Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
"The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum."
That quote from Havelock Ellis somewhat captures my mood this morning. The Onion's take on the election results captures another aspect of how I feel: we had to see things descend to the point where we were ready to make a significant change.
I am too old, too cynical, (and this morning too hungover), to think that the election of Barack Obama means that everything is going to be perfect in the coming months and years. Nor do I believe that our politicians will be able to completely resist the urge to return to type and put their own power above the needs of the nation. The mindset of "screw the other guy" is just too entrenched.
But I have just enough optimism - yes, just enough Hope - to think that we may be lucky enough to see real progress. Obama may be able to get enough pols to do the right thing enough times, even if it isn't in their immediate self-interest. It will come in fits and starts, and, as the mixed results of yesterday's elections show, there will be significant setbacks. But building little by little, moving ahead bit by bit, will be like the only solution I know to escaping depression: one step at a time, just putting one foot in front of the other and walking towards the light.
We'll see. For now, this xkcd strip resonates:
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to my blog.)
Bookmark/Search this post with:
I am very optimistic
Jim,
I'm actually very optimistic. Because for the next four years I know that there is one statement I will never hear come out of an Obama administration:
The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore" – A Bush administration official October, 2004
Who would have thought that reality would have needed defending.
Sure, mistakes will be made over the next four years, but they won't be due to a faith-based certainty. When mistakes happen, data based corrections can be made.
Am I optimistic, hell I thought we were at the end of the republic. You bet I'm optimistic.
If You Stare at it You Won't See it Move
I like what you said, Jim: ". . . building little by little, moving ahead bit by bit, will be like the only solution I know to escaping depression: one step at a time, just putting one foot in front of the other and walking..."
Some things happen all at once. Most things don't. More process than phenomena. And the inertia of something the size of America! Patience is called for but more important is to instill something like patriotism and civic duty in the young while we try to give them an education. Most important and lasting revolutions overlap generations.
Sometimes the outcome is worth the wait.
So. Let's see what the new kid can do. I hear he's got a head start on assembling his staff and addressing the details of a peaceful transfer of power.
Oh, this is something I hope for too. It is a deeply human trait and it serves well sometimes when the future is less than clear.