Fear is the driving force behind our political discourse currently.We have so many things to be scared of: teh gays, terra-ists, taking away our medicare, blah, blah blah. A politics of fear is what is ruling our discourse.
So what is the actual fear motivating all of this? Are we a nation of homophobic, insane racist fascist wackos?
And what about personal fear. If you are may age, there is high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, the threat of the bankrupting cost of healthcare.
OMG OHNOES the world is falling apart!
Or not, maybe, please join me below the fold :)
The inspiration for this diary was a comment by an excellent person here in response to this statement by me regarding homophobia: When will it stop? If the younger generation is any guide, it's when people (bigots) my age at these idiotic news services kick the bucket.
The reasonable reply was, "I hope this is true. But people tend to get more conservative as they get older. Esp. after they have kids, they suddenly have concerns about teh gays, etc."
My reply was about fear:
Actually, I've gotten more radical (2+ / 0-)
As I approach the end of my life I find I don't give a flying fuck about conventional wisdom on anything, and the fact that I'm gonna kick the bucket in the next ten to fifteen is strangely liberating.
As my Dad used to sing:
Fuck em all, fuck em all
The long and the short and the tall
There'll be no promotion this side of the ocean
So come along boys, fuck em all!
Which is to say there ain't nothing this side of death that makes cowering in fear a reasonable lifestyle. A mystery to me why so many my age adopt it, cowering in fear about teh gays, the terra-ists, whatever.
I am a parent, and I took my daughter to meet teh gays--we helped in an Oregon campaign against discrimination. When we left, she asked if the people we met were gay. I said some were. She asked how you could tell the difference. I said you can't. Then she said, but dad they were all nice. I said, that's right they were.
At my daughter's high school, there were popular kids who were gay. The guys on the football team didn't try to beat them up--they all went to the same parties.
So I believe it is true. Much of my generation has its head up its ass cowering in fear. The young folks now--not so much.
And then, after reading what I wrote, a thought came to me: that the fear that is motivating the racism, that is motivating the teabaggers, that is motivating the homophobia, that is motivating the fear of change of any type is not any of these things, that they are the symptoms of the distress.
Have you ever had a bad week when you were worried about money and you can't help taking it out in your relationships? You get upset too easily and blame small failings on your friends or family even though you know it's not them you are really upset about? Well, this is one of those except bigtime.
The most basic fear in America is falling off of the cliff. What cliff? the prosperity edge. We are all supposed to be in that happy group that suffers no hardship and doesn't fear the future--and yet we are all on the edge of that cliff. We deny it madly because that cliff edge looms next to us even when we are wealthy. A single illness and the wealth can disappear.
For the middle class, the cliff is like having the presence of the angel of death at your shoulder. The slightest shift in your fortunes can mean the end of your luck, your life as you know it, your happiness, your children's prospects, everything you have worked for.
Elizabeth Warren has documented this cliff (see this: http://www.youtube.com/...) and her advocacy for the fearful middle class in the face of the powers that be is why Washington just can't seem to ratify that Chairmanship. She would help to turn that cliff into a molehill. DC doesn't want the cliff to turn into a small jump or slight dip because the cliff is composed of the profits of the major financial interests.
So the fear will continue, and the folks in power will continue to channel the fear into racism and homophobia and anti-government craziness until the people who own most of everything finally own all of everything.
Unless we fight back. People of my generation, those of you who are approaching old age, it is time to speak out. The voter demographics that show retrograde positions by old people can be changed. I will be 60 this year. I do not accept that being my age means a reliance on the politics of fear.
It is up to us old farts and all of our friends who are young and able to put down these anti-American republican efforts to kill our economy through the politics of fear.
I'm not scared. I should be. I have high blood pressure, no insurance and no way to pay for anything catastrophic. But I would rather die than live in fear. My tags are homophobia, fear, racism, death. But really all of those are equal. they are all about the death of the soul.
Anyone here feel the same?