (1953 Dick short story)
“it’s almost two years later. you’ll find a lot of things have changed. the government fell a few months ago - the new governments even stronger!. . . security police have almost unlimited power. they’re teaching the school children to inform now, but we all saw that coming. Let’s see, what else? New york’s larger. I understand they’ve finished filling in san fransisco bay!
“What I want to know is, what the hell I’ve been doing the last two years? Will you tell me that?”
“Nope, course I won’t tell you that.”
The candidate who can rebound with the best “post-pessimism” message which resonates with the people who ACTUALLY VOTE (remembering those are 50% conservative) will win 2008. Rudy Giuliani currently has a leg up on that, even though he disappoints those who only care about anti-abortion and anti-gay.
I personally think most people who are pessimistic on America (the folks who say “wrong track” consistently) are worried subconsciously about what one financial advertiser calls “the 800-pound gorilla in the room”, outliving resources and going flat broke on health care.
Most of us know we’re in a mess if Social Security and Medicare are politically assassinated. The candidate, if there is one, who projects a credible fix for that worry—with optimism—might win handily.
In other words, neither debating the war or endlessly bashing Bush is any kind of path out of pessimism. In fact, doing those things are perpetuators of pessimism.
Credibly fixing the number one concern of most Americans about their PERSONAL future is the ticket.
Our friend Gary Younge does it again!
Thankyou Gary for your sanguine appraisal.
Maybe it takes a citizen hailing from beyond US borders to view this country as it really is, -a view which encompasses America’s *potential*, - as well as it’s current malaise.
Like Gary, as someone not born on US shores, I certainly don’t see America as a ‘lost cause’, more as a somewhat bumptious, arrogant adolescent who still has lot’s to learn. But youth seem often to have the ability to learn lessons more swiftly than older denizens?
In America’s case, -yes, she has fallen into a slump due to an amalgam of causes.
Being drunk, stoned, and shopping at the wheel has not helped! But alongside that, IMHO her citizens got a tad too complacent and too caught up in their own *myth-stakes*!
Jingoism and mouthing of vacuous, self-aggrandising, chauvinistic braying and ostentatious attitudes, ~ blent with a big dollop of half-baked religious zealotry, and an inability to LISTEN and *LEARN* from others has done her few favors. She now needs ALTITUDE in place of attitude!
Atop all of this, there’s then the technological wizardry produced by Mammon’s machine age, wherein the emphasis is upon MATERIAL, not *higher* things, which has left the sorcerer’s apprentice in a complete mess of her own making.
*The way out (and UP!) is as it ever was for mankind*.
We need to learn from salutary lessons, ASAP.
If we don’t learn from early hints and proffered signs, the pressure will increase until we DO finally get the point. ~ Ooops!
Happily the *Chief Architect* of this Universe operates without a “First strike and you’re out” policy!
- Without being too ‘Jeremiah’ about it all, apart from Anney’s useful comments above, let us not forget that there are also some mighty big subterranean cracks running under the USA, and that’s not to mention vast pockets of trapped underwater gasses, and if a big chunk of (slumbering, volcanic) Tenerife or somewhere drops off, there’s a big tsunami awaiting the east Coast…
We are being given many warning signs that our rebellion against the gods’ best advice is leading us towards a fall. ~Listen up to the bees, or grazed knees and bloody noses will result.
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I like the old aphorism: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” - but having heedlessly adopted little or nor prophylactic caution, the USA now has to cope with cleaning up the mighty big messes she has made, as best she can.
Shame about all the murders her leaders ordered… , -they are not so easy to put right. And ice caps are not likely to re-grow anytime soon, ~ nor air get cleansed overnight, nor the land healed (- land once held sacred by the aboriginal NAI tribes but which has since been so horribly raped with gold-rush and coal-lust, etc…)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
America can –and must– soon come to her senses.
She is not a lost cause, the US posters on Common Dreams in themselves show that there is a whole swath of intelligent, compassionate, and wise beings living on this continent.
And what the USA, as well as the wider world needs is for they (-You!) and all the millions like you, to try to awaken the slumbering, torpid minds of fellow US citizens into a state of alert consciousness, - free at last from the humbug, the aggression, the arrogance and belligerence that is an anachronistic legacy left over from the white settler frontiersmen of old…
Their barbarity was bad enough then, but dragged into the 21st Century, it is completely out of place. And what is more, that barbarous attitude, (coupled with it’s insane mountains of lethal weaponry) in the hands of an immature, intractable people is a surefire recipe for many more blots of disaster to be writ upon history’s pages…
**Take heart**, -more especially you who are by nature of a progressive bent, -in YOU lies the hope of turning it all around.
YOU are the promising seed of future success, even as the weeds of yesteryear wither away…
I wish you well.
xx
“The Land of Optimism Is in the Dumps, But Refuses to Accept How It Got There.” This is the title of the article and yet near the end the author states that we should not look at the reasons or try to understand/explain how we got where we are today. To me, this is confusing. What is wrong about discussing how we are becoming less optimistic these days? I think it would be a good thing to look at those reasons why, collectively, we are less optimistic about the future.
Whenever I have a problem in my life, I try my best to look in the mirror first and to see my part in the problem before pointing a finger at someone else. This works on an individual level but not so well on a national level. For me, that is how I feel about it.
I’m fortunate to be an optimistic person, rather than the type of person who tends to be pessimistic. I see the glass as half full rather than half empty. However, my feelings about the USA and achieving that “American Dream” began to turn around about the time Ronald Reagan became president. Greed was turning into a positive value.
I am one in a family that originally had nine children. My father was an architect and land planner, so we were in the upper middle class. But only my father needed to work. Of course all of us took jobs when we were young because we were raised to have a good work ethic and earn our own money as children. So we would get jobs like being a paperboy and delivering pizzas – those types of jobs young people used to be able to do. There also used to be programs for teenagers to get summer jobs like working at a summer camp or working in the city’s parks cleaning up garbage, painting, etc…
Today in the US, it is almost impossible for one person to support such a family unless you were earning some big bucks. Nine kids is certainly too many, but that’s another issue. “Things” just seemed to become more and more difficult when Reagan began to privatize as many industries as possible. I believe that certain things just shouldn’t be privatized. Things like energy and water are at the top of my list. And the proportion of my paychecks that I needed to spend on certain things each month began to change. It went from about one fourth of my earnings going to housing to about fifty percent.
I knew I could always find a job because I don’t care if I have to clean toilets to make money. I could always find some type of work and move up from there. But it isn’t like that anymore. I’d need a roommate to make ends meet and it became harder and harder to save money. Nowadays, just about everybody needs to work in a household if you want to have extra money for the occasional vacation or buy something that you don’t need but want.
Since Reagan, life, in general, became more and more difficult on a financial level. And that trend hasn’t stopped, in my experience. Safety nets disappeared when hard times would hit me and it has become harder to get back on track once those occasional hard times passed.
When Bush was reelected, I began to look for another country to live in and I chose a third world country. I can now live comfortably working twenty-five to thirty hours a week. No more fifty to sixty work weeks. For a little under five hundred dollars, I can have health coverage each year. Of course the standard of living isn’t as good, but the necessities of life are met and the proportion of my earnings has gone back to about twenty-five percent of my monthly income going to housing costs. I now feel much more secure financially and no longer am I fighting just to keep my head above water. But, as was mentioned about the biggest problem being the environment, I just might be physically fighting to keep my head above water as the sea level rises.
Yes, I believe we do need to look at why we are in the present position in order to identify the problem as best as possible. Only then can we address the issue of why people are less optimistic, if I were still living in the USA. And I feel that the practical elimination of the middle class would be one place to begin.
hybridoma2001 : “my feelings about the USA and achieving that “American Dream” began to turn around about the time Ronald Reagan became president. Greed was turning into a positive value.”
Our collective tombstone’s going to be one line: “Greed is Good”. The positive? Well, it’s a sliver better than “God is Good”.
What a one-sided, typical across the pond assessment.
Recent polls show that 99% of American hedge fund managers are the happiest mofos on what’s left of the planet; 98% of the richest 1% of Americans who now control nearly half of all income and wealth are so friggin happy it’s not funny; 96% of all American military contractors believe the future is so bright, it’s almost nukylur; 95% of all American corporate “titans” have been seen doing the Happy Dance at Arlington National; and, of course, 100% of Cheneybush “friends” set a new world record for happy when they learned that they are not bound by any law of man or God.
We’re happy, baby. Soooooo f**cking happy……..
america is just feeling its collective intuitive gut churning….and still denying the obvious..i would call that,”OPTIMISTIC”(judging by the obvious actions and intent of the bush administration..can there really be ANY doubt left in any one mind-that 9/11 was an inside job ?)
“…how Americans can get their groove back, without examining how they got in this rut in the first place.”
As if the bastards in charge of the USA ever had a ‘groove’ going that was worthy of respect. Surely the ‘groove’ that the author is referring to is the false sense of satifaction in holding the illusion that the USA is significant force for good in the world, defender of justice, democracy etc, rather than the truth - that it is a highly deceptive, insanely violent & greedy monster that prevents peace on earth, and causes far more needless misery than anyone can grasp.
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“There is nothing in your world, either alive or dead, that is worth being agitated about, except the alleviation of suffering.”
From: “The Boy & the Brothers”; publisher Neville Spearman, London,UK
Help, I’m falling. To hell with pessimism we’ve moved to fatalism. Pass the arsenic please.
Paul Bramscher and others have the Premise right:
Nothing can change till there are fundamental reforms (campaign financing; media owership; corporate personhood, etc.)
But there’s too much fragmentation among reformers about the Conclusion-leading-to Action: Who brings the reforms about and How?
I’d say: A nationally-visible, progressive Spokesperson/leader has to emerge from a sufficiently pre-organized source (presumably a political party) to further organize and galvanize a dispirited, fragmented public toward election goals that enact reform.
This can only happen by reformers/progressives first uniting to form an organized core.
We’ve not been able to unite, so far.
There are many reasons for this. At the micro-level, one reason is that we can’t even unite as citizens, on websites like CD, to better-organized the site to allow for the potential of focused action agendas. We need to be able to poll are selves (on sites like this); come to some practical conclusions; establish the conclusions as an agenda - and ACT on the common agenda.
No agenda or candidate will please all of us, but one or the other or both might become viable for enough of us, to put some of our conslusions into outer world action.
Most here might agree that the Dem Party - and even its least objectionable candidates - are not the place to put our action. But let’s at least find out - and continue to focus from there.
To do this, and other action-cohereing things, on CD anyway, we first need an open forum page.
W/o something like this, we’re just going to continue to talk instead of take action.
yep frank1569 they is all so happy….
MaxheMust = MaxheMust = MaxheMust = one helluva mi-re/re-mi…..
Now jxh261, arsenic is nothing to joke about….it is for sure contained in coal as are so many other heavy and funky metals. Coal is something special for sure….maybe we ought stop burning so much of it….hm….same for oil…nothing but the counterpart of coal on planet earth….
Peace,
Ken Hausle
Sholattaka, NC
now dad gonnit, let me add, that i am actually from Charlotte, NC.
that thing about Sholattaka was just a bit of imagination….
Anybody remember that….imagination….what could be….
Signing out for now and for awhile —- really ?????
Peace is what we need and it is so close…
Peace,
Ken Hausle
dear neville,that is why i have come to a firm decision,not to ‘GIFT’my precious vote to the evil sons of bitches or anyone participating in their upside-down(mirror world)democracy..(demogogracy)
http://archive.coanews.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=1881
http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2004/01/14/scorched_earth/fear_no_evil/fearnoevil.txt
The Land of Optimism Is in the Dumps.
Trust is a brittle thing. Optimism, that Trust in the Future, has been shattered. Is it any less heartwrenching for a government to betray it’s citizens than for parents to betray their children? And now for the Long, Long Fall of the Light Bearer. How far is it from Heaven to Hell? A breach of trust - a loss of faith and hope? How can America ever regain that glimmer of hope hidden in the bottom of Pandora’s box without first digging through all the ills and degredations of mankind? Perhaps Henry Miller was correct in Tropic of Cancer. To find salvation and rebirth we must first fall to the bottomless pit of hopelessness, degredation and despair.
Some people await the second coming and others await the first but I think if Jesus should appear we will all shout “Give Us bar Abbas.”
The Land of Optimism Is Really in the Dumps.
The United States has been stepping on the backs of its world neighbors since its inception, and that is the only reason we have been able to maintain a facade of optimism. If we were brought up in this country to actually think about how our actions affect others around the world, our collective mode of behavior would be far more inclusive and humanistic, and therefore our government would more closely resemble that ideal instead of the one it does today. Until we are ready to deal with the real pain and struggle of changing the way our society behaves, we will indeed have to continue to experience change only by way of dramatic economic downturns, war, abject poverty, massive imprisonment, lack of access to health care and affordable higher education, and so on and so forth.
I said this this in 2004, and I’ll say it again right now. Maybe the best thing for this country would be for yet another right wing quasi-fascist “conservative” to “win” the Presidency, so that we can finally experience the pain and resentment of economic and political authoritarian cleptocracy. Maybe then the right wing in this country will fully enslave us, move everything from the commons into the private sector, and rid us of our right to be educated, healthy, and safe from the elements. Maybe then, we will take it to the streets.
However, it could be said that is unfair to the rest of the world. Thanks to our gluttonous need to globalize everything, we have now helped to create a world in which every little thing we do in this country has a genuine effect upon other countries. Should they have to suffer our fate? Hmmm. Anyway, point is, Mr. Younge is dead on. Only, I would take it one step further and say that Americans need to resign themselves to the simple fact that life will get a right lot harder before it gets easier, because we will have to deal with the irreversible mistakes we - as a society - and our government have made.
On the bright side though: If society begins to accept fate; that we have a lot of work ahead of us; that we have to become whole again; that we have to learn again to work together to accomplish meaningful societal changes; that we have gone way too far down the wrong path; we may also find ourselves a little happier. There is a profound kind of sadness that overtakes a person when one knows he or she is not acting in the better interests of one’s fellows. I’m pretty sure that’s the societal funk America is in. I, for one, would rather be shit poor and part of a society actively involved in bettering itself and the world around it, then actively avoiding the betterment for a little momentary gluttonous bliss.
There are solutions that would make everything much more balanced and hopeful, there just aren’t any political leaders willing to do the job … they are owned lock, stock and barrel by the unwarranted influence of money.
plants make food from the sun, everything else lives by killing and stealing.
maybe stating at this as a given, the rest would be easier to understand
in a world of billions of predators, there are likely to be many, more adept at predation than you.
the top 1% wealthiest americans are at war with everyone else on the planet and right now they are winning; just like the Robber Barons on the 1880s
there aint no americans anymore to talk about - just little islands in the rivers of cars and lonely wethaired hitchhikers waving their cell phones around wondering why nobody done give ‘em a ride - shoot, even the iraq vets have to hang around the gas station offering bad advice in exchange for a nugget of weed here or a tall boy there…
poor americans.
The United Corporatocracy of Errant Ideologues
You’ve GOT to know that someone like this mutagenic son of a former president looks to the likes of ‘the think tank boys’ for advice. Problem is their credo goes like this: “I gotta come up with something to justify my pay-check…..no matter how bogus….gotta’ come up with SOMETHING”. And number 2 in the credo: “Hell, the safest thing to do in my job (which depends on the winds of politics) is to ‘tell ‘em what they want to hear.” “The United Corporatocracy of Errant Ideologues” or life inside the “Hall of Smoke and Mirrors”.
Oh, and kudos to *UN-common-dreams* contribution and I also always enjoy *frank 1569*’s take on things….. actually a lot of good posts here.
ps: “European investors fled the fund industry in droves in August, withdrawing an UNPRECEDENTED net $99 BILLION of money, according to data from Lipper Feri.
“Even mainstream lower-risk money market funds, traditionally a safe haven in times of market volatility, suffered net redemption’s of E15 bn, while there were also outflows form equity (E16bn) and bond funds.”
{taken from FT.com, 10/15/07, “Europe records ‘unprecedented’ outflows”.
“If that’s all there is, my friend
then lets keep on dancing…….and break out th’ booooooze
if that’s all……………………….there is. (Peggy Lee)
Once you realize that the elections are rigged. Look at the people in office now. Out of 535 congressman about 10 of them seem to have an idea of whats going on.
Most of the government now is not even elected. The ones that hold the secrets, the ones that do the assassinations the torture, the ones that control our money. The foreign influences who seem to have more pull than the American people. Our totally controlled [run by the CIA]press.
We are just along for the ride kids, they no longer even give the pretense of caring for what we think. Enjoy railing against them on blogs like this while you can. Sites like this are being infiltrated and compromised as we speak.
And people wonder why were pessimistic.
From the political perspective, the only candidate talking about any of this is Ron Paul.
He has said that to save Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, we are going to have to shut down our military adventures and pursue a non-interventionist foreign policy.
He believes we should set an example to the world of how free people work together to solve our problems.
If Progressives don’t hitch their wagon to this star I think they’ll regret it.
Ken Hausle October 15th, 2007 12:03 pm
Can Impeachment be proposed in the Senate???
NO
If not, why not???
BECAUSE THE CONSTITUTION SAYS SO, THAT’S WHY.
well there is a lot to be down about.
i don’t think a clever parallel reality creating politician from the wilderness is going to come along and save the day.
it would be like trying to light a match in a hurricane anyway.
and don’t forget the 50% of the people who are not upset about killing iraqis but are upset about losing a war to untrained irregulars - not exactly the same thing.
there is an interesting twist in the iraq situation (and also iran) with two new developments this week;
putin is going to tehran (i don’t think bush will bomb them with putin there)
and the vote on the armenian genocide, i think, is the final word on the sad state of the political process today.
the congress can’t focus on reigning in an out of whack president and his war mongering fascist/neocons (who are arguably out of their minds)but they can undo the coalition of the billing by alienating turkey over events that are almost 100 years old.
turkey has recalled its ambassador, attacked the kurds and are seriously contemplating asking the americans to leave their country thereby cutting off a valuable supply route.
reducing the coalition to 6 albanians.
in wrapping up the article the author calls for the man or woman who can come along and heal the country without having to own up to its legacy.
that’s like wanting to go to heaven without dying.
or its like not wanting to know who killed jfk, bobby, martin, even pat tillman.
like mom used to say: you make your bed, you lie in it.
jsc, Mr. Paul is certainly getting some serious looks from the sane sector of society,……..BUT, Mr. Paul sounds adamant that he will not change to “Independent Party” status, and most of the civilized world is no longer able to …ptuuii, say the word repulic…. ptuuii, republic you know….without spitting first. One becomes very concerned that forcing oneself to go into a voting stall and actually casting a pencil-driven vote for a PTUUII republic…..PTUUII republic you know……would cause such expulsive explosions of deep and neferious duct-work, that it would attract the likes of Larry-the-shit-house-Craig-type-patty-footers. But nice try; happily there is Dennis Kucinich (and no flys)
Hey there’s ol’ Miles’, always enjoy your take on thing Miles’.
It strikes me that dredging up the very stimuli that would make Turkey reticent to continue being hospitible to the US, was a stroke of genius on someones part. It opens the opportunity to disolve the Iraq occupation due to ‘techincal difficulties’, rather than admitting idiocy.
CHECK OUT THIS CONFERENCE!!! (may seem depressing at first. BUT.. there is hope!.. )
Community Solutions
Q: Why should I be concerned about Peak Oil?
A: Peak Oil represents a profound change in the conditions that have allowed economic growth to proceed over the years. In the past few decades, there has been enough oil to meet demand because the supply has been growing at the same time demand has been growing. This will no longer be true after Peak Oil. Demand will not be met as supplies dwindle and oil prices will rise. Other energy sources will not be able to do for us what oil did.
Q: What will happen as Peak Oil occurs?
A: Oil prices will start to go up. Any goods that are produced with the help of oil will become more expensive.
Q: What will happen after Peak Oil occurs?
A: As the global supply of oil begins to fall below the world’s rising demands, there will be a shortage. Oil prices will go up exponentially. For example, just a few years ago in California a 5% shortage in natural gas led to a 400% price increase.
Because oil is used to transport the goods of our consumer society from all over the nation and globe, the price of most products will also go up. Food prices will be the most evident as food spending as a percentage of income rises.
Furthermore, because energy prices and the economy are so closely linked, an economic recession will be the most likely consequence. Rising national and consumer debt, increased unemployment, and increased social unrest will all follow.
As we acclimate ourselves to a world of scarce oil, the use of oil for non-essential purposes will decrease dramatically. Miles driven will decrease and people will drive more fuel efficient vehicles. People will use less oil directly and indirectly because they cannot afford it. Living in a suburb will become more difficult since cars won’t be able to be used as much to get around. Families will likely spend more time with each other. There will be an increasing interest in organic farming out of necessity as food prices continue to escalate.
http://www.communitysolution.org/
Peak oil concerns for real. Better start nudging the city fathers to consider changing ordinances so that folks can start keeping livestock. I’ve always enjoyed horses. I’d like to see a Clydesdale out there mowing my side yard. I’ve always liked horse drawn conveyances. Guess horse drawn slays won’t get much demand though. the clydesdale can drive the press that squeezes out the oil from the jatropha nuts for making biodiesel also. Only need a little for the diesel golfcart.
Peak oil concerns for real. Better start nudging the city fathers to consider changing ordinances so that folks can start keeping livestock. I’ve always enjoyed horses. I’d like to see a Clydesdale out there mowing my side yard. I’ve always liked horse drawn conveyances. Guess horse drawn slays won’t get much demand though. the clydesdale can drive the press that squeezes out the oil from the jatropha nuts for making biodiesel also. Only need a little for the diesel golf-cart.
IMPEACHMENT IS JUST AND NECESSARY.
The time has come to write IMPEACH on every sign, every tree, every fence, everywhere. The people will have a voice in the future of this country and on the life that will be lived by our children. If necessary, we must write it in on local and state referendum ballots. We must write it on our gas receipts, and forclosure notices, on utility bills, and on hospital bills and send copies to our elected representatives in the House. We must write it in big bold letters on the front pages of our local corporate media and send it back to the publishers. We must write it on stickers, and buttons, and on sheets and hang these outside our doors. IMPEACH must be seen everywhere, if we are to make positive change in our country.
Coyotita, in barely a year, he will be out anyway. Besides, do you really want Cheney to be president?
Anney, Are you scrabble Annie?
I spent this afernoon checkmarking incoming voter lists in that part of rural ( fishing crabbing) America you describe. The looming economic disaster, is all the Governort’s fault……….not DC/
The Republicans dutifully vote
The work ethic is dead. How can you motivate people to work and not give raises or incentives? We are a bunch of hampsters on a wheel.
The people who got out of the rat race are the winners. I have a friend who owned a few businesses-sold them and flipped houses and now is retired. He invested his investments in gold.
If you are behind, you are going to get more behind.
After most of your money goes to taxes(to support people who could care less about your interests) you may have some left for food. On top of this Bush expects you to pay for your own health care and education. I would like to see him try on $5.00 a week.
If we had the moral decency to be outraged in large enough numbers we’d all be phoning and emailing our congresspeople and marching in the streets demanding some semblance of sane, law abiding government.
George W. Bush may have been the best thing since sliced bread. His incompetence has started the beginning of the end for globalization. He has forced alliances that will destroy the US of A’s hegemony in the Americas, the Middle East and in Asia.
The end of globalization is the beginning of environmental reforms and workers rights. Sometimes one has to thank the opposition for the unintended help.
Cheers GW.
Hmmm…a UK paper, no mention of Tony Blair’s support of dimwit GWB’s war drums. If Blair had not supported Bush we would not be so deeply entrenched as we are now, if at all.
Our other problems are due to a political monster often cloaked in words of Jesus but with secret plans to do the work of the Devil.
Other countries probably see the “axis of evil” as the USA,UK and Israel.
Vinlander’s remarks are right on the money.
USians are experiencing growing pains.
All learning is painful.
And USians are learning about reality.
For example, we USians are slowly learning that reality resists and cannot be forever molded to our myriad desires and wishes (our optimism), just as the Iraqis are resisting the U.S. occupation of their land.
We USians are learning that reality bites back in the form of global warming, desertification, floods, flooded land masses, sand storms, melting poles, epidemics, new viruses released by deforestation, extinction of species, hurricanes, pollution of water and air, mountains of garbage, land fills whose poisons leak into the water table, et cetera, just as Iraqis are biting back with anything they can come up with, including suicide missions.
Slowly, we USians are learning that oil is getting scarcer and scarcer, that eventually the oil wells are going to dry up, and that happy motoring is going to come to an end.
As other peoples before them, we USians are learning that the world is not a stockpile of stuffs waiting to serve our interests and needs, that the planet has a soul of its own that we must respect.
Apparently, though, we USians are having a tough time with this one:
“65% of Americans believe the country is less respected by the rest of the world than it was - double the figure of 20 years ago. The fact that only half those polled thought this was a problem is telling.
For if the war in Iraq were going well then this probably wouldn’t matter.”
But if further maturing (and that means further suffering) takes place, we will come around on that score, too. For we will learn to apply the golden rule (”don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you”) not merely to our family and circle of friends, but other nations as well. And then we’ll appreciate being appreciated by others and other nations.
Good comments everybody.
I still feel though, that we are not really focusing on the root cause of our Americann disease: Unelected CEO’s which bully and dictate to the congress and pull the strings on the Chimp. They, Bonesmen and Ivy League business school MBA’s, are our real problem.
The government has morphed into a self-destructive seven-headed Hydra, and I agree with those that say we must starve it or slowly die from a thousand cuts of it’s whipsawing tail. Life around this dragon (wall street) is unbearable and it’s time we boycott all things it makes:
NATIONAL BOYCOTT NOV 7TH. (vote 100% third party)
Just refuse to feed the beast for a few months, and if congress won’t respond with impeachment:
NATIONAL STRIKE
These are the only peaceful tools we have, imho.
pac
The largest and longest propaganda campaign ever conceived has been in place in USA. Big corporations, politicians and media have made it difficult to have your own suspicions of the truth confirmed.
I just read an article that explained investment risk calculations are all based on ‘normal bell curve’ data. If investment data were normal there would be few serious financial disasters. We have had tens of failures that should each have happened about once every 3 BILLION years with normal data.
Every MBA graduate has been trained to calculate risk that could not possibly be accurate.
It is not a big surprise that people are confused. The main stream media is still cheering our wonderful economy.
1. I agree that the Dems haven’t done all they can. And it is true they can’t break a filibuster. We need to elect enough, probably 9 and 10 for sure next election. And for sure a Dem Prez no matter who. The Supreme court is on the verge and one more conservative on it can undo everything that is still intact. And that will last for another 20 years. I don’t contend this is more important than lives being lost isn’t the most pressing issue, but it is important to realize that one more wingnut judge and they will overturn not just Roe v. Wade, but Social security, medicare, most large social programs. Remember Social Security only survived by a 5 to 4 vote in the 30s despite a court that at that time was liberal. Think of the damage that could be done, millions of seniors in poverty, no healthcare for them. Medicaid, Schip. If you don’t think that the right wingers won’t push for all of this as they become more and more emboldened, you are wrong. If you listen to right wing talk, their overall objective is to totally overturn the new deal of FDR, the new society of the 60s and 70s of the war on poverty, medicare, etc.
The electorate in the last 7 years has made the Dems extremely gun shy and the constant lies from prez and repugnets do echo across the land and it is unfortunate that this still resonates in the red states. I live in Georgia and hear the wingnuts exicited that this can occur in our lifetime; Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia are licking their chops for just one more wingnut Supreme court judge and we can begin. Justice Breyer, liberal is 87, Ginsberg, Stevens, and Souter in their 70s DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas, just licking their chops for one more wingnut
We must support the Dems and nurse them along no matter what!!! Don’t vote for any 3rd party candidates, don’t sign any petitions to get other candidates on the ballot in any state. THIS COMING ELECTION IS THAT IMPORTANT.
REMEMBER DIVIDE US AND THEY WIN!!!!!!.
One of the messages of this article is that the American public is in denial. The good news is that if they break the shell and face the reality, they may then stand a good chance that things may begin to improve.
There is no question that the American political system is corrupt and needs a major overhaul. This is not a malicious claim; don’t take anyone’s word for it; just look at America’s state of affairs today.
The two-party system has proven to be a failure, and is the single most important reason why we are in a rut today. Elected by the campaign contributions from the influential and the rich, our so-called reps have no loyalty to the people. Again, this is not an idle claim. Just look at the performance of the Democrats that were elected into office in 2006 elections. For its own perpetuation, the two-party system will adamantly resist any change, and it’ up to the people to effect the change.
The wars, the media concentration, the mass of uninformed and lethargic public can all be traced to the corrupt political system. Change the system, and change your destiny for the better
dkitching (10/16 3:09a)
Thank you for your clear reasoning above that we must
support the Dems (like ‘em or not) for the sake of the future Supreme Court. It IS that important.
There is no means by which Republicans and conservatives can emasculate their foes (the rest of us)faster than having entire doctrines and precedents reversed. When that happens, and it will, there is no recourse. Help a Democrat appoint the future court. There is no greater service you can perform for your friends and family.
This is a really interesting stream of commentary, I must say. Two things come to mind: One, we need a new Hippie movement in this country, minus the overindulgence of drugs and carelessness, but an overabundance of focus on peace, harmony, and acceptance among ourselves. If the progressives, radicals, liberals, or whatever you want to call the current ambiguous hodgepodge of change-seekers were to at least come together on two of three central themes - such as peace, anti-economic globalization, and environmental responsibility - we would immediately be far more able to affect change than we are now.
Two, we must understand that the current political system, even if we do manage to utilize it to get an acceptable President elected and a supra-majority in the House and Senate - something we absolutely must get if we are to have any real chance at reversing the terrible decisions of the last four Presidents - is not sufficient for what needs to be done in this country and frankly the world. It is up to us to find the people who are passionate enough, knowledgeable enough, practical enough, bold enough, and most importantly brave enough to stand up in the face of such extreme negativity, helplessness, and opposition to start the movements (notice the plural) that will bring us back from certain death. I have posed this question many times, and I will pose it again: Who are our leaders? If we don’t know who they are, where and how are we going to find them and then cultivate their abilities so that we can put them in the position to lead our movements for change? True leaders are selected by the people; they come to the forefront, because the situation deems it necessary and right, and the people tell them when that time has come. Think Abby Hoffman, Martin Luther King Jr., Mario Savio, John Lennon, and so on and so forth throughout history in every country in the world.
Daniel David October 16th, 2007 10:03 am
What is really telling is that all you and others that post messages similar to yours have to offer is fear if everyone doesn’t fall into line and vote as you demand that we do.
Lobo Gris
This is the heritage of the cold war which dominated American thinking and the ideology of both parties. There was no reason for the cold war as far as things concerning individual people, in the NATO countries and the Warsaw Pact countries were concerned. However, it served the interests of entire classes, institutions, and industries who lived off it. Politicians could rally support against a mythical enemy, media could pontificate on myths and theories which formed the conventional wisdom, the military - industrial complex that even Eisenhower could sense as a threat prospered, the CIA and other organizations living off strategic studies flourished, and all over the world, Latin America, the Mideast, Southeast Asia, Africa, everywhere the CIA and the US Army meddled, we only caused disaster and ruinous wars.
We have to go back to the post WWII vision of FDR, a world based on consensus and peace, one based on a “One World” agenda. It is the nature of the nomination of candidates through primary campaigning to emphasize the opposite, i.e., old phoney leftovers of the cold war and very local domestic issues. Al Gore, who has a record of focussing on planetary issues like global warming and the internet (he didn’t “invent” it, only recognized its importance and advanced its development), is the man who could get us out of this rut. He has avoided the trap of campaigning in the primaries — he should instead campaign on global issues in general. He should address college and other audiences on the issues facing the planet, referring the global warming part to the international SCIENTIFIC panel’s report and expertise and draw attention to world trade and standards of safety, labor, health, poverty, the rights of women, etc. All these things affect us more as handled on a global basis than any individual US policy decision. He should emulate Lincoln’s campaign of 1860, with his Cooper Union and other speeches which were more in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets than modern political campaigning.
Nobody is going to win the needed majority to dominate the convention outright. The delegates to the convention will nominate the candidate, and they could nominate Gore if he successfully spends 2008 giving America a new direction.
With US power and wealth facing inevitable decline, it seems to me that progressives in this country should focus on maximizing the probability that the extremely dangerous wounded giant declines in a peaceful manner and does not risk worldwide nuclear war or otherwise engage in ill-advised and short-sighted actions that destabilize the planet. There are US political players and forces behind them who would heighten the risk of a planet-wide disaster in order to prevent a decline, and all humans who care about the future of the human family must do what they can to stop them, and US citizens are in the best position to do so.
The US was incredibly fortunate to emerge from WWII unscathed when all of its industrial competitors suffered serious damage. So the US had much more success than anyone should have expected from the level of quality and soundness in its political and economic systems, and inefficient and self-destructive patterns in those systems were rewarded and reinforced inappropriately. And now those inefficiencies have their own inertia as they move the US economy and political system towards collapse.
I believe the pessimism stems from the recognition by more and more US citizens and residents that a collapse is approaching and that there is little they can do to stop it. However, the human race is still here, our civilization survives, and our knowledge and our culture grow and deepen, and there is no reason we cannot have hope for our children or others who come after us, and no reason we cannot find comfort and satisfaction in doing all we can to stop the corporate oligarchy from further endangering all we hold dear.
“What is really telling is that all you and others that post messages similar to yours have to offer is fear if everyone doesn’t fall into line and vote as you demand that we do.”
Really? Is that the most frightening thing to you? That we want a party that will at least try to keep some form of democratic rule in place? What would you rather have? Ron Paul? Hmmm… You can’t possibly be suggesting that any of the Republican candidates are good options. They are literally fighting over who is a bigger war-monger! It’s sickening. Their biggest concerns are how little can we spend on the public good and how much can we spend on our foreign imperial goals?
About fear: Whether you want to admit it or not, many, if not most Americans dread the loss of a job, or falling behind in their various credit payments, or losing their dreadfully expensive health care, if indeed they have any. It’s called the tyranny of the bottom line, and in my humble opinion, it plays a huge role in our ability to get folks to really stand up and speak truth to power. In the 1960s this country resembled something more like a social democracy than whatever the hell it is we have now. Therefore, there was not the abject fear of loss of financial stability or ability to work, or what have you. I realize I am being very simplistic here, but we are not writing books, just commenting.
Fear is a good thing if it can be somehow used in a positive way to achieve outcomes that empower us to make change.
Lastly, you seem to have only focused on the fear, instead of the larger statement I was making, in that we need a new set of movements in this country, and that we need to come together as a nation, or at least those of us who actually are aware that we have a problem, which is BY FAR the majority.
LEO BIXBY: Excellent analysis.
EVENINGLAND: Good points about a wake-up call as per “it ain’t all for the US taking.”
One good thing about the bad news is that it proves something important: REALITY trumps all the expensive PR campaigns orchestrated by the Bush tragi-comedy team to try to alter events here on the ground for mass perceptions’ liking.
Another key point is that the US is beginning to witness the karmic truth that other nations’ resources are not meant for our gluttony. It’s a vote for universal justice and its invisible operating systems.
UNCOMMON dreams, good analogy about the US citizenry as akin to the maturing adolescent. You are so patient with that “bad boy.”
EDDIEVALGOULD: From the perspective of spirit (being out of body to watch the big show unfolding) it may prove a groovy ride into the inevitable transition phase ahead, however, while IN a body, we will be facing painful, arduous growing pangs as we move from one phase into another.
HYBRIDOMA: There was an article in Harper’s that shared how Universities are not instituting COURSES IN HAPPINESS. I find this quite Orwellian. As actual events make life harder for many and expunge justice from operating systems where it was once more firmly placed, a focus is being put on individuals to BE happy: i.e. to DENY reality. I’ve already seen a correspondence between the profligate prescribing of anti-depressant drugs and an Orwellian style altering of peoples’ perspectives. To get university departments to move in direction that penalizes those who SEE and FEEL and THINK about what is REALLY going on, to then label these sentient folk the crazies, or the dissidents, is a recipe for DRUGGING the intelligentsia. I could see this happening as a “legal” means to shut up the ones wit eyes to see.
As others have commented, the fact that lots of us validate one another’s understanding (or expand it) in this forum is a cathartic thing. We can only hope the small waves we herein create echo out into the larger lakes and bodies of mass consciousness.
Mistake: Universities are NOW instituting.
BOSTONBOUND: There are also cooperative lessons and exmaples to be drawn from the natural world, lest one seek the ways and means to legitimize a “survival of the fittest” Darwinian ethos for all systems of life. That approach reminds me of those who quote portions of the Bible to support violence or aggression.
I would add at least one item to this laundry list of reasons for our current funk that I think cannot be overemphasized: the awareness that we are slipping deeper into a state that resembles fascism. That we can no longer recognize the nation we thought we once were.
The awareness that the system is gamed and there is very little we can do to change it other than watch more TV, see what Britney is up to, anything to escape the fact that the polar ice caps are melting and that the coming election is just one set of corporatists against another. And the all too real fact that we are being surveilled and monitored while dissent is trivialized and watered down.
We see and feel the tremendous outrage against our leaders. Yet we see no action. We see no accountability. We see no oppositon from the so-called opposition party while the corporate press keeps obfuscating the facts.
We are collectively falling deeper into a state of learned helplessness and involvement in politics seems more and more fruitless and absurd.
CRCox October 16th, 2007 11:19 am
“About fear: Whether you want to admit it or not, many, if not most Americans dread the loss of a job, or falling behind in their various credit payments, or losing their dreadfully expensive health care, if indeed they have any. It’s called the tyranny of the bottom line, and in my humble opinion, it plays a huge role in our ability to get folks to really stand up and speak truth to power.”
Bill Clinton and a Democratically controlled Congress passed NAFTA, the major beginning of outsourcing which has created much of the fear you describe above. Clinton went on to pass the Carribean Basin initiative, the African Economic Opportunity act, and others culminating in the flawed trade agreement with China and their ascension to the WTO.
So just how is it that you believe that electing more Democrats is going to solve the problem of those fears you outlined?
trollwiththepunches: Very succinct statement. I would add that whether they are aware of it or not, one of the main goals of the rightist complex and the corporate media that is all too willing to do their dirty work, is to instigate the feeling “that the system is gamed and there is very little we can do to change it other than watch more TV, see what Britney is up to, anything to escape the fact that the polar ice caps are melting and that the coming election is just one set of corporatists against another.”
The more we feel that the system is useless to us, the more power that system gains to work against us, controlled by the small monied minority. We must co-opt the system and then rebuild it as a part of our process of taking back the government that was hijacked from us a long time ago.
CRCox October 16th, 2007 11:19 am
BTW when I posted to Daniel David before on this as I did this time he said that electing Democrats wouldn’t give us everything. That there would be more “free trade” and outsourcing and wasn’t it great that a billion in the world had been lifted out of poverty and another billion would in ten years. That as “humanists” we should be celebrating that fact.
(my statement) Never mind the cost to American workers and their families
Lobo Gris
Lobo Gris: Again you have selectively read. I wrote, just after stating that we need a Democratic President and a super majority (might have said supra-majority, not sure if that is proper use) in the Congress, about “reversing the terrible decisions of the last four Presidents.” I actually think Clinton is one of the worst Presidents in the history of this country in terms of foreign trade and the like. He has drastically harmed many economies in the Third World, while simultaneously eroding hundreds of thousands of good-paying middle class jobs here! Even with the many ills of the Democratic party - and there really are many - it is our best chance against the right wing in this country. We can’t have the world and/or the political aparatus we envision over night, we have to work for it. Starting with a party that at least pays lip service to our desires is better than that of a party that goes out of its way to spit at us. Furthermore, I don’t think the Libertarian alternative is any better, though many others do. An old professor of mine said “individualism is counter-revolutionary.” I tend to agree with him in many ways.
Lastly, it is a commonly accepted falsity in America that electing certain leaders or parties into power will “solve” things for us. That is a load of crap. Having the right people in legislative and executive power is merely the starting point. It’s up to the citizens of this country to dictate to THEM what we think is in our best interest!
CRCox
Thanks for your response.
You are totally right about this:
The more we feel that the system is useless to us, the more power that system gains to work against us, controlled by the small monied minority.
And perhaps I am too cynical, perhaps I am too old, too jaded, too burned out but when I read this sentence:
We must co-opt the system and then rebuild it as a part of our process of taking back the government that was hijacked from us a long time ago.
My eyes glaze over.
Nice words. Laudable sentiment.
How do we co-opt the system then?
I look around me and I don’t see much that is effective in co-opting anything.
I do see a lot of what would pass for activism in an early day being co-opted though.
I would absolutely LOVE to hear some specific suggestions.
CRCox, the political system is useless to you, it does not answer to your concerns so try taking it back by co-opting it. Start a new party and get the two others back on track. Ross P. tried it but he was another elitist who couldn’t speak for the nation. One problem is the constitution is behind the times, it speaks to and of property rights and nothing about human rights. The other is the so called philosophy of “enlightened self interest” which is a load of high sounding mush for “every man for himself” a damned poor way to build a nation, it has even permeated much of the so called right wing religions focusing on a personal relationship with Christ as opposed to following his message of serving others. America is no longer a drama it is becoming a Greek tragedy. Those secessionists in Vermont maybe onto a way to answer your question, if the system doesn’t work for you leave it and start your own.
bostonbound2,
You wrote:
plants make food from the sun, everything else lives by killing and stealing.
maybe stating at this as a given, the rest would be easier to understand
in a world of billions of predators, there are likely to be many, more adept at predation than you.
the top 1% wealthiest americans are at war with everyone else on the planet and right now they are winning; just like the Robber Barons on the 1880s
I think that is a good summation of the reasons that it makes no sense for human beings to try to group themselves with all of life, or to be “one with nature.” On the other hand, I do not think it disposes of the issue regarding whether an individual should try to be one with the human race.
Humans evolved in groups and group-based thinking is fundamental. We all, mentally, put ourselves in many different groups, with different priorities and emphases. Wealthy and corporate elites obviously put priority on their group containing similar elites (as anyone would prioritize according to the level of reward of the grouping).
With modern communications technologies and the availability of translations and the ubiquitousness of multilingual individuals, the non-elites find a species-wide grouping to be a possibility for the first time, and many will likely recognize it as more empowering and appealing, though elites will manipulate and separate non-elites to prevent the recognition of that possibility (just as currently and in previous times elites do prevent and have prevented non-elites from recognizing the advantage of nation-wide groupings).
We can stand together as a species, against the non-human universe and against elite (and confused and damaged non-elite) human predators, and we better begin to do it soon.
CRCox October 16th, 2007 11:53 am
Where I disagree with you is that electing more Democrats and especially another Clinton is going to solve the issues raised.
The definition of insanity is to keep repeating the same actions over and over (electing Democrats and Republicans)while each time expecting different results.
“Lastly, it is a commonly accepted falsity in America that electing certain leaders or parties into power will “solve” things for us. That is a load of crap. Having the right people in legislative and executive power is merely the starting point. It’s up to the citizens of this country to dictate to THEM what we think is in our best interest!”
And just how do you propose to do that? Congress’s approval ratings are lower than Bush’s, one poll puts it at 11% precisely because they are not listening. By electing more of them to office? Seems to me that electing more of them to office will encourage more of the same we’re getting right now, which is nothing, rather than less.
Lobo Gris
Specific suggestions are hard to come by indeed, from me or from anyone else. I will admit that I am part of the problem. I am so caught up in my own work and the various groups I participate in that I have not sat down to write a book, a manifesto if you will. That leads me to my one big suggestion for co-opting the system: Do whatever it takes. If it means being a bit more militant, than so be it. If it means taking over buildings instead of simply “peacefully protesting” in them, so be it. Thing need to be taken to the next level of debate. We need a true revolutionist movement in this country, and that means dealing with the fear of losing one’s job, letting their credit get ruined, maybe even losing the place they rent, or forfeiting the massive house payment, etc. That is the threshold we have to pass! People have to just wince and take the pain of losing the safety of economic stability. Look, it is going to come anyway, and already has for millions of Americans. Why don’t people come out to more protests? Because the days of people walking out on their jobs to join a protest or to volunteer to be a part of a movement seem dead.
So that is my suggestion, work to build a real movement toward revolution in this country. Each and every one of us. You know, back in the day, maybe when you were out there doing it (don’t know what you mean by “old”), there were literally hundreds of networks of safe-houses and places in all major cities where particiapants in the movement could find food, clothes, transit, and even medical attention when needed. That’s the kind of thing we need to be working on. A thousand committed full-time movement-builders can turn out a million protesters and activists in no time flat, whether or not we have the media on our side.
But, alas, full of ideas, and not yet ready to go there. However, I - like you maybe - am ready to go there when I can find the type of leadership that draws me there. And I am relatively confident that the time will come when I will indeed hang up my comfort zone hat and put on my construction zone hat, dig?
In solidarity!
Lobo: Sorry man, but you seem hopeless. WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU ASSUME FROM MY STATEMENTS THAT I WOULD SUPPORT CLINTON? To be honest, I’d vote for a Republican out of spite before voting for Hillary if she won the nomination. Perhaps I should have made that clear, but I thought you would just assume.
Approval ratings? Come on, who gives a crap about that? Almost every Congress in history has had terrible ratings, especially during a Presidential cycle. My point was simple: if we have a super majority we can more easily lobby Congress to a point of being able to veto dumb decisions by the Executive, dig?
Now it’s my turn? What do you propose? Or are you just here to stir the pot, but want everyone else to serve the food? You are great at pointing out the obvious, but what about the not-so-obvious?
CRCox October 16th, 2007 12:19 pm
Lobo: Sorry man, but you seem hopeless. WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU ASSUME FROM MY STATEMENTS THAT I WOULD SUPPORT CLINTON?
You have advocated supporting Democrats in general, and Clinton is the leading candidate on the Democratic side. What, are people supposed to be mind readers and guess that you support all Democrats but Clinton?
“Approval ratings? Come on, who gives a crap about that? Almost every Congress in history has had terrible ratings, especially during a Presidential cycle.”
Not 11%, and generally not lower than an unpopular president when the Congress is controlled by the opposing party.
“Now it’s my turn? What do you propose? Or are you just here to stir the pot, but want everyone else to serve the food? You are great at pointing out the obvious, but what about the not-so-obvious?”
I advocate voting for a third party of the voters choice. I believe that the Democrats will not pay attention to the voters until it starts costing them elections. And who knows, with sentiment so raw right now we might actually get some third party candidates elected that really will change things rather than just pretend they will to get votes.
Lobo Gris
The polls we read about citizen satisfaction with the status quo are far more interesting and informative when separated into republican and denocratic points of view. These show (for what it is worth) more that 70% of Republicans are satisfied with the direction of trhe country. It would be more interesting still if it were further broken down into demographics, don’t you think?
I’m still the ultimate optimist….there are lots of solutions happening out there. One I recommend…Riane Eisler’s work, “Real Wealth of Nations”…creating a caring economics. She highlights lots of ways to transform this dominator/top-down mess–and many of them are happening now–even if most Americans are blind to it. Check out www.realwealtheconomy.com www.partnershipway.org
“I advocate voting for a third party of the voters choice.” says Lobo.
For those of us who can count to three, the math is pretty simple: in national elections, a vote for anyone other than a Democrat is a vote for the Republicans.
“Progressives” who throw away their votes on third party candidates are a great resource for the Republicans — probably as reliable a source of votes as the gun nuts, evangelicals, and gay bashers.
dux,
In a democracy, the only thrown away vote is one that doesn’t reflect your own personal conscience.
Show us the goods. Demonstrate to us that Hillary represents progressive ideals: out of Iraq, ease off on Iran, no torture, return of habeas corpus, single-payer health care, IRV/Range vote, no more Diebold, shut down the School of the Americas, renewable energy, etc. etc. Voting for Hillary is, on many issues, the same as a vote for the Republicans.
A vote for a Republicrat is a vote for a Republicrat. If Hillary’s interest in invading Iran, keeping up the monkeybusiness in Latin America, and preventing single-payer health care from passing is in your interests, then by all means vote for Hillary — you’d be obliged to do so.
SonOfPowerslave wrote on October 15th, 2007 10:55 pm:
Coyotita, in barely a year, he will be out anyway. Besides, do you really want Cheney to be president?
Answer: Of course not! Once Impeachment is OFF THE TABLE, we’ll work out the details.
PrestonDigitator: I can understand the repulsiveness with which you regard the R option. I’ve been hoping that Ron Paul will wind up on a Unity 08 ticket with Gravel or Kucinich or even Feingold or Obama. But I’ve read his speeches on the House floor for the past 4 years and also read a lot of commentary about him over that time and it works for me.
Yes, there are things I don’t like, so what else is new? But, I believe if we don’t deal with rampant militarism, restoration of the rule of law and constitutional rights, plus the financial tsunami on the horizon, not much else is going to matter.
At this point, if my state has one of these early primaries, I will vote as an R for Ron Paul. By the way, Republicans really don’t like him because they can’t control him. The latest effort is to smear him because white supremacists support him. Well, guess what. They hate NAFTA, and the WTO just like Progressives do.
Sorry, that’s ON THE TABLE, ON, ON, ON!
Gary Younge is a thoughtful writer who is always worth reading. However, I think that George Carlin summed it up more succinctly when he said “You know why they call it ‘The American Dream’? Because you have to be asleep to believe it!”
dux October 16th, 2007 3:09 pm
““Progressives” who throw away their votes on third party candidates are a great resource for the Republicans — probably as reliable a source of votes as the gun nuts, evangelicals, and ga