melsjumpsite.com

I don’t know about anyone else but, for me, this whole summer has felt like I’ve been inside one of those Russian novels where the characters are discussing politics and religion in such a way that even with the smattering of existentialist philosophy I’ve managed to co-opt as a means of coping with the sheer boredom of it all, the plot seems to hang out there in space like one of Salvador Dali’s clocks, and time seems to have stood still, and I’ve been forced by the sheer magnitude of the process to stand back and ponder if anything I lived through, from the sixties on, with all the clamor for peace against an unjust war, and the struggle against bigotry and racial equality, ever happened, or whether I actually saw women burn their bras and declare themselves liberated, or anything that seemed to inch forward the basic understanding of the human condition made even so much of a tick in intransigence of time. Did anyone learn anything, or was it all for nought? Or was all the effort just another futile exercise in the calisthenics of social conditioning? For all that seemed to happen, and the music that was made, and the speeches, and words that were written about going forward with a new vigor, was it all just an empty dream that fell on deaf ears? Did we not learn anything? Now, after all has been said and done, and we’re supposed to have turned the calendar and entered a new age, why does it seem like more of the same old same old? As we being the long slow descent into the twenty-first century, it all seems so disruptive and callous, and even a little demented, somehow. People are acting just like the boobs who ushered in the past century, with a new war or two in the span of less than a decade, (as I write this) and even though the whole world, so to speak, is all connected by the Internet, and information flows freely, (if you discount China where the metaphorical censors scissors snip and clip),I get the gut  feeling that there is the temptation on some greater level to entrench a few armies and prove once more that Malthus was right about how overpopulation is controlled by wars and diseases. We have as exhibits, bird flu, biological warfare, assault weapons in the hands of children waiting on the mood to strike them before going on a killing spree or two, gang bangers out to make their bones, and assorted nut cases without a minutes thought of Hell rushing at them for the doing charging into crowds with blood lust and revenge propelling them toward mayhem and murder, and a new generation of drugs that rot the brain and deliver the user up into the ever loving arms of the constabulary and the criminal justice system ( that bulges more with each passing year as it grows like a phantasmagoric beast ) being fed the disaffected and disenchanted of a growing criminal class, and the revolving door that allows them to re-enter society after their seminars in new crimes and techniques have been served, and an onslaught of diseases that were thought extinct being brought back by migrations of various seekers of the dream, and the waves of suicide bombers, and the improvised explosive devices, and car bombs, and a laundry list of  small nightmares that grow bigger,  as Death returns from his  holiday, hungry for more souls. So what does this have to do with an election? It just goes to show you, as Rose Anna Dana used to say, you never can tell. But, I bet if you listen to the pounding on the rail you’ll get a feeling for what I mean. We’re going to see more of the same before the tide turns, and in order to do something about it, we need leadership, not showmanship.

I ran across this in the LA TIMES  and want to share it with you.

Obama without his script

Judging by his reaction to the Georgia-Russia crisis, Obama’s make-believe presidency isn’t ready for prime time. Continue reading GRIST FOR THE MILL, an opinion by C. Orr August 12, 2008 →