I’m sitting on the back porch of my cabin in the woods listening to a symphony of crickets and cicadas. I have a little friend. It’s a toad that is no more than two and half inches long from front to back. By this time next year he’ll be the size of a softball.
There is nothing insane about my surroundings. Since I was a boy, I’ve spent considerable time in the country, or backpacking in the wilderness. My only connection with the insanity going on in this country is through my internet connection. Without access to the Internet, I would have no reason to believe there was anything fundamentally out of whack with my country or the world.
But I do have Internet access, and what I’m learning makes little sense. Even though I know I am living in one of the most advanced civilizations in the history of man, I am reading about a level of stupidity in my fellow citizens that simply defies imagination.
Nothing in the rhythm of the cricket and cicada chants would have tipped me off to this state of affairs. My little toad is behaving exactly as I would expect a little toad to behave. Everything appears normal. But there is nothing normal about the state of our national discourse.
If there were a real Utopia, my peace of mind would not be disturbed by any idiot wind. I’m not disturbing anyone, and our government is in the hand of competent officials. Things should resolve themselves in a satisfactory manner.
And, yet, all I see and read is confounding. My country is still in the grasp of fools.
I wish this were a mere haiku.
Hey, don’t despair! At least your country can claim brilliant minds like Stephen Hawking.
lol…I read about that
It’s a shame to see Republicans and Blue Dogs fight to take health care from the American people. Yes, we’re still in the grasp of fools.
They’re very dedicated to keeping the power concentrated in the hands of the American corporate oligarchy. And they provide a useful faux dualism, when they’re all the same shills under their formal businesswear.
And they’re not limited to Congress, they rotate out of State offices, through corporate VP internships/whatnot, and through DC, before another round or three of the same. For example, Governor Perry’s assistance to the profit oriented utilities in Texas, against the interests of Texans who might have solar & other power to share back to the grid:
You are correct but I believe there is another group. A group where the members are unlikely to ever be a part of the Political or Corporate Oligarchy. They are the fundies who are taught to never question or doubt their Theocratic Oligarchy, upon pain of going to hell.
otherwise known as cannon fodder.
I’m experiencing a whole range of emotions. I never expected the election of Obama to solve the problems we face, but I thought SOMETHING would change, or at least look like it was changing. The Republicans are worse than when they were in power, if that’s even possible. They are hoping for the country to fail, in health care, in war, in every aspect, just so they can say, “I told you so!” How insane is that?!
I can hardly watch the news anymore. I did take heart last night when Charles Gibson introduced a new segment called Fact Check. They showed some of the lies told by Sarah Palin and others who are declaring war on the health care plans and explained about end of life issues. If they ran that every night it might help. Or not.
I look around and see so much anger. That bothers me more than anything else. I was so desperate for truth during the Bush Administration. I thought we would have some when he left. I guess I’ll just keep hoping and waiting.
I have found that I have to be very careful to measure my daily consumption of news, lest I fall into a very deep and dark mental funk. Like you, I find a lot solace and peace in the rhythmic cycles of nature. Hardly an evening goes by that I don’t find myself spending at least some time either on my porch staring at the stars or plopped in chair in my little patch of woods at the back of my property. My brain is wired such that I it is a requirement that I give it some time for rest and reflection; a moment simply to “BE”, unassailed by this insanity that we have so discouragingly created and nurtured in this country.
I have a hard time wrapping my mind around how truly crazy so many people I know have become. My wife and I now measure the success of family gatherings by how little politics or race are discussed during the course of day. At times, when it is at its worst, it is almost so unbearable that you just have to wander away. If I try to talk about it they look at me like I’m the lunatic in the family. The disconnect is just incredible.
It is so disheartening. But like you, I take solace in the toads and the crickets and even the little bats that I have flying around every night now. It ain’t much, but sometimes it seems like it’s all that I have.
Summer nights in Oklahoma when I was a kid. Sitting on the patio, eating homemade ice cream and watching the grand spectacle of tens of thousands of red, white, and green flashing fireflies. This and my extensive and continuing contact with the out of doors is surely the only reason I retain any sanity.
Shorter BooMan: Ignorance is bliss.
But is it really?
“Ignorance of the demonstration of ignorance is bliss.”
divide in America today than there was in 1861.
This is happening in a world where information and education are available with a few keystrokes. Ignorance today is willful ignorance.
five stages of grief and loss: the first two is what we’re seeing right now imo – denial (the birthers, they deny that Obama is president) and anger (the teabaggers); next, if we get there, is bargaining, depression/ withdrawal and acceptance. grief and loss being the loss of the old ways we saw out in force in the sotomayor hearings. for my part, have decided one contribution to breaking the logjam is to open up discussions of race: not labeling racist or not, but discussion that go into the specifics, history or present. imo the beer summit did move us forward.
Bargaining……..then Depression and then Acceptance.
Never happen with these people.
I’m afraid that after anger comes violence.
I think the Five Stages of Fascism is probably more applicable.
What they are doing right now is an effort to reach #3. God help us if they get past that point.
that was the Bush years, which voters rejected. question is now whether their deadenders can derail the change we deserve.
Oh for the good old days of apathy. Was it just a few years ago when I was accused of being a conspiracy loving liberal?
An aside. Yesterday I was on the road. Stopped along the way to get an organic blueberry smoothie and use their facilities which are outside. There came a banging on the locked door and someone putting their shoulder to the door. I was pretty damned glad the lock held. Next I hear a rough voice saying, ‘damn hippies they lock their bathrooms so a guy can’t take a leak’
A few minutes later I emerged, he was so startled he just stared at me whereupon I said, ‘I bet you’re a Republican’
you live in a country where people demand that house and senate bill are written in language suited for junior high school students.
we’ve become a nation of morons and idiots. Idiocracy: pretty soon we’ll be watering our gardens with gatorade (it has the electrolytes plants love!) and going to Starbucks’ brothels.
Even a perfectly-aligned car will run off of the road if you take your hands off of the wheel for too long, and we the people have been asleep for a very long time…
I’ve just moved to South Dakota and we have a new house. Tonight, I found that I have a new neighbor – a little chipmunk who lives in my backyard. I am sort of a nut about small rodents, squirrels, etc. I really like little chipmunks, and will be trying to seduce this little guy into eating some potato chips.