America Is Falling Apart And It’s Your Fault
When deciding who to blame for the current state of affairs in our country, we always run through a familiar list of shadowy villains: the “system,” the “establishment,” politicians, lobbyists, the schools, the media, etc. These are fine suspects in their own right, but I find it ridiculous that, somehow, we skip right over the first and most dastardly culprit: ourselves.
We never blame us, do we? We always get off the hook. All of the misery and misfortune in our culture have been hoist upon us from Washington, D.C. and Hollywood and Ivory Towers, and none of it from us, we claim. We’re victims. We had no say in any of this at all, according to us.
Well, at the risk of alienating literally every single person reading this, I’d like to suggest that you are an adult and a voter, and this is your fault. And mine. And your mother’s. And your neighbor Jim’s. And all of our accomplices who generally make up the club known as “We The People.”
And there're 26 more paragraphs, and one hypothetical dialogue, more where that came from.
Of course, the Hall is pretty much the choir Mr. Walsh is preaching to.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the time I passed a voter organizer's table in Chicago. She wanted to end voter disenfranchisement. "Disenfranchisement" is a word that gets a lawyer's attention, and me being a lawyer, I stopped to chat. It turns out that all she meant was that she was dissatisfied with the world in general, and the US Establishment in particular.
ReplyDeleteI told her that she lived in the United States of America, and that you can do anything you want in this country, provided you can get enough people to agree to it. After a little bit, it hit her: "That means we've got exactly the government that we deserve!" she said.
Yes.
It doesn't mean we can't make things better, or that revolting developments can't happen. But yes, we don't just deserve this government, we earned it.
Valerie
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteWho is this "we" he keeps mentioning? Far as I can tell, "we", has just been outnumbered.
ReplyDeleteHe does have one paragraph where he lets a few people off the hook.
ReplyDeleteWe’re living in the country that we made for ourselves, though I suppose there are some who remain truly blameless. Children, first of all. We’re giving this society to children who’ve done nothing to deserve such a punishment. Beyond them, there may well be a small minority of people who’ve been truly engaged and thoughtful citizens, selfless community members, great parents and spouses, and have all around done everything they possibly could to create a better world. But I know these folks are not in the majority because if they were, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
I, however, have some negligence to atone for.
I'm as disenchanted with the political system as most, but it comes down to this: if I'm not running for political office myself, I have to hold my nose and support the best candidate I can find, then live with his/her faults. Realistically, I can't mount a campaign for president, but there's nothing stopping me from running for the County Commissioner's Court.
ReplyDeleteWho the hell is "we".
ReplyDeleteParker and others online, have been blaming US voters for quite some time long. Far longer than the usual wannabe intellectuals started getting a clue, not that they have one even now.
And all of our accomplices who generally make up the club known as “We The People.”
ReplyDeleteWhich is why Civil War II is going to replace that farcical social consensus and socially mass produced pyramid scheme called "We the People".
Obviously there's an argument that only a war can resolve, elections have already failed.
Who the hell is "we".
ReplyDeleteWe, the People of these United States. I have never understood how people can argue, on the one hand, that they want to govern themselves without... well, governing themselves. Self government requires effort and involvement.
We don't get to sit on the sidelines and bi*ch. If we don't like the choices in our elections, we need to step up and provide better choices. But that involves effort, and self sacrifice, and hardship.
And quite possibly, the eventual realization that things were always more complicated than they looked from the barcolounger :p
On the other hand, Cass, if someone does all that and loses, then it's not really their fault that the country is going to hell. They didn't sit on the sidelines, they got in and did the hard work, they made the sacrifices. They, unlike the people you are talking about, earned the right to b*tch. Walsh let those people off the hook, as he should have. That's what I think raven was saying; he did his part, but was outnumbered and lost.
ReplyDeleteGive folks some credit. We're not just a bunch of lazy whiners, you know. (Well, I might be ...)
When I'm governing myself, I don't need the peanut gallery talking about taking a cut when they do 0% of the work.
ReplyDeleteI did the work to improve and control myself, they didn't do jack except try to take a cut by getting their "social consensus" mob in on it.
If we don't like the choices in our elections, we need to step up and provide better choices.
ReplyDeleteHave you forgotten the Tea Party. They stepped up. Then the Left broke their legs and made them "step down", leaving survivors like Cruz sitting around.
But that must have been a "natural consequence" of politics, right Cassandra. That's what you might have called it back in 2007 at least. There's nothing nefarious going on, right. There's nothing abnormal about it. There's no "hidden" conspiracy of power megalomaniacal freaks controlling the strings, it's all natural, perfectly within the System, right.
On the other hand, Cass, if someone does all that and loses, then it's not really their fault that the country is going to hell. They didn't sit on the sidelines, they got in and did the hard work, they made the sacrifices. They, unlike the people you are talking about, earned the right to b*tch.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, though I don't agree that trying once and giving up if you lose is enough. If you really believe in your values and believe it is vitally important to see them gain traction, your effort needs to match the importance you ascribe to them. "I tried once and it didn't work" isn't the path any of history's successful people trod. What distinguishes them from the pack is that they *kept* trying; they persevered. There are things I have been working for for 15 years at work, and I am just now seeing them come to fruition.
Of course, if I'd given up every time I failed to convince my firm of the ineffable wisdom of my ideas, I wouldn't be able to say that. I've failed quite a bit, and I've had to decide what was worth more time/energy and what was not.
What bothers me about all this talk of consenting is there seems to be little emphasis on the balancing of individual rights with the rights of the rest of the polity. Of course, if you fight and lose, you get credit for fighting. And if losing is intolerable to you, then maybe you need to find a better place to live, hard as that may be.
Now it may well be that there isn't ANY place that measures up to the way you want things to be :p And that kind of says something, doesn't it? While you have the right to want what you want, you don't have the right to force your desires upon other people.
Have you forgotten the Tea Party. They stepped up. Then the Left broke their legs and made them "step down", leaving survivors like Cruz sitting around.
Oh, for Pete's sake Ymar. No one broke their legs. They failed to convince enough of their fellow citizens to enact their policy preferences. Are you seriously arguing that a minority of people have some sort of God given right to force their preferred policies on the rest of the country?
From whence does that right arise? It ain't in the constitution. Where does it come from?
History is FULL of injustices and gross abuses of power - yes, even the history of America. So yes, I say this is nothing new. It's history, continuing to unfold. The struggle against evil and/or stupidity isn't going away any time soon. These things have happened before and will happen again because they're part of the human condition in every nation and every age.
Describing minor political setbacks as having one's legs broken is not only hyperbole, it's ridiculous. Get up and keep trying if you're that upset. If you're not upset enough to overcome ordinary setbacks...
Case in point: it took over 50 years for women to get the right to vote once they started organizing.
ReplyDeleteSheesh. People used to be able to own other people in this country! That's illegal now. That happened only because our forebears fought and died.
If we can't stomach losing an election or two, what does that say about our moral commitment? Nothing good.
Cass: If you really believe in your values and believe it is vitally important to see them gain traction, your effort needs to match the importance you ascribe to them.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree.
Ymar: Have you forgotten the Tea Party. They stepped up. Then the Left broke their legs and made them "step down", leaving survivors like Cruz sitting around.
Cass: Oh, for Pete's sake Ymar. No one broke their legs. They failed to convince enough of their fellow citizens to enact their policy preferences.
Well, and the IRS went after them for explicitly political reasons, and then the DOJ protected the IRS.