We blame Obama. We blame those damn Republicans, Democrats, Aristocrats, Holy Rollers, or sleazy banker investment guys safely ensconced in glass and steel castles found in the heart of every city in the world.
We look for scapegoats when we should be looking in the mirror. It took all of us to create what we have, good and bad. The good, usually is a result of cooperative effort by a few or often the many. The bad, well, from my viewpoint, it usually happens because too many are too lazy or self absorbed to pay attention. Apathy is our greatest vice and as a species we seem comfortable ignoring its impact.
My favorite quote that succinctly captures my point is comic strip appearing on Earth Day, 1971. Pogo nails it:
We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us
Later ................................................................
12 comments:
I contend that my generation caused many of our problems, as did many before me, but I don't have a clue how the mess can be fixed. Fuck, just look at who we are stuck voting for, what the fuck is with that?
I miss Pogo and Walt Kelly. Doonesbury is just not quite the same as dear old Pogo.
I second BBC
the Ol'Buzzard
BBC & Ol'Buzzard - What the fuck is with that? Look who we are stuck voting for? Because I love the sound of my own voice, I will repeat, it is because we allowed these assholes the power over us. It is our fault for not paying attention. This shit did not happen over night. And I hope you understand that by we, I mean the collective we, not what we put into a piss pot.
The Blog Fodder - Yeah, Pogo is hands down better than Doonesbury.
I agree we have met the enemy and they is us!! Don't know how to solve that. On one hand we have a bunch of people the are scared shitless about most things and the media and political leaders make sure they stay that way. Those people will vote for the ones that promise to "keep them safe"!! The majority of people don't bother to vote as they think it doesn't do any fucking good, the system is rigged. (Which it is, but if enough people would get out and vote they could change the outcome.)
Those that are rational thinkers don't really have any good options to vote for. The Democratic Party has a bad habit of not backing a person that has popular support if that person isn't the favorite of the party establishment. It happened years ago in Michigan with Fieger and we got stuck with Engler!! Now they are doing the same with Bernie!! Feel the Bern!!
Mike:
I too miss Pogo. As far as "we allowing the assholes power over us"... well, yes... but the problem for the "we" part is that for so many of the "we" the interest in thinking about issues is close to nil. They take one pet issue, make some decision on it and then basically say to themselves that is all that matters. Examples of this abound. For instance, there are a lot of folks who are for "social justice" issues such as care for the poor, medical care for the indigent, etc... but they are also against abortion. But because they are opposed to abortion and the Republicans "state" they are also against abortion, the folks glom onto that and vote Republican time and time again even though for damn near every standard of "social justice" the Democrats will tend to have positions more in keeping with the "social justice" groups OVERALL goals. The same can be said for other groups, not just republicans and democrats.
I guess my idea is that the "we" is too fragmented because they (we) do not tend to look at the big picture, and focus on too many small issues as the cornerstone issue they use as a shortcut to allow themselves the option to quit thinking.
I think it is also true, like you said earlier that there isn't a single politician right now that I would actually TRUST to do the right thing. I "trust" politicians to do the most enRICHing thing for themselves.... that is their one and only driving motivation... at least in the modern era. The last president I felt who was pretty much NOT driven by his own greed was Theodore Roosevelt, with perhaps Franklin Roosevelt a close second.... maybe.
PipeTobacco
I blame it all on Pogo :)
You're right that it's collectively all of our faults. Mass apathy -- combined with gullibility and self-absorption -- have brought us to this low point.
Kulkiri - Voting in America is like being in a casino. The games are rigged in favor of the house. It is possible, as you say, to change the outcome, but only if we are willing to toss the dice. In my opinion and even though I do not think voting changes much, given the rigged system, Voting is the one responsibility to be taken seriously. Democracy hinges on voting. Without that first step, the democratic process is poisoned.
Pipe Tobacco - The problem as I see it is "the pet issues" folks latch onto are the ones spoon fed to them by the party of their choice so that the more important matter of good governance is overlooked. Get the machine working for all of us first, then address the special interests.
Tom Harper - Oops, forgot to repley before I punched the publish button.
I have to keep reminding myself that this kind of political vacuum/turmoil has happened in the past and we got through it. Hopefully we will this time also.
It frosts my balls that we never get anyone decent to vote for. And likely wouldn't vote for them if they showed up.
my daddy used to read the comics to me..I remember how thrilled he was when he read pogo to me the first time that I laughed..up until then I didn't get it...I miss him.
BBC - Yeah the choices are from a herd made up of the same breed. They might try to look different, but they aren't.
JACKIESUE - It took me a few years as a child to begin to understand the subtle, yet biting commentary that ran through "Pogo".
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