Sunday, January 06, 2008

WHEN DREAMS BECOME NIGHTMARES

I find this hard to believe but one half of the population of America, 150 million people, have been born since January 1, 1969.

This is important because I believe that the ‘polter-zeitgeist’ (noisy spirit/ghost of the times) of the Baby Boom Revolution died in 1968...click & check it out

Like many others I believe that 1968 was the year that the DREAM turned into a nightmare. John Kennedy's assasination five years earlier changed everything. When Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were murdered it sealed the fate of Idealism. The price to pay for ending the War in Vietnam was the rebirth of Conservatism and the inception of the reign of the not-so-Silent/Moral Majority. Then Watergate soured the Nation but American Hostages in Iran made them embrace a Fatherly Reagan to restore some sense of the good ole days.

Many of the Hippy student protestors eventually morphed into the Yuppy Capitalists and it felt as if most of the Boomers abandoned trying to change the world.

After '68, the Status Quo resurfaced with a vengeance and political correctness imprisoned us in a New 'Guilted Age', the era of the Lobbyist and Self Interest. This pitiful Era may have reached it's zenith in 1998 when political correctness forced Baby Boomer President Clinton to share his "PERSON" of the Year award with his nemesis Kenneth (what's the frequency) Starr
..no relation to Beatle Ringo Starr.

Forty years after '68 and the domestic unpopularity of the War in Iraq eerily mirrors Vietnam. The exuberant feeling of providential destiny that America felt that it had acquired by saving the world back in WW2, is remarkably clinging on the ledge by it’s fingernails. The once de facto presumption that the USA was going to SAVE the world from itself is on life support in 2008.

Which brings me to the insufferable, mindboggling, coverage of the Presidential Race now in it’s final year ((sigh))
The Democrats had the chance to organise a run at the White House with a Hillary/Obama ticket that would have sent a positive message to the rest of the planet. With Dubya's approval rating in the 30 percentile one would imagine that this strategy would have almost guarandamnteed a decisive victory.
Now that the ridiculous no holds barred bitchfest electoral popularity contest has scraped off all of the feelgood shine on the Dems, the (Silent Majority) Republicans have a better than even chance of winning again…
who’d have thunk it possible 6 months ago? The fact that a person of colour or one with ovaries has never been President is a sad, pathetic, testament in and of itself.

Now I am a Canadian but unfortunately what happens below the 49th parallel will have more of an effect on my world than a Federal Election would up here..
which is more of a 30 day eeny-meeny-miney-mo type thing anyway. To be fair we have never had any illusions about single handidly policing and rescuing the world.

Forty years ago in 1968 there were already 5 countries that had Nukes;
USA ‘45, Russia ‘49, UK ‘52, France ‘60, China ‘64.
In 2008 we live in an infinitely more dangerous and volatile world;
India ‘74, Israel ‘79, Pakistan ‘98, North Korea ‘06…and these are the countries that we know about! Which is almost as terrifying as the thought of the psychotic, delusional, religio-terrorists getting their 'next-world-lovin' hands' on Nuclear Weapons.

List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons

History may repeat itself again and the ture cost of getting out of Iraq may be require a a return to a more formal recognisable brand of Conservatism.
Because the world is so f*cking scary there are no real electable Peacenik Hippy Candidates running for President. The mass hysteria of the conglomerate controlled Media insists that the present situation requires uber-tough love, a 'carry a BIG stick' kind of love for mankind.
If the ‘DREAM’ had not died in ’68 would/could this craaaaaaaaazy world have turned out any differently?

22 comments:

  1. hmmm - think I'll just pop my head back under the sand - peaceful down here!

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  2. '68 was the year that gave us Celine Dion.

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  3. ziggi,
    It is tempting to 'Ostrich-ise' oneself from the world but if our head is stuck in the sand we are more likely to get it in the end...our butts sticking up make an irresistable target.

    mj,
    Even though her Vegas extravaganza has run it's course, Celine will be ordered by Parliament to stay in the USA and continue to bring 'lurve bebe' to our great neighbours below the 49th.

    We Canadians appreciate her sacrifice and will continue to support her efforts to siphon money from the Entertainment capital of the Universe and send her cheques back to the National coffers...

    along with those of other Canucks like Paul Anka, Matt Groening, Dan Akroyd, Jim Carrey, Pam Anderson, Michael Buble, Eugene Levy, Lorne Michaels, Mike Myers, Keanu Reeves, Williaam Shatner, Kiefer Sutherland, and last but not least, Alex (suck it) Trebek.

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  4. I'll take "Canadian expatriate celebrities in the United States" for $1,000, Alex.

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  5. Ugh! I come expecting light hearted fare with dragons and acid trips and I get slapped by the cold, hard fist that is reality. At least post a warning or something! I haven't even had my coffee yet.

    I'm of the mind that the U.S. Government experiment has been judged and found wanting. Give the politicians an F and send 'em to summer school. Where's a good old fashioned benevolent dictatorship when you need it?

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  6. Anonymous10:03 am

    'uber-tough love'? 'carry a big stick' love?

    Sounds like a job for a WOEman!! Dudaaaa! (stands proudly, gazing purposefully out to the horizon)(not that I can see any horizon from where I am standing, living as I do in the middle of a city).

    There's way too much posing and pouting in American politics. I can't take it seriously, which is worrying bearing in mind how important it is. THe American 'save the world' ideology is just British colonialism under another name, but completely and utterly inept. This being the case, it is acceptable to say that the USA is hundreds of years behind Britain HAHAHAHA!

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  7. i hate reality checks.

    Hemm...i think the voters go dumb when they go to vote. same story every election. If we're thinking Obama and Hillaton gonna take up the House that is White, then the american votes might jst vote the other idiots in. That is how america works.

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  8. My generation took the promise this great nation and constitution gave them and pissed it away on their ranch homes, their SUV's, their fear of socialism, and a resignation that armeghedon relieved them of any responsibility to our planet OR their fellow man. A raghead wondering out of the desert and a crazy jew getting nailed to a cross pretty much put an end to any hope that there was such a thing as rational progress.

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  9. Perhaps the educational system in the U.S. of A. is mostly to blame. If the general public can only read and write at a fifth grade level (at best) what hope is there that they can be counted on to make a rational, informed decision?

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  10. What an awesome post, Homely Escargots. A succint wrap of what has really gone on since '68, methinks. (I'm starting to sound like my son with that "awesome" thing).

    I think the world would have turned out waaaaaaaaaaaay differently if some of those most brilliant people of our time -- the Kennedy's, Martin Luther King Jr., Pierre Elliott Trudeau -- had not either been assassinated or faded into the woodwork.

    The bane of the world's existence has been just what you said...the emergence of the religious right, the so-called f*ck'n moral majority, the conservatives, taking over when the hippies and the four dead in Ohio decided to switch rather than fight.

    If people we don't trust have nukes now, it's only an ironic come-about and they've only been egged on by the Far Right.

    I have great faith in Obama or at least a belief that people will come to see, under new direction and with a young population that can see much more than we can, the destruction and bad vibes that have been brought to the fore by Dubya and his group of Cronies.

    We can't get back what we might have had, but hopefully our sons and daughters can see through the B.S. and not take it all like we did.

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  11. Do I really need to answer that question? I believe John Lennon already did.

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. Here's a news flash: 1968 was 40 years ago! What?! Holy crap am I ever old! Though just a child I recall when Bobby Kennedy was shot because my mother's reaction when she picked the newspaper off the doormat was so extreme. (That said, the first death that really affected me was John Lennon's.) And I'm glad Hillary isn't doing so well, extra X chromosome notwithstanding. Anyone who has unapologetically supported troops in Iraq from the get-go is a serious threat IMHO.

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  14. Homely Escargots! WW is my hero today.

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  15. rimsteroni,
    Sorry Dude. I know that most prefer the Homo-Lite but I am doing this for me. The American political system HAS failed. Like Rome this Empire has rotted from the inside.

    Since the pursuit of the almighty dollar is the ultimate goal there is little chance that this Kingdom will survive until the end of days. The corporations have infiltrated every cog in the wheel and the mythology is dying.

    It is certainly possible that a humanised version of this nation might be reinvented but the rest of the world can sense it, smell it, almost taste it.

    fathorse,
    HA! American politics does look ridiculous and the current administration is politically corrected colonialism...they waste so much money on the actual process that they could have been using for education or healthcare.

    I don't think that those involved actually realise how spectacularly stupid it looks to the rest of the world...maybe they don't care?

    ghosty,
    Obama has rejuvenated the younger generation that the Boomers had outnumbered for four decades...half of America was born since 69 so they are coming of age...cross your fingers but I think that this generation is sufficiently appalled by how much the Boomers sold out.

    THE michael.
    I understand your frustration and it is true that the sellout is now complete and a new generation must try to make amends.

    I would also like to add that many of my dear friends who adhere to both of these belief systems are probably hoping that you were referring to Anthony Quinn and Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia...which I personally thought was a brilliant film.

    Personally I draw an enormous distinction between terrorists disguised as muslims and televangelists posing as christians...but most of those moderate Earthlings, who make up the vast majority of those particular groups, are just ordinary people like you and me who happen to believe something else.

    rimster,
    Well the whole democratic system is so influenced by the conglomerates and special interest groups from the getgo that this is all window dressing anyway.

    If Washington continues to putrify like it is someday there just might be another revolution. Save a country ban the lobbyists. It is so much like the fall of Rome that it is scary.

    In 1900 Britain was the Empire dujour and nobody thought that would disintegrate so quickly.

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  16. we are all going to die.
    waaaaaaaaahhh

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  17. weathered wankypants,
    I just thought that it stood to reason that the Boomer generation, the best educated biggest bunch of spoiled brats that the world has ever produced would squander their moment in history to make a difference...now the next generation disgusted by the Boomer's self indulgent consumerism is taking over...if the NEXT cohort mobilizes like it looks like it is doing then they are going to pick up the baton and start running...maybe that will be enough to get people my age to be embarrased enough to do something.

    stace,
    IMAGINE that, he did.

    awndrayah,
    Well like Hillary said Bill is a hard dog to keep on the porch and despite his charisma I am afraid that his legacy will be her undoing. She probably would have done better as a divorcee..which is sad..and she is losing to Obama in the polls because people want a change..otherwise it will have been a Bush or a Clinton in the White House since 1988! HELLO!

    ..and thanks a lot for encouraging WW to make fun of me. You cut me deep Shrek!

    misti,
    Relax oh purpley one. Only the bad guys are going to get it. We will get saved in the nick of time by a lone stranger like Clint Eastwood or Bruce Willis. It always works out and usually within 2 hours.

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  18. I like Weathered Wankypants.

    But I like even more being Andrea's hero.

    :-)

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  19. I know nothing about politics, but I believe the "DREAM" never stood a chance. The good old "U.S. and A" would probably have to rid itself of the bible belt and a good part of the midwest in order to have enough open-minded individuals to listen to concepts that would involve change and progress and evolution.

    Sadly, I don't think the majority of Americans are ready for a black president or a female president. So what's left? It's frightening to think that there will be four more years of a Republican president.

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  20. It really scares me that Hillary and Obama are taking shots at ech other, when they need to be presenting a united front.

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  21. history goes in circles dude... i don't think it woulda been any different coz something else woulda happened to make it this way...

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  22. Bobby Kennedy had to die so that the reanimated Richard Nixon could live. You know all those cronies of Reagan, Bush, and Shrub? They were all busy running shadow governments and dreaming dreams of Armegeddon in the Nixon years. The whole poisonous, war-mongering, treasury pillaging regime had no chance until Bobby went down.

    Oh yeah, and another thing: "54-40 or Fight!"

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