It doesn't matter - Nothing matters

[matt819]

I hate to be a downer, but nothing's going to happen.

Bush isn't going to be impeached.

Rove isn't going to testify.

No one's going to prison for the failure of IndyMac, FreddicMac, or FannieMae. No executive is going to have to trade down in terms of housing.

The Iraq war will or won't end any time soon, and nothing we say or do will make a difference. And no one's going be held accountable for the travesty.

The Bush administration will continue to do its damndest to destroy this nation right up until 11:59 am on January 20, 2009.

Women's rights? Oxymoron.

Guantanamo Bay will or won't close. Torture will or won't continue. But nothing we do will make a difference.

Gas will never be $1.50 per gallon again. For that matter, neither will milk. Again, nothing will change that.

Jobs will continue to be outsourced, except in those instances where foreign companies choose, for whatever reason, to insource some jobs back to the US, at much lower wages.

Health care costs will continue to skyrocket, and even when RWers' families are left in financial disarray due to medical costs or job loss, they will continue to vote Republican.

The RW punditocracy will not shut up.

No one is going to challenge McCain on his seriously deficient personal and professional ethics or history. He may very well be the next president.

Despite our best efforts, absolutely nothing will be done to fix the electronic voting mess. From now on, we will never be sure that our elected officials have been elected or have defrauded their way into office.

American children will continue to get fatter, earlier as sports and PE programs are completely eradicated.

Quality public education. Another oxymoron, except in wealthy districts.

Republicans will continue to deny global warming, even when Las Vegas is on the coast and Martha's Vineyard becomes Martha's Reef.

I'm from the government and I'm here to help is no longer a light-hearted joke but fighting words. Is anyone comforted, for example, when FEMA responds to a disaster or USDA puts any number of certifications on food and drugs?

Consider the recent salmonella scare with tomatoes, or was it onions? Or peppers? Oh, it was jalapenos, maybe. Maybe not. In restaurants. Or fresh, in stores. Or not. Consider for a moment if this were a genuine attack on our food supply. Keystone Kops, anyone? Has it been resolved? Out of sight, out of mind.

Toyota hasn't had a losing quarter since around 1950 (more or less). The American car companies are losing billions and laying off thousands. Foreign carmakers are extending their lines of hybrid vehicles, which have been under development or in production for some time. American carmakers killed the electric car. I guess short-sightedness is a virtue in Detroit.

For a projected reduction of four cents per gallon, the republicans want to drill offshore and in ANWR and destroy what remains of our environmental protections. Did I mention that this savings will show up in a decade or so. Gosh, what will I do with the savings? Does anyone question them on this?

The FBI still doesn't have the capacity to quickly share information throughout its own system - almost a decade after 9/11. Has anyone been fired for this failure?

The Governor of Georgia thinks it's just fine for civilians to carry concealed weapons in the airport. I feel safer already. Take this to its full potential, with tens of thousands of people passing through Hartsfield every day. Let's hope the air conditioning doesn't give out.

All branches of the US military have essentially become prosyletizing wings of a range of evangelical churches, with the blessing (so to speak) of senior military officers. Although there have been a few articles on this, nothing has changed.

Speaking of the military, McCain says he will abide by the guidance offered by Gen. Petraeus. Last I looked, a civilian is the commander in chief. Guess not. Has anyone mentioned this to McCain?

Dennis Kucinich is nothing if not persistent. Pretty amazing, really. Sorry, though. Nothing will come of it.

Notwithstanding an embarrassment of riches in terms of perps, there will be no perp walks.

According to a shocking percentage of Americans, the universe was created roughly 6,000 years ago. Is it any wonder the Chinese constitute the largest percentage of doctoral students in the US?

I probably should have written this out and then deleted it and skipped posting it. And I suppose it seems as if I'm ready to jump off the nearest building. I'm not. I'm pretty positive about Obama, my own personal situation is okay enough. But I just don't see anything changing, and I guess the DU echo chamber just got to me. What I find particularly disturbing, I suppose, is that even with a majority in Congress and the prospect of a Democratic president, I don't see that anyone is going to be held accountable and that the work needed to undo the damage of the past eight years is going to take generations.

So, cheer me up. Or flame away. Or put me on ignore and chalk me up as one of Phil Gramm's whiners and complainers.

[zanne]

1. Are you looking for work as an inspirational speaker?

:shrug:

[HowHasItComeToThis]

17. DEMOCRATS ARE TERRIFIED OF THE REPUBLICAN MEDIA

MEAN SCREAM MEDIA

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Cheer up and have some cool wallpaper.

http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/userg/images/1129457857.shtml

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Yah. I hear ya. I lost my belief that things will get better quite some time back.

[Kazak]

4. Too right!

I'm sorry to say, anyone who things will turn around and return to the way things were is fooling themselves. I get to watch my daughter grow up in this mess.

[griffi94]

5. i hate to say it

but you're probly correct. i would be more optomistic except the democratic congress has been a huge disappointment.
i'm not really expecting anything more than a superficial rearranging of the deck chairs.

[AlienGirl]

6. You are right, but that doesn't excuse us from trying to change things.

[glitch]

19. Exactly. Fighting is more fun than cowering any day. nt

[matt819]

38. This is not a cower/fight issue

No question there. Fighting is far more satisfying than cowering. And I'm not really talking about giving up. The issue, I think, is more of the enormity of it. It's not simply a matter of fighting on the economic front, as in Bush I's "it's the economy, stupid" issue in this reelection campaign. It's everything: wars, economy, environment, global warming, abortion, women's rights, gay rights, job loss, wage stagnation, diplomacy, deception, propaganda, RW SCOTUS, etc. Wherever you turn, there's a battle looming. That's gets old.

[glitch]

39. It's less overwhelmng if you pick one and devote yourself to it.

FWIW mine is trying to help create a new model of self-sufficient community with other locals. There is a lot of promise there which gives me a break from the depressing things (aka fascist takeover) happening in the world.

[willing dwarf]

7. You need to focus closer to home

Look for what you can change locally or in your own household. Having been an community organizer and peace worker for a number of years I'm really convinced that the only person we can change ins right here looking at you in the mirror. Look at that huge mountain and you'll never be able to climb it. But focus on staying on your own path, doing what's right, and putting one foot in front of the other, you'll get yourself a little further up the mountain, and you'll provide inspiration to others to stay on their path.

If you expect all of the above to change, you'll burn out fast!

Of course, we all have days like this. You're not alone. And too, you're right. The world is fecked, and getting worse faster and faster, but it was bad in the past too. Hope that helps a bit.

[nancyr]

10. Was it this bad?

I realize things have always been bad, and maybe we just weren't aware of how bad they really were. The fact remains that it seems like everything is falling apart now and if there is a ray of sunshine anywhere I'm not seeing it. This is all beyond depressing.

[willing dwarf]

14. I think it's the cynicism that hurts now

When I think of my father's generation (he turns 92 tomorrow) there were so many ways to die young -- polio, strep, tetnus, whooping cough are a few -- then there were wars WWI when he was a baby followed by the depression when no one had work, and people saw no hope for change. -- But I don't think most people could see how cynical the people in power were. These days we see how the lobbyists and multinationals like KBR and Carlisle Group are a law unto themselves.

In my father's generation, every day people felt powerless because they were poor and didn't own a lot. In our generation (I'm in my forties) we were taught that we the people had the power to change everything. Now we're needing to learn how to face the disillusionment seeing that there are forces that don't embrace the ideal of "we the people." So we're right back where we were in my dad's time in a way.

My guess is that the good old days are only thought good once they're good and old!

[Sewsojm]

8. You Nailed It

The Rich get richer and the Poor get Fucked!!

[Union Thug]

9. You are my personal voice of pessimism made manifest

on the 'internets.' Sadly, I feel the same way. I'm not giving up, but I feel like the battle is futile unless we, the citizens of this country, radically change our tactics.

[Zhade]

11. Sadly, you're probably right - nothing will change until this country falls of its own weight.

Still - Gobama.

[readmoreoften]

12. Nihilism is just the inner lining of the ethics of "happiness" and it has held us back. HOWEVER

Please don't misunderstand the above comment as the promotion of some sort of ludicrous phony hopefulness. You are correct in that there is no way to correct the problems of the system through the system.

What I mean by "nihilism is just the inner lining of the ethics of 'happiness'" is this: a society that believes in nothing except the pursuit of pleasure, balance, cheerfulness, sunny days, politics as "being together", and the so-called end of ideology has cut its own throat because it no longer believes that anyone has the right to fight for any sort of egalitarian truth. The ethics of happiness is the doctrine of giving up the world to the rich and powerful.

If you're making low wages, don't organize with other people to force the hand of those who exploit workers. No! You need to learn new "people skills" that will help you "get ahead" in the "world of business".

If you're not cheerful or sunny about the current political climate, don't storm the bastille. No! You need to join a charity to help the poor, a category of people who are unequal and subhuman or perhaps, if you're liberal, even permanently subhuman due to their lamentable "disadvantage." Oh wait, you mean you're pissed off because YOU are poor. Well, get in the bread line you poor disadvantaged, subhuman "person who lacks the necessary soft-skills to keep a job."

What? You say that the rich don't deserve what they have and that they are taking money from the working people to start wars against other working people to take their assets? Why that sounds like ideology!!!! Remember: ideology kills people. :sarcasm:

Social transformation will only happen from the bottom up. We are responsible for fighting for protecting ourselves against the predators. Forget the notion that the population is "stupid" and "apathetic." It's not true. The population is depressed, confused, controlled by the church, and fed endless disinformation. We laugh at the ignorance of freepers, but freepers aren't apathetic. They are misinformed working people who are fighting the wrong enemy. The primary enemy is the corrupt corporate system and the wealthy who game it. I don't mean the person who owns a restaurant, an ebay business, a car dealership, a farm. I mean the generations of con artists who game the system, including their clergy henchmen.

The only way out of nihilism is the passionate risk over an idea. Whether or not the risk pays off or not is irrelevant. It is the act of risking oneself for the truth that is important, the act of creating a culture where solidarity is possible.

[glitch]

22. "however" one of my favorite words. Also, "although"

but what I really wanted to say was, most excellent post.

[readmoreoften]

29. Alain Badiou: "Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil"

That would be the source of my inspiration :)

[glitch]

31. Thanks! I love further reading :)

edit: reading the reviews on Amazon this looks like a very interesting book. Thanks again.

[Vickers]

13. As long as Tony Snow's kids have well-funded trust funds, I'm happy.

:hug:

[Uncle Joe]

15. Off to the Greatest Pages, that should cheer you up!

Your post reminds me of the movie "Hamburger Hill" where they kept climbing up this muddy hill over and over in Vietnam getting killed and wounded while they slid down, sometimes laughing at the futility of it all. They kept saying "It don't mean nothing" or something to that effect.

Take care of your self and those you love.:hug:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. Try this. A sure cure for the "nothing will change" blues.

http://kiva.org/

It's something YOU can do that will change things.

And, it doesn't involve politics or politicians, and, it really works.

[readmoreoften]

30. Thanks for posting this. I'm definitely joining.

While I'm skeptical about microfinance's ability to change "things," this is certainly a good mechanism for changing quite a few lives through a direct contribution.

[psychmommy]

18. although you may be right

i want to go down fighting dagnabit. i can't make them impeach but, i can write letters. i may not change the energy crisis but, i can conserve-one thing at a time, one day at a time. you may laugh and say what can that one woman do, what difference can she make? but there are thousands just like me. if we all work together one thing at a time one day at a time-we can make a difference. my family survived the depression, i am blessed that they are still here to teach me how to survive. i refuse to remain stagnant in the lake of bullshit that we are living in right now. the repubs count on us to get mired in the details and miss the forest for the trees. i am going out fighting. the repubs are gonna have to work for this one.

[iamahaingttta]

20. Then we need to do something about it...

...and there's only one thing to do and it's very simple:

We need to stop giving the pirates our money!

We need to stop buying their gasoline. We need to stop borrowing their money to buy stuff that we probably don't need anyway and then paying it back to them with interest. We need to stop giving their propaganda tubes our eyeballs, so that their advertisers pay them large sums of money to pipe their jingles into our brains. We need to stop eating the food they produce using all those petrochemicals and start eating stuff made by our neighbors. We need to give up the notion that we need constant blockbuster entertainment and start using that energy and time to start at the school board level and work our way up to taking the nation back. We need to stop paying into a treasury that uses its funds to ship our kids off to wars to steal more of the stuff that is so unhealthy for us. We need to stop bailing out failed capitalists and start financing entrepreneurs who share the same world-view as most of the people on the planet, so that we can marginalize and eventually consign the pirates to the dustbin of history.

I mean... how hard could that be? Nothing will continue to get done, if we don't do it!

[glitch]

21. "Save despair for better times" - graffiti on a wall in Argentina during their economic hit

(hit as in assassination, google "Economic Hitman" or "Shock and Awe").

If they can wise up and overcome, so can we.

[Political Heretic]

23. And yet despite all this, the gift of life is damn good.

Been through bankrupcty, house loss, extreme poverty - I've seen my share of hard times. I read your post and don't necessarily disagree.

And yet, my gift of life is beautiful. Every day is a gift. There are so many wonders in the world to cause thrill and marvel. True friends and love are the greatest gift there is. There are so many reasons to be happy, even amidst a world spiraling downward.

[faithfulcitizen]

32. Very well said. You can always see the silver lining if you make the choice to do so.

All we can do is give it our best shot and hope we leave this world a better place & with some great memories.

[bonito]

24. Much wisdom here

Great post. we find ourselves in good company, maybe its when we find bottom only then can we learn to bounce.:grouphug:

[stillcool]

25. It's gotten old hasn't it?

it's too much for me lately too. I just wish I knew what the bottom looked like, so I would know if we as a country had arrived. When the Iraq War first started I felt the need to pay attention to the carnage. To at least bear witness. Now, I can't. Not only has it gotten much harder to read anything resembling what might be construed as close to the truth, but it's impossible to process any more. It just goes on and on. Questions unanswered, failed logic, distrust, distortion, and just a complete mind-fucking.

[wildbilln864]

26. Well...

I think you're pretty much spot on. But I have two new grandsons now. Well one is almost ten. The other is two. They fill my heart with joy all the time. So I'll have to keep hoping we're wrong about whether it matters for them. And keep fighting to try to make their futures as good as it can be. Pollution, overpopulation, war. These things scare the shit out of me when I think of them. But they'll be the ones who'll have to deal with those problems when they become adults if we don't do it now. So, on we go.

[ColbertWatcher]

27. Until we win, until the GOP are held accountable, I'm going to remember this post. n/t

[colorado thinker]

28. Monday was the anniversary

of the French peasants storming the Bastille. Just a reminder to celebrate Bastille Day!

[tyedyeto]

33. Pessimists United gather round

Or PU if initials count for anything around here.

[SidneyCarton]

34. Is it cold where you are my friend? It certainly seems dark.

I do not wish to flame you, things look grim now, times are bad and I'll be damned if I can tell you how to fix this mess. That said, either way we're gonna die, we may as well die in such a manner that will be worthy of remembrance, it would be truly sad if the epitaph of America was "having given up hope, the nation lay down and died."

[Kaleko]

35. The futility of it all hits me from time to time

with such massive force, I can barely get up. So I know whereof you speak. Heck, I could add more points to your OP!

But

as the Bangladeshi poet Tagore says,

"Hidden inside death, an endless stream of life."

Listen to this - the song is called Praan, lyrics by Rabindranath Tagore,
and watch people from all over the world, even some of the poorest spots,

Dancing

with a sweet, nerdy guy called Matt.

[BigBearJohn]

36. But other than that, everything's fine.

[elehhhhna]

37. We have become like the old USSR

[windoe]

40. Change is coming whether we want it or not,

and resisting it is painful. I go back & forth between hope and despair myself too, because of the polarity. People who think for themselves give me great hope, creative people who have held onto their free and wild selves.

What gives me despair are the seemingly vast numbers of people who actively work to maintain their own cages, and thus build a cage for us all-they do not see that this system only works if you do not think for yourself and continue to pay them with your time, life blood and money.

The polarity that exists is between people who can see this cage closing in around them, and the others who cannot see a cage but work to feed the system, making it stronger. The laws now on the books enable this parasitic unsustainable system to suck the life blood out of the country until there is none left. As soon as more people awaken to this reality they will need stronger enforcement, not just propaganda. We are not yet there all the way but nearly.

Obama is a good man but he is surrounded by entrenched powerful corruption. The good news is that Obama is a leader for self motivated people who are willing to make changes themselves. He will be a disappointment to people who will watch and wait for others to do all the work for them.

It really is a time for people who CAN to tune out the propaganda, and tune into the truth in order to become empowered and self sustaining, both in the physical world as in alternative news and alternative sources of energy and food, and internally to original ideas, entertainment and creativity. Unplug from the grid before it sucks us dry.

[blues90]

41. I think everything you expressed has an affect on most people

Whether they choose to admit it or not is another matter .

Trouble is, where is the starting point to even attempt to begin to try to turn this around?

I can't find where it begins or ends , it's like finding the right end of a balled up 300 yard long fishing line.

People talk about leaders ,well maybe it's time we become our own leaders and let the leaders we have now be lead. I guess we can only work in our own little part of the country and try to start there.