How Long Will The Middle Class Remain In This Abusive Bush Relationship?
` Kent Southard, Bush Watch
I don't think I'm alone in detecting a definite Andy Warhol '15 minutes of fame' quality in the exultation over the Bush Blitzkrieg's victory in Iraq. It hasn't helped, of course, that the Bush administration has seemed genuinely surprised to find Iraq once invaded, to be full of Muslims. Perhaps they expected Mormons, or Christian Scientists, I dunno, but the images of hundreds of thousands of Shias chanting 'Down with America,' images identical to those coming from their Shia cousins in Iran for over 20 years, give cause to even the most casual news follower to wonder, 'What were they thinking?' (And not just Shias, but Sunnis, Kurds, Iraqi nationalists, and Pan-Arab idealists, oh my!)
That the Bush administration continues to live down to our low estimation of its abilities doesn't surprise really; when you have an administration who openly taunts its sole member who speaks in complete sentences (Condi Rice, apparently), where 'smarts' are held in such low esteem, then it's only reasonable to expect stupid policy. We also have come to expect a low and base dishonesty from these people, and this the Bush administration has gratified in spades - WMD? We weren't lying, really. A matter of, you know, emphasis. What we were really doing is sending the entire world a brush-back pitch, see, because that's our policy now, and now it's a successful policy. See? (And like Gomer Pyle would say, Surprise! Surprise! There's lots of oil here!)
But perhaps the rapid deflation of the bubble of this grand victory is due to the fact that to most adults over the age of say, 30, there's a worn-groove familiarity to it all. This is simply the rhythm of life under Republican administrations - we make some big brahuha over kicking the ass of some pitiful little country, meanwhile the middle class continues to sink like a stone.
I'm a fan of the thinking behind the voluntary simplicity movement, but there's also such a thing as involuntary simplicity. Such is my post-layoff moment right now, as with many, fighting a rear guard action to arrest a devolving standard of living. Currently I'm needfully looking for a cheaper apartment, which has unexpectedly brought me some interesting conversations with leasing agents. First was a charming and attractive middle-aged woman who spoke with a Russian accent. She was going back next month, she said, after living here for a decade. 'There's no life here. This so-called freedom you talk about so much, it's only available to the wealthy. For everyone else, it's very tough. Nothing but work, work, work. There's no family life, no life with friends.'
Next was a late-20's man of almost incongruously professional presentation and bearing. Turns out he has a law degree. Turns out he's going to Marine Officer Candidate School in the fall. Was in the Marine reserves, and really, really, really doesn't like the corporate world after trying it. 'It's a lifestyle issue.' he said.
What I feel was the issue for this young man, and I don't think he's alone in the officer corps in his feelings, can be reduced to one word - respect. The military can seem very attractive, or seductive, in this way: in the military, you are required to salute ranks higher than yourself; but the higher ranks are then required to salute back. In other words, at least the pretense of mutual respect is maintained. Not so in the corporate world, where the ethos is more 'eat shit and die,' and if you have a problem with that, then you're an 'America-hate My natural father was a career Air Force officer, and I can attest it's a different life - 30 days paid vacation from day one, periods of perhaps intense work interspersed with significant time off or down. And unlike the corporate world, the military doesn't expect you to have to pay for your own training as a jet pilot or whatever; everyone gets aptitude tests, performance tests, evaluations, and if you show aptitude for some skill, they'll train you for it. The corporate world considers it a personal problem if you haven't had $150,000 to gain the education they're looking for.
Speaking of my father, he apparently chased skirts to an embarrassing degree. My mother would always say she knew in the first year of the marriage that it wasn't going to work out. Yet she stayed in the marriage for ten years, having me and my sister. This seems to be a constant in divorces, that it was known from the first year that something was fundamentally wrong and yet the marriage continues for years. I've had jobs like that, known from the first minute exactly who, where and how it would go south, and yet kept going to work.
I think a lot of Americans are in the same situation now regarding our country - we've had a feeling, perhaps for a long time, that things are fundamentally wrong. We work to get our minds around what's wrong, and maybe we wrestle out a piece of it - no respect, no life, no way to live on what jobs are available; while some just continue to hope things will work out. But I wouldn't be too surprised if this Bush administration isn't clarifying the thinking of a lot people, waking them up to the realization that it's time for a divorce. 05.04.03
bushwatch.com
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