I just submitted 20071 words to White Wolf as my first draft. There are weak points in the text, some flaws and faults, and probably a whole lot of things in need of heavy correcting. But the thing is done.
The responses to my last post, about war against fundamentalist Islam, have on the whole been either positive but recommending against sending it, or rather critical. So I’m not sending it.
Of late, musing on political matters, I’ve felt very much like a peasant. I don’t have the cash to be able to donate to the Democratic candidates, and my job is busywork enough without being able to volunteer for Dean or Kuhnich or Clark or any of the others. I can’t act upon the political process nationally, I can only stand on the sidelines and observe. Writing to my Congressman and Senators has gotten me letters full of platitudes about how they’re watching out for my interests in Washington, even as they take positions — in thier own letters to me — flatly contradicting what I asked them to do. Fat lot of good a vote does me each November, right? It’s a hard thing to discover that your opinion doesn’t matter — your friends don’t share your views, and regard you as misguided or wrong-headed; your elected officials do as they will and offer little comfort that things will get better in the ways you want; and that the great and the powerful don’t want your advice and couldn’t care less that you’re trying to give it. I don’t have a net worth of $300 million or more, I can’t start a business in my spare time (what spare time?), or get people off unemployment, and I live comfortably on what I make but there’s not much left over with which to remake the world. I can contribute, in small ways, to how others change the world, but any of my vision is likely going to be lost in the process, because my donations are so small.
Makes me glad I have Leah in my life right now, and makes me glad to be a teacher. This thing I’m feeling right now is depression, but I saw one of my former students yesterday, and good things came of that. I have to make them grow.
Oh, fer Chrissakes…
Send the e-mail. Do you want to shake people into action, or bemoan your powerlessness? State your business, and let the fur fly.
One point, and I don’t want you to think of this as a criticism of you and yours personally: There are a lot of people who don’t necessarily see the Great Western Civilized world as having been particularly civilized. It built itself on the bones and blood of many peoples.
And it behooves me to say that I am one of those — I come from a family that was deliberately destroyed by this government in this century, as part of a stated deliberate govermment policy of cultural genocide against my people.
You will excuse me if I don’t join in the one-sided congratulations for the Western world’s gentle civilizing influence. A lot of people died and continue to do so for that influence to benefit such a small number of people.
Oh, fer Chrissakes…
Send the e-mail. Do you want to shake people into action, or bemoan your powerlessness? State your business, and let the fur fly.
One point, and I don’t want you to think of this as a criticism of you and yours personally: There are a lot of people who don’t necessarily see the Great Western Civilized world as having been particularly civilized. It built itself on the bones and blood of many peoples.
And it behooves me to say that I am one of those — I come from a family that was deliberately destroyed by this government in this century, as part of a stated deliberate govermment policy of cultural genocide against my people.
You will excuse me if I don’t join in the one-sided congratulations for the Western world’s gentle civilizing influence. A lot of people died and continue to do so for that influence to benefit such a small number of people.
Well, you can always sign on to my World Domination Project whose ultimate goal is the cleansing fire of destruction and then command of the remaining fearful remnants of humanity under our overlordship.
Frankly, the Powers That Be only understand the truth that comes from the barrel of a gun or from the pockets of the deep. But its always been that way, and not truly historically-minded person should be surprised.
And yet — it works. We live, as Rhys-Davies notes, in the Great Western World, where you can be free to think and pretty much do as you like, bar very little. Perhaps the freest, truest culture since ultimate primal anarchy. Do you and I matter little in the ultimate scheme of things? Pretty much, until/unless you get pissed enough to grab a sniper rifle and start taking out politicos, or find enough greatly disenfranchised disgruntleds who are unhappy enough to viva la revolucion with you. But, really, there aren’t a lot. A lot of screaming, feces-hurling monkeys … but not really many real rebels. And its so because the society, ultimately, works.
Strange, eh?
Well, you can always sign on to my World Domination Project whose ultimate goal is the cleansing fire of destruction and then command of the remaining fearful remnants of humanity under our overlordship.
Frankly, the Powers That Be only understand the truth that comes from the barrel of a gun or from the pockets of the deep. But its always been that way, and not truly historically-minded person should be surprised.
And yet — it works. We live, as Rhys-Davies notes, in the Great Western World, where you can be free to think and pretty much do as you like, bar very little. Perhaps the freest, truest culture since ultimate primal anarchy. Do you and I matter little in the ultimate scheme of things? Pretty much, until/unless you get pissed enough to grab a sniper rifle and start taking out politicos, or find enough greatly disenfranchised disgruntleds who are unhappy enough to viva la revolucion with you. But, really, there aren’t a lot. A lot of screaming, feces-hurling monkeys … but not really many real rebels. And its so because the society, ultimately, works.
Strange, eh?