(no subject)
Oct. 28th, 2004 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quietannrandom things...
For the filkers out there, has anyone ever done lyrics called "Felines...." using "Feelings...." as the "parent" tune? I found myself singing, "Felines.... nothing more than felines...." to my cats this morning, but I don't know the rest of the tune, and filking isn't really my thing.
I had a fantastic evening last night with a small group of north-suburban susboids (and the Camberville partner of one). Lots of talk, silly stuff, listening to an oil tank being dismantled (very loudly) in the basement at midnight while the hosts' son ran around feeling very important because he got to "help" ... Good cookie dough and cookies. Yarn passed on to someone who will use it. Some Red Sox, but very little politics. Hope it happens again soon, and we'll host when our house is less of a black hole :)
On politics, I've had the start of an essay going through my head. It seems to want to develop into a longer thing, but my brain is preoccupied with other things. It's something like this: "I start to think that all those people who believe Shrub's lies are *stupid*. But then I realize that they are *scared*. And deep down, those of us on Kerry's side are just as scared. We're less scared of the amorphous threat of terrorism, and more scared of our own government's power..."
For folks thinking about moving to Canada: my supervisor is Canadian. She's in the US because Canada simply doesn't have the resources to fund medical research on any great scale -- perhaps because they fund immediate medical CARE instead. Canada is NOT a rich country. There's more of a safety net, but you have to qualify for residency to use much of it. It's a lovely, great country, more similar to Europe than the US, but it's not Heaven...
Also, we really need you here, to speak up and speak out and balance the right-wing theocrats.
"No, of course you should not leave. This is your country. This is our country. Why should we have to leave because things are not to our liking?
If this country has been hijacked by right-wing zealots, we can vote them out.
To leave now, it seems to me, would be premature. It might relieve you of a certain chronic angst. It might make it easier in certain ways. But it would be wrenching personally; the costs would be high. And there is much work to be done here. What more can one do from France or England to organize Americans to resist their own government? To leave would not impede this country's imperial quest or enlighten its leadership. It would not strengthen the resistance at home.
If we feel this country has been lost, let's find it again. If we feel threatened, let's vanquish the threat. In whatever sense we feel that this country is no longer recognizable, let's refashion it. Let's re-create what we have lost. If the media have become enslaved, let's create new, free media, and support the few independent media that survive. If the country has taken reckless foreign adventures, let's rein it in.
When people start disappearing, that's when you pack your suitcase and bury the silver. The paradox, of course, is that only when you are prevented from leaving does it finally seem like it's time to leave. Oh, well.
As to the sense many have that we have awakened a latent fascism, I think elements of fascism have become visible in our national character and in our leaders, but I do not think we are on the road to a fascist or totalitarian form of government. What we have seen in the last three years is a clumsy and incompetent reaction to an unprecedented threat. Our stupid little men in Washington are not up to the job. We have got the wrong government for our times. We need a new one. We can get one.
Now, some would say that the battle is lost already, that the manufacturing of consent is so finely tuned that we are all slaves without a shot being fired. So why stick around? Why stick around? Because we own this thing. It is ours.
Until they start taking people away in the night, I say fight the bastards. After they start taking people away in the night, I say fight the bastards. Why? Because it's our friggin' spacious skies and amber waves of grain. "
For the filkers out there, has anyone ever done lyrics called "Felines...." using "Feelings...." as the "parent" tune? I found myself singing, "Felines.... nothing more than felines...." to my cats this morning, but I don't know the rest of the tune, and filking isn't really my thing.
I had a fantastic evening last night with a small group of north-suburban susboids (and the Camberville partner of one). Lots of talk, silly stuff, listening to an oil tank being dismantled (very loudly) in the basement at midnight while the hosts' son ran around feeling very important because he got to "help" ... Good cookie dough and cookies. Yarn passed on to someone who will use it. Some Red Sox, but very little politics. Hope it happens again soon, and we'll host when our house is less of a black hole :)
On politics, I've had the start of an essay going through my head. It seems to want to develop into a longer thing, but my brain is preoccupied with other things. It's something like this: "I start to think that all those people who believe Shrub's lies are *stupid*. But then I realize that they are *scared*. And deep down, those of us on Kerry's side are just as scared. We're less scared of the amorphous threat of terrorism, and more scared of our own government's power..."
For folks thinking about moving to Canada: my supervisor is Canadian. She's in the US because Canada simply doesn't have the resources to fund medical research on any great scale -- perhaps because they fund immediate medical CARE instead. Canada is NOT a rich country. There's more of a safety net, but you have to qualify for residency to use much of it. It's a lovely, great country, more similar to Europe than the US, but it's not Heaven...
Also, we really need you here, to speak up and speak out and balance the right-wing theocrats.
"No, of course you should not leave. This is your country. This is our country. Why should we have to leave because things are not to our liking?
If this country has been hijacked by right-wing zealots, we can vote them out.
To leave now, it seems to me, would be premature. It might relieve you of a certain chronic angst. It might make it easier in certain ways. But it would be wrenching personally; the costs would be high. And there is much work to be done here. What more can one do from France or England to organize Americans to resist their own government? To leave would not impede this country's imperial quest or enlighten its leadership. It would not strengthen the resistance at home.
If we feel this country has been lost, let's find it again. If we feel threatened, let's vanquish the threat. In whatever sense we feel that this country is no longer recognizable, let's refashion it. Let's re-create what we have lost. If the media have become enslaved, let's create new, free media, and support the few independent media that survive. If the country has taken reckless foreign adventures, let's rein it in.
When people start disappearing, that's when you pack your suitcase and bury the silver. The paradox, of course, is that only when you are prevented from leaving does it finally seem like it's time to leave. Oh, well.
As to the sense many have that we have awakened a latent fascism, I think elements of fascism have become visible in our national character and in our leaders, but I do not think we are on the road to a fascist or totalitarian form of government. What we have seen in the last three years is a clumsy and incompetent reaction to an unprecedented threat. Our stupid little men in Washington are not up to the job. We have got the wrong government for our times. We need a new one. We can get one.
Now, some would say that the battle is lost already, that the manufacturing of consent is so finely tuned that we are all slaves without a shot being fired. So why stick around? Why stick around? Because we own this thing. It is ours.
Until they start taking people away in the night, I say fight the bastards. After they start taking people away in the night, I say fight the bastards. Why? Because it's our friggin' spacious skies and amber waves of grain. "
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 12:46 pm (UTC)My $0.02 on your embryonic essay:
* I don't think my anti-Shrub pro-Kerry stance is motivated by fear of government power. I resent the erosion of civil liberties, but it's not at the level of causing me fear.
* I don't think the erosion of civil liberties is among the top issues for other pro-Kerry supporters either. Most of them are either pissed about Iraq or concerned with bread-and-butter issues (economy, healthcare, etc.) or with the usual cultural issues (pro-choice, gay rights, etc.) None of these is a sharp spike of fear like the issue of terrorism.
* Speaking of terrorism... It's not that I don't fear terrorism, it's that Bush's approach to fighting terrorism is so bad that it can only make things worse. Bush was right to invade Afganistan. He was wrong to not spend more money and troops there, that's the rock the 9/11 terrorists crawled out from and they could well be lurking there still because Bush left Afganistan in shambles. He was really really wrong to attack Iraq because Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and was fairly well contained. Now it's a breeding ground for terrorists because the Iraqis resent our ham-fisted occupation. Now our resources have been stretched too thin to actually protect ourselves from terrorism by fighting the wrong war, 377 tons of explosives that the U.N. was keeping watch on have disappeared into the chaos, and the Muslim world hates us more than ever. Please don't perpetuate the idea that liberals care less about terrorism. Throwing gasoline on the fire doesn't show that one cares the most about putting out the fire, it just shows that one is an idiot; and saying "you shouldn't have thrown gas on the fire" is not the same as "you should've just let it burn".
no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 12:48 pm (UTC)If this country has been hijacked by right-wing zealots, we can vote them out.
Actually, I am beginning to feel that we really can't. The right wing is so focused on staying in power that they are willing to do anything in order to do so, including voter fraud and intimidation and beyond.
As to the sense many have that we have awakened a latent fascism, I think elements of fascism have become visible in our national character and in our leaders, but I do not think we are on the road to a fascist or totalitarian form of government.
In fact, I have to disagree. When the current feeling is that it is "unpatriotic" or "subversive" to voice an opposing opinion about the ruling administration... That is the first step to a totalitarian form of government. And people are already being incarcerated without being told why: Gitmo anyone?
I do not want to wait until "my fellow Americans" start throwing bricks through shop windows. Sorry....
And many of those folks living under the "spacious skies" and among the "amber waves of grain" are the same ones who think trading their civil liberities in for a false sense of freedom is a good thing....
Don't get me wrong, I am feeling a bit conflicted about this. I like Canada a lot, but would miss my family a lot too....
Here's hoping that this will be moot in a week, but I have no faith in the American people to do the right thing, or for the current administration to let Kerry become president even if he does win.
Color me blue...
no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 02:30 pm (UTC)You,
no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 08:33 pm (UTC)In my not-at-all-humble opinion, the Left would have a serious chance at power if it didn't genuflect to the doctrines of 1968, cover its ears, and shout "La-la-la-la-la-la-la! I can't hear you! La-la-la-la-la-la-la!"
The Right managed to largely exclude itself from power from about 1932 to 1980 by simply rejecting the New Deal, the idea that the government had a role in solving social problems. By holding true to that doctrine, which the public decisively rejected, they guaranteed that Democrats ran Congress, and only the most tepid Republicans became president. (Even old Red-scare Nixon: finally got us out of Vietnam, signed the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, signed Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and made kissy-face with Red China and the Soviet Union. Some victory for the Republicans!)
Eventually, starting with Nixon and cemented by Reagan, the Republicans swallowed the things that the voters demanded. And having done so, have managed to get a solid grip on power for the last 25 years.
When are the Democrats going to take a critical eye to their baggage? You don't sell the product by shouting at the customers, "You should want this!" No amount of advertising will get people to by an Edsel...
What's so pathetic about this is that Califano said it all quite well in 1988 when Dukakis lost, and the Democrats haven't listened at all.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-28 08:34 pm (UTC)And for better or worse, it's probably because of that lovely safety net that it is not a rich country.