Thu, 27 Oct 2005 03:59:38
Peggy Noonan nails it
YES! This is precisely how I feel.
I think there is an unspoken subtext in our national political culture right now. In fact I think it’s a subtext to our society. I think that a lot of people are carrying around in their heads, unarticulated and even in some cases unnoticed, a sense that the wheels are coming off the trolley and the trolley off the tracks. That in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can’t be fixed, or won’t be fixed any time soon. That our pollsters are preoccupied with “right track” and “wrong track” but missing the number of people who think the answer to “How are things going in America?” is “Off the tracks and hurtling forward, toward an unknown destination.”
I’m not talking about “Plamegate.” As I write no indictments have come up. I’m not talking about “Miers.” I mean . . . the whole ball of wax. Everything. Cloning, nuts with nukes, epidemics; the growing knowledge that there’s no such thing as homeland security; the fact that we’re leaving our kids with a bill no one can pay. A sense of unreality in our courts so deep that they think they can seize grandma’s house to build a strip mall; our media institutions imploding--the spectacle of a great American newspaper, the New York Times, hurtling off its own tracks, as did CBS. The fear of parents that their children will wind up disturbed, and their souls actually imperiled, by the popular culture in which we are raising them. Senators who seem owned by someone, actually owned, by an interest group or a financial entity. Great churches that have lost all sense of mission, and all authority. Do you have confidence in the CIA? The FBI? I didn’t think so.
But this recounting doesn’t quite get me to what I mean. I mean I believe there’s a general and amorphous sense that things are broken and tough history is coming.
I could not have articulated this feeling more precisely.
Posted by JimK at 03:59 AM on October 27, 2005
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#2 Posted by JimK 
on 10/27 at 09:00 AM -
Christ you;re a one-trick pony. That kind of stupidity is just as broken as the shit you think is wrong.
You’re part of the problem, chief.
#3 Posted by catastrophile on 10/27 at 02:40 PM -
Which kind of stupidity would that be? The 15-foot puppet line was a joke, BTW.
Or are you going to tell me that Gee-Dub is really a conservative who had the largest spending increases in history forced on him?
The next time a candidate does the same old head-fake, you’ll fall for it?
These people tell us what they think we want to hear, then do whatever the hell they want. That’s the only trick that matters.
#4 Posted by davidst on 10/27 at 04:41 PM -
Yeah, I feel like this. I think that by the time I’m about ready to die, this whole America thing will have run out of steam… and I don’t mind too much as I see no way to fix things and don’t plan on having children.
#5 Posted by JimK on 10/27 at 04:52 PM -
Do you even bother to read the things I write, catastrophile? Because you rant and rave at me over shit that I DON’T SAY NOR DO I BELIEVE.
Seriously, man. If you can’t address me as an individual and not part of some stereotypical global RepubliCon corporate entity you wet-dream about...stop fucking posting here. I’m sick of it.
#6 Posted by Drumwaster on 10/27 at 06:09 PM -
I’m stocking food, water and ammo.
I’m not kidding.
#7 Posted by catastrophile on 10/27 at 06:51 PM -
Chill, dude. I was asking for clarification, not trying to put words in your mouth. Am I supposed to read your mind?
You cite what’s essentially a retread of what we lunatic Naderites have been saying for years, say that’s exactly how you feel, but when I point that fact out, you tell me I’m part of the problem.
All I can do is speculate as to WtF that’s supposed to mean. And then you accuse me of ranting at you . . . lol.
So, once again: Which stupidity are you referring to?
#8 Posted by Rann Aridorn on 10/28 at 03:28 AM -
I think that by the time I’m about ready to die, this whole America thing will have run out of steam… and I don’t mind too much as I see no way to fix things and don’t plan on having children.
Ah, the selfishness of the “I’ll be dead by then” crowd. How adorable it is.
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#1 Posted by catastrophile
on 10/27 at 06:01 AM -
“. . . a general and amorphous sense that things are broken and tough history is coming.”
As in, a feeling that the whole system is a fucking lie? That all our leaders are doing is dangling shiny objects in front of us to keep us distracted while they steal our coutry?
Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha . . . Congratulations, you’re a catastrophile. We’ll have you toting a 15-foot puppet at a WTO protest in no time.