The boredom, dejection and confusion….

I’m sitting here in my international law class. I can’t begin to tell you how boring it is today. The professor is reading, verbatim, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article by article. So I figured I’d take this time to come out of the woodwork.

The last six days have been quite sad—the elephant is now hurtling, out of control, towards the edge of the precipice. The peoples of jesusland have spoken and it is now squarely the province of the government of the United States to impose one group’s moral worldview upon a diverse population of immigrants from all beliefs and walks of life. I find it amusing that a country founded by individuals attempting to establishing religious liberty has come full circle and become the Anglicans so despised.

Since the conclusion of World War II and even more since the fall of the Soviet Union, the world has changed dramatically. The 20th century saw more bloodshed and anguish than any other century in history. In hindsight, a very tangible factor that contributed to this human tragedy was the application of old models. These were the old models of geopolitics and domestic politics, the old models of human rights and concern, and the old models and notions of self.

The world community has changed and become much more inclusive, each nation as an entity on the global stage and the individuals that make up a state are all players and participants. Science, technology and tragedy have drawn the world, for better or worse, closer together. Nations and peoples have learned the lessons of history and many have vowed not to repeat them.

Enter now the sole global hegemon and the xenophobia it preaches; now maybe you can begin to understand why I am scared. This is not a new elephant, it is not a new model and history admonishes us of its results. So why are United States citizens willing to go en masse to the edge of the cliff, why do they seem so willing to embolden and follow their leaders right off the edge?

Empires always fall—it is in how and why they fall that is illustrative. So the question becomes how do we want this to end? I am not espousing some doomsday scenario that in the next 4 years the country is going to undergo a violent revolution or subjugation by a foreign power. But what I am saying is that it is the responsibility of every single individual living in this country to provide for the future, to lay the foundation for a better tomorrow. My cynicism leads me to think that wanting better for future generations is something of a quixotic hope. The thought is that this country is too self-absorbed, self-centered and arrogant to believe that anything can every really be that bad—and if it is, that is somebody else’s problem. Don’t make me think, don’t’ make me ask questions or ask me to attempt understand a different opinion, just let me have my money, keep the darkies away, don’t let the gays take over my life, let me tell people how to live their life, tell them what they can believe, and let my faith dictate hard science.