February 15th, 2009: Saturday Editorial

Let's get straight to the editorial!

EDITORIAL:

I feel that if older generations are going to grasp the mentality of young, politically active people my age, there's so much they've got to take into account, and not small among those factors is this overriding fact: we grew up politically while under the jurisdiction of the Bush administration.
That means a few things. Most obviously and most crucially, we're less offended by government corruption than we probably ought to be. As far back as we can really recall, that's just how it's done. We know it's bad, sure, but we already hated Bush (see: 1000 lame "Bushism" collections, partisanship) and if you have a bad President, that's the sort of stuff he does. Torturing people with neither justification nor accountability is just one bullet on a list of bad stuff including mispronunciation and rudeness.
I'm obviously exaggerating (although probably less than you're assuming) but it's a frightening phenomenon when deception is seen as the proper order. It's that kind of tacit acceptance that feeds into the bizarre ideology that the government, any government, is some institution from which we are alienated. That's a baffling ideology. It's a flawed system, but there are countless ways to access the power structures that dominate us, which, in the great scheme of history, is an exciting political development. The government ought to be taken for what it really is: a group of citizens who we've appointed to set down rules as we see fit.
I guess it's just startling that so many people assume the government is hopelessly broken, when they've yet to make a single phone call to their representatives.
Going back to my earlier train of thought: For those older folk who don't grasp why Obama is so appealing to our generation's politically active youth, it has a lot to do with the contrast. We're just now old enough to vote, and our votes already made an impact, and now we feel that our President is accessible to us. It's like we lucked out; we not only got the right to vote and get the hell out of high school, but we suddenly have a government we can really work with.
Is that really so sudden? If we had really, genuinely tried to change things through and with government institutions, would we have been shut down? I'm not sure. But if a hero-myth constructed around an intelligent and sincere man is what we need to wake ourselves up and get to work, I'll take it.

PERSONAL:

Blargh agh augh, I am coughing a lot.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 2.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 359
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, annoyed about being coughed upon..