Yes we can
A sweet positive video, a declaration of our own power to make a difference in the world, to choose our own destiny:
www.yeswecansong.com
I much appreciate the positive message, the emotion, the hope. It has power certainly, but I still wonder what it takes to create reach change. I mean there's change that we're in control, our own destiny to choose, like deciding to stop smoking, and that's hard enough. Then there's larger change, like in a family or marriage, and seeing the direction you want to go and finding resistance and fear or apathy in others to follow. And the impossibility can rise all the way up to the president of the united states.
By any easy measure GW Bush represents America's failure, the superiority complex that the U.S. is better than the rest of the world, that WE ought be trusted to not torture prisoners of war ''too badly'', that WE ought be trusted to represent justice for all, that WE ought to be trusted to hold a military budget in far excess of any combination of friends or enemies, that WE ought to be trusted to control the World Bank and decide on fiscal responsibilities of other countries, that WE ought to be trusted to represent our dollar as the "world currency", that our debts ought to be trusted, that our motives and wisdom ought to be trusted with the power available to us.
Well, so GW represents "all that", but Nader is right the system itself is set up to be corrupting that the democrats may be no better in action, whatever words offered.
What comes up to me with "Yes we can" is that positive messages don't help an addict - someone who has blinded himself to the truth, to his own limitations, to his weaknesses, to his impatience to do things the right way when power is offered to do them the wrong way.
Some would call me an "America hater", because I dare question the corruption of the addicts to power, and we're all addicts, dependent upon substanences that make us feel good, and whose fear of withdrawal force us not to question what we're really doing, what the costs are, and what the consequences must be in the end, for our failures to negociate honestly with reality.
I'm all for Barack Obama's election as president. I think he's wise and clever and can do as good as anyone in this role of responsibility.
Myself, I don't know what the "honest future" looks like. I only know what it doesn't look like. It does NOT include burning fossil fuels as a vast majority of our energy needs. It does NOT include spending $500B+/year on a military force. It does NOT include taking in payroll taxes and spending surpluses now and expecting SS future will be magically repaid. It probably doesn't include a million people in prison for nonviolent crimes. Uncountable nots probably.
I was at a meetup last year on social issues, specifically "population" that was interrupted by an old man ranting about some corruption of power which was so all encompassing that in his mind all other issues are hopeless. Well, I wouldn't disagree at one level, although I think population increase IS one such issue - at least if you belive the earth is finite and our use of energy and resources must decrease in the future. Anyway, I know it is easy to feel hopeless. I know in the face of hopelessness, we ALL stop paying attention to intractible problems and give our attention where we feel we can make a difference for a while, even if in the end, nothing is enough.
I think stronger day by day that America's future can only be saved by a new "Greater depression" that knocks everything we know off track for a decade or two. Given I think it's coming, I'd rather sooner than later, and maybe I'll still be alive to see the other side.
"Yes we can" is a heroic statement against an external opponent who is holding us back, but what about our inner opponents? Our self-destructive impulses that choose pain later for the smallest of relief now?
I see it in myself, so I don't have to judge others. I know my sanity in the moment is more important than the distant future, which is unknowable.
My response to fear of loss is "to need less", to "take only what I need", and "find pleasure in the little things", but opportunity is a bright star, even if it is dishonestly obtained by robbing the banks of our children's inheritence.
I don't want to be afraid of a depression, but just the smallest of supports, my job, that enables everything I do, could be lost so easily. I don't know how to run a sustainable economy. I don't know how you CHOOSE less when ignorance of future need is complete.
Yes we can... I believe... but its not a fairy tale - it's "yes we can adapt to the hard knocks of life" as much as "Yes we can say no to our enslavement".
Yes we can... fall a very far distance, and yes we can, probably, still bounce back, someday.
www.yeswecansong.com
I much appreciate the positive message, the emotion, the hope. It has power certainly, but I still wonder what it takes to create reach change. I mean there's change that we're in control, our own destiny to choose, like deciding to stop smoking, and that's hard enough. Then there's larger change, like in a family or marriage, and seeing the direction you want to go and finding resistance and fear or apathy in others to follow. And the impossibility can rise all the way up to the president of the united states.
By any easy measure GW Bush represents America's failure, the superiority complex that the U.S. is better than the rest of the world, that WE ought be trusted to not torture prisoners of war ''too badly'', that WE ought be trusted to represent justice for all, that WE ought to be trusted to hold a military budget in far excess of any combination of friends or enemies, that WE ought to be trusted to control the World Bank and decide on fiscal responsibilities of other countries, that WE ought to be trusted to represent our dollar as the "world currency", that our debts ought to be trusted, that our motives and wisdom ought to be trusted with the power available to us.
Well, so GW represents "all that", but Nader is right the system itself is set up to be corrupting that the democrats may be no better in action, whatever words offered.
What comes up to me with "Yes we can" is that positive messages don't help an addict - someone who has blinded himself to the truth, to his own limitations, to his weaknesses, to his impatience to do things the right way when power is offered to do them the wrong way.
Some would call me an "America hater", because I dare question the corruption of the addicts to power, and we're all addicts, dependent upon substanences that make us feel good, and whose fear of withdrawal force us not to question what we're really doing, what the costs are, and what the consequences must be in the end, for our failures to negociate honestly with reality.
I'm all for Barack Obama's election as president. I think he's wise and clever and can do as good as anyone in this role of responsibility.
Myself, I don't know what the "honest future" looks like. I only know what it doesn't look like. It does NOT include burning fossil fuels as a vast majority of our energy needs. It does NOT include spending $500B+/year on a military force. It does NOT include taking in payroll taxes and spending surpluses now and expecting SS future will be magically repaid. It probably doesn't include a million people in prison for nonviolent crimes. Uncountable nots probably.
I was at a meetup last year on social issues, specifically "population" that was interrupted by an old man ranting about some corruption of power which was so all encompassing that in his mind all other issues are hopeless. Well, I wouldn't disagree at one level, although I think population increase IS one such issue - at least if you belive the earth is finite and our use of energy and resources must decrease in the future. Anyway, I know it is easy to feel hopeless. I know in the face of hopelessness, we ALL stop paying attention to intractible problems and give our attention where we feel we can make a difference for a while, even if in the end, nothing is enough.
I think stronger day by day that America's future can only be saved by a new "Greater depression" that knocks everything we know off track for a decade or two. Given I think it's coming, I'd rather sooner than later, and maybe I'll still be alive to see the other side.
"Yes we can" is a heroic statement against an external opponent who is holding us back, but what about our inner opponents? Our self-destructive impulses that choose pain later for the smallest of relief now?
I see it in myself, so I don't have to judge others. I know my sanity in the moment is more important than the distant future, which is unknowable.
My response to fear of loss is "to need less", to "take only what I need", and "find pleasure in the little things", but opportunity is a bright star, even if it is dishonestly obtained by robbing the banks of our children's inheritence.
I don't want to be afraid of a depression, but just the smallest of supports, my job, that enables everything I do, could be lost so easily. I don't know how to run a sustainable economy. I don't know how you CHOOSE less when ignorance of future need is complete.
Yes we can... I believe... but its not a fairy tale - it's "yes we can adapt to the hard knocks of life" as much as "Yes we can say no to our enslavement".
Yes we can... fall a very far distance, and yes we can, probably, still bounce back, someday.
posted by Ares Olympus at 1:30 PM
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