Well, the shifts have started, and between working out some nights, doing laundry on others, and blogging, that pretty much accounts for all my time. Though I can tell I’ll be tired by the end of my time here, this is good, because I’m busy enough now to not worry about not being home or not having real Internet access (I like my laptop but it’s a pain having to carry it around and watch for it to run out of power).
I’ve been watching Hurricane Dean come in. Is it just me, or do the weatherpeople seem disappointed when a Category 5 storm doesn’t hit the U.S.? Because at times I swear I can see them catch themselves before saying something like, “Unfortunately, this didn’t turn to the north, so it’s not going to impact us directly.” (To tell the truth I understand the sentiment–I have the makings of a weather nerd, and I’ve been known to stay up all night to watch some of the big ones make landfall, Ivan and Katrina among them… It’s not that I wish the devastation on anyone, it’s just that it’s so interesting seeing what happens when one comes ashore. Like disaster movies. I’m sure I’ll change my tune whenever I experience something like this firsthand.)
I heard a little segment on the radio yesterday–a guy was talking about the sorry state of contemporary politics, and he said something that I thought was interesting–basically, that politics have become just one more kind of televised reality show, and that political tactics really aren’t different from reality TV. Politicians are essentially the same thing as reality show contestants–would-be entertainers trying to get America to like them enough to “vote me in”. I thought it was an interesting notion, and close enough to the truth to be unsettling. He went on to say that he had faith that the American people would get sick of this and would turn to politicians who had more substance and, oh, say, policy to back them up than all the glib-tounged slickness that we’ve been seeing increasingly for the past few decades.
Now, I’d be as happy as anyone if we’d actually let our leaders be leaders, and stop all these idiotic popularity games that we’re playing in our politics, but the US isn’t going to stop being “High School: America” anytime soon, IMHO. I don’t see any real trend toward people wanting more substance and more leadership from our leaders–on the contrary, it seems like we automatically resent anyone who shows an inkling of leadership ability (or just comes into power) and do our best to subvert them from that moment on. A culture of resisting “the man” means that no man, or woman, in authority is going to have much ability to do what they’re supposed to. Besides, I think we’ve let our brains get soft and we’re ruled completely by emotions (on the whole–there are still exceptions). Until a lot more changes happen, I think we’ll still have Presidential Idol.
Posted by Kjirstin 
