Breaking it Down · 8 September 2008
Why do I feel more anger when Sarah Palin mocks the Styrofoam Acropolis set at the DNC than when I think about what is going on right now in Guantanamo?
- The GOP’s campaign is an attack on my feminity on many levels. Their fun insults me personally... whereas my tax dollars going to torture innocents feels somehow less about me. And for some reason part of me needs to experience these global events as being all about me.
- Also: she’s messing up the plan! It’s our turn already. No fair! We didn't plan on being foiled by a last minute comicbook nemesis! Those wascally wabbits!!
What’s the use of my outrage at injustice if it’s built on self-protective fear and schoolyard reactivity?
I am not sure. I think it’s still useful, but there are also (1) it can’t be trusted insofar as it’s not self-aware and (2) it will spark a backlash in anyone I scorn. But… given that there is just so much straightup killing and torturing going on right now, why not work through the childish, un-self-aware, hateful anger and direct that energy into open outrage? Then act on it in a focused way, and let it go. Hmm. It would be nice to have a leader who could take it to that level.
(By the way, at the time, I really did think the columns were campy. But now: I really do feel they were a nice, fun touch. Kind of like ice sculptures! And balloon drops! Only the columns have the added bonus of being phallic! {P.S. let’s not talk about the hadron collider this week, ok? I’m completely taken by it but the name is a bit much.} The only thing that’s changed is that SP has ridiculed the columns, so I deduce that my newfound like for them is as much defensiveness as it is good humor. Poor ridiculed columns. I hope the BOPL rescues them from EBay.)
Who do some people not know what to see in all this… feel like it’s not relevant?
- It’s too much information and there are too many issues. It’s hard to see the true difference between these two campaigns.
- Staking out a moral position is too uncanny. It’s dirty and connects you too much to social events. The intensity of feeling makes one feel that much more ungrounded and disconnected—that much more Camus’ stranger.
- There is too much irony in acting. Malaise follows from the impossibility of acting, is the 21st century version of Arjuna at loose ends.
- Nothing really matters.
Just random possibilites, those. I don’t have an answer to this second question.
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Categories: crypto-Hegelianism
, markets-networks-society
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I’m scared of them.
Very afraid.
Posted by: Susan · Sep 8, 06:19 PM · #
yeah, me too, Susan. I’m not so much feeling the “they’re stealing this win with a trick play” as much as I’m feeling sad about my obvious misjudgment about our country and our attitudes about things. I thought things had evolved a little bit more. guess not.
Rush Limbaugh: Jesus, Guns, Babies.. hot damn!
I’m going to go cry now.
Posted by: Liz · Sep 8, 07:32 PM · #
I think that right now I’m in this spiteful wanting-to-win place. Very reactive and pissy. Not honestly grappling with the possibility that it could happen.
So I’m in cartoon land wondering why I’m not in Jesus-on-fire land (extra special bonus link).
The dread is not real to me. If it does become real, I think I’ll actually not be fearing something as horrific as the overturn of Roe v. Wade. More like planetary annihilation.
Not to be pessimistic.
Posted by: (0v0) · Sep 8, 08:12 PM · #
The electoral college may save us. Look at the red/blue maps and feel a wee bit (very wee) better.
Posted by: knl · Sep 9, 02:09 AM · #
I was irritated by the swipe at the stage set because it seemed so freaking petty. Really? You’re going to rally around making fun of someone’s stage set? Great.
Posted by: karen · Sep 9, 03:55 AM · #
The Republicans have been masterful in turning elections into emotional decisions for voters. The Democrats keep making the same rational arguments over and over again. Where’s Poor Richard when we need him most?
Posted by: cody · Sep 9, 03:56 AM · #
Fucking Republicans…
“Yer stage set is dumb! And yer wear funny shoes!
And you think yer like Moses! Drill baby drill!!
Posted by: Susan · Sep 9, 06:42 AM · #
K! Hope you’re surviving in SC.
I despise the electoral college. Elitist, atavistic, anti-democratic. Worst institution in American politics besides the prison system. Hillary didn’t really lose me until she started touting her EC-advantage. However… suddenly the possibility of relying on elite deciders to mark this election sounds like not such a bad idea….
God, that’s terrible but I’m not kidding!
CP, you’re right. I keep thinking about what Gregor said, too, that SP “should not be allowed to speak in public” (because her discours actually degrades the body politic). Talk about appealing to the lower demons of our natures.
The thing is, nobody is in control, and there’s no supreme censor. There’s no guarantee of progress… in fact this whole thing might be utterly degrading. Drill baby drill.
This is as messy as I’ve ever seen democracy get. But… I’m not really sure it’s democracy any more apart from all the free expression. :)
Posted by: (0v0) · Sep 9, 08:54 AM · #
Oh, here’s a recent google search:
Can yoga posture open up to satan?
The other results on the list look fun.
Posted by: (0v0) · Sep 9, 08:55 AM · #
He he! Apostle Jeff says:
“Yes because it is an offshoot of Buddhism. By practicing Yoga, you will be opening the door to demonic possession.
The meditation that Jesus did was totally different than the mediation that we think of today. When the Bible says to meditate, it means to think about God’s word and to mutter them back to yourself so that you can memorize scripture.”
Posted by: Carl · Sep 9, 09:44 AM · #
I feel like curling up in a ball and hiding under the covers.
Posted by: joy · Sep 9, 12:00 PM · #
Um, so I happened to scan over the google thing with yoga and satan and I found this amusing link:
http://echristian.wordpress.com/2008/01/30/can-a-pagan-practice-be-christianized-yoga/
Posted by: Tiff · Sep 9, 02:02 PM · #
whoa… Tiff, I had to stop reading soon after this:
“Exposing evil keeps Christians from being ‘polluted by the world.’ And yes, yoga is evil.”
Where’s Palin, I want to kick her ass. I know she didn’t write that, but for now, she will pay for any stupid Christian remarks. ha!
According to “Palin-think”, evil must also include: choice, knowledge, tolerance, peace, and anyone who will not join the military. Oh, and polar bears. Yes, that’s right. Damn them to hell with the liberals.
It’s really too much for me to handle- the crazy politics with a heavy dose of religion. I’m not quite over my own anger about Christianity to be able to do much more than stamp my foot and yell (on the schoolyard with you, Owl?). For it to play out in politics like it has been recently is really pushing me over the edge.
For now, I’m cutting myself off from Palin rants. We’ll see how long that lasts. Maybe I am possessed after all.
Posted by: Liz · Sep 9, 03:21 PM · #
Hey Liz, u know what’s so funny is that I’m not particularly political at all – but I was raised in a Christian home…and while I no longer see eye to eye with that faith, I have the hardest time not finding all of the this incredibly hilarious. It’s funny how a fear based faith is based on fearing everything – there is no solid foundation to rest upon. It’s all arguments and fear – and a whole lotta ego
Posted by: Tiff · Sep 9, 03:46 PM · #
Kind of ironic: counting on the electoral college. I’m surviving South Carolina well enough. At least I get to see, quite clearly, that many, many Obama supporters are not latte sipping elitists. It’s nice to be away from the westside bubble.
Posted by: knl · Sep 9, 04:03 PM · #
oh Tiff… Christian home- yes! me too! But, fortunately, over time my parents have mellowed and now understand me more than ever before. Other parts of my family are still living in serious fear.
I’m not giving up hope on Obama. Poles schmoles. Who knows. Surely there are enough level-headed, thinking people in this country.
Posted by: Liz · Sep 9, 06:04 PM · #
oh, Owl, i have nothing much to say in this discussion at this point… just wanted to drop by and ask if the new pics are some of ‘those’ pics?
Posted by: chitta vritti · Sep 10, 12:22 PM · #
Chitta,
Sorry I just saw your question! Yes, these are the photos you yourself retrieved for me.
Thank you. They weren’t as scary to behold as I had expected. It is interesting to normalize the whole idea of seeing myself from the outside now and then…. Anyway, thank you and your sleuthing intuitions.
Posted by: (0v0) · Sep 13, 01:10 PM · #