the times, they are a' changin'

So, much has happened in the time since my last post. It would seem that world is coming to an end, or at least that's the impression you might get if you were to have tuned into any newscast in the past couple of weeks. Our economy is crumbling, they say. The future looks bleak. The American way of life, and the Age of Empire that it has afforded us is rapidly falling to pieces.

Not to make light of a situation that will certainly make the next few months, even years, pretty rough for most of us, but there is a part of me that wants to say, good for us. It's about damn time. If there is one thing that this current crisis has made clear, it's that many of our old ways of thinking were just plain wrong. Our government has handled itself poorly. Our economy as it exists now has been built on a number of false pretenses. We have allowed a small group of opportunistic vultures to rape us of our resources, our finances, our very sense of control while we have been left out in the cold, struggling to get by in our everyday lives.

While all of this has been going on, we have allowed the public debate to be dominated by petty squabbles over personal issues and constant fear-mongering designed to keep the rabble in line. Meanwhile, we have been fed bullshit notions regarding what it means to be prosperous in this country and this world.

Many of us have seen for a long time that the situation was bad and could only get worse. Only a few of us, perhaps, have come to realize that the situation has to get worse before it can get better.

I truly believe that this current state of affairs and all of the missteps leading up to it will serve as a wake up call to anyone who is paying attention, and with things as bad as they are, who isn't paying attention at this point?

I believe that people are finally realizing that we need deep and systematic changes throughout our society. We need to change both our actions and our view of the world. We need to take responsibility, and part of what that entails is paying more attention and demanding more from our leaders and ourselves.

I think that ultimately we will weather whatever storm comes our way, and we will emerge all the better for it. I believe that we will ultimately be more open, more aware, and more determined. I believe that we will stop letting others control our destiny and we will all learn to work together to create a future that will be better for everyone. I believe that we will accomplish all of these things because in the end we have to. What's the alternative?