Re: Ooops...

On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, David Peterson wrote:

> I have a lot of knowledge outside U.S. borders. But, that's me; I'm not
> average. And it's not a compliment (saying that other countries are just as
> bad), it's a defense, so that people don't paint up America as the Great
> Satan, thus putting themselves up as superior. As for ignorance, quite
> frankly, it's not important to most Americans. Most of them get
> married/pregnant directly out of high school and have a meaningless, 9-5 job
> for the rest of their lives, never setting foot outside their state, let
> alone their country. So, why should they care? They're not doing any harm to
> anyone--unless they vote. But, most don't, so there you go. Or, some who are
> traitors vote for Ralph Nader, and, as a result, presidents like Admirable
> G.W. Dumbass get elected. But anyway, I'm still going away on Spring Break; I
> just haven't left yet.
?

Er...statistical point...as pointed out in "Boondocks," actually: if
Nader got, what, 3% of the vote (17% in Tompkins County, where Ithaca is,
but that's pretty typical <G>) and Bush and Gore both got 40+% of the
vote, wouldn't it make more sense to throw stones at those who were
"foolish" enough to vote Bush?  (For the record, I voted for Gore, though
not out of any great overwhelming conviction.  But I know people who
found that voting for Nader squared best with their own consciences and
beliefs; they might have been "traitors" to someone else's consciences
and beliefs, but then, they weren't voting for the someone else....)

When I start getting riled up about U.S. politics, I remind myself that
the country has only been around for 200 years anyway, and in a thousand
years most of the issues that look big to us will look pretty dumb,
trivial, or peripheral to future generations.  Call me twisted, but I
find this vaguely comforting.  Of *course* things matter to us in the
Now; but very likely many things are a lot better than we think they
are.  I am very happy to be in the U.S. in the 20th century instead of in
Chosun Korea in the 17th century or in Hellenic Greece or in many other
places and times.

(Okay, no amount of rhetoric is *ever* going to make Dubya look
smart--the Cornell Daily Sun devotes plenty of pages pointing this
out--but he's not Vlad the Impaler.  Or Stalin.  Or Tamurlane.  Or
Richard Nixon.  Or Nero.  Or...or....)

YHL

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