What, Me worry? by Artriarch
"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."-- Lao-Tzu.
Where are we heading? I don't see much chance of changing directions so it's important to me to figure out where we're going. I hear that Social Security and Medicare will be broke soon. And our national debt will bankrupt our grandchildren. I also heard that our war on terrorism will last a hundred years. Oh, and we'll be bought and paid for by China. The president is a socialist and he will soon re-distribute our wealth (I don't know what he's waiting for).
But I do take solace from the fact that Congress is so tied up in knots that nothing can be accomplished. I take solace because if they can't do anything, they can't create any more laws and that must be good for us. Right? Wrong. They've learned to govern by default, like the budget move called the sequester that's decimating good programs along with the bad.
Before I sound too morose, I should offer other good things to consider. Rihanna works hard, plays hard and never apologizes for anything. Jennifer Anniston finally fell in love for real -- so we can all relax. Hugh Heffner is alive and well -- living in luxury with his 26 year old wife, proving a sixty year age gap is not really that important when true love is involved. Hollywood will definitely have their self-congratulatory Oscar show next year. Beyoncà © got a Pixie cut. And Ben Affleck will be the next Batman.
Oh, wait, I've slipped off course. I was talking about not changing direction and winding up where we're headed. We seem to be, as Judge Bork once wrote, "slouching toward Gomorrah". In this time of global crises, we pay more attention to who's caught doping in Baseball, than we do to the economic brutality being suffered because of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
And heaven forbid that we miss even one second of the war of words between the talk show bloviaters on the right and left. Well, one good thing that comes from all this distraction is that we are being entertained. It seems that entertainment is still the opium of the masses.
It's not so different from the Roman circuses that kept the citizens occupied while their empire fell apart. Except that the Roman government also passed out free loafs of bread. (Special note to Republicans: Take a hint from the Romans and fund SNAP). Oh well, I guess there's nothing to do but relax and enjoy the ride. But be alert for the free bread. When that begins, the end is at hand.
Why do I think we're not going to change our trajectory? Because we are far more interested in Speaker Boehner's tan and Hannity's future at Fox News than substantive issues.
I don't want to be too critical but come on folks. The so-called news outlets would stop wasting our time with ridiculous stories if we stopped following them. For some reason we love them.
Maybe these stories help us escape the fact our government has lost its way and we can't seem to do a thing about it. We throw the incumbents out and the victors take up where they left off. Our corrupted system sustains itself, with or without our approval. And we get to pay for it.
In the meantime, don't worry so much. Pat Robertson has a direct line to God. And when the time is right, I'm sure he'll offer an intercessory prayer for us.
So back to Lao-Tzu. I guess he was right. If you don't change directions, you'll wind up where you're going. And I want to add "why not -- everyone has to be someplace".
Robert DeFilippis