Rather, maybe I should have been Greek. I find myself of late complaining mightily that "civilization" is going straight to hell. Such kvetching is a time-honored tradition, going back to ancient Greece, if not farther. Every generation thinks the next several are lesser than it in every measure. And every generation is right. Yet the world keeps turning.
I must admit that if things keep going the way I currently perceive them, however, I may not want to stick around to see how everything turns out. If it weren't so sad, the ignorance of those calling Barack Obama "an appeaser" would be laughable. I am glad for Sen. Clinton's sake that she immediately spoke out unequivocally against such accusations. Why is it that she finds the guts to act presidential only when it's much too late for hopes to become this year's Democratic Party's presidential nominee?
I was also glad to see Obama speaking forcefully and rationally against such wrong-headed attacks. I'll give the man this: he is cool under fire, which is a prime presidential character trait.
But for John McCain to claim Obama thinks America has no enemies and that Obama is living in la-la land is beyond ridiculous. McCain's supporters also called Obama's response to the absurd attacks hysterical political maneuvering.
None of these people could make themselves look more ignorant or worse liars/fools if they tried. They are the ones living in la-la land. I increasingly fear that their realization of the total bankruptcy of their "ideas" is going to make Dubya invade Iran before he has to leave office--worse yet (and thanks to my cousin Val for expressing this so concisely), he's amassed so much executive power and cowed so many people into submission that he may even try to declare martial law and suspend the elections just to hold onto power. Part of my brain is telling me I'm being paranoid . . . but the other part of my brain and my heart are palpitating in fear. I didn't think Dubya and his minions would be brazen enough to do some of the stupid things they've actually already done, so . . .
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Things are no brighter on the social front. I saw a commercial for the new season of The Bachelorette yesterday, and it filled me with sadness. The new bachelorette is the one who did not win the bachelor's heart in the just-finished season of The Bachelor. She says she's out to win her happy ending. The bachelors among which she gets to choose are all making "I'm going to win" noises. They don't even know her--nor does she know them. To expect her to find her "one and only" when she claimed to have done just that on The Bachelor, only to be rejected, is ludicrous. It's staged. It cannot be genuine. Everyone's behavior is geared to getting to a conclusion . . . a conclusion that probably wouldn't happen were events allowed to proceed without outside interference or influence.
Since when did love become such a callous and calculated win-or-lose proposition? Since when does one's success in life ride on "winning" in such an artificial, manipulated "game of love"? When it's a game, it can't be genuine. How many times has each of these shows run through its cycle? At least seven of each, if memory serves. And how many of the couples are still together? One, if memory serves.
It's all so coarse and callous. I'd rather be alone than subject myself to such public indignity. But the younger generations don't seem to have any understanding of what self-esteem really means. Nor any sense of shame. Nor any capability for truly deep feelings.
Why does anyone watch this crap?
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Another reason the unregulated free market isn't such a good idea: if farmers raise their crops based purely on what's going to give them the highest price, we're going to have overages of some crops and shortages of others. Free Marketeers will tell you that this is OK because prices will shift in response and the farmers will then shift in response to that, and things will level out. But food is not something you can let the market control. For one thing, there's lead time--a/k/a growing seasons. It will take a year or two for changing prices to affect changing production. What do you do in the meantime? After all, farm production is also perishable. And what of people's health? What if we discover that some very unpopular crop is vitally necessary to human biological health? If we insist on letting a free market control farming, we could be committing long-term slow collective suicide.
Not to mention that unregulated free markets often dictate that the very best, most productive farming land is too valuable to be used for farming. We're importing food into this country that we could well produce here, but the farm land is worth more when built on for commercial development than it is to grow what sustains us. What's wrong with that picture?
If for no other reason, being dependent on other nations for our very "stuff of life" is no way to improve/enhance national security. I've heard some people say that when we get such global trade entanglements, it's actually good for national security, because (as they've said, in all seriousness) "no countries with McDonald's restaurants have ever gone to war with each other."
McDonald's has been around for only 50 years or so. That's not even an eye blink in terms of all of human history. Quarter Pounders with Cheese are no guarantee of world peace. The notion is nonsensical in other ways, too. Anybody who thinks he is on the short end of resource allocation is not going to let anyone else (fellow franchisee or not) take what he perceives to be rightfully his . . . not without a fight, at least.
I don't know what's going to happen. I hope I am wrong about Dubya's intentions. I hope the American electorate wakes up enough to realize what's happening and to do something about it. The historian in me wants to hang around and see how everything turns out . . . but the pragmatic realist in me wants to go hide under a very large rock.
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