I have been thinking on this oil spill. Reading alot in the newspapers and blogs. Reading alot of comments and listening to television.
I see and hear alot of anger and emotional reaction but, little listening or thinking.
I am just a person sitting in my bedroom wanting to express my own observations of what I see and have been thinking.
Not to point fingers at any entity or spout anger.
I remember in the late 70s people beginning to reject the Great Society and New Deal ideas that dominated for 30 plus years.
We were stagnating in wages and our economy was up and down, inflation and recessions. No one seemed to know what to do.
The American people outraight rejected it in 1980 and went with Reagan's conservative ideas. And when that started the economy to somewhat stabilize, conservativism gained the same foothold into our society as the New Deal did in the depression.
From then on, conservative ideas ruled and the public wanted that.
As the conservative policies became entrenched, and moved the country ever further right, our country developed a culture that agreed mostly with their thinking like Drill Baby Drill.
While the republicans and Bush spent like drunken sailors, the country was still thinking of them as the party of fiscal responsibility. When they mishandled the wars and allowed 9-11, they were still thought the party of national security.
And the public believed them when they were told that allowing corporations to rule the country, deregulate and gut government, that deficits don't matter and torture is good, the majority went along with it.
More people doubt global warming and green energy then supports it.
So here we have the media pointing fingers at the president, yet not at themselves for helping in fostering the misinformation and climate.
The greed for oil with driving Hummers and 12 miles to the gallon SUVS. The championing of deregulate and the 1920s slogan of 'the business of America is business'
It is easy to stereotype. Easy to buy into the cartoon of a quiet or thoughtful person, a cool headed person as the president is somehow weak.
Just like the playing dress up and throwing out tough guy rhetoric like Bush was somehow seen as strong.
Remember Tweety and the way he drooled over Bush in a flightsuit? How the media thought him so dashing and strong and what a president should be.
They loved it and him.
They are so shallow.
Well, because this one is an intellectual, a technocrat and does the real work away from the camera, because he won't posture and spout empty bumper sticker political slogans, play dressup, he is seen as weak and fumbling.
Today, George Will said on ABC, that while the media blaming the president is unfair, he deserved it. Huh?
How many people have bought into the media stereotype and shallow need for someone to play a president on teevee rather then be a real one.
We, as a country, have been conditioned over the past couple decades to expect a president to spout empty rhetoric and posture to show he cares. That he is to be Daddy in Chief.
As a country, we expect easy answers and instant fixes.
When things go wrong, like a crisis, we all collapse into emotional wrecks and live in a world of outrage. We must be emotionally charged and in perpetual outrage.
The Gulf is a major disaster.
However, in light of the past decades of the majority who cheered on and did not question the ideas and policies of drink up the oil and drill more, who wanted the luxury SUVs with the television and floating livingroom, Who moved further and further away from work and play in some faux country manor in the xurbs, why are we not outraged at ourselves?
I do not pretend to be fault free or perfect. I have driven small cars my whole life but, I have done other things that have contributed to our polluted society. We all have.
I do feel that the congresspeople are not so much in the grip of the tyranny of Big Oil, so much as the tryanny of the majority of people who demanded less regulations, more oil and drilling.
Afterall, the overwhelming majority supported drilling more offshore a month before the disaster by 3 to 1.
I also wonder where those itchy fingers are in pointing to republicans and the ideology of not progressing, of not moving in the direction of the rest of the world and stubbornly sticking with 50, 60 year old policies that long ago became mute.
Bobby Jindahl is the big hero. But, until now he rejected the role of government - even if his career has been spent in it. He now demands 'big government takeover'. How heroic. Where was he when the stimulus was needed for his people in LA?
I hear that alot from the conservative end. The Free Market and Regulation Free, don't spend my tax dollars hypocrites who now are screaming the loudest for big Socialism in the Gulf. ha.
Lots of blame to go around.
But, blaming and accusing and wallowing does not fix this disaster.
We need serious ideas and discussions to figure out how to make this country better. We need to stop just feeling sorry for ourselves when things go wrong and never looking at the whole picture.
We need to stop allowing the cable chatter to manipulate our thinking and our discourse and our lives.
We lament the Gulf and should. It is a deep tragedy that will linger for a very long time. It is really sad when it hits someone who loves nature, as I do. Loves the birds, the plants, the beauty.
These are just my personal thoughts and observations of the situation.
You can agree or disagree. I am just thinking how this country needs to move away from games and outrage and blaming and towards a more grown up discourse and problem solving.
Thanks for Reading.