oceans rise. empires fall.
Dec. 12th, 2007 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xaaraThere are a couple of things that mystify me about my country.
One of them is casserole.
The other one is how we manage constantly to maintain the most hypocritical attitude towards...everything. We'd like the world not to die, but we don't want to set concrete goals in order to provide for sustainability. We apparently don't want people from Mexico to cross the border, but our environmental choices are some of the main causes of Mexico's imminent uninhabitability. We get pissed off when other governments spy on and torture people, but we, y'know, spy on and torture people. We hold equality as one of our highest ideals, but we provide very few resources or education options to minorities and the poor. And I can't really figure out why.
Are we just oblivious? Do we think that we're better than everyone else? More deserving? Are we complacent? Do we not have enough charismatic leadership? Are we too preoccupied with concerns about war? Terrorism? Have we become too entrenched in our elitist meritocracy?
It's interesting. And it used to make me really angry, to the point where I couldn't even articulate my feelings, but recently it's gone so far beyond that as to be simply bemusing. The thing is, I think I could get behind a strong movement for change. But I know enough about myself to understand that I'm not the voice of that movement. I'm not charming or charismatic or science-y. I'm reasonably smart, but I know a lot about dead British poets and Medieval verse, not really the now.
Is that voice out there? Have you heard it? Is there anything but old men talking about nothing that changes anything and the slow heat of silence?
(P.S. Title from the gorgeous Apocalypse Lullaby by the Wailin' Jennys, which I will not post an .mp3 for because the blind monkeys at the RIAA might think it was costing them money and sue me for 8.5 gajillion dollars, and I have $15.33 to my name right now. No-go. :P)
One of them is casserole.
The other one is how we manage constantly to maintain the most hypocritical attitude towards...everything. We'd like the world not to die, but we don't want to set concrete goals in order to provide for sustainability. We apparently don't want people from Mexico to cross the border, but our environmental choices are some of the main causes of Mexico's imminent uninhabitability. We get pissed off when other governments spy on and torture people, but we, y'know, spy on and torture people. We hold equality as one of our highest ideals, but we provide very few resources or education options to minorities and the poor. And I can't really figure out why.
Are we just oblivious? Do we think that we're better than everyone else? More deserving? Are we complacent? Do we not have enough charismatic leadership? Are we too preoccupied with concerns about war? Terrorism? Have we become too entrenched in our elitist meritocracy?
It's interesting. And it used to make me really angry, to the point where I couldn't even articulate my feelings, but recently it's gone so far beyond that as to be simply bemusing. The thing is, I think I could get behind a strong movement for change. But I know enough about myself to understand that I'm not the voice of that movement. I'm not charming or charismatic or science-y. I'm reasonably smart, but I know a lot about dead British poets and Medieval verse, not really the now.
Is that voice out there? Have you heard it? Is there anything but old men talking about nothing that changes anything and the slow heat of silence?
(P.S. Title from the gorgeous Apocalypse Lullaby by the Wailin' Jennys, which I will not post an .mp3 for because the blind monkeys at the RIAA might think it was costing them money and sue me for 8.5 gajillion dollars, and I have $15.33 to my name right now. No-go. :P)