It is 5:53 AM on Saturday November 11th, 2017.
Halloween has come and gone and I’m still not in the holiday spirit. I’m going to need to concentrate to get into the right mood because Thanksgiving will be here before I know it and shortly after Christmas then we’ll be in January.
There are a few reasons I think that the holiday spirit doesn’t come as easily as it did before. The first is probably just because I’m 40 and it simply doesn’t come as easily as when you’re younger. Next would be work has been busier than usual and with the kids activities it makes for some pretty filled up days. After that I would say the state of world affairs and especially the way things are going in the USA puts a big damper on everything, more on that later.
We did decorate, carve pumpkins, watch all the Halloween movies and even went to a few Halloween parties but I just didn’t *feel* the Halloween or get as excited for it as I have in years past. Perhaps a really good costume would help. Maybe I’ll work on that sometime when I have some cash to spare.
As for world affairs I’m simply appalled at the level of discourse in the USA and how dumb a very big portion of citizens can be. They’ll believe absolutely anything and are getting their news from propaganda sources as well as Russian troll farms. They lack the ability to think critically and believe what they are told. The Right just keeps getting further right and I don’t see any end to all of this. I’m astounded at how so many do not believe in global warming when the scientists say otherwise. They’ll believe their propaganda sources over actual scientists. Their politics have become tribal to the point where they agree with anything so long as it is within their tribe.
As for the extreme left I’m equally as disappointed. I haven’t liked CNN since the days of Christine Amanpour running through trenches in her high heels making war to be entertainment. Living here in Pacifica and reading Nextdoor I see exactly what is meant by the “snowflake” moniker. Some of these people will absolutely melt at any little issue! For example, someone painted over the local Jesus sign to make it read “Give your Pants to Jesus” instead of “Give your life to Jesus” and one even called it a hate crime. Hell, I went to Catholic school and one of my buddies for a senior prank put an empty beer can in the statue of Mary’s hand. If that had happen here I’m sure many would go berserk, ask if it was a Muslim and then ratchet up their outrage by a factor of 1000 if it was. In another post someone recorded a young girl taking all the candy from a “take one” bowl on Halloween. They all start to spout off on the poor girl when I might have been tempted to do the same when I was a kid. Give me a break.
I broke with the left when Hillary made a mess of everything. I can now see how the right wing can easily dislike people on the left.
Yet, all things considered I’m still left and consider the far right to be mouth breathing knuckle draggers without the ability to think critically. The smartest people I’ve met in my life and around the world all lean left while the ones who were C/D students and never went to college lean right. That’s the way of it and cannot be disputed.
Having a lot of world experience and spending a lot of time understanding different cultures/speaking different languages I’ve come to see that a big problem in the world today is lack of empathy and understanding. People just cannot understand the plight and viewpoints of others and believe their own to be the right and only way. There is a quote by Arthur Shopenhauer which states “Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.” This is absolutely true for everyone but especially so for those that simply don’t have very much travel and world experience. These are the people that will believe whatever their propaganda sources tell them and the ones who vote for Trump. In this day and age it seems that democracy might not be a good idea after all.
If people could gain more understanding, travel more, learn more languages and general knowledge then they wouldn’t fall so easily for whatever is posted on the internet. But they do not, and will align themselves with whatever ideas their sources spout out.
I guess I’m not in the holiday mood because the planet is spewing out more pollution daily and will cause some very severe changes in our planet and given Trump’s pull out of the Paris agreement it looks like we’re in for a rough right over the coming decades. We also have the threat of nuclear war right on our doorstep and there is a chance a lot of people could die soon. Finally, there seems to be no end in sight to the USA going further right and I imagine that should Trump continue and things not change course we could all be wearing military uniforms and spouting “Hail” whoever in twenty years.
There is also a battle for beliefs and ideas here in the USA. Many simply cannot discern what is fact from fiction and even worse facts simply seem to no longer matter.
The only solution I can find at present is to disconnect myself from all that is going on and create my own world by blocking out current events. All of that crap simply makes one unhappy. I have a limited amount of time on this earth, my kids are growing up quickly and I want to live a happy life. This means disconnecting not only from world events but also from some acquaintances. I need to create my own reality and focus my own mind to be positive and happy.
Ok, enough of that. Today we received what looks to be the first of the true rainy season. We got some good rain last night and there are chances for it in the coming days. I’ll need to get into the backyard and clean up all the weeds that grew over the summer before they spring back to life again. I’m glad that the roof is fixed and house painted.
I have to say I am looking forward to Christmas due to the Nintendo Switch we bought. I’ve been showing my son some of the games and am just as excited to play them as I imagine he is. With the Switch we’ll be able to replace nightly movie/show watching with more interactive gaming that the whole family can enjoy.
