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syncope at 12:07pm on 15/05/2008
syncope at 12:07pm on 15/05/2008Considering it's an election year, I've been pretty quiet about politics. I guess it's because I've gotten so down about it all. I can't tell if it's age or having lived out of the country for so long. The post-9/11 malaise has brought out the worst sort of apathetic tendencies in people my age, and I understand it fundamentally. We were always pretty cynical--I think the children of the Boomers are all naturally cynical because our parents' youthful zeal turned into middle aged consumerism and greed and we watched the process from the backseat going "will you shut the hell up about war protests? we're in a beamer!" So we were already pretty jaded and then 9/11 and Bush hit and we were pretty much lie "oh yeah, this is exactly what I would have expected if I were more prescient." And we toddled on to our McJobs and internet dating and made witty bon mots over IM but really couldn't be assed to do or feel much of anything.
I am constantly amazed by The Kids Today when they're so very worked up about causes and issues. I'm like "huh, you seem to care, what's this about?" I can remember being 16, but mostly I look by on myself at that age with a sort of fond patronizing amusement. How did I think I mattered? Whatevs, kiddo, it's all pointless! I sort of loathe that I'm not even being flip now. A sense of futility is both postmodern and ancient--you see it in Roman diaries and all around us today. Who of you has been to a war protest? Back to insulting the Boomers, where's the groundswell of anti-war agitation now, grandpa? Yeah, that's what I thought, go take your arthritis meds and never mention Woodstock again if you know what I'm sayin'.
You may notice this isn't under a cut-tag. That would be because until Scalia gets his way, I still have free speech to be a dickhead about my political views all I want.
At any rate, I opened this window the link to this post that I saved in my delicious but decided to link here. It sums up what I think are the Clinton campaign's real problems. She (I assume) expresses this in a much more neutral tone than I could ever manage. Fundamentally, from day one, I was boggled by the democratic party machine's refusal to face the stark realities of what Clinton represents in the minds of real Americans: the FoxNews witch hunt, all the mistakes of the Clinton years, her youthful corporate slavitude, rich white privilege--and that's not even touching on the feminism quagmire. Do I think she should be a role model for young girls who dream big? ABSOLUTELY. However, I think there's a bit of an old school make it through your husband taint there. I would rather promote Nancy Pelosi. However, all of that aside, she has been systematically vilified since about '92 by the right. How do you come back from that? Is it tragic? Yes. Politics are brutal.
And no matter what other people are claiming on a certain other post, this is true in Canada, France, the UK, and most certainly Taiwan as well as the US. Gimme a flippin' break.
I am constantly amazed by The Kids Today when they're so very worked up about causes and issues. I'm like "huh, you seem to care, what's this about?" I can remember being 16, but mostly I look by on myself at that age with a sort of fond patronizing amusement. How did I think I mattered? Whatevs, kiddo, it's all pointless! I sort of loathe that I'm not even being flip now. A sense of futility is both postmodern and ancient--you see it in Roman diaries and all around us today. Who of you has been to a war protest? Back to insulting the Boomers, where's the groundswell of anti-war agitation now, grandpa? Yeah, that's what I thought, go take your arthritis meds and never mention Woodstock again if you know what I'm sayin'.
You may notice this isn't under a cut-tag. That would be because until Scalia gets his way, I still have free speech to be a dickhead about my political views all I want.
At any rate, I opened this window the link to this post that I saved in my delicious but decided to link here. It sums up what I think are the Clinton campaign's real problems. She (I assume) expresses this in a much more neutral tone than I could ever manage. Fundamentally, from day one, I was boggled by the democratic party machine's refusal to face the stark realities of what Clinton represents in the minds of real Americans: the FoxNews witch hunt, all the mistakes of the Clinton years, her youthful corporate slavitude, rich white privilege--and that's not even touching on the feminism quagmire. Do I think she should be a role model for young girls who dream big? ABSOLUTELY. However, I think there's a bit of an old school make it through your husband taint there. I would rather promote Nancy Pelosi. However, all of that aside, she has been systematically vilified since about '92 by the right. How do you come back from that? Is it tragic? Yes. Politics are brutal.
And no matter what other people are claiming on a certain other post, this is true in Canada, France, the UK, and most certainly Taiwan as well as the US. Gimme a flippin' break.
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