It's funny, but most of us thought there would be less anger after the election of Barack Obama. As a group we are angry people. We see it all of the hate speech. We see it in the Tea parties around the country, and we see it among people that are angry that are health care debate has been bought and sold by the insurance industry. As a group we are all hopping mad, but we are angry about different things. It will be interesting to see where it all ends up.
On his radio program, Thom Hartmann interviewed William Gladstone about his book The Twelve. In this book, Gladstone creates an interesting story about what Mayans thought would be in the end of the world (2012). The Mayan calander ends on December 21st, 2012, and some people think that this will spark the end of days. However, Mayan researchers have found that the Mayans did not believe that the world would actually end, but it would go through some kind of transition. This kind of novel is an interesting backdrop with all of the anger being displayed by the different groups in our country.
While the tea baggers, birthers, and progressives may be coming from different perspectives they are all highlighting one thing. Most people do not like where this country is right now. Most in the mainstream trust that the Obama administration will do the best they can to right the ship. Others may have honest disagreements, but they still believe in our institutions. However, those numbers appear to be falling as we move through the health care debate. It makes you wonder when it all is going to come to a head.
The great political question for 2010 and 2012 is whether one of the major parties will be able to use this general unrest and combine the forces together. At this point, the answer would appear to be no. It's hard to see an anti-corporate group meld together with a group that thinks government is already spending too much. Then, you get the folks that don't like the fact that we have a black president. It seems impossible to get them together.
Yet, as Gladstone believes, it will take a lot of pain and struggle to get something positive. Like the Mayans, he believes we will have to have some kind of reboot on our system in order to get things to work for us. I hope this doesn't sound too much like good folks in Texas and other states that want to secede, but they are a part of this as well. The anger may be attached to idiocy, but it is still real. I suppose we can hope for a glorious revolution where we just have an epiphany of how things should work. At the very least, it sounds like an interesting read.
Welllll, the immigration thing was a joke. And a bad one.
The anger you mentioned in your post is, for me, the scariest aspect lately. Anger and fear can lead people to do bad things, which only feeds the emotional impetus and continues the cycle.
The craziness is getting pretty bad out there. Every day I half expect that someone will snap and continue the escalation of intensity.
I suppose a blind pig finds mud every now and then. We've talked about the anger and hate for awhile, but it seems to get worse. You may be right about illegal immigration. It angers even some progressives I know. Maybe these last few blogs just represent my philosophical nature coming out.
Personally, I'm not counting on big revelations. Except for the Soviets, the first Gulf War and 9/11 went haven't had much to really unify us.
And without sounding too much like a "enforce the borders!" whacko, I think the real Mayan/2012 combo is going to have something to do with illegal immigration reaching a tipping point.