![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Vacation Backentry One
Mar. 21st, 2003 11:24 amI was raised to believe I could change the world. My mother was a deaf-educator and social activist; my father spent his work life catching white-collar criminals and his spare time studying American history and editing textbooks. Patriotism was fed to me along with dinner, and not the flag-waving kind -- I was trained to revere the rational men of the Enlightenment. To become an enlightened man.
I was raised in the wrong time.
Rational idealism is something I've struggled with my whole life. You might say I have an over-developed conscience, or at least an overdeveloped intellect. Perhaps I read too much science fiction, the last bastion of progressive political philosophy. It doesn't really matter. The point is that I have a lot of trouble separating my world from myself because I believe in personal responsibility for one's own environment. I also believe in the basic goodness of human beings - that pain is caused by ignorance of that pain, and will be erradicated through understanding. Through Enlightenmnent.
Although this is a nice idea, it is not demonstrably true. A public referendum in Georgia would probably restore as their state flag the Confederate battle flag, (the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, taken up by Georgia in 1956 to protest desegregation). Public support for George W. Bush, likely our stupidest president, (possible exception of Andrew Jackson,) is record-breakingly high.
That's okay. I's something called "the tyranny of the majority." The Founding Fathers built in safeguards against that in the forms of the courts, the senate, and the Bill of Rights. The Founding Fathers talked down democracy and gave us a Republic. They gave us a Federal system which shared power between state and national governments. They gave us a seperation of powers between the three branches of government and two houses of Congress. They did all they could to fight "factionalism" - the development of infighting political partes more interested in power and profit than the benefit of the people. (And no matter what your public (government-funded) school taught you, there has not always been a two party system. That developed during Reconstruction, the same time as the death of federalism - a part of political history most victor-written books tend to skip over.)
The fact is, American government as envisioned by the Founding Fathers no longer exists; it wouldn't make sense if it did. We're not the country for which the Constitution was written. We're service-based instead of agrarian. We have a tremendous population, most of which lives in cities and most of whom relocate at least once in their lives, most of which change jobs every 5 years, and all of which are increasingly mobile. We have instantaneous communication. Representatives have 22 times as many constituents - constituents of both genders and a blend of cultures; a Senator's 6-year term doesn't seem long when most people live into their 70s. Larger and larger numbers of increasingly sophisticated voters require more and more campaign funding that can only be supplied by established political parties. State boundaries are blurred by national chains and the ease of travel. There is less tolerance for taxes and more demand for Federal programs, calling for an expanded Executive branch all too welcome to an overloaded Congress. The Constitution does not work any more.
The Founding Fathers predicted that, too - it's the reason for the elastic clause. It's the reason the Consitution was meant to be reworked every ten years.
It isn't. America is a dinosaur on artificial respiration, and nobody has the will or ability to save it. Nor can anyone pull the plug - France and Germany are angry? Who cares! They're only two of the oldest European countries! They're only two of the most modern world governments! What do they know? We're America.
There is no room left for revolution from within and no way to challenge from without. I am stuck with cognitive dissonance: everything I've seen shows me that I can't fix things, not even through art or music. Grassroots politics are destined to fail; established parties are invested in stasis. Seperatism is right out. I cannot change the world, not even my world. All the same, I have these deep structures imbedded in my brain, these stubborn neural passages which tell me I can win if I just think hard enough, if I just care enough. Cognitive dissonance.
This has eaten away at me over the years until I've become so bitter I've stopped even voting. I don't go to rallies, I don't sign petitions. I've stopped writing my Congressmen. I've stopped lobbying the school board. Today, I heard a poorly-written pop song called "I'll Fight for my Right to Freedom" and I couldn't stop crying.
Slowly, this is killing me.
There is an increasing movement toward hospice in the treatment of terminal illness. It started in England in the 1980s, and its mission is death with dignity. Hospice philosophy says there's a point where you shouldn't continue to prolong the life of a dying patient. Instead of fighting to cure what cannot be stopped, you should provide sufficient painkillers to ease the symptoms. You should provide a comfortable environment, a quiet respite from traditional institutions. You should make death as easy as possible for the patient, his friends, and his family.
Maybe I've reached the point where pain is no longer a useful indicator in a country that is too sick to heal. If that is indeed the case, I should stop reading all news sources, even the comics. I should stop listening to the radio. I should control my person-to-person interactions until I can fully retreat into a sheltered, metered environment. And as for my art, I should stop trying to cure, to make people think; I should produce only what is beautiful, to help ease pain.
Consider this my surrender.
I was raised in the wrong time.
Rational idealism is something I've struggled with my whole life. You might say I have an over-developed conscience, or at least an overdeveloped intellect. Perhaps I read too much science fiction, the last bastion of progressive political philosophy. It doesn't really matter. The point is that I have a lot of trouble separating my world from myself because I believe in personal responsibility for one's own environment. I also believe in the basic goodness of human beings - that pain is caused by ignorance of that pain, and will be erradicated through understanding. Through Enlightenmnent.
Although this is a nice idea, it is not demonstrably true. A public referendum in Georgia would probably restore as their state flag the Confederate battle flag, (the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, taken up by Georgia in 1956 to protest desegregation). Public support for George W. Bush, likely our stupidest president, (possible exception of Andrew Jackson,) is record-breakingly high.
That's okay. I's something called "the tyranny of the majority." The Founding Fathers built in safeguards against that in the forms of the courts, the senate, and the Bill of Rights. The Founding Fathers talked down democracy and gave us a Republic. They gave us a Federal system which shared power between state and national governments. They gave us a seperation of powers between the three branches of government and two houses of Congress. They did all they could to fight "factionalism" - the development of infighting political partes more interested in power and profit than the benefit of the people. (And no matter what your public (government-funded) school taught you, there has not always been a two party system. That developed during Reconstruction, the same time as the death of federalism - a part of political history most victor-written books tend to skip over.)
The fact is, American government as envisioned by the Founding Fathers no longer exists; it wouldn't make sense if it did. We're not the country for which the Constitution was written. We're service-based instead of agrarian. We have a tremendous population, most of which lives in cities and most of whom relocate at least once in their lives, most of which change jobs every 5 years, and all of which are increasingly mobile. We have instantaneous communication. Representatives have 22 times as many constituents - constituents of both genders and a blend of cultures; a Senator's 6-year term doesn't seem long when most people live into their 70s. Larger and larger numbers of increasingly sophisticated voters require more and more campaign funding that can only be supplied by established political parties. State boundaries are blurred by national chains and the ease of travel. There is less tolerance for taxes and more demand for Federal programs, calling for an expanded Executive branch all too welcome to an overloaded Congress. The Constitution does not work any more.
The Founding Fathers predicted that, too - it's the reason for the elastic clause. It's the reason the Consitution was meant to be reworked every ten years.
It isn't. America is a dinosaur on artificial respiration, and nobody has the will or ability to save it. Nor can anyone pull the plug - France and Germany are angry? Who cares! They're only two of the oldest European countries! They're only two of the most modern world governments! What do they know? We're America.
There is no room left for revolution from within and no way to challenge from without. I am stuck with cognitive dissonance: everything I've seen shows me that I can't fix things, not even through art or music. Grassroots politics are destined to fail; established parties are invested in stasis. Seperatism is right out. I cannot change the world, not even my world. All the same, I have these deep structures imbedded in my brain, these stubborn neural passages which tell me I can win if I just think hard enough, if I just care enough. Cognitive dissonance.
This has eaten away at me over the years until I've become so bitter I've stopped even voting. I don't go to rallies, I don't sign petitions. I've stopped writing my Congressmen. I've stopped lobbying the school board. Today, I heard a poorly-written pop song called "I'll Fight for my Right to Freedom" and I couldn't stop crying.
Slowly, this is killing me.
There is an increasing movement toward hospice in the treatment of terminal illness. It started in England in the 1980s, and its mission is death with dignity. Hospice philosophy says there's a point where you shouldn't continue to prolong the life of a dying patient. Instead of fighting to cure what cannot be stopped, you should provide sufficient painkillers to ease the symptoms. You should provide a comfortable environment, a quiet respite from traditional institutions. You should make death as easy as possible for the patient, his friends, and his family.
Maybe I've reached the point where pain is no longer a useful indicator in a country that is too sick to heal. If that is indeed the case, I should stop reading all news sources, even the comics. I should stop listening to the radio. I should control my person-to-person interactions until I can fully retreat into a sheltered, metered environment. And as for my art, I should stop trying to cure, to make people think; I should produce only what is beautiful, to help ease pain.
Consider this my surrender.
