The blame game..."the rules"...and growing up...
Had a great day, today:):)...taking care of holds on campus to get transcripts to schools for teaching positions:):)...
Talked with this really sweet KU library circulation girl who is studying social work and wants to do inner city work:):)...
Had a really nice talk with my neighbor, Jesse, about policy and thinking and their importance in the world:):)...Jesse didn't finish high school...but he seems to be taking a serious interest in both...which is good, I think...I hope he'll end up getting that diploma or that G.E.D. and going onto college, someday:):)...
Stopped by the Natural History Museum, while I was on campus:):)...they have a new bug exhibit...that I didn't end up visiting...I was so hungry that I had to leave earlier than I would have liked and grab a bite at the Kansas Union, for old times sakes:):)...so the bugs will have to wait:):)...
While I was eating...I was watching CNN coverage in the Union on the indictment of Tom Delay...which is really kind of bullshit, really, I think...I'm all for money not having so much influence over politics...but I just don't this is the way to do it...and both parties and a million folks are guilty of the exact same thing that Tom was just indicted for...including a lot of Kansas state Democrats and likely Republicans and Democrats in every state, where the national parties regularly donate money illegally to state parties...Tom's just the asshole who they decided to prosecute for Washington's open not-so-secret...
Tom Delay has been one of if not the biggest bully in Washington politics, during his tenure...so I won't cry that he is stepping down from his leadership post...but something is rotten in the state of Denmark, right now...and it's not just Republicans...
And I was commenting to Melissa and Jesse, tonight, about the total contrast:):):)...
Of spending the day communing with greatness...and reflecting on all of our capacity for greatness...
And then witnessing the absolute mess and ugliness that is Washington D.C. and the national press corps, these days...
3 of the 8 headlines on Yahoo's round-up of news, tonight, read:
FEMA under fire again, now for Rita effort
FEMA's Brown was warned early of shortages
Mohamed Atta known to Pentagon before 9/11
And the headline that seemed missing was:
People of the world need to grow and accept that tragedy happens...
I didn't see that one...but goddamn if we need it, right now...
The blame games are so useless...and petty...and both distract and rob of us of energy and attention that is necessary to do whatever we can to prevent such tragedies in the future...
To the best of our abilities...
That's the important qualifier...
To the best of our abilities...
Because that's the best that we can do...ever...
That's it...
There's nothing more to it...
Our best...is our best...
And it will fall short as long as it does...
But this kind of bullshit carping and 20-20 hindsight does no good for anyone...anywhere...for anything...
It's just lingering bitterness...
And a failure of people to both accept that life doesn't always work out...
And to finally grow up...
And deal with the tragedy that is a part of life...
Rather than dwelling in it...
And distracting us from important efforts to help prevent such things in the future...
I picked up a copy of a list of banned books for 2004-05...
To Kill a Mockingbird made the list...
So did Huckleberry Finn...
As did Of Mice and Men...
But, hey...those are just the rules, huh?...pass a rule that bans a book...nothing we can but just obey the rule, right?...
Are we all ready to give up the bullshit, I wonder?...
You know what these last two things have in common...
The total dysfunctional mess that is contemporary politics...its blaming...its self-righteousness...its open hypocrisy...its ugliness?
And rules that ban books that offend people?
They both result from a fundamental unwillingness of folks...
To grow up...
To deal with a world that scares them...
And brings pain their way...
And which involves tragedy...
And where people talk and write and do things they don't like...
And where they feel like they have no control...
Because you know what?...
We don't have control...
And one the most important features of a more genuine responsibility...and the freedom that it requires...
Is to acknowledge that...
And come to terms with it...
And stop fantasizing of a world without tragedy and pain and fear and things we don't like to hear and read and experience...
And to start coming to terms with the world as it is...
And to be more constructive and authentically responsible in dealing with all of these thihgs:):)...
Dar has this really awesome song called The Babysitter Song...
Where she sings about this really great hippy babysitter she had as a kid:)...
It's very sweet:):)...and romantic:):)...
And that's symbolizes the problem, I think, with humanity...
We all have this childhood fantasy about life...
This romantic notion that we will always be protected...
That nothing bad will ever happen...
That life will always be safe...
And then...when it's not...
It engenders in us this equally dark cynicism...to match our disappointment that our romantic version of a world without pain and fear and tragedy didn't materialize...
But that world has never existed...
And never will...
Never...
And the problem that so many people seem to be having right now...
Is coming to terms with that...
To genuinely accepting that reality...
Rather than resisting it...
And fighting it...
And doing everything they can to avoid it...
When it just really can't be avoided, entirely...
We can prepare better for it...
We can support one another, better, through it...and with it...
We can get better over time dealing with it...constructively...including dealing with the pain that will inevitably come our way...for the rest of our lives...as long as we live:):)...
But we can't avoid it entirely...
And that is just a reality of life that people just need to come to terms with, better, I think...
And in the meantime...
Our failure to do so...
Slows all of us, down...
All of us...
It impairs our ability to constructively deal with tragedies when they come...
It clouds our vision as we encounter new challenges...
And it sits on our hearts...and pains us and those around us...
Until we face it...come to terms with it...let it go...and move on to a better day:):)...
Cynicism, you see...is not realism...
It's romanticism gone awry...
Cynicism is the persistent nagging disappointment...
That life didn't turn out the way we wanted it to...
And you know what?...
It doesn't...
And it won't...
Ever...completely...
But it can still be good...and great...and better...
Even as it falls short of all of our ideals...
And a more authentic idealism can replace it...
One that accepts those realities...
Comes to terms with them...
And develops new ideals...in the face of new realities:):)...
That's why I'm so glad I chose to study policy:):):)....and social sciences:):):)...
Because their nature...
Is to understand realities...
And to develop better ideas for facilitating better realities given more fundamental realities of life and our humanity:):):)...
It's so funny:):):)...
I heard so many people talk about social sciences...when I was in school:):):)...like they were some kind of squishy world of opinions and opines:):):)...like just a step above astrology:):):)...
And I've now gotten to a point in my life:):):)...
Where I realize that...they really embodied some of the most important and most profound reflections on life and humanity:):):)...
And I'm SO GLAD that I studied them:):):)...
To prepare for a time just like this one:):):)...
When the world just seems like it's kind of gone temporarily insane:):):)...
Trying...and failing...to come terms with all the tragedy that life...sadly...too often brings us...
Have you ever heard Dar Williams' Better Things?:):):)...
That's the theme of the song:):)...
That...sadly...bad things happen in life:):):)...
And...as Dar sings in the chorus:):):)...
"I hope tomorrow you'll find better things":):):)...
When I was at school, today:):)...I thought about how young everyone seemed:):):)...
And how that means that I'm getting old:):):)...
It was a chance to reflect on the inevitability of death:):)...
And how happy I am that I chose a life where I would do everything I can to do good for the world...as my parents quoted George Bernard Shaw as saying at their wedding:):):)...
"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."
George Bernard Shaw,
Man and Superman, Epistle Dedicatory
Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950)
Why would you choose any other life, I wonder...
No matter what you do...
Load garage doors...
Code medical insurance...
Do business development for a local non-profit...
Take calls for school technology initiatives...
Serve your country...
Teach...
Why would you live your life any other way?...
Than to do everything you can to live a great life...
To help others...
To love others...
And...out of that...
To love yourself fully...
And to love your life...
Why would any of us live any different life, I wonder?:):):)...
I have no clue, to tell you the truth:):):)...
I've got to take a shower and get to bed:):):)...
I hope everyone has a great day, tomorrow:):):)...
Love,
Ben
3 comments:
So I take it you are opposed to fixing problems as soon as possible and just get kinda kranky about any accountability for those entrusted with the duty of protecting and defending.
Ben, One thing is for certain Democracy is the least orderly least civil form of government.
Those with weak stomachs invariably live in totalitarian states (Socialist, Communist or just Fascist - totalitarianism isn't about anything but order) where everything is kept pretty and happy.
You go smile and look at the clous while patriots (liberal and conservative) rage at the machines (liberal and conservative).
Not at all, Anonymous...
I just accountability to be constructive...meaning I want it to actually work...and I want it to have integrity to everyone involved...
Raging at the machine (liberal or conservative) doesn't work...it's not responsible...it's not constructive...it's just rage...it's generally random...and irrational...in its nature...
"Democracy is the least orderly least civil form of government."
This is just factually wrong...democracies protect civil liberties best...they are the least likely to go to war with one another...they best care for the needs of their populations and create space for those populations to care for one anothers' needs...there is no better form of governing or civil life, really...everything else is a fantasy...
And I don't how much you've studied of Socialism, Communism and Fascism...but one thing is for sure:):):)...they're not generally pretty and happy:):)...democratic socialist states like Spain and Canada and France are definitely prettier and happier than Communist states like Cuba and North Korea or fascist states like fascist Italy in the 1940's...Fascism and Communism are far from pretty and happy states for anyone, really...
And while democratic socialism (in contrast with its less democratic and less authentic form in China, for instance) is happier...socialists are typically not a really happy bunch, really...typically, they're a pretty angry bunch...and they're angry because everything that goes on in their world can be blamed on capitalism and capitalists...because noone is ever genuinely responsible in those situations...
In democracies, individuals have a better opportunity to take individual responsibility...and groups for group responsibility...
But accountability needs to both, 1) better facilitate people taking responsibility...which...if you've noticed around 9/11, Katrina, and Rita, no one individual leader has done so yet...a pretty good sign that the way that we're handling it, now, is not working...and
2) it needs to have integrity to the people involved...meaning...it needs to both be the best way we can handle the situation...and one that does not unduly impose on their freedoms...even freedoms we don't like...campaign spending being a good example of this, I think...
...and it needs to be fair to those individuals...meaning...it needs to appreciate the constructive efforts...and to accept theirs and our limitations...Michael Brown's leadership at FEMA is an excellent example of this, I think...
The truth is, Anonymous...I think...is that people are raging against government, right now...because they feel so LITTLE responsibility for it...not because they feel so much...and I do think that what you're describing is the accurate sense I'm getting of peoples' moods, right now...and it accomplishes nothing...except to deter good people from going into politics...because it lives under the fantasy of life that somehow, somewhere, there is someone who will solve all of our problems...do so without making mistakes...not doing anything bad while they're there or here in their lifetimes...and generally act as our resident messiah as long as we feel that we need them:):):)...until, of course, we feel judged by them:):):)...at which time, we throw out the bums all over again:):):)LOL:):):)...
The truth is most people don't think hardly at all about these things...because their sense of responsibility for them is not really all that serious, at all...
Democratic citizens, typically, want the world...and they want somebody else to deliver it to them...it is an insane sense of entitlement and lacks serious responsibility for the work that government and other more responsible members of the society need to do...
It is a backward looking philosophy (if I'm generous enough to call it a philosophy:):):)LOL:):):)...that is obsessed with a past that cannot be changed...and fails to come to terms quickly enough and readily enough with a present that often can be changed...
The response to Hurricane Katrina is the best example I can think of this terrible distortion of perception:):):)...
So many Democrats got so obsessed with who they were going to "get"...over something that everyone was doing their best to deal with...largely because of their rage about the war in Iraq, really, if they were honest with themselves and everyone else..that they completely lost track of the emergency and crisis in the moment...and engaged in all kind of political bullshit that distracted from that very important effort...
I was looking at voting for Hillary until that moment...until I realized that when the going gets tough...Hillary looks for someone to blame...and I expect something better from my leaders than that...
The fact is...that the most people advocating tough responses, right now, have not seriously thought about them and their effectiveness or lack of them, at all, at this point...like you said...they're just angry...and it's their rage that drives them...not their sense of responsibility...or thoughtfullness...or a clearer look at reality...
And that is what propped up Communism and theocracies and Naziism and Fascism and less democratic systems all over the world for so long, really...just as a reality check:):):)...in case you've never seen footage of Mussolini...or Stalin...or Hitler...or Castro...they don't tend to be very happy guys, most of the time:):):)...they tend to be pretty angry...
Nothing wrong with anger...
The question is whether anger leads to more constructive, responsible approaches to life...
Or whether it leads to more destructive, more self-centered approaches to life...
The latter is responsible for the terrible legacies of Communism and Fascism...and the persistent defense of the more awful legacies of socialism...and capitalism, for that matter...
And the former...is responsible for the all of the progress in spite of the more destructive reactions in various cultures and political systems...
And I one happy son-of-a-bitch, Anonymous...that I get to live in a more free and democratic world where I can critic my ass off of all the more destructive and self-centered responses and reactions in the world...and to constructively engage them to move people in a more responsible, constructive direction:):):)...
It's good to know that you care about making things better, Anonymous:):):)...I just think, at this point, you want to focus on really making things better:):):)...and not getting too wrapped up in good intentions that don't get us there:):):)...
Love,
Ben
One more thing, Anonymous...
One of the most important lessons in the study of policy and politics is that politics is the art of the possible...
This is really great time to witness that lesson in real life:):):)...
And...generally...I think the more you accept what you can't change about life...as much as what you can change...
The less angry you are about what you can't change...because you can't change it...
And the more thankful you are that you even have the opportunity to change what you can:):):)...what can be improved:):):)...
And I just think a longer view on politics and policy makes you much more appreciative of what can and cannot be changed...and how to more responsibly engage situations, as a consequence, knowing what can and cannot be changed:):):)...and how quickly or slowly change can or cannot happen:):):)...
It's a lesson that gets refined for me every single day of my life:):):)...
And having the long view has everything to do with it, Anonymous:):):)...
Good luck making things better, Anonymous:):):)...it's a lot of hard work:):):)...
Love,
Ben
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