.... every 4 or 8 or 12 years, it's exactly the same thing. There is some absolutely pressing issue that will kill us all: The Nuclear Arms Race, Vietnam, Nuclear Power Plants, Iraq, Climate Change, Republican Fascism, somethin'... And even if it's true, what it always means is that there is no "time left" for crazy talk because "we" have to be "realistic" yadda yadda... which is all standard enough BUT, then the lecture on realpolitik inevitably turns into the MOST insane and elaborate scheme of how Kucinich (substite Mean Gene or Georgie boy, or Anderson or Perot or Ron the Nazi or some other asshole who "may not be perfect" but also has no fuckin' chance of "winning" either) is gonna do this or that...

And by the time it's over, the patient lecture about being realistic turns into the most lunatic scenario imaginable, guarenteed to be less "realistic" then getting out the folding chair and waiting for a meteor shower of giant italian meatballs to arrive and make things better. And I have been hearing this lecture since I was maybe 14 and to this day I can't ever put my finger on the transition point at which the sensible analysis turns into loopy gibberish... and I am payin' attention too.

And this isn't some young hopefull types either but old farts too who have been through this jive a dozen times...

So I ask the congregation... exactly when do all the brain cells simultaneously implode?

- anaxarchos

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinion/ssi/images/Toles/c_10292006_520.gif



Original thread found here:

http://www.thebellforum.com/showthread.php?t=47907