Countdown to Ecstasy
In addition to being an excellent album put out by The Dan in 1974, countdown to ecstasy is what I am currently experiencing. As of 8:15 this morning, I only have 37.5 billable hours left here in this job, and then I am free. But free to be what? You and me? I don't think so. Free to kick it old school and keep it real at all times? Foshay. Would you expect anything less?
But listen: before it gets to be too far in the past, I want to briefly comment on one of The Wolf Man's observations from his contribution to the AEM discussion. Money quote:
I can recall expressing this same sentiment to my parents over dinner back in the heady days of 1999. I thought that the problem -- even then -- with my generation was that there was no single event or sequence of events that had served to unite us and create a sort of cohesional zeitgeist. As The Wolf Man goes on to point out, we did have 9/11, but that didn't work for some reason. And why not? We were there for a second... people who knew me then might remember me looking seriously at both Army and Navy OCS as a post-graduate option, and I wasn't the only one. We wore our red white and blue, we talked loftily. There was concern, outcry, and it looked like we, as a generation might have "found our mission and our moment" (hat tip: White House speech-writing team). But then nothing happened. The cohesion that our generation and indeed our nation enjoyed for a month or so after 9/11 quickly broke down. Where did it go? I don't know, but I certainly mourn its loss.
Why didn't 9/11 work like Vietnam worked? It's not like our diversity of opinion on what happened and why is any different from the climate that prevailed in the late Sixties and early Seventies; after all, I come from a family where my father attended the Air Force Academy while his brother planned a draft-dodging route into Canada. Is it that there's no real Movement to get behind this time? Is it that we are too apathetic and too lulled into obedience by our sense of Entitlement to care what's happening? Is it that most of us are uncomfortable with the kind of radicalism on both the left and the right that has been allowed to frame the conversation about this war?
As usual, I'm not really sure. Did I oppose the war? Yes, I did, but not for the reasons that the Yahoo Lefties did (although I am, of course, a Leftie). Do I understand that, now that we're there, we can't just get the hell out? Yes, I do, but not for the reasons the Yahoo Righties have given us. Does this make me representative of a larger political reality in this country right now among people who are my own age? I think it does, but I'm not sure what that reality really is.
If everyone is living in their parents' basements, then how can they be expected to embrace their own identities -- political or otherwise -- on a larger scale? They can be expected to do this, but I don't think they will. Here's a piece of political truth: that G-Money, who is a self-described Conservative, and myself, who is a self-described Progressive have so much in common politically shows what the future of American politics will be. It will go something like this: one of the two major parties will either become truly fiscally conservative and truly socially liberal or a third party will arise. Whichever way that goes, those of us who have come of age in this outrageously partisan climate will provide the base needed to assure this new political philosphy's dominance for at least fifty years following its ascendancy.
The question then becomes how long will we have to wait before one of the parties figures this out, or, if you happen to be a bit more radical, how long will we have to wait for a charismatic, independent figure to appear to lead a third party into the White House.
But listen: before it gets to be too far in the past, I want to briefly comment on one of The Wolf Man's observations from his contribution to the AEM discussion. Money quote:
"We also have nothing to hold us together. In the late 90s I thought that one of the reasons our generation didn't seem to have an identity was because we had not had a war to tie us together. Our grandparents grew up through WW2, a lot of our parents grew up during the Vietnam war."
I can recall expressing this same sentiment to my parents over dinner back in the heady days of 1999. I thought that the problem -- even then -- with my generation was that there was no single event or sequence of events that had served to unite us and create a sort of cohesional zeitgeist. As The Wolf Man goes on to point out, we did have 9/11, but that didn't work for some reason. And why not? We were there for a second... people who knew me then might remember me looking seriously at both Army and Navy OCS as a post-graduate option, and I wasn't the only one. We wore our red white and blue, we talked loftily. There was concern, outcry, and it looked like we, as a generation might have "found our mission and our moment" (hat tip: White House speech-writing team). But then nothing happened. The cohesion that our generation and indeed our nation enjoyed for a month or so after 9/11 quickly broke down. Where did it go? I don't know, but I certainly mourn its loss.
Why didn't 9/11 work like Vietnam worked? It's not like our diversity of opinion on what happened and why is any different from the climate that prevailed in the late Sixties and early Seventies; after all, I come from a family where my father attended the Air Force Academy while his brother planned a draft-dodging route into Canada. Is it that there's no real Movement to get behind this time? Is it that we are too apathetic and too lulled into obedience by our sense of Entitlement to care what's happening? Is it that most of us are uncomfortable with the kind of radicalism on both the left and the right that has been allowed to frame the conversation about this war?
As usual, I'm not really sure. Did I oppose the war? Yes, I did, but not for the reasons that the Yahoo Lefties did (although I am, of course, a Leftie). Do I understand that, now that we're there, we can't just get the hell out? Yes, I do, but not for the reasons the Yahoo Righties have given us. Does this make me representative of a larger political reality in this country right now among people who are my own age? I think it does, but I'm not sure what that reality really is.
If everyone is living in their parents' basements, then how can they be expected to embrace their own identities -- political or otherwise -- on a larger scale? They can be expected to do this, but I don't think they will. Here's a piece of political truth: that G-Money, who is a self-described Conservative, and myself, who is a self-described Progressive have so much in common politically shows what the future of American politics will be. It will go something like this: one of the two major parties will either become truly fiscally conservative and truly socially liberal or a third party will arise. Whichever way that goes, those of us who have come of age in this outrageously partisan climate will provide the base needed to assure this new political philosphy's dominance for at least fifty years following its ascendancy.
The question then becomes how long will we have to wait before one of the parties figures this out, or, if you happen to be a bit more radical, how long will we have to wait for a charismatic, independent figure to appear to lead a third party into the White House.
posted by Buckwalter at 8:44 AM
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