This past week was a nightmare. I had a tough time convincing myself that the day was worth getting out of bed for. Some stuff had gone down at work involving a colleague leaving, and it had changed the atmosphere of the team. And that sucks because I normally enjoy my job, something I’m very thankful for. By Friday I hadn’t gone to the gym once, had an incredibly sore back (stress related, I think), and overall just wanted to throw in the towel. So I took a weekend vacation.
I went home after work, cleaned my apartment, and then passed out. Didn’t wake up until noon on Saturday, didn’t get out of bed until 2. It was glorious. Then I spent the rest of the day (and Sunday) geeking out on my own projects. No emailing, no phone calls, nothing. I wrote a blog post about the Apple/Mozilla/Safari situation that has thrown off 300+ hits and counting, and then tackled some WordPress template tag issues.
By Sunday night all the ills of the past week were gone. I twittered like a demon, and then treated myself to a big sushi/sake meal. Tempura, gyoza, sticky rice, and 4 orders of sashimi. It occurred to me that for something as exotic as Japanese cuisine, I’ve made the ordering process routine. I typically get 4 things out of a possible 6, every time. Spicy tuna or spicy salmon, and probably a spider roll/volcano roll. This time, I only ordered fish that I’d never had before. Stripped bass, Spanish mackerel, and fatty tuna. Then I requested the chef recommend two of his favorites. It was without a doubt the best meal I’ve had in a long time. Like having sushi for the first time.
By the time the bill came, Natasha and co had come back from pool and were ready to hit the Dressing Room. A loud and boisterous conversation ensued, which covered important topics like whether or not the Olsen twins were fraternal (apparently it’s “sororal”), and which are the best strip clubs in Manhattan. It finally ebbed and spilled back over to the apartment as I tried to convince Natasha that the reason she doesn’t like Kerouac is because she’s a chick. She cornered me with the fact that she likes Bukowski, but my drunkenness kept the guard strong and I returned the volley by repeatedly contradicting what I had said previously, and stubbornly telling her she just “didn’t get it.”
Somehow, the topic of politics came up. Never a good thing, at any time of night, but particularly then. I understand that my generation and the American public as a whole feels disenfranchised by the state of politics today. People have been lied to, cheated, deceived, and tortured. And that was just during the election. What kills me is when people take a passive stance as a result. If anything, the past eight years should light a fire inside you. People who ignore the economy, and don’t participate in the process deserve all the discomfort and dissatisfaction they get as a direct result. I don’t care who you support, as long as you are paying attention and have thought enough to have an opinion.
I’m not a big politico. I don’t throw fund raisers or try to convert friends, but I do volunteer, and I donate to the people I believe in. I’m not vocal about it because I know that it is a sensitive subject and don’t enjoy alienating people, but when you tell me with a straight face that by ignoring the situation it will somehow get better, I freak out. Maybe it is because I’m an entitled white boy, but I know that I can effect change. You are born with that power, and indifference is poison to the soul. I threw Natasha out of my room. No joke. I think I would have gone a less dramatic route of I hadn’t been at the bar earlier, but I standby my decision.
Seriously, folks. If you are unhappy with the situation, do something about it. Don’t just sit there and take it. My week sucked, so I took a personal weekend. The past eight years (or more) have sucked, government-wise. Let’s do something about it. Read a newspaper, watch youtube, take a stance. That’s all I ask. Then we can have intelligent conversations and arguments. Until then, it’s an insulting defeatist attitude.
My back doesn’t hurt anymore either.
I’m going to go out on a limb here (or just perch on the one that I usually land on anyway) and say that the modern citizen wants basically two diametrically opposed things out of government these days: 1) things will work without fail and 2) things will work without fail without having to think about it.
Roosevelt’s “Great Escape” or whatever the hell it was that got us out of the depression basically turned Uncle Sam into your rich Grandmother who kept footing the college bill without giving you too much shit for not calling her AT ALL. Of course, there are a small few who are more than happy to get together and have lunches on lobbyists while fighting over the scraps of what is, in fact, a very fictionalized monetary system, but for the most part, people just want the damned check without having to think about it. They don’t want to think about their bills and they don’t want to think about the damned government.
And that’s fine. Because if thats what they want out of their government, then that’s what they should get. In a democracy, that plays itself out as a “majority” of a minority (half of 30%, maybe as low as 5% if you think about the primaries) choose to participate and get some approximation of what they might actually do if *they* were making the decisions (but not really, because even if you vote, what’s the likelihood that you know the candidates well, and follow up on what they do after they’re elected). I guess the only benefit of having this over having something like a monarchy, which in this case seems more stable government-wise, is that anyone can participate at will.
But anyway, the point is that it’s equally fruitless to get all puffed up about the fact that most people don’t care as it is to get indignant about ending up with a candidate that you don’t like after not voting for anyone.
Of course, you can always end the argument with a showing of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg1LEsSeYJw
Inappropriate, Mikee. You are getting the geeks all riled up, and nobody wants that.