Interrupting the Slapstick

I say very little about my personal life on this blog; it was designed for frolic and foolishness.

But it seems not to say anything at all about our current affairs would be vacuous.

I can't be as eloquent as Devlin O'Neill, or as cuttingly passionate as Erica Scott, nor am I looking for applause, converts, or argument. There won't be any.

Anywhere you look on the Web is news and opinion and opinionated news. It's feckless to preach to the choir, and equally time-wasting to try to convince anyone at this point supporting the self-focused, ignorant, corrupt, and inept buffoon currently in the White House that he's not the one to secure the stability and righteousness they want. He's always been a Symptom and not really the Cause, anyway, but a lot like gasoline on a fire lately.

I grew up in the turbulent 60's and 70's, spending a lot of time trying not to think about the overwhelming events. I might have been drafted and sent to be uselessly shot in Southeast Asia in my later teen years, but meanwhile “Dark Shadows” was on, and Supergirl had begun sporting hot pants. Escapism isn't all bad, unless you stay there.

My parents were conservative but caring people, well-educated, very hard-working, contributing a lot to the well-being of the parts of the world they touched, and taught those values to their offspring. They could argue passionately about their stands, and did, but respectfully.

The backlash of the last decade or two, the devolution of political parties into cartoon caricatures of themselves, the reemergence of vicious hates we thought mostly conquered, and the celebration and exultation of deliberate stupidity reveals a sickness very sad to see.

But it's not hopeless. I work in a place with a lot of young men and women of exceptional character, who show empathy, intelligence, and a desire for integrity and honor.

Social media has the War of the Memes going on, and most are designed to inflame passion, whether or not they're based on any thought or truth (that's the definition of propaganda, and it's used by everyone in advertising and politics and whatnot), but I did like the one I saw today.  I'll post it below.

And then return to the regularly scheduled silliness.

A Friday Night Edit:

Hopefully DaddyCat won't mind if I post this link to his thoughtful and thought-provoking blog entry.  Very worth your time:

"Dear White People..."