Saturday, August 21, 2010

Spitting in the sea

Every day when I visit Antiwar.com there are more deaths at the hands of NATO and American soldiers in news reports, every day. Obama is expanding the war in Afghanistan in another futile attempt at victory whatever that is. Nobody who is even slightly honest with themselves believes we have left Iraq or that the war there is over. As Putin once said, “Who would want this?” referring to the true state of Iraq when young dog Bush was prez. Today there still is no government except for the American backed puppet thug club populated mostly by murderers and thieves. The infrastructure is still a shambles with raw sewage in the streets, violence is still very real making Iraq a very dangerous place to be for those citizens that remain.

Back here in States the job situation is worsening as is the decline of housing which has resulted in the loss of savings for the baby boomers that now face retirement with little income. As if right on cue social security is being scrutinized under Obama’s orders and the results are sure to be awful. Social security is not in trouble, it could go on for the next 27 or so years without running out of funds and 27 years is a long, long time. A lot can happen. At any rate if Obama screws with social security which translates into serious cuts the future will be grim for many Americans. But as always the government creates false alarms when they want to hoodwink the public. As for the Republican Party, they have always wanted to dismantle social security so don’t look to them to save social security from the Obama administration.

And guess what, nobody is going to save you, not your heroes, not the bloggers, not the leakers, nobody. I guess you’ll have to just save yourselves. Personally I wouldn’t put odds on it. The truth is people are comfortable being idiots, they like to be led about by the nose and Obama is the perfect father figure to do it. But then Obama is in trouble politically speaking. Americans may not care one way or the other about the Afghan War but they do care about their jobs and savings (now long gone) and that is what is going to kill the Democratic Party in the coming election which will likely be a bloodbath for the donkeys. So on it goes another election and another changing of the guard and that’s about it, rinse, wash, repeat. And surprise, surprise! We get the same results! Then everyone goes back to sleep or whatever.

To date I haven’t seen any example of any tactic that has worked in any way to halt the wars. Sure, blogs are great with some talented and entertaining writers out there but that’s about all it is, blogs certainly have done nothing to halt the wars. Here, I wrote this great post, now give me money. Great. Just how ineffective can we be? Perhaps the root cause of our apathy is that Americans have it way too good even now to bother with organizing (with notable exceptions of course) or involving themselves in something more real than a keyboard and screen.

5 Comments:

At August 21, 2010 6:42 PM, Blogger micah holmquist said...

Rob,

While I agree with all of your key points, I think one reason that many principled "anti-war" persons -I mean people who are still against wars in Afghanistan and Iraq now that Obama is in the White House- have retreated to the world of commentary is that it is unclear what can be done. I could spend all of my free time educating people about what has gone on and the results would be roughly the same as not doing anything.

There's also the egotistical desire to be an "intellectual" and not just an "activist" -I plead guilty- but that is nothing new.

 
At August 21, 2010 7:45 PM, Blogger Jonathan Versen said...

Sometimes I hear people put down activism; I "hear" that in blogs, ironically. I'm agnostic about the question of whether or not protests work-- after all, how would you objectively measure the effect?

If 100,000 people show up to protest the war in D.C. it will get reported, but only in a marginal fashion, and the AP or whoever would offer tentative numbers regarding the numbers of protesters, as well as throwing the estimate of some unsympathetic right-wing type, for "balance."




Jim:Protest organizers put the number of protestors as 80 thousand or more, possibly even 100 thousand. As you know Laurie, the Parks service still doesn't release official estimates. That practice ended under George W. Bush, and some observers were surprised that President Obama has followed his predecessor's example.

Laurie: Yes, I know what you mean. Jim, I'm talking here in the studio with Harry Wingey of the Blank Foundation. He says the crowds are much smaller, under 20 thousand, maybe even under 10 thousand.




And even if protesters outnumbered "anti-protestors" by 40 or 50 to one, the actual visuals, in terms of screen time, would set them as roughly equal.

 
At August 21, 2010 10:48 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Micah,

I agree completely, it is unclear which may be because very little can be done in the end. Educating people is a wild goose chase I think. Facts are important but often do little to effect people's opinions.

Jonathan,

I agree that protests being effective today is questionable. That's why I point out or have in the past that it's time to stop doing what doesn't work and look for something that does. Not exactly a brainstorm or rocket science but people are using the same tactics they used forty odd years ago. The ruling elite have learned how to deal with those tactics as you point out.

 
At August 22, 2010 3:59 AM, Blogger Mimi said...

But what, what, what's to be done? How? When? Who will lead us? We're looking for a Messiah and what if one doesn't exist?

 
At August 22, 2010 1:07 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Mimi,

It's like Micah said, there isn't much you can do. I'd say stay informed, and enjoy life. Eat good food, go to bed early, go for hikes, enjoy your friends and do good things for yourself.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home