A Case of Political Fatigue
My emotions have been like a yoyo these last few months. The political pundits blathering on endlessly creating nothing but noise. Everyone thinks they are saying something no one else has said before, as they repeat the same tripe over and over.
Numbers are thrown around, juggled and created. Prognostication runs amok and maps are colored and re-colored. We have been given mental paralysis by analysis. No one knows the future but everyone seems to feel they have the gift or ESP.
Questions are asked to fill in the void where answers are not available. It’s frustrating to most of us. Some are deeply angry as well.
Our economy is tanking while we take grocery money to fill up our gas tanks. We all know the problems we are facing now and will face in the future. The scenario is not even a blush of rosy.
Yet the political creature moves on and on. It sucks all the air and the intelligence out of the air waves. It trumps all other news. It eats up everything in its path.
For me, the monster of politics is going to take a backseat. It cannot be stopped, but for a while, for me, it can be ignored.
Numbers are thrown around, juggled and created. Prognostication runs amok and maps are colored and re-colored. We have been given mental paralysis by analysis. No one knows the future but everyone seems to feel they have the gift or ESP.
Questions are asked to fill in the void where answers are not available. It’s frustrating to most of us. Some are deeply angry as well.
Our economy is tanking while we take grocery money to fill up our gas tanks. We all know the problems we are facing now and will face in the future. The scenario is not even a blush of rosy.
Yet the political creature moves on and on. It sucks all the air and the intelligence out of the air waves. It trumps all other news. It eats up everything in its path.
For me, the monster of politics is going to take a backseat. It cannot be stopped, but for a while, for me, it can be ignored.
posted by pissed off patricia at 2:29 AM
30 Comments:
I hear you loud and clear on this one, PoP. I tend to avoid televised media generally, and actually stopped reading blogs and on-line news for a while. Had to let the blood pressure stabilize.
Observing the faux pundits, the preening, posturing, yet hollow charlatans jockeying for position, the corporate moguls, and the Wall Street Barons expend such efforts in keeping the spin machines running at 25,000RPM 24/7 is fatiguing, at best. Particularly in light of the unfortunate reality that "we" will likely end up electing the least qualified and most venal idiots of the lot. Sometimes I fear that the Lowest Common Demoninator is going to destroy us all. But then, I live in the south where it's easy to be overwhelmed by xenophobia and ignorance.
An aquaintance's daughter mentioned that if McCain was elected, she was moving to France. So on the lighter side, there's always Denmark, and Canada. And France.
Wait - this isn't helping, is it...
I find what little relief I can in nature - pure, simple, uncorrupted. Even the darker sides of animal predation are unmarked by the obsessive, wasteful plundering so characteristic of human activities. I grow stuff, build stuff, fix stuff, watch stuff. And hope that the majority of the human race leaves me be.
Build yourself a garden pond; other than the rock hauling part, it's kinda fun. ;-)
Ditto.
It's time to hunker down with the kitties under a shade tree & watch some butterflies float by...
We may be able to partially shut out the politics of failure, but as we close our eyes the world continues to fall around us.
Oh - what Zilla said is brilliant!
And you are so right PoP.
OK, must go search through sofa cushions for loose change. I need to buy a bag of rice.
Hold out on the rice, Fran. We export rice as well. This is a knee-jerk reaction that will likely fade. Or not. ;-)
Of course, if you are looking for non-genetically engineered rice - Houston, we may have a problem.
Phew! I knew it wasn't just me. I've taken to watching Morning Joe with the sound off. It's much more entertaining set to something from my itunes.
I should say, though, that from talking to my family in Indiana, they're quite happy to actually have a real, active primary for a change.
But the 24/7 need to fill the air with political blather? It's a mess.
Both you and Fred need a break from politics.
Sit on your porch and daydream while drinking your "Morning Martini"
PoP. I didn't realize how much of the discourse in the country was being consumed by the political noise machine until I took a couple of weeks off. Other that the occasional question from a Brit on how I thought it would all turn out it was a blessed respite.
I have a real urge to just scream "Call me when it is over!" and go out and play in the dirt.
if you have already cast a primary vote (if you were able) then there isn't a bit of reason to tune in to anything. you have done what you can do. the current government isn't being held accountable one whit- no matter how much the peasants protest- and the primaries aren't over (but hopefully the faux debates are). i hate to sound like one of those old testament prophets spreading doom and gloom around- but we should all learn to grow our own food and learn how to collect and store water. like yesterday.
oh dear. we're selling our nice garden and rainwater collection system and moving 600 miles, or so, south. at least the tension of "escrow" and the daunting tasks of "packing" and moving fairly well soak up enough attention to leave much less for politics. hope we get settled before major sh*t happens.
Personally I like re-runs of Everybody loves Raymond.
A thinking person needs a small update to know where they stand, and if it is ruining you mentally or emotionally the PoP you are right to move.
Peace
mark
i'm taking a small breather after all the crap of the last 6 weeks here.
i think yesterday was the 1st anniversary of the 1st freaking debate of this election!
Turn off the TV. Stop watching. The pundits are full of shit and merely like to hear the sound of their own voices. They are owned marionettes who have no real interest in our faltering democratic republic. They are all fiddling while our poor country burns. Do you get Air America there in Florida? If you do, turn that on and let the good progressives remind you of the real battles that lie ahead. (Hey, even if you don't get Air America on the radio there, you can always stream it.)
Yeah, what betmo said.
My primary isn't until May 20th so I won't be tuning in until shortly after.
Also- we're (me and my oldest) volunteering so I have to be involved.
But I totally agree that this is tremendously fatiguing. Luckily summer movie season is just around the corner...
Yup. Stroke Fred's furs and zone out.
Luf, Us
I highly recommend not following the trainwreck for a few days. It's quite liberating.
I'm overloaded, and I don't even have TV. I do tend to take a day off here and there, though, and focus on the birding and the kittehs and the bunneh. That's the only way to stay sane.
I'm thinking about taking a vacation for a while myself. Maybe I'll just talk about the rest of the world ofr a while. It's probably even more discouraging but at least it's different.
PoP - I hear the Marlins are doing pretty well this year. How about kicking back and watching a ballgame instead?
I just wish they'd throw Hil and Barack in a cage and whoever comes out alive gets the nom. I'm sick of it too.
I agre sweetie, stop the noise!
You only have to be an unbiased optimistic realist to know how this will all end. The biased Politicians and MSM do not have a clue. You relax! We can only watch because we do not matter. Lying is the new truth!
What pisses me off the most about all of our esteemed candidates is that none of them has come up with a concrete policy for energy or dealing with the housing crisis. They all keep blathering the same empty promises. We've had 8 years of emptiness. It's time to fill the void with some solutions.
mike
Instead of offering to keep the teaser rates static they offer $7'000 to those buying their houses that are already below value and help to the banks selling them and they do not need it either. I hate it!
Someone on CNN said this very thing tonight. The average American is getting tired of politics. They're gearing up for school to end, vacations to begin, etc., and couldn't care less about the endless rhetoric.
oh, Oh PoP--
I don't know if this post is brilliant because I agree with you or if I agree with you because it's brilliant!
either way, you go, girl!
drop on by scattershot thoughts and or All that Is and we can hang out together with nary a political post to be seen!
and ask Mr. PoP and Fred to come too, why dontcha?
I'm sorta enjoying it. Of course, here in Indiana, it's the first chance I've ever had to meaningfully participate at this late juncture.
I hear that!
my solution: a martini one night, a cosmopolitan the next, wine the next, valum the next. Keep rotating those mind-numbing enjoyables. Oh yes, let's not forget beer and popcorn.
my solution: a martini one night, a cosmopolitan the next, wine the next, valum the next. Keep rotating those mind-numbing enjoyables. Oh yes, let's not forget beer and popcorn.
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