Nostalgia

The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.  From the late 1600's thru about 1875, it was a recognized clinical condition; a mental illness.  It fell from grace as Clinical Psychology grew into a real thing.

In light of some of the cultural and political developments over the last 20 years or so, it seems maybe we'd do well to bring it back as a diagnosis.

Bill Boyarski has a great piece at truthdig a while back that hit a couple of chords:

What the tea party, the House Republicans and Noonan have in common is something very simple: They believe the United States should not be led by Barack Obama and that we should not accept the change and progress that his election represented. This belief goes beyond arguments over the debt and the deficit. It is deep and irreconcilable. It is the reason why the right won’t compromise.

But when I look at the Tea Partiers playing their little games, and TheoCons who bomb women's clinics and shoot doctors, and the Islamic idiots who insist on operating under 10th century rules, and now this Breivik dipwad in Norway, what I see is a major spasm of panic that a lot of people experience as they get more desperate to maintain their positions of privilege and power.  In "the west", we get to add the complicating factor of people trying to maintain the supremacy of white folks.

Trends of the last few years indicate Tom Friedman is indeed the wrongheaded douche his reputation says he is. So maybe once we wake up and realize we're all 3rd-worlders now, we'll start to see that we're more similar than different after all.  It's possible that the economy forces this reality on us.  The study of Economics (and the management of an economy) are more art than science, but "the economy" is reality itself.

Cultural struggles and political games get us caught up in a lot of wishful thinking.  We start to believe that slogans and bumper stickers will somehow change the law of supply and demand.  Or that by voting for a particular candidate, we can actually get something for nothing.  Or that the natural business cycle of expansion and contraction can be negated if we adopt a particular economic ideology.  But guess what - that up and down business cycle?  That's the economy breathing - and it's generally considered a bad idea to stop breathing.

I don't know how to tie this up in a neat little package - I'm just making some observations right now.

(Re)Stating Some Of The Problems

Fix yourself a sandwich and let the awesomeness wash over you like the warm autumn sunshine.

This is kind of a golden oldie now, but it seems never to grow stale - I guess I'm a hopeless wonk with a shameless crush on Elizabeth Warren.

Part Of The Problem

A complaint that I find fairly typical on the part of a lot of Americans who consider themselves "regular folk" is that Government is filled with people they disdain as elitist, while at the same time, they spout the virtues of evolving an elite class of leaders in the private sector.

Why is Darwinism commendable and preferable in Business, but dangerous and damnable in Government?

You can try to argue that Government has the power to coerce thru the threat of violence, but I think it's obvious that as Business captures control of Government, then it acquires the coercive powers of Government and you end up with the same effect.

Again: If your basic premise is false, then your conclusion cannot be true.

Mile Post(?)

Almost 40 years ago, this was a huge hit for Stories. Here's the original from Hot Chocolate - which I think is a lot more straightforward and honest. The Stories cover seemed to be a little bit sanitized for consumption by a white middle-class audience. So we've come a long way - but we ain't there yet. Still plenty to do.

Jace Everett

Been neglecting my music a lot lately.

Reasons

One important reason why our economy is fucked up.

One very important reason why our political system is fucked up.

What's A Church For?

We always hear what a great place it is - I find it oddly reassuring to discover there are hard-ass Christian jagoffs in Canada too.

From Friendly Atheist:

Political Labels

More like Content Labeling, but I think it's a reasonable expectation.  Politicians are  packaged and sold to us like any other commodity - we should know what we're getting.

The New Apostolic Reformation

If you believe in the need to "get back to that old time religion" because God lost control of the world when Adam and Eve discovered knowledge, then I must quote St George of Carlin (with not so much as a pro forma apology): "What're ya, fuckin' stupid?"

Posted at Little Green Footballs:
The New Apostolic Reformation: Evangelicals Engaged In Spiritual Warfare

A Little Impulse Control, Please

People like Steve Chabot are just too typical.  Their instincts are always paternalistic; always leaning towards the authoritarian and anti-democracy mindset of the autocrat.

Less than three days after Chabot prohibited the use of cameras at a supposed “town hall” meeting in North Avondale and used the services of a Cincinnati police officer to stop offenders, the congressman is rescinding the rule for future sessions.

CityBeat reported on Chabot's Big Brother-style tactics in this week's issue, even though the Chabot staffer who enforced the rule never responded to our request for comment. We also criticized the congressman for not letting residents directly ask him questions, instead only accepting queries that were written in advance on paper.