Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
–From Yeats, "The Second Coming"
I’m going to be posting here less frequently. With the events of the past week, it has become clear to me that we have crossed a line, and that evil forces are snowballing now in a way that make blogs like this a futile indulgence. It’s something that diverts too much of my time and energy from doing other things that are more productive.
Call this an over-reaction if you will, but if you think so, you’re probably among the people who thought it was a good idea to go into Iraq. You probably think this torture bill has some merit. After all the moderate Republican heroes McCain and Graham signed off on it, didn’t they? Lieberman voted for it. It can’t be all bad.
Well from my perspective, you didn’t get it then, and you’re not getting it now. Sorry if that sounds condescending, but that’s the way it is. Every time I’ve been accused of over-reacting, it’s only a matter of time before things get worse. And I see this as enabled by the confusion of decent moderates who fit Yeats’ description of the "best" above. I don’t accuse you of bad will, just of not being convinced yet, of lacking conviction, about the evil we face. The mental template with which you organize the world is simply inadequate to comprehend the enormity of what confronts us here. There’s no kind way to say it.
Anyway, it’s beyond arguing now. Because either you get it or you don’t. The time for sounding alarms is over; it’ now time to do whatever we can to put out the fire. And that’s why there’s no point really in writing anymore about all of this. I could be wrong, but I’m looking for some evidence to give me hope, and then we have weeks like this last one in which this crippled, discredited embarrassment of a president is still able to impose his perverse will. There’s something else at work here, and it’s really, really bad.
I still hold some hope that the momentum can be slowed by taking away the GOP’s congressional majority. But if we’ve learned anything in the last couple of years, it’s how overmatched the Democrats are by the money and ruthless cunning of the right wing. I’m not without hope that some kind of robust leadership may yet emerge to effectively confront this menace, but it’s not likely to come from the elected officials of either party.
I don’t know what to do. But that’s why I need the time to figure things out rather than to keep blathering on here.
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