Personal depression is built on many elements, most of which don't belong on a political web site, even one that welcomes sharing of personal experiences. There are aspects of depression that are reflection, or microcosms of processes that are contributing to the pathologies of the larger systems of my title.
Dailykos shares some aspects of a religion, a secular one to be sure, but there are elements in common. We all believe in an afterlife, a type of heaven, a better place. For us it will occur not at the second coming of the Christ, or after death, or perhaps for the more esoteric in a state of reincarnation.
It will come if we elect those Progressives who will reverse the mistakes of the current Bush Administration, and the sharp conservative edges of Bill Clinton's triangulation, and the depredations of a couple of administrations before that. If we have democrats in power, real democrats who don't pander and do the people's work, health, happiness and prosperity is to be our reward.
We all need some kind of religion, some hope that things will get better. And anger must have a focus. That's the purpose of the concept of evil, why we all understand it even if we see it in different incarnations. Evil must always we a quality of the "other" of the other group, the other mentality, the other race.
Dailykos has provided this function for many over the years, including me. When I wrote my diaries, two out of the more than a hundred that reached the recommended list, I was elated. "I have a following." But of course they were both cheap shots. One pointing out the flagrancy of Bush's lying at a news conference, the other the pandering of our own Democrats to the theocratic sentiments of the population.
If I had the knack I would willingly sell out for the pleasure of getting this kind of support. But, I don't do it well. Perhaps my desperation shows, and it's a turn off. And I'm not really sure how anonymous I am here, since I can be identified if someone wanted to go to the effort.
Now that matters since one of the ways I fight my depression is to get involved in public life. I was the guy who stopped Duke Cunningham from giving the inspirational speech at the local Independence Day Breakfast in Encinitas. Yeah, just me. I asked about a permit for a protest, which got passed along to his people who thought a massive demonstration would greet him, and he stayed away--for the good of the event, of course.
And now I speak at city council meetings and actually have an effect on some votes, some that have meaning. So, I'm tempted to run for city council, but then the personal depression come in. To win an election you have to be up beat, bright eyed optimism wins over Casandras every time.
And my platform, no matter how I disguise it would mean that developers make less money and civil servants must justify their pay and their very jobs. Make work positions that serve no function except to implement the latest expensive fad would be challenged. If I were to gain some traction, I would be an agent to harm the well being of these people. Should I not expect personal attacks to try to discourage me, get me off message.
And then there's the pledge of allegiance, one nation under God, that is recited before every council meeting. Standing and not saying the God words is a cop out. But adopting the pledge did the job it was intended to do. While Eisenhower thought that he was making every child acknowledge the "almighty" it was really doing something else. It was showing each child that words were meaningless. That your pledge was not something you were saying out of conviction, but what the authority, the teacher, the principal, the classmates all did.
The message was that there is a cost to being different. And that contradictions in the concepts of the pledge, "indivisible under god" and "liberty" are never to be addressed.
I can't watch this presidential election unfold. I can't even read about political events any more. Both parties are united for once on a single issue; not resolving the immigration question, or rethinking our place in the world, or the rapidly sinking dollar. No, there will be quick action in firing up the printing presses to send out the first installment of a stimulus.
Just where do they think this money will go. Everything we buy is made in other countries, or owned by corporations controlled by the most wealthy. It is a payoff to the electorate by the incumbents. It is an affirmation of the republican canard that "Deficits don't matter." We will increase both the national debt and the trade deficit in a single act. It will sink our country just a bit faster as we ignore the mentality that got us to the distressing place we are right now.
And the media talks about heading off a recession, as if this is the worst thing that this country has to worry about. Has anyone been to the grocery store recently. I have, and low price commodities are up a third or more over last year. Is there any surprise, since they are purchased by dollars that have lost about that much value.
Is there any candidate of either party who is willing to talk about the actual state of our country, our economy, our particular moment in history. Oh, if you have the time read this articlein the New York Times Magazine available here. It's a long one, too detailed, but it describes the new international paradigm that we will be facing in this century.
None of the candidates are dealing with this harsh reality, that America is in decline So we fight of how we will rearrange the chairs on the Titanic. And we think about the gapping gash in the side as a little cut that might cause us to have a bad few minutes, a recession nothing more.
In actuality we are in the same place as the USSR in 1989, on the cusp of realizing that our system is fatally corrupt. The failure was exacerbated by the current administration, but they only increased the rate of sinking. They didn't invent the mentality of our representatives and the electorate, they only made the worse of it.
Presidential candidates are debating how to fight the last war. They are still in the America of the twentieth century, a time that is as long gone. But the next president will not be elected by the those who read the NY Times article, or other serious discussions of the real nature of the world. They will be elected by those who watched the YouTube debate, and are used to quick images and easy answers.
I'll let this go without re-reading it and correcting the syntax and logical errors. If I do, I won't send it out. And who knows, there could be some interesting responses.