Friday, August 04, 2006
Cautious Pessimism?
Heaven forefend that a week should go by and I don’t find something to say about something, but frankly I’ve been getting increasingly depressed by events lately. The situation in between factions in Iraq requires a delicate balance of nuanced diplomacy and knowledge about the true motivations of the participants; the situation in Lebanon requires even more tact and diplomacy unless we pretty much don’t care how many more would be “Death to America” types we create. What we have is a C-student business major who might have done okay running an oil company if he’d been sober at the time. Now, sober doesn’t help him since most of the most useful brain cells he once had have been pickled, apparently.
Great, huh? In the long view, I’m optimistic, of course. This is a cyclical thing, but I wish it weren’t. The thing is, last time we were at this place in the socio-political cycle, the president was Hoover, who was, at the least, not quite so idealistic and muddle-headed. Too bad for us, but we will be all right eventually. So, what the heck, I’m not even going to opine about possible solutions and how they might be brought about, I’m just going to take a cue from Money Python and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Now, that’s a good movie. My favorite Python production, in fact. If you haven’t seen it lately, or, but this would amaze me, if you’ve never seen Life of Brian, rent it today and watch it this evening. You’ll be glad you did. My favorite scene is “The Latin Lesson”, but there are so many good ones. There’s the bit where Brian is addressing a would-be adoring crowd outside his window, and says, “No, you’re all individuals; you’ve all got to think for yourselves!” and they answer, as in one voice, “Yes, we’re all individuals, we’ve all got to think for ourselves!” Priceless. And, pretty much the way things go, particularly with the thoughtlessly faithful.
So, anyway, I can’t offer any short-term encouragement this week, but only the solace, such as it is, that most of us will no doubt live to see the world return to a sort of half-measure of sanity. And, for the record, I’d like to thank in advance Generation X for digging us out of this mess. Sorry about that.
Great, huh? In the long view, I’m optimistic, of course. This is a cyclical thing, but I wish it weren’t. The thing is, last time we were at this place in the socio-political cycle, the president was Hoover, who was, at the least, not quite so idealistic and muddle-headed. Too bad for us, but we will be all right eventually. So, what the heck, I’m not even going to opine about possible solutions and how they might be brought about, I’m just going to take a cue from Money Python and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Now, that’s a good movie. My favorite Python production, in fact. If you haven’t seen it lately, or, but this would amaze me, if you’ve never seen Life of Brian, rent it today and watch it this evening. You’ll be glad you did. My favorite scene is “The Latin Lesson”, but there are so many good ones. There’s the bit where Brian is addressing a would-be adoring crowd outside his window, and says, “No, you’re all individuals; you’ve all got to think for yourselves!” and they answer, as in one voice, “Yes, we’re all individuals, we’ve all got to think for ourselves!” Priceless. And, pretty much the way things go, particularly with the thoughtlessly faithful.
So, anyway, I can’t offer any short-term encouragement this week, but only the solace, such as it is, that most of us will no doubt live to see the world return to a sort of half-measure of sanity. And, for the record, I’d like to thank in advance Generation X for digging us out of this mess. Sorry about that.
Labels: Politics
