Power and responsibility
This is what I love about power. All the weaseling.
Tony Blair used to be a democratically-elected leader I could really respect. But watching this interview, I think I realize, now, that power now and forever means never having to admit when you are wrong or even that you might be wrong. I have no more faith in this process or these people, except to look after their own asses every single time. I am seriously considering not voting this election, I am so disgusted with how dishonest this process is, at this point.
The only saving grace is that all of these folks eventually fall. And until they give up the obsession with power to solve all of our problems, they will fall hard.
Little bit of justice in that thought.
We could do better. But we'd have to stop being such pricks.
Until then, instant karma's gonna get you.
No matter how much power you grab.
4 comments:
"I am seriously considering not voting this election"
Well, this is Kansas so we already know where our piddly electoral votes are going. I was talking to my dad yesterday (an independent) and he mentioned the "none of the above" option...
http://www.nota.org
"If 'None of the Above; For a New Election' receives the most votes, no candidate is elected to that office and a follow-up by-election, with new candidates, is held."
Sounds unlikely (and messy) though it would be a serious kick in the ass to politicians. It's true, most people are incredibly skeptical and cynical at this point, but I was more than willing to convince my dad (who lives in a battleground state) to vote for what IMO is the lesser of the two evils (Obama).
Yeah, I'm slowly coming to that conclusion, too, Sara. Obama, that is.
I just don't like the idea of endorsing a process of winning that election that I think has been bullshit, on everyone's part, and policies I disagree with, and of a liberal taking my vote for granted because where the fuck else am I going to go other than the moderately more socially liberal candidate, even if I think we need to be much more socially liberal on a whole range of issues like drugs and homosexuality, etc.
Republicans just haven't learned any of the right lessons, at this point, I'm becoming convinced. And fuck 'em for that. I just wish Democrats could get over the notion that just because FDR intervened in the economy during a desperate time, therefore Democrats must stand for intervention in the economy as a matter of principle, even when it is counterproductive.
A Depression would have to at least follow a recession, in any empirical way. And though a recession may or not be on the horizon for the American economy, by all objective measures, we are not there, yet. We had around 3% growth in the last quarter. Meaning we're still growing. We have more unemployment, but that is one among many factors that determine a recession.
Wiki defines it this way:
"A recession is a contraction phase of the business cycle. The U.S. based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) defines a recession more broadly as 'a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.'[1] A sustained recession may become a depression."
I'm not an economist. But reduced employment is the only of this list that I can confirm that we are experiencing. If that growth figure I quoted is correct, I would imagine that would mean that real GDP is not down. I don't know about real income, industrial production, or retail sales.
The bank closings sparked a depression largely as a function of peoples' confidence in the system. And the difference, today, I think is that you have a whole lot of folks who understand, better, that these things pass and that we will be ok. Meaning, you have some similar issues, but with far better real fundamentals both in the economy and in the commitments by government to keeping that economy open, and with people who understand better and who are more confident in the economy today, versus, say, 80 years ago when the Depresssion took place.
People are more confident. And they have more reason to be confident in the current economy. So we aren't as likely to face that kind of crisis of confidence that fueled the Crash of '29. But the important thing to me and which I think McCain is trying to argue, when people let him be honest and not have to morph his arguments to what people want to hear even when he thinks they're wrong, is that more important than peoples' perceptions that the economy is stronger, it just is stronger, in its fundamentals, today versus Depression, and in a more absolute rather than relative way. We just get freaked out too easily and need to be reminded that the reality is better than we might be afraid that it is.
Banks can fail. They'll be ok. They're big people. We're all big people. People will lose money. They'll buy less Wii's and more bread and milk and we'll all be ok. But, fundamentally, we have more stuff, today, because we are all doing better, today, than we were 80 years ago, by far and with little real comparison.
That's my view, at least.
But, I agree. Even though I think he's too reactive on the economy and I think his economic policies are not as strong as McCain's, I think he's probably the lesser of the two evils in the bigger picture, if for the simple fact that he is not as likely to rush or to threaten war around every corner, a kind of fucked up tendency that Republicans and even McCain can't seem to give up for fear that, like Democrats, we are always living in 1938 rather than 2008, and not coming to terms, as Obama does, that the threats we face today are not as serious as the threats that Hitler had to offer.
Republicans are always scared of Hitler around every corner. And Democrats are always scared about Depression around every corner.
And I'm stuck with Joy Division and Stealer's Wheel swimming around in my head wondering when it will all just be over:).
You know, goddamnit, Sara, if Love Will Tear Us Apart Again is not this goddamn haunting melody that sticks in my head every time I talk with you. It's my favorite Joy Division song and it just swims around my head like this sad, bittersweet memory every time I think of them. I gotta hear your new music selections, Sara, so I don't have this song following me all day.
We should hang out sometime, Sara. I want to know what all the cool kids are doing, these days:).
Talk soon, Sara.
Ben
Oh, McCain. He seems like a shell of a man and it's a little scary. The Palin pick alone was enough to make me seriously question his judgment. And 3 billion in tax cuts? Plus an unhealthy obsession with war? I'm sure he was a "maverick" at one point in his career...before 2000 perhaps? Then he lost to Bush and figured it was best to play by a similar game. There's no way I could vote for a republican of course. Not until they get their act together anyway and let their fundies find another party to hijack. If McCain regained his senses, stopped being a puppet and became an independent, yeah, I'd like him and maybe even vote for him.
The recession thing- how long have they been debating that? The depression thing- who knows what kind of crisis we're averting with this bailout business, have we really been told everything? Is it really as simple as written-off mortgages affecting the commercial paper market? (these are just hypothetical 'WTF is going on?'
questions btw)
I don't think the cool kids are that cool, they mostly sit around watching television. TV, work, homework, that's all I know. Have a speech tomorrow for school and am not even prepared...STRESS!
Music? Well, nothing too new playing on my computer. The Prids are Joy Division-y:
http://www.myspace.com/theprids
And Echo and the Bunnymen:
http://www.myspace.com/thebunnymen
The new Amanda Palmer album is interesting: http://www.myspace.com/whokilledamandapalmer
Mia Doi Todd is a good female singer-songwriter (something I'm always on the lookout for): http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=7248864
When all else fails I usually listen to 80's music. The Psychedelic Furs, The Church, Buzzcocks, The Chameleons, etc.
That list will get me started. I'm an Echo and the Bunnymen fan, as is, and I have positive memories of the Psychodelic Furs and the Buzzcocks. But that gives me some fresh blood in music interests. I'm listening to the Prids, right now. Pretty good.
I need John McCain, right now, Sara, if only to challenge Obama and Biden. The worst tendency in politics is arrogance. And Obama and Biden have all the makings for it that a challenge keeps off center and makes it hard for people to get too comfortable in their self-righteous notions of the world. It'd be better if they weren't insulting each others' mommas, all the time. They'd listen to each other better. Which they need to do. Because they both have a lot wrong with their policy thinking, by my lights. And I want them both to remember that and not get too confident that they have more good answers than they do.
I didn't know you were in a class, Sara. How cool. Is it a speech class? You'll do great. The key to speech anxiety is the same key to all fears: just facing it and doing what you were nervous to do. Courage is not not having fear, it's having fear and doing what you're afraid to do anyway, and all that. I'll be curious what you're studying. I'm also taking a class. But goddamnit if I don't wish I were in something a little more rigorous than my education classes. It just gets kind of boring listening to some moron whine about something that any more moderately intelligent person would not whine about, I would hope. I don't think I'm a snob, Sara. I just want to talk about and work on stuff that really matters and not waste my time with stupid conversations that aren't even in the ballpark of Things That Matter in The World. And that goes double in a classroom situation.
If you've been to class, yet, Sara, I think you've probably figured out, at this point, that you're smarter than easily 80% of your peers, as a conservative estimate, and probably easily more, I'm just keeping you modest. I'll bet you'll get more out of classes than most people will. Maybe I'm underestimating how seriously other people might take college or might take intelligent insight. But that's my bet. Have fun. I love school. It's a good experience, I think.
If you need help with speech stuff, it was kind of my life for 7years in high school and college.
I better get to work, here, Sara. Talk soon.
Ben
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