i have been thinking a lot lately about the state of the world and the state that this country is in. folks talk all of the time about ‘the good ole’ days’ and we laugh them off but i am beginning to believe that our golden age is behind us. being a relatively young country, we have flashed and burned rather quickly in the grander scheme of things. i think that the thing that kept this country going 900 miles an hour was our belief in
manifest destiny. we have always been a country ‘on the go’- we have
cities that don’t sleep and
night shifts and we have had this forward momentum. we wanted to be the best. then… we got lazy and complacent and comfortable. our cities have not been kept up because hey, we need our money in our pockets to build our pressboard and vinyl homes and keep our fiberglass suvs running to and from the convenient store for that bottle of soda. our kids aren’t learning because- hey, don’t we just need a glorified babysitter anyway? our kids are the best and so what if they can’t read? we lack any real leadership because- hey, in a democracy, even the morons voices are added to the mix- and the corporations are ‘entities’ with votes and isn’t that what we pay people to do? we can’t be bothered.
so, now we are in a pickle. with every wave of ‘new’ corruption scandals from our leaders,and every indication that our infrastructure is crumbling, and every bit of evidence that we have sold our souls to the chinese for cheap dollar store stuff, we become more and more like deer caught in headlights. we are out of our comfort zone. we don’t make decisions- we pop pills to be happy all of the time. come on now. we cannot sit and pretend that all is well and that things will right themselves. what we need is true leadership. where that is to be found- i have no answer. but, we can be leaders in our own lives. take some personal responsibility. it’s a start. we are not going to be able to save the world- the corruption runs too deep, but we can take back our homes, our lives and our communities and make a stand there. it’s possible, but it has to come from us. we have seen that electing the same people over and over again has cost us our country. let’s think outside the box and effect some real change. let’s be the citizen leaders that the forefathers had in mind. our democracy is in our hands.
cross posted at the sirens chronicles
3 comments:
Hey, Betmo, great to see some optimism returning. We all need a bit of a hand during the rough patches, during times of self-doubt, of questioning the whole sorry mess we've made of the world.
We, the bearers of hope, must trudge on and do what we can while we can. If we don't, the world is truly lost!
Peace and hugs!
Betmo
you read my stuff. I wrote about this in another respect today but I put in story a few days ago that the average life cycle of a successful society and I hate to say this, is 200 years,
We ratified the Constitution in 1787 so? Anyway we were headed the route of the Roman Empire. The advent of the Decider merely put it on the fast track.
It was a couple of days ago and I forget which one but I just reposted the steps in a degenerating society and we are normal and well into the cycle.
We could reverse it but to do so someone of consequence has to take charge. Politicians today like most it seems, just want to take as much as they can and only worry about themselves and not our society or future. The foolish children will play their idiot games right too the end and blame it on the other side.
To me the only person qualified to be our shining light out of this dark tunnel into the future Bush has created is Al Gore. If there even are elections and they are not stolen again as I expect I think Obama would be good and he has said he wants Bill Clinton and Al Gore in his Administration. Take care!
daniel- optimism, hmmm..... not quite there yet :) people are fighting as best they can- at least a growing number of them. my own thought is- it's too little too late. i tend to agree with jim- we are on the downward spiral of an empire. the unfortunate thing, in my mind anyway, is that we are taking the planet down with us. sylvia brown- psychic extraordinaire- predicts perhaps another 95 years or so for human life on this planet. is it a coincidence that the neo cons always talk about their 100 year plan? i would love to see gore somewhere where he could effect change- but we also need to clean house in congress. i find it disturbing that many of the rethuglicans are not running again. these are career politicians- what do they know that we don't? i don't believe that they just don't think that they have a shot. there's something funny at work. and of course- i read you both every day :) in my google reader. i just don't always comment.
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