1/12/09
I watched a bit of George W. Bush's last press conference today, and despite all my best efforts, I was incapable of dredging up the usual rage brought on by his meandering, choppy drawl. Sure, everything has been ameliorated by the election of an actual sensitive, smart, powerful adult as President, but that shouldn't negate one's loathing so quickly, should it?
I mean, this sumbitch smirked his way through thousands of innocent kids' lives, possibly ruined a generation financially, may have squandered our environmental future, and worse, made his henchmen (and women) do his dirty work for him - and I couldn't muster up any horrified and righteous indignation. Sure, I had some nausea and teeth-clenching, but that might have been airplane food.
Here's the thing: the world is inherited by a generation that doesn't give a shit about your problems. That is the blessing - and frustration - of human nature. As soon as an era is over, it is OVER, and to paraphrase Morrissey (as I'm wont to do) we go instantly into "I can smile about it now, but at the time it was terrible."
As for those younger than you, they not only don't get the era you're talking about, they don't care. They don't want to know about the way people were mistreated, they don't want to hear your horror stories, and if you keep going on like this, they're going to look at each other in the back seat as if to say "this motherfucker has GOT to CHILL OUT."
And therein lies redemption. The world goes on, Bush does not get punished, oranges grow on trees, and the theme to this year's prom is totally lame. It is in this natural forgetfulness - brought on, no doubt, as a subconscious defense mechanism to the cruelty of the world - that people like Hillary Clinton and Jeremiah Wright and Ann Coulter begin to suffer.
While she was running, Hillary no doubt wondered why young women were not joining her cause in droves. Maybe Jeremiah Wright wonders, with accompanying braggadocio, why he hasn't earned the right to say whatever the fuck he pleases. And soon, Ann Coulter will be frantically refreshing her Amazon page, wondering why her sure-fire non-fiction isn't connecting with readers.
It is because of this: if we have no constant reminders, we forget to be mad. It is why Islamists need madrassas to keep pounding the hatred of Jews into their young; if they don't, the young will simply not care anymore. I can see how this mass amnesia is frustrating to those who have had the firehoses turned on them - they think the younger generation has the complacency of the entitled, but to me, they're entitled to some complaceny.
For those of you who might fear of getting old, perhaps this is one way to stave it off: letting go of your old rages and commanding an almost infinite flexibility. Maybe that's what Obama is doing by having Rick Warren give his Inauguration prayer. Maybe one side in Gaza could give up the war and walk away, and thus win history. And in my own minor miracle, maybe now I can watch George W. Bush speak to reporters and not want to take a urine-soaked sledgehammer to the screen.
Posted by Ian Williams at January 12, 2009 11:36 PMAnd some of us don't have time to be mad, or even if we had the time, we find it takes a lot of energy to maintain that simmering point. But I find this is true for me more in personal relationships. "Never forget" really does apply to the worst outrages, and I do not believe history will be at all kind to the Bush legacy. I hope Cheney, Rummy, Rove, & Co. come in for a great deal of scrutiny, perhaps even more than W -- my judgment is that he was their good ol' boy puppet, that he was a daddy-pleasing yahoo who got dropped onto the national stage at a critical time, to the detriment of our republic and its citizens.
Just MHO! :)
At the same time be cautious. You could see the ways that GWB was bad at his job. Don't idealize the next guy because he agrees with your views. When he makes mistakes, and he will, try to maintain perspecitive.
I voted for "Hope". Now I want to see "Reality".
I have a natural empathy for whomever is President. "Presidenting is hard."
Eh. Am I the only one disappointed in the Obama family's choice for First Dog? Seriously? A Labradoodle or Portuguese Water dog? They are truly ugly and uninspired choices. I know, I know, you should find a dog who's personality matches your family, blah, blah, blah. Allergies, blah, blah, I get it. But still. BORING. Labradoodles are so common and trendy. Next thing you know, they'll name her Maggie or Abby or some other human/dog name. Why not a bulldog named "Nixon" or a pug named "Buster" or something?
Okay I waited all day, but a urine-soaked sledgehammer? Really? Do you piss on it with the head down and the handle up and have the piss collect on the head of it? Or do you aim for the handle to have it trickle down? Methinks that would necessitate having to wear gloves in order to wield it, lest you get the dreaded piss-hands. The imagery of something urine-soaked gets your attention. But a sledgehammer? I just can't imagine the logistics of it. Is this a reference to something in pop culture that I'm missing? I know Thor's weapon is really a hammer, but the urine-soaked sledgehammer makes me think of a Mapplethorpe painting.
And, now that I think about it more, it's not just the piss hands you have to worry about when swinging that sucker. To inflict any sort of damage whatsoever, you've got to swing that sucker over your head . . . and a urine-soaked sledgehammer is gonna drip, drip, drip on your head. So now you've got to wear a plastic hairnet like a lunch lady or a woman sitting in a salon so that you don't get piss-hair. I just think it's really, really complicated and I suspect that the Iraqi journalist who likely shares your discontent with the president first thought to himself--"I'm gonna get cousin's sledgehammer, I'm gonna piss on it, then I'm gonna swing it the American president!" Only, he thought it through and all of the logical implications and decided, "screw it, I'll throw my shoes."
Oh GFWD, I love you so.
Your comment made me laugh out loud and sadly, it's been a while since I've done that.
I too pictured a dripping sledgehammer as I read that and cringed..
I think the idea is that you're so angry you don't even care if you get sledgehammer-piss all over yourself.
I really like the point about complacency and the younger generation. I think it's a common mistake to accuse kids of not caring when in fact it's just a lack of baggage.
I can't help but notice that it has been 24 days since you last posted a picture of Lulubeans. Any good stories from the holidays you'd like to share?