Crap-Colored Glasses
it’s in to be emo
Is everything spinning out of control?
Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.
Ok—traditional Dem Doom ‘n’ Gloom pre-election mantra…
The can-do, pull yourself up by your bootstraps approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that’s chipping away at America’s sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance.
Yep. Same sentence, more words, broader focus.
Even so, a battered American public seems discouraged by the onslaught of dispiriting things. A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll says a barrel-scraping 17 per cent believe the country is moving in the right direction, the lowest reading since the survey began in 2003.
I think we’re headed in the wrong direction—toward the hopelessness of giving up our control over our own lives to our new Socialist Overlords Gubbmint Helpers and Experts.
Yet, this is a perception problem—our perception problem. Like looking every day in that side mirror that reminds you every time ya look that your perceptions are likely wrong, we gaze into the mirror of the MSM to gauge where we are as a nation. There really oughta be a sign on the Nooz reports: “Things are actually better than they appear.”
Sure there is a rise in foreclosures—but all foreclosure notices do not lead to eviction. Many in that position are speculators, not Mommies with babies. 94% of folks are paying their mortgages like responsible folks.
Lots of coverage was given to a horrifying, public psycho murder of a baby: 99.9% of folks take great care of their babies.
Life is precarious and dangerous. Just ask the bunny, the duck, the deer—and the lion. Precariousness is the price of not being, say, a rock. Life Existence is pretty steady if yer a rock. But look at the benefits.
Where we’ve gotten caught is the expectation that life *oughtn’t* to be so hard. The idea that everyone ought to have a completely safe, worry-free life with a good place to live and all the disposable income they can spend is what is getting in our way. It makes what we have achieved as a nation seem worthless, when it is really the greatest accomplishment of Human kind.
Yes, our nation is not perfect; sure, there is much work to be done to improve it and just to keep it from running off the rails. That’s because it’s alive. Living things move, change, grow and, therefore, must be monitored, guided, lovingly tended—and protected from natural predators.
If we look closer at the “midwestern levees bursting” we note that whole towns joined together to work against the forces of Nature—some successfully and others not. And whole towns are joining together to rebuild and renew themselves. As one fella said, “It’s ugly—but that’s the price ya pay if ya want to live on the River.”
We each have tremendous power to make things change—and the first change is to rid ourselves of the expectation that “things oughtn’t to be so bad.” Things have always been bad—in fact they are better now than in 99.9% of Human history.
But nowadays, the In thing is a kind of juvenile enui—a prodding -the -sore -tooth kind of delight in finding the one thing that isn’t good enough. And, frankly, I’m getting kinda tired of it.
I know.... This sounds “corny” and kinda “sappy.” But isn’t the bigger sap the guy who would ignore the giant machine of Civilization that is capable of bringing him a cup of shade-grown, free-trade, sustainable coffee from thousands of miles away for an affordable price just to gripe that the soy milk isn’t cold enough?
Well whaddya know - an AP story. I guess “The Hindu” news owes them about a million $$ for copying that story.
And you owe them a couple of hundred.....
That’s gotta be a rewrite - would even AP use “... a barrel-scraping 17% ...”. Yep - I found a longer version here:
“Abroad, the recent natural disasters dwarf anything afflicting the U.S.: more than 69,000 people dead in the China earthquake, 78,000 dead and 56,000 missing from the Myanmar cyclone.”
It’s the End of the World! Repent!
I remember not too long ago when AP was a news source, not a source of uncredited opinion.
Posted by ZZMike on 06/23/08 at 10:08 AM
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