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there are structural problems that we need to address--or at least face--the implications of choices that are now part of the collective history that shapes the realities we move through. addressing these problems really isn't a matter of attitude.
personally, my optimism about the states resides entirely in the possibility that we can, collectively, make fundamental changes in the system that we work within. i think it is, in fact, possible that we can make this a different, better place on a more rational and sustainable basis than it now is.
take for example the ridiculous levels of state spending that is pushed into the military. i put up a thread about this last night in politics because i happened to find a couple articles that spoke directly to this problem and which use recent data to make the case---the american system is proving to be about as flexible as the soviet system was--absurd levels of resources have gone into "defense" systems (the soviet correlate was heavy industry and military sectors) to the neglect of civilian-oriented activities, infrastructure, education, etc. this model has been wrapped up in others--the delusional system of "free markets" for example--the consequences of which lay behind every last point in the op, and every last point that has followed---they fit together in that military expenditures and war was taken as a mechanism to stabilize the economy in general (this is one argument--i think the picture is more complicated, but hey, this is a messageboard and complexity is an affliction). this is coming unravelled and the problems you complain about are symptoms.
this is not the end of the world.
there are alternatives which are possible--if we face the reality we are dealing with. if we don't--welcome to the new third world. but i don't think we are collectively past a point of no return. but to face that reality and do begin maybe doing something about it requires work and that work requires--i think--a basically different political context--one in which information about problems is as important as information that enables you or me or anyone else to "feel good" and by feeling good to pretend that everything is basically hunky dory--it is irresponsible to retreat into this position at a point where things need to change, the basic priorities we have been working within for 60 years have to change, the model is finished, it is over--but not everything is over--the model has simply run its course.
i personally do not care about patriotism and the circle-jerk that is its core--but i do care that a more humane system, a more sustainable system is possible and that the same levels of effort and ingenuity that went into fashioning the current model could be expended making a different, better one.
the world as it currently is is an ugly ugly place in many ways--but it doesn't have to be that way. change is not automatic. change is political--politics is information, debate, deliberation. there is no god that will take care of us--we are not a city on a hill--nothing is accomplished by self-congratulation or pining for a previous moment when self-congratulation was easier.
we have to look.
we have to wake up and look.
we have to figure out how to act--even if it's in a small context and affects small things--the make a different SYSTEM---a variant of what is, but not the same as what is.
there are reasons to be optimistic.
there are reasons not to be.
much depends on how you see the choices, whether you see them as being addressed or not.
right now, most of what i see in american politics is avoidance.
that can go on--and the shit will hit the fan--and then we'll all be boo hoo something bad happened where we you daddy why didnt you think for us so that we could be safe. or we could collectively grow the fuck up, stop pretending that we are the world and start thinking about how to make things otherwise.
take money out of the ridiculous military-industrial contractor-orld and spend it on rebuilding infrastructure, set up microcredit systems that enable new types of economic and social diversity to unfold, invest state funds in supporting civilian oriented economic possibilities--provide universal health care, change the way public education is funded away from local property taxes to flat funding across states. rebuild infrastructure, change the transportation model away from our near-exclusive reliance on automobiles.
why the hell not? the united states spends more on "defense" against imaginary enemies than the rest of the world put together. and that's just one sector.
there are lots of possibilities--try to look forward.
the past is gone.
no amount of lamentation will change that.
the past is gone, over, dead as a doornail and every minute it falls further and further away. there is no going back.
but we are alive--and that is a lovely thing--and we should look and move forward because there really is no other rational choice.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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