tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post1735008795708567242..comments2024-03-16T19:58:56.871-07:00Comments on The Disaffected Lib: Oh Why Did I Buy this Damned Book, Why?The Mound of Soundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-25118162541629036052015-06-24T06:49:42.132-07:002015-06-24T06:49:42.132-07:00I go through various manifestations and combinatio...I go through various manifestations and combinations of the Kubler-Ross cycle daily, even hourly. <br /><br />My personal favourite is denial. I function better, I'm more social, I talk more, smile more. <br /><br />To the extent possible it behooves us to enjoy what remains. <br /><br />The miseries will look after themselves.Danahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12465953801145126160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-56149238894058975872015-06-24T06:30:44.267-07:002015-06-24T06:30:44.267-07:00Yes, I see it constantly. Good people, conscientio...Yes, I see it constantly. Good people, conscientious people who try to do right by everyone, never turn away a canvasser, sort their recycling, at least somewhat active in their communities, who seem to wilt when it comes to these existential challenges.<br /><br />I wonder how much of this is the conditioning to which we're all subjected from dawn to dusk, our social reduction. <br /><br />We've been transformed into taxpayers instead of citizens even as we're evolving (especially in the US) a form of transactional government reminiscent of Rome's last years of greatness. Our bonds to our government are being weakened and, to some extent, shredded. We are returning to a form of "political capture" of the <br />Tammany Hall era. This subtle and hardly understood change in status from citizen to taxpayer might be a harbinger of a return to something resembling feudalism.<br /><br />The Harper government manipulates us with fearmongering and appeals to our basest instincts while its persistent resort to rigid control, secrecy and deceit prove that it has no interest in advancing much less defending democracy in Canada. Harper dines on wedge politics and cultivates deep societal division trusting he'll cleave just enough of the plebs to give him a good chance of majority.<br /><br />It's hard to fault a populace so methodically reduced for failing to find the courage to rise to meet challenges that are so obviously enormous.<br /><br />I have long opined that the degree of social cohesion we can muster in the coming decades will be one of the most influential factors in how Canadians weather the challenges of this century. Yet it's this very social cohesion that the Prince of Darkness strives relentlessly to dismember.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-41086192478448224012015-06-24T04:26:05.243-07:002015-06-24T04:26:05.243-07:00I think his bit on the emotional journey we have t...I think his bit on the emotional journey we have to take to get anywhere with this mess is of utmost importance. I love his take on "sublime madness": "This curious mixture of gloom and hope, of defiance and resignation, or absurdity and meaning, is born of the rebel's awareness of the enormity of the forces that must be defeated and the remote chances for success" (219). <br /><br />Things are really really bad and so many of us are in such deep denial that it's hard to maintain hope that we'll muster the energy to look it in the eye and rise up to fight back - a fight that is largely against our own selves and our obsession with conveniences. Seeing him speak and reading his books give me a bit of hope. At the very least it makes me feel a little less weird for continuing to try to convince people things have to change immediately.Marie Snyderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13872774009526266579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-76720650743675833182015-06-23T17:17:26.798-07:002015-06-23T17:17:26.798-07:00Yes - prescient, realistic and unvarnished. Good o...Yes - prescient, realistic and unvarnished. Good of you to notice.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-52008933993360122002015-06-23T16:41:59.854-07:002015-06-23T16:41:59.854-07:00So basically, it's the same as everything else...So basically, it's the same as everything else Chris Hedges has written. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com