The Trouble With Optimism

As I sit here on a damp, gray Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh, I feel gripped with a strong feeling of foreboding. It’s a brand new year, which usually means a time filled with promise and optimism for the future, at least in my little world. This year, however, I don’t have that same rosy outlook.

The world seems upside-down for some reason. It appears that everything we as Americans held in respect and looked to in pride not so long ago has been deconstructed into meaninglessness. All expressions of faith in God and country are met with overwhelming derision. The foundation institutions of marriage and family are in the throes of unstoppable perversion. Character traits of honor, duty, and even honesty are the butts of cynical jokes. Even using the term “Americans” seems somehow to be an anachronistic Neocon allusion.

The godless propaganda factory is in control. In the new world, everything that was once valued is now worthless and despised. Everything that was once horrifically evil is now accepted, and even celebrated. Rob Blagojevich is our new folk hero. Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and Charlie Rangel are fiscally-responsible public servants. Jews are the new Nazis. Fundamentalist Christianity must be eradicated from society, while fundamentalist Islam must be understood and respected. Petulant drag queens who ransack churches because they lost a referendum are morally superior beings. Republicans are a corrupt culture, while Democrats are honest and pure in spirit (and will stay that way as long as corruption is never exposed in the media with a (D) after its name). Capitalism and democracy are failed experiments, while Socialism is tried and true. History is irrelevant, as Socialist revisionism is the new truth. Facts are overrated. There is no bias in the mainstream media.

In this environment, unintended consequences run rampant. We will outlaw drilling for additional domestic oil, kill the coal industry, and refuse to build nuclear power plants, all in the cause of “green, renewable energy sources”. In the harshness of reality, it means we face a very cold, dark future. We will open our borders to those who cross illegally because they work hard for low wages and no benefits, supporting small businesses in a weak economy. Then we will unionize them so they will work less for higher wages and benefits, which will kill these businesses and further weaken a fragile economy. But it will also provide the benefit of an additional underclass of uneducated voters to be exploited. We could elect Hugo Chavez as the next president, if it weren’t for that bothersome Constitutional requirement of being a natural born citizen. However, the Constitution doesn’t seem to be much of a relevant document these days.

Dissent against liberal “truths” is the new thought-crime (ala George Orwell, a brilliant prognosticator). Conservative talk radio will soon be gone, either through congressional mandate or FCC regulation-finagling. We must stop the climate from changing. The debate on global warming is over, and it’s time to sacrifice your cushy lifestyle. No more setting your thermostat at 72 degrees and having enough to eat. After all, our new president says that will keep other countries from liking us. It’s funny, though, I don’t see many of our fearless leaders leading by example. They are still flying around the world in private jets and traveling in caravans of SUVs to their next gourmet banquet. Oh, I’m sorry, it’s time for US to sacrifice, not THEM. After all, they just voted themselves a big congressional pay raise in the midst of the “worst economic crisis since the great depression”.

Our glorious public education system has cranked out the Maury Povich generation. What once was the lowest common denominator is now the average. The majority has elected a President who has accomplished nothing in his past, and whom they know nothing about. They have elected a Congress that is the most inept in history, but whose most-odious members will likely stay in office for the rest of their natural lives. Our Congress’ greatest accomplishment will consist of destroying the American economy by redistributing trillions of dollars to CEO’s and labor unions without asking for any reforms in return. As the list of handouts grows, i.e., financial institutions, automakers, steel industry, newspapers, state governors, etc., so does the control of central government. When big industry, big banking, and the healthcare industry are under government control, there will be nothing independent other than individuals and small businesses. These will be taxed to death to pay for the government takeover of the country. Freedom and liberty will be concepts of the long-forgotten past. They won’t be missed by most of the cretins being processed through our public education system and indoctrinated in radical thought by our institutions of higher learning.

The fall of the Soviet Union was based on an unstable economy, crushing foreign debt, an expensive war in Afghanistan, and pervasive political corruption. I am struggling to see many differences here in our current situation. Our president-to-be once made what I thought was an ignorant and untrue statement in front of a gathering of San Francisco elitists, speaking about unenlightened Pennsylvanians: “It's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them...” That may become a self-fulfilling prophesy in the new America, as the wedge is driven deeper by those who profess “tolerance” and “inclusion” only as long as you agree with them.

The trouble with optimism is that you need to have something to be optimistic about. I’m sorry to be so negative. Normally, I’m a very upbeat, positive person. I just see the gathering storm, and feel powerless to do anything to stop it. Happy 2009.

Angel