Relax. Take a breath. That's nice, isn't it?
At the risk of putting up a corny Thanksgiving ramble, I'm going to try to accentuate the positive things we have. So often we hear about horrors or the doom lurking just around the corner. Doom and fear sell. Humans crave it. We LOVE bad news. We all have experienced a touch of schadenfreude, from time to time.
To memorialize our recent fear, currently the conservatives are lamenting the "loss of America" to Obama's recent winning a second term as president. Somehow, America is now going to dissolve into the sea. Also, in January, is the "Fiscal Cliff," when all sorts of automatic spending cuts and increased taxes will be triggered -- a measure created because in 2011, the hard-core conservatives balked on raising the debt ceiling as has been done dozens of times in the past decade. So, they made a stand and found out that stomping your feet and just saying "No," actually has consequences: America's AAA rating was lowered to AA (by only one such rating firm) and threatens to be lowered again in 2013. Not surprisingly, the debt ceiling was quietly raised in 2012 without as much as a peep of protest from the right. Lesson learned, I hope. Let's try to spend less, but don't bring down America doing it. We know how cutting off your nose to spite your face works out -- that's an old aphorism for a reason. Apparently, it's human nature.
But enough of that. To the aforementioned panic, I say "relax." The so-called Fiscal Cliff will likely be averted, because when push-comes-to-shove, I believe politicians can act like adults and compromise. In fact, some people think going over the cliff might not be so bad.
To the point about Obama's re-election being the harbinger of doom (Glenn Beck actually equated Obama to the anti-Christ, as if Jesus were swaddled in an American flag -- now why can't THAT be a logo?). And Victoria Jackson had a now-infamous total breakdown on Twitter is nonsense of the highest order. Again, I say, relax everybody. We're doing fine. Your voices will be heard, and as the system is built to function exactly this way. It's a representative democracy. We will sway back and forth on the political spectrum. I've said it before, patriotism is secular religion: Everybody has their own interpretation and their own imaginings of history -- like religion, most people try to find bits of history that coincide with their particular prejudices and ignore contrary information.
There are real horrors in the world -- starvation, disease, innocents being slaughtered in wars. These happen every day, every hour. We're fairly stable here in America (and the rest of the so-called "developed world"). We have medical care, electricity and neighboring countries who have no interest in invading us. Our biggest day-to-day worries consist of getting to work on time, making sure the kids clean up after themselves, getting the right cellphone plan, picking out what to wear.... We have it really good here. And please relax, reactionaries on both sides of the aisle. We're doing just fine and will continue to do so with just a little compromise and understanding.
To memorialize our recent fear, currently the conservatives are lamenting the "loss of America" to Obama's recent winning a second term as president. Somehow, America is now going to dissolve into the sea. Also, in January, is the "Fiscal Cliff," when all sorts of automatic spending cuts and increased taxes will be triggered -- a measure created because in 2011, the hard-core conservatives balked on raising the debt ceiling as has been done dozens of times in the past decade. So, they made a stand and found out that stomping your feet and just saying "No," actually has consequences: America's AAA rating was lowered to AA (by only one such rating firm) and threatens to be lowered again in 2013. Not surprisingly, the debt ceiling was quietly raised in 2012 without as much as a peep of protest from the right. Lesson learned, I hope. Let's try to spend less, but don't bring down America doing it. We know how cutting off your nose to spite your face works out -- that's an old aphorism for a reason. Apparently, it's human nature.
But enough of that. To the aforementioned panic, I say "relax." The so-called Fiscal Cliff will likely be averted, because when push-comes-to-shove, I believe politicians can act like adults and compromise. In fact, some people think going over the cliff might not be so bad.
To the point about Obama's re-election being the harbinger of doom (Glenn Beck actually equated Obama to the anti-Christ, as if Jesus were swaddled in an American flag -- now why can't THAT be a logo?). And Victoria Jackson had a now-infamous total breakdown on Twitter is nonsense of the highest order. Again, I say, relax everybody. We're doing fine. Your voices will be heard, and as the system is built to function exactly this way. It's a representative democracy. We will sway back and forth on the political spectrum. I've said it before, patriotism is secular religion: Everybody has their own interpretation and their own imaginings of history -- like religion, most people try to find bits of history that coincide with their particular prejudices and ignore contrary information.
There are real horrors in the world -- starvation, disease, innocents being slaughtered in wars. These happen every day, every hour. We're fairly stable here in America (and the rest of the so-called "developed world"). We have medical care, electricity and neighboring countries who have no interest in invading us. Our biggest day-to-day worries consist of getting to work on time, making sure the kids clean up after themselves, getting the right cellphone plan, picking out what to wear.... We have it really good here. And please relax, reactionaries on both sides of the aisle. We're doing just fine and will continue to do so with just a little compromise and understanding.
Comments
Post a Comment