I don't know, maybe it's my age and my changing body chemistry, or maybe it's frustration in general with the world at large, or what, I do not know. But it seems like lately I've been feeling a gnawing discontent brewing inside of me that is very upsetting. I want to retire from my job, but realistically, I haven't got one dime in an investment portfolio because I don't trust Wall Street, especially since in recent decades it's become one big gambling casino and I don't trust it anymore. I read all the time how, unless you have a million dollar portfolio that retirement will be nearly impossible, but that seems so utterly ludicrous and unrealistic for people in my income bracket. So I am trying to figure out what the next chapter of my life will be and what it will look like financially. I fully expect to be plunged into poverty and I don't relish this prospect. I want to travel but I know that will be impossible. I will probably have to get another job and put my life in the hands of yet another workplace that will control my existence and tell me whether or not I can have any vacation time when I want it. American workplaces are clamping down on luxuries like vacations, sick time and decent benefits while our European counterparts enjoy six weeks of vacation a year, shorter workdays, first rate mass transit and free health care, things that seem absolutely out of reach in this increasingly right wing dominated country. And that's another thing that is upsetting me.
Mitt Romney is going to win the election in the fall and that means that more Republican Supreme Court justices will be appointed who will continue to erode our rights that generations have fought for. The going wisdom is that whoever is ahead in the polls at about this point in the electoral cycle will win the election by the margin by which they are ahead. Romney holds a commanding lead right now both in polls and in fundraising and Obama's fortunes are rapidly sinking as billionaires continue to pour limitless money into this election to sweep away all of the Democrats in order to create a one party country. This election will be bought and paid for by billionaires and there's little to nothing that anyone can do to stop it. So the election right now is all but over and Romney will win and the House and Senate will have commanding Republican majorities that will do everything in their power to benefit their billionaire benefactors. The Occupy movement died from lack of focus and was never able to reconstitute itself, so that huge wave of protest, while causing a splash last year, is over, never again to return. The sheer apathy on the part of the electorate, particularly the liberal electorate, is sad. So many are disillusioned by Obama and that's a pity. In a way, what has happened to him is not his fault. He's been very handily penned in by recalcitrant Republicans who vowed NEVER to cooperate with him and to make it their agenda to wholly and completely destroy him. Sadly, they have been remarkably successful in their goal to do just that. Obama has to keep doing end runs around Congress to get anything done and that angers a lot of people, both conservatives and liberals who feel like he's going for a power grab. Well, duh, he sort of has to do that because he has an uncooperative Congress who has told him up front, we will NOT work with you and we WILL destroy you. I'll bet our Founding Fathers are just rolling in their graves at what has become of our once proud nation.
To add to my feelings of discontent, our efforts to save a historic house built for a member of the founding family of our town are embroiled in a war of words between us and another non-profit over the site to where the house will be moved. I mentioned this in my previous blog entry but it pains me that people anymore tack to such extreme positions. Nobody is willing to engage in mindful listening and discussion anymore, not here in our small town between two warring factions over a tiny strip of land downtown, and not among politicians, locally, state and nationally. People can't even engage each other in a town square without erupting into a full blown war of words, finger pointing, name calling, blame casting and so forth. It pains me that our ability to carry on civilized discussions has managed to vanish into so much vehement rhetoric. It's as if our entire society desperately needs a course in anger management as well as a course in mindfulness. I'm OK with people being passionate but when it becomes so extreme that people refuse to listen to the other side of an issue it just becomes pointless to carry on arguments. If I had to blame anyone or anything, I'd say the Internet is the big culprit. It's very easy to hide behind a computer screen and spew invectives at people anonymously. It's yet again another thing to face them in a room, face to face, and do speak the same words. Most of us wouldn't dare say things face to face that we say online and unfortunately, we're bringing that incivility into the public square and it's destroying our ability to sit down and compromise, a dirty word anymore in the political sphere. Well, anyway, I do hope that this summer of discontent ends on a better note than it seems to have begun. It's just that right now, I am quite filled with a great deal of angst over so many things that it is hard to know which one bothers me more. If you ask, I'll say, everything. Just.....everything. I so need a vacation........
No comments:
Post a Comment