Forecast for Chicago: Slight chance of TIDAL WAVE

OMG, It's a Post!!

Well, I think I took a long enough hiatus from blogging. I think all of Bush's successes including an election in Iraq, the people of Lebonon demanding freedom, a cease fire in the Israeli conflict, mending alliances with Europe, convincing North Korea NOT to use its declared nukes, and a slew of domestic victories have really discouraged me from writing. But why Robert, you might ask, would that be a bad thing? Isn't it good that things are looking up now? No. Flat and simply no. And this is why.

If you know anything about history, science, or life in general, you know an age-old rule: everything is cyclical. Life begets death, which begets life. A good situation will inevitably turn bad which will inevitably turn good. Extremism will lead to a period of tolerance which will only return back to extremism. From war there will be peace, but the only future peace has to offer is war. Starting to get the picture?

My fear is this: Things are going a little TOO smoothly right now and we're not doing enough to tip the balance for it to last for a long time. It seems like we are just doing enough to get by. Major questions are still not being answered. What are we going to do about Social Security? How are we going to reduce the deficit (which Greenspan has warned that it cannot sustain us for much longer)? How can a lasting peace possibly prevail between Israel and Palestine without tackling the question of what to do with Hamas? How is Iraq going to appease the Sunni minority which has a miniscule presence in the parliament and is largely responsible for the DAILY terrorist attacks? Why doesn't the US and Europe issue a stronger statement for Syria to finally get out of Lebanon? And Korea HAS the resources and capability for a nuke! AND WHERE THE FUCK IS BIN LADEN, OMAR, AND ZARQAWI??

Time seems to heal everything. Time makes people forget. Periods of stagnation don't offer the urgency for action that periods of turmoil produce. I'm not saying that I wish for conflict and chaos and awfulness. Instead, I wish it wouldn't have to come for us to experience another attack, or an economic hyperinflation, for the people to demand action.

I think it's because we all have such short attention spans. We all suffer from ADD and to a certain extent, I don't think we care too much about other people. I'm not saying we're alone in this. Other people in the world don't necessarily care about us either. But that’s because they have things like FOOD and WATER and MEDICINE to worry about whereas our biggest concern usually lies in "Can I get home in time to watch The O.C.?"

I'm sorry, I didn't intend to be so negative in my first post in months. Actually, I was going give you my top ten favorite songs and talk about how "magical" they are to me. But one can't really explain what compels them to say or do something that deviates from their original plan. Next time, I’ll try, to talk about fluffy clouds and cuddly bears. Till then, here’s some hardtack and nails.