tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post50644747463791374..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Everybody is Frustrated with American PoliticsJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-76346588364622467962016-05-18T13:22:17.347-04:002016-05-18T13:22:17.347-04:00I was watching some of George Carlin's standup...I was watching some of George Carlin's standup from the 90s recently, and I was struck by just how little has changed. All the jokes about politics sounded like they were written just last week rather than a quarter of a century ago.<br /><br />It seems the Culture Wars never really went away. I suspect, in a sense, we're still suffering lingering effects of the Cold War. The USSR collapsed and suddenly we lacked an external threat to drive us to cooperate, so we began to bicker amongst ourselves more heavily during the 90s. Then at the turn of the millenia we shifted our attention to the Middle East and Central Asia, and forgot about our differences for a bit. But now, despite certain concerns over ISIS, we're once again in a situation where there's not much in the way of external crises to compel us to compromise.<br /><br />And so we're perhaps going to see things actually develop into a broader conflict. I think it depends entirely on whether we can find it within ourselves to foster a spirit of cooperation and compromise - if one side can find it within themselves to reach across the aisle, and if the other isn't too stubborn to reject them when they do.<br /><br />But I think that's a ways off still. I think too many Americans are spoiling for a big ugly brawl at the moment, both as a means of fulfilling their own agendas and as just a crass form of spectacle for the disgruntled masses to hoot and bellow over. Basically we've turned turned politics into a sport, and our "soccer hooligans" are all screaming and pounding on the chain link fences, hoping to encourage the players to forget the match and start a brawl. And if that doesn't pan out, they might just tear down the barriers and start a riot themselves.<br /><br />Nearly 1500 years on, our modern day Byzantium seems primed for a revival of the Nika Riots. I dearly hope I'm wrong.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-28259537046528743512016-05-18T12:00:53.635-04:002016-05-18T12:00:53.635-04:00In other words, Americans aren't so much frust...In other words, Americans aren't so much frustrated with politics, as with each other. Perhaps even more exactly, we are frustrated that other Americans are preventing us from getting our way. Perhaps the great historical question facing us as a people is, can we live with that? Or is it time to part? One might suggest that the country break up into smaller polities of the like-minded, where the like-minded could more easily get their way. But I suspect the most likely result of such a course would be many, many small civil wars based on "the narcissism of small differences," quieted at times by local tyrannies.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.com