Not a rant

[serai]

Really.

A lot of people are ranting lately. Can't blame them. Things are bad. Lots of eloquence I'm seeing. Lots of splendidly argued points, and I agree. I've commented a time or two.

But I'm not going to rant. I'm not going to get into this at any length. Surprising? Maybe. But I can't, because I would just get Too. Fucking. Angry.

My house has no TV connection, and that makes me happy. Being a pagan, I believe very deeply in watching what you do with your energy. Good energy is an excellent thing, very useful. Bad energy can be terrible, but also useful. Pointless energy is the worst, because it does nobody any good. Other than sending money, I can't have an effect on this kind of situation, so I tend to keep myself away from the news. I know what's going on; I see reports online. But I refuse to wind myself up in the hysteria and ugly crap, because my distress wouldn't help anyone.

And distress, yes. That's why I won't rant. Because I can feel myself approaching Too. Fucking. Angry. And if I go off, I won't stop for a week, and I'll end up sick and no use to anyone. So no, I'm not gonna go off. It won't help.



I will say this, though:

A lot of people have been saying "This is not my country". They're upset at the behavior being shown by numerous factions and people. As am I. (Shoes? SHOES??? Someone please get out the guillotine!) They're saying, "How can this happen here?" and "This is not America!" Folks, I have news for you.

THIS IS YOUR COUNTRY.

This is it. Right here. This is America. This is fourty years worth of spiralling selfishness and greed, government turning ever more crabbed and bullying and nepotistic, ever more concerned with the wallets of its richest and less with the stomachs of its poorest, increasingly uncaring that its own land is falling apart when there are other countries it can pummel for the sake of money. This is fourty years worth of a culture telling its members that all that matters is their own personal comfort (their TVs, their SUVs, their gourmet pot pies, their Martha Stewart fripperies, their calorie count, ad nauseam), their own SPESHUL problems. Fuck the citizens, fuck the country, fuck the Other Guy. Sacrifice it all to the Great God ME.

Well, this is where you end up. All it takes is one big ol' catalystic stomp from MOther Nature (who, unlike the cooing pet owner some people like to think God is, does not give TWO SHITS about humanity), and this is what we devolve into. Of course we all pulled together after 9/11. That was a great big explosion that killed 3,000 people in the middle of a city of millions, with a robust infrastructure ready at hand to deal with the crisis, coming to the aid of one of the richest areas in the world. This is NATURE. She has unlimited resources that make our puny efforts look pathetic. And it took place in an area that has nothing but history to matter to the rich, wiping out pretty much all the local infrastructure, such as it was. And we end up here.

This is what we are, people. This is what we've become. Take away our toys and supply lines and our energy sources. Take away our cops and our firemen and our armed forces. This is where we end up. This is America. Land of the Free - free to steal, rape, pillage, murder, because those who are supposed to be taking care of things can't be bothered to do their jobs. Home of the Brave? Not so much. Call me a pessimist of you like, but although I am angry, outraged and appalled, I cannot say that I am surprised.



But I'm not going to rant. Really.




ETA: Fantastic rant over here, though. Please check it out.

Comments

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

This is a brilliant and pithy non-rant. Thank you for putting this out there, because in all the ranting I've seen, nobody has put forward the point you make and it is way past time that somebody did.

Call me a pessimist of you like, but although I am angry, outraged and appalled, I cannot say that I am surprised.

That sentence best sums up my state of mind on the matter, I'm afraid, however much I wish that it didn't.

Catherine

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Thanks, hon. I wish I could be an optimist. I wish I could see a pretty blue-and-white Tomorrowland future. I wish I could believe that humans are these noble, heroic creatures always doing what's right when the chips are down. But I just can't. I've never been able to delude myself that way. We're fine when we have backup, but put us against the wall, really against the wall, and it's a different story.

And when I hear "But that's just a few bad apples!" (yeah, and one of them is running the country), my response is that's the same as looking a guy with raging liver cancer and saying, "But that's just one organ; he'll be okay!" Yeah, but it's that one bad organ that's gonna kill the whole body. We do nice things, sure, but way down deep where blind things live, our culture has been breeding a savage heart. And it's events like this that expose that heart.

Eris is coming, and She's laughing like a loon...

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

*nods sadly* I completely agree with your non-rant, and almost completely with the rant you've linked to. *sigh*

*hugs you*
*would hug New Orleans if she could*

[serai1.livejournal.com]

*hugs back hard*

I hate stupidity, I hate arrogance, I hate greed, and most of all, I fucking hate cowardice. Bush and his cronies are hiding in the sand, doing their business-as-usual dance, refusing to face up to what's going on. It's disgusting.

[lindelea1.livejournal.com]

Am not a pagan, but am in full agreement with you on the good-energy/bad-energy thing. Too true.

For a non-rant, this was well done.

*snork* God as a cooing pet owner. I once heard God compared to a "big shaggy dog". As long as we can make God over into our own image, we don't have to deal with our own selfish natures, I guess. I think God is Who God is, and it doesn't matter much what us puny creatures try to do to re-define the concept.

Don't mean to get into a theological debate, but you've put a finger on one of the reasons why religion is so screwed up in this country.

And thanks for the kudo!

[serai1.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

Don't get me started on the Sweet Daddy/Mommy image of God. If we're going to use religious terminology, then people have to start waking up to something: God is not the President of the PTA, or a nursemaid, or your nice Uncle Louis who always has candy corn in his pocket for you and will make sure your dad gets you that new bike. He's friggin' GOD. He's got big fish to fry, and we are SMALL. If he gave us free will and an earth full of resources, it wasn't so we could piss it away on stupid wars and greed and general assholery. It was so HE WOULDN'T HAVE TO BOTHER DEALING WITH OUR SHIT. We're the ones who're supposed to be taking care of things. Are we adults or aren't we?

I think the events in, around and surrounding NOLA are answering that question.

[lindelea1.livejournal.com]

Amen to that.

[wilde-boy-jack.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to hear you say that because, as a non-American, I have kind of thought that this would happen in the US...I could never imagine it happening in my birth country of England or in my new home country Australia. I didn't want to say anything because I was scared that I would offend my American friends, and I don't mean any offence to them, but I really can't imagine this happening here. And thank God for that!