http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/11/terrorist.surveillance.ap/index.html *sigh* Seems like every day I hear more and more stories in the mainstream media that reinforce my belief that America is headed to hell in a handbasket. They're spying on us, they have the ability to label us as "enemy combatants" and detain us for an undetermined amount of time, they are easing us into the idea that tortue is okay, the label terrorist has become a blanket term for criminals under the patriot act, habeus corpus and posse comitatus are under attack from recent legislation being passed, we are in an illegal war and the media is conditioning us to accept a new illegal war... And all the while my friends and colleagues seem to be completely oblivious to any of this, worrying about rappers, singers, sports and the latest gadgets to keep them distracted and complacent. It's frustrating when I try and bring up topics like this and people just laugh at me and call me paranoid. It's not paranoia when it's happening right in front of you. It's even more frustrating working for my local FOX news, it's not as bad as FNC, but it certainly is annoying to be laughed at when I bring up Ron Paul as the best presidential candidate ( I wouldn't dare talk about any of these other topics there, I'd be ridiculed) George Orwell is laughing at us...
You summed up my feelings to the Tee. Have people really become that submissive and distracted? I turn on Fox News and I see things like : Gas should be MORE Expensive. Privacy should be invaded. Iran is a threat . Pakistans suspension of the constitution is GOOD. They spit out statistics over and over and I feel exactly like im in 1984. Luckily I do have friends who are aware of it and more people are waking up by the day but... will it be enough?
i completely agree. theres not much we can really do, everyone is in such denial about the state of the world.
Word. Rep for the bolded. Nobody wants to talk about that with me either. I've been saying our economy and country is going to crumble for years now. I remember telling my Dad about it over lunch a few years ago. He was quite disturbed to hear that I thought our market would crash and the money he's saving in the stock market might not always be there. One time , after cheifing a blunt, while my buddy was rolling another one I dropped some serious knowledge on him about our govt and our economy. He definitely listened. He's a highschool dropout who never cares about this stuff, he won't even talk religion with me. It felt good to educate him, and it felt good to get a positive response from him.
I think its important to remember that the American people didn't arrive at these grim crossroads because of the actions of a few. Our freedoms are eroding because we suffer from an irrational fear of the rest of the world and people have wagered the Constitution against it. Democracy is a messy business because "We the People" can be an irrational lot sometimes. But just as the seeds of doubt have been sown so can the seeds of hope and perseverance. We must ask ourselves seriously, as individuals and then as one people what kind of America do we want and what are will willing to do to achieve it? If the answer is to become lethargic or fearful then who's really to blame for the state of things? "The essential principles of our Government... form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety." ~Thomas Jefferson - "1st Inaugural Address, 1801"~ Stay green.
I completely agree with you, however I feel kind of cheated by my country. The environment I was raised in made me completely oblivious until I got a little older, and I feel like I was handed down this mess by the older generation. But I'm just as much to blame, I've been lazy and apathetic towards these matters most of my life. It just is frustrating knowing that most people in my generation can't have an intelligent conversation about the goings on in the news. Their bias towards other countries and their blind patriotism and unwavering apathy towards these types of matters is disturbing to me, but what am I really doing to make a difference in my community? To be bluntly honest not a goddamn thing other than ranting to people occasionally and posting things online. I'm still young thuogh, and plan on getting involved at a local level in order to make changes to my immediate community, but when I look at politics and policy at a national level it seems futile to even try to change anything. It's just frustrating, and your post just makes me realize that no matter how much I want to pass the blame onto other people, it's still all of our faults. However, there are certian people who should be sharing MORE blame than the average joe schmoe just tring to make a living, and those people are the ones who are well off and have influence over the BIG issues. Holy run on sentence batman, my grammar sucks lately. Just stream of conciousness type shit here, but oh well. I'm just venting my random thoughts in my head. I'm at a loss, and the only immediate thing I can see myself doing is supporting Ron Paul because he is who I BELIVE in. I see it more as voicing my opinion rather than trying to get him elected, as that appears just about impossible. Supporting and voting for Ron Paul is my way of saying fuck you to the system, perhaps the last fuck you before there is a serious uprising and the shit hits the fan. Hopefully I'm being overly dramatic and everything works itself out. Right now my life situation is at the point where I pay attention to all of these things (I work at FOX news), but I'm struggling just to get back on track myself and it's daunting what lies ahead in our lifetime. It's scary, but I don't live in fear. Anyway, that was just a random rant, +rep for your post AK.
Hey Pete, since you work at Fox news maybe you can convince some of your coworkers to realize the situation at hand. You may have a greater chance at making a change then if you worked at, say, the washington post IMO. I'm not sure about the future of America. There are such huge problems carrying so much momentum that it seems impossible to stop them, much less reverse them. Every empire eventually falls...I guess this is just a matter of postponing the inevitable? I'd love to be optimistic but when I see news articles like this every other day it makes me want to say fuck it and step back from all the BS and just enjoy the time we have left. Most of the time I'm just to worldly to do that, though. I'd rather bitch, moan, then attack!!
The fact that the average Joe has to work for a living doesn't negate his impact on the world. There's no downtrodden working class heroes in all of this, there's only all of us trying to cling to each other. But as we huddle tight for warmth no one seems to know why we became afraid in the first place. There are no villains, just problems that need solving, and most times its greedy covetous man that's to blame. People are having a really hard fucking time equating citizenship with personal responsibility. [What we do or don't do matters.] Instead many come up with bizarre and ridiculous reasons why their lives aren't moving forward, or why they aren't connected with the process. Is what we see in the mirror so repulsive that we would rather destroy the earth instead of looking at ourselves? "We the People," what does it mean, what the fuck does that mean?