I’m not one of nature’s optimists, but these last couple of weeks have been worse than usual. The national political theater has become, if anything, farce. A double-dip recession seems likely. The Arab Spring is rotting on the vine.
I’m upset and distracted. Making plans is difficult and suffering fools almost impossible. I’m trying hard to not fall into selfish concerns and betraying my stated faith. I know I’m not the only person who’s tetchy.
Feel free to comment if you need to vent.
Commenting. Venting.
For once, I wish that Congress would have said “How can we collaborate to achieve what’s best for America?” rather than turning the debt ceiling into yet another game of chicken. I want them to stop blaming one another and take responsibility for doing what’s right for their constituents, rather than whatever’s right for their party, for special interest groups, and for their own gains.
I’m just so tired of it. I vote against the incumbent in my district every single election, but I might as well save my gasoline. Being part of the 20% feels futile.
I am exhausted by the whole culture where rage and inflexibility is paraded around as virtue. And I am tired of my relatives on the Right and their carefully cultivated anger; and I am tired of my friends on the Left and their snotty and ineffective pronouncements.
And I am genuinely scared for my own future. And afraid that I will never again have a full time job, or even a living wage.
I am concerned that the America I grew up in is gone. That altruism is now a vice, and helping others is considered wrong. That while I lived a financially poorer life than my parents, my nieces and nephews will live even poorer than I did – which is worse for them, as spiritual poverty is also growing in our land. The end of an empire and civilization is always rough on the citizens, who wish things to be as they used to be. That the things that are quickening our end is what most are voting for…. (yes, I’m that pessimistic this long hot summer)
Yes, Yes, and Yes. I couldn’t agree more with all three of you. The America I knew and loved, the America in which people cared about their fellow citizens, is largely gone, the victim of those for whom The Most Important Thing is the bottom line.
That, plus we are losing all semblance of civility as a society.
I will be surprised if “the American experiment” lasts through the end of the century. I can feel the entropy in my bones.