I tend to be a Debbie Downer. I can't help it. My family will be talking about snowfall for skiing, and the first thing out of my mouth is, "Did you know that climate change is now so bad, they have tropical diseases in Italy?"
Wah, waaaah...
Climate change, the war, pretty much all of the Bush administration's rule -- these are thing things I think about when I'm bored on the subway. That's not intelligence, that's masochism.
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto on Thursday added yet another item on my list of things to be depressed about. The comedian Bill Hicks had a "bit" (as much as someone like Bill Hicks had "bits") about the phenomenon of men of genius being shot down in their prime, while mediocrity not only thrives, but flourishes. ("Martin Luther King: Assassinated... Reagan: Wounded.") Bhutto might not have had genius, but she was more than just one woman, she was the hope of a free Pakistan.
It's bad. Everything everywhere seems bad. Not as bad as Walk Hard, but pretty bad. As 2008 comes barreling down up on us, and 2007 seems like one more feverish year of violence, beauty, and confusion, I try not to be a Debbie Downer, but...
Wah Waaaaaah....
I can't help but feel like we're headed into another year of the New Dark Ages. War, famine, pestilence and plague, you name it, we've got it. The "word of God" is held above the word of reason, public literacy and education rates are abysmal. New Orleans.
New Orleans, New Orleans, New Orleans.
And yet. And yet.
I used to comfort myself that if we were in the New Dark Ages now, then by the time I'm graying, I could count living in a New Renaissance -- that American culture would flourish, that the arts and sciences would have a resurgence that would put us back at the foreground of human poetry. That we would bounce back from these eight years and revolutionize our participation in Global policy, that we would, dare I say it, evolve our ideas, our identity, and push forward into a new era of American Democracy.
But why should I have to wait until then? Why should any of us wait until then? Because of President Bush? If we wait for people like him to be gone so we can make a difference, we'll be about as effective as the Democrats in Congress.
What can't happen in the new year? What can't we accomplish?
My resolution this year is to stop being a Debbie Downer -- to stop day dreaming on the subway and find clear, simple ways I can offer up something other than blogs, to help to make a difference.
What do you want to happen in the New Year? How do you want to make a difference?
"There is no such thing as something for nothing"
"There is no such thing as something for nothing"
"There is no such thing as something for nothing"
"There is no such thing as something for nothing"
"There is no such thing as something for nothing"
so when you wake up in the morning and find yourself surrounded by subversives they'll all be disguised as neighbors going to work. but don't worry the FBI is hiring informants asap
Follow my heart, and use my talents. That's all I can do.
http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com
on every Capital of every State of the Union
on the first Satuday of every month
margo
on the Capital of every State of the Union
Get the word out and Do IT.
margo
Even as we may need stock promoters lobbyists and alcohol wholesalers, we need our prophets. We need our Jonah our Jeremiah and our Jesus. If fate has foisted Jonah upon you, who are you to refuse your muse?
Where a new dark age may indeed close this century, before we get there we need a certain process to take place. First there needs be the “eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage” as if everything is coming up roses. Then there needs be the speaking from the prophets of doom; the Jeremiah and the Jonah. Then there follows either radical change as humanity swings away from her prophesied fate, or the fulfillment of the prophesies themselves.
We are at the Jonah stage of fate. It is your duty to fate to speak. The entire world recognizes the precarious stature of humanity in the face of Climate Change. America does not. The entire world recognizes the emergence of Energy Scarcity; not America. We are still in the “eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage” stage, blissfully ignorant to the gathering storms whilst consuming our way to the typical fat ugly American.
You “can't help but feel like we're headed into another New Dark Ages of war, famine, pestilence and plague,” because that is so. The good times are over and the time for sackcloth and ashes begins. But in America, there will be no repentance without Jonah; and if your voice ceases, America is lost.
Wah Waaaaaah....
So weep for us. Weep so that our country may yet turn from her awful fate.
then you are not paying attention.
http://www.last.fm/music/Bad+Religion/_/New+Dark+Ages
i've heard this called "Faith based reality" vs. "Fact based reality." the choice to accept what you want to believe vs the reality of the facts of the situation. i mean the faith in wanting facts to follow faith rather than accepting the facts found in reality and believing accordingly. Absolutely astounding and totally frightening!!!
that we as a groundswell have to alert and continue to fight the doublespeak/lies that have gone on so successfully unchallenged for so long. what can we do as truth tellers do to keep the momentum going, the return to "fact based reality", no matter what?
that is the ultimate goal we must entertain as we watch the lies and destruction of the Looters and their like.
the willingness to be led like sheep always astounds me. what can we do, how can we act concretely in definite steps on all levels, along with the obvious?
these steps of action are vital in putting one foot forward ahead of the next. the Republicans have been doing this for 20 -30 some odd years with very successful results for them and to the horror of the rest of us.
All of it to no avail. One voice, one vote is not enough. What else can one person do?