General Malaise

[morgan_dhu]

It's getting so hard to read the papers. Not that there's ever been all that much to cheer about in the news, but it's getting so damned ire-raising and depressing all at once.

If it's not war, torture, pestilence, famine, disaster and ruin, or the callous disregard of human rights around the globe, it's lying, cheating and general asshattery everywhere you look. What the fuck are we doing to ourselves, our neighbours, our fellow lifeforms, our one and only distressed and wheezing planet? Are there enough people out there who have a clue about at least some of this to make a difference? Or are we doomed to follow the bloody standards and beating drums of the people who want power and the accumulation of things more than peace, more than justice, more than compassion, more than clean air and water and soil? Is there any point in trying any more?

And yet, and yet... how do I live with the fact that I'm one of the relatively few who has some measure of choice in all this? I have the privilege - at least for now - to say "I don't want to think about all this stuff, I'll just sit back and enjoy the comforts of a middle-class western life," unlike those who wake up every day to the bombs and the guns and all the other threats to life and liberty and health and safety.

I think I'll go and howl.

Comments

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

the feelings you've described are like the rising and falling of the tide - when it reaches the ebb tide specifically. it is truly depressing sometimes to consider all that goes on in our world - and the more people there are that inhabit the world the worse it will get. (only because of statistics, more people overall means more people affected by their statistical percentage of whatever evils may befall them.)

there will be this movie on sometime in the next week (I believe) that takes us into the world as it will be, when we run short/out of oil without having prepared ourselves through alternative energy sources. it paints a scary picture of what might happen - kind of like the insanity that ensued when there was an oil "shortage" back in the 70's, except a lot worse.

did you know that the Saudi's have dirty bombs positioned in every single well they own? they did it right after the last iraq war. wonderful world we live in.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I know this mood will pass... I've been doing politics for long enough to know that I go through phases. but lately, there's more of the feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, and fewer and shorter periods of feeling that somehow, someone will find a way to make some positive changes.

I wonder if it's a function of age. I've been actively doing this sort of thing for 35 years now, and I've been a rebel trying to change the system even longer than that. It's true that I've seen a lot of positive changes over those years, in terms of civil rights for women, some minorities, queers. It's also true that there are a lot of things now on the progressive agenda that no one even thought about back then.

But even while some things have been getting better, so much more has been getting worse. I think that corporate globalisation, the effects of American exceptionalism, and the assault on the environment are probably the three biggest issues today - not necessarily the most immediate or urgent, but the most important in the long run - and I really don't have any hope of anything getting better in these areas. At least not in my ever-shortening lifetime.

Wonderful world indeed.

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

It may be a case of burn-out. Though I don't really see a way to get "away from it" for a while without totally ignoring all news/blogs/sources of information for this. Unless you were to go into hermitage... Or join the Peace Corps and focus on the specific problems for which you were signed up for. (My plan.)

Another point, that you may have to consider it all a work in progress. That the changes you work for are so momentous that they will not be fully completed in your lifetime. Change cannot be forced, nor expected to happen instantaneously - the latter being something that (Western) society is beginning to expect from all things in life. That you have to take a very long term look on society, like natural evolution versus genetically modified crops... The first is something you can track back, can slowly manipulate toward specific traits that you want - the second isn't something (really) that you can play with and expect what you want because there may be unforeseen consequences.

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

PS: The movie is called Oilstorm and will air on FX tonight at eight PM.

Let me know what you think if you watch it.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Is FX the same as Fox? (I'm in Canada and am not familiar with all the U.S. channels, and there are many that I have no access to.)

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

no, FX is different from FOX... I hope you get this in time and that you have the channel... ack!

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Nope, we don't get that one. Some Canadian channel will probably purchase the rights sooner or later - that's what usually happens, though it's annoying when you can't see something everyone is talking about until months later.

On the other hand, Canada is seeing the new series of Doctor Who and it's not airing in the U.S., so sometimes it works out the other way around.

[semiotic-pirate.livejournal.com]

Arrrgh! No new Dr.Who for me! Waaaaaaaaaaaaah! ::major upset::

My S/O doesn't like that one bit, he has been a gigantic fan for ages - even had one of those scarves made for him by his Mum a while back when he was in college. Heh.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Shall I make your distress even greater by saying that the new series is very good? It's matured to the point where it's clearly more of an adult-oriented show that children could still watch, it preserves most of what was great about the old series while using modern dramatic conventions for how the stories are presented. It's going back to a good many of the old meta-themes and looking at what they mean. and it's still fun to watch.

And, oddly enough, I knit a Tom Baker scarf for a good friend of mine back when I was in college.