My Misgivings About the Rally for Sanity/Fear

Mark Ames has a different take

From "The Rally to Restore Vanity: Generation X Celebrates Its Homeric Struggle Against Lameness". Let's just say that Mark Ames didn't think much of the rally and leave it at that.

I’ve come to the conclusion that this has been the Great Dream of my generation: to position ourselves in such a way that we’re beyond mockery. To not look stupid. That’s the biggest crime of all–looking stupid. That’s why they’ve turned Stewart into a demigod, because he knows how to make the other guys look really stupid, and if you’re on the same team as Stewart, you’re on the safe side of the mockery, rather than dangerously vulnerable to mockery.

In fact, I think this is why so many Gen-X/Yers turned against Obama: because he made them look stupid. They made themselves vulnerable to looking stupid by believing in him–and he jilted them. That’s how they see it–not that politics is a long ugly process that has nothing to do with self-esteem and everything to do with money and brawling–it was more like an “indie” consumer choice: They bought into the Obama brand, wore it, and suddenly discovered that the label wasn’t as cool as it seemed at the time, especially after the sentimental high of electing a half-black president wore off to the hard slog of what came after… so they threw the Obama jeans away and went to work trying to salvage their coolness creds for having made that fashion mistake.

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I am very tempted to vote during this next election. Not because I've "seen the light" and now love my future Democratic/Republican overlords, but because of something I read on this website:

There is always another perspective from which to view these things…. The rulers of every regime demand flattery. Democracy is no different. We are the rulers, and demand that we be considered vituous. Hence all ills of society must be blamed on others. Evil, perhaps insane our traitorous, follow Americnans (of the right or left, depending on our current mood). Or evil foreigners. Best of all, the “system” — through the wonder of abstraction avoiding the painful necessity of assigning responsibility.

All we must do is wait for politicos to arrive that are worthy of us, for whom we can vote and begin a new age. Or, alternatively, these evils will grow until things collapse in a cleansing fire. On these ashes a new world will arise.

Perhaps so. I’ll bet that instead …
1. The government continues more or less corrupt as are we ourselves.
2. The government improves (or deteriorates) more or less proportionate to changes in our willingness to get involved in it.

Maybe we've become so self-flattering that we're treating our votes like a royal grant or a knighthood. "What? You, Mr. Politician, are not worthy of my fine vote. You have not bowed deeply enough to me."

I'm still thinking about all of this. I do know that I'll be voting on the Chamblee annexation issue. But like most Americans, I still don't know how I'll vote.

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Where I start: Where Suncrest Boulevard meets State Road 80, Savannah, Georgia
Where I end up: State Road 80, Near Johnny Mercer Boulevard, Savannah, Georgia
Total distance on map: 4.160 km
Spare kilometers for next run: +0.04 kilometers

I'm very close to "Island Miniature Golf and Games", so if I wanted to I could stop my run/walk and play a few holes.

I'm still on the Islands Expressway, in an area which is close to "Whitemarsh Island". By the way, if you want to know who Johnny Mercer is, as it turns out he wrote a crapload of songs. Now I know who (at least co-)wrote "Jeepers Creepers," "That Old Black Magic" and "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate_the_Positive".