cheapseats

You think? I can think of many that have been far worse than the "Rev. Wright thing." Our rush to help Myanmar, fer instance, when New Orleans is still in shambles.


Proof is hard to prove. That said, the "Rev. Wright thing" doesn't just point to some psycho-babbly things about the American People, it points to some psycho-babbly things about Barack Obama.



SOME Americans don't just choose denial, they also shoot the messenger.

Jack Nicholson nailed it when he spat, "You can't handle the truth."


Presupposing a "faith-filled" household, a child would understand this from roughly the age of kindergarten. Maybe pre-school.


Clinton's not the only one jumping on the Emotionally Divisive bandwagon. I give you Obama Maniacs' McCarthy-esque use of the racist accusation.



Rightly, I think, Americans are so reluctant to install one of their own in a position of authority over them that, perversely, we deliberately if subconsciously choose people who are NOT so great. We don't want to FEEL less than AND have less power. When we are obliged to obey another mere mortal, we have ready-made grounds for objection and, even better, ridicule.

While paying this tax or that fine, while filling out this form or standing in that line, there is a thin unhelpful satisfaction in saying, "I could do a better job than they're doing...hell, my mailman could do a better job than they're doing."

[PC: People who are inclined to alter their speech every time a disgruntled sub-group gets their undies in a bunch will want to use the term Postal Carrier, not mailman.]

Partly, I think, as soon as we know we will die...I don't mean that a sad medical verdict has been suddenly rendered, but that an authentic consciousness of the reality of mortality has developed...as soon as we realize that, regardless what we do and how well or poorly we do it, we will die, there is either a guardedness or a resentfulness or both.

I am not explaining myself well on this one...yes, I KNOW that there are those among you who think I NEVER explain myself well, and how could I, since I am a moron as well as a racist, but I am not addressing you.

By guardedness, I don't mean an unwillingness to live and enjoy life to the fullest. On the contrary. I mean, a greater carefulness about what's worth the trouble and what's not. It is all fine and well to talk about what we're gonna do for our children's children's children but, as a practical reality, we know that we have ZERO control over the world after we're dead, and most of us know next to nothing about our own great grandparents, and we do not relish the idea of hunkering down and doing, frankly, more than our "fair" share of the work if the benefits fall strictly to times at which we are no longer alive. Great people tend to be not only demanding of themselves, but demanding of others. Greatness doesn't occur by itself or in a vacuum.

By resentfulness, I don't mean the active hostility of vengeance but an undercurrent of blame. All the good intentions notwithstanding, so much of life is so grotesque and uncontrollable, so much will go badly no matter how much good is attempted...hence, 'No good deed will go unpunished'...that it is emotionally convenient, in a twisted sort of way, to have a built-in passel of rascals on whom to pin some blame when Shit Happens.

Then there's the brilliant line of the Michael J. Fox character in The American President, "... in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand."

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