Hm.

[channonyarrow]

My country and its policies make me want to commit suicide.

I realise this is ineffective. However - well, at least Sisyphus was dead when he had to push that big fucking rock up the hill. He couldn't expect much in the way of a state change.

All I can expect is that it does not matter what I or anyone else do, things will continue to get worse and to veer further and further into the land of crazy.

I want to die.

Comments

[drui-en.livejournal.com]

Move, baby. Move.
UK.
Canada
Wherever. Just get the hell out asap.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

Why? We're fucking up the entire planet.

Hurricanes? We've done a lot of that. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? Newly approved by the Senate for oil drilling. US troops violating the Geneva convention by burning bodies of suspected Taliban insurgents after they had been arranged to face Mecca by said troops? Caught on video. International weight issues related to American television shows? So 2001.

Where the hell can anyone go to get away from America?

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Certainly not The McAfterlife (TM). I think our best bet, globally, is to wait until the Great Amurrikan Empire collapses, and try to build something decent out of the rubble. Of course, the fucker could survive another couple hundred years just to spite us. And hey, if we cause the destruction of the entire human species, you won't have to worry about personal survival issues anymore!

... in other words: I so grok. I try really hard not to think about it these days, because if I even scratch the surface of how helpless and infuriated I am... yeah. Amurrika: the Great Vomitous Mass.

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

I don't know that it's Amurrika in and of itself. America sucks in that it allows human beings' inherent suckiness to rule the day, and to rule everybody else's day, too. Until we have enlightened despotism or universal soul elevation -- here we are.

The problem with the world is that it's full of people.

[drui-en.livejournal.com]

"The problem with the world is that it's full of people. "

I think that's the general gist of it.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

The problem I have with Amurrika is that, in the wrong hands, it's a vast mechanism for enabling the very worst of human behavior - and right now, we're firmly in the wrong hands. I'm one of those whackos that actually believes that the last set of prez. elections were rigged. Hell, the proven, demonstratable fact that the prez. lied about why troops were sent into Iraq should have triggered an immediate investigation into his administration and ethics in any kind of sane nation; instead, we're dumping more troops and money into the pit, mostly on the word of him and his cronies.

The problem with America right now is that the mechanism that is supposed to be running the country is very, very badly broken, and is currently being used as a giant money udder for a handful of unscrupulous, powerful bastards. Average Amurrikans are mostly victims, right now - except the enablers who still wave flags and frothingly declare that Shrub is the Bestest Prezident Evah!

On a local level, on an individual level, we can be angels... and most people, when thrown into a real-life situation, will act as angels. But on a mob level, we have a nasty tendency to act like the monkeys that lurk in our hindbrains. And our country, right now, is a giant mob. One way or another, it can't keep going on like this.

[koemiko.livejournal.com]

Who are those four men coming this way?

Why are they riding horses?

[drui-en.livejournal.com]

*LAUGH*

[drui-en.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking.. hippie eco-village in the wilds of Tasmania, but hey. That's just me. ;)

Don't get me started on all the shit going on there, hon.. I'll just start screaming and weeping. Again.
(Oh, but don't forget that the hurricane was god's wrath for n'awlins being a sinful place, and the tsunami was god's wrath for all them indo-nesians being muslim)

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

hippie eco-village in the wilds of Tasmania

How about life as a hermit shepherd in New Zealand? That's a friend of mine's plan.

[drui-en.livejournal.com]

Well, I DO like sheepses.. (might be the Welsh blood). :D

[mcmayhem.livejournal.com]

The south seems pretty happy with the way things are going. Maybe you should learn to become one of them. I hear Arkansas is nice this time of year.

[calli-thaala.livejournal.com]

Of course they're not. Granted, there are those who are only happy when preaching fire and brimstone and racism so they're having a ball at the moment but you might be surprised at how many people are starting to think that maybe all this really is God's way of punishing us- for re-electing Bush. And I'm not even a democrat...

Point of clarification: Arkansas is never that nice...

[graeae.livejournal.com]

My uncle lives in the Ozarks in his own cabin where no one comes near him and his gay boyfriend. *grins* That part is nice.

[calli-thaala.livejournal.com]

It can on occasion be pretty and all that but they're not the most open minded people and, as one of my friends is so very fond of pointing out, there are plenty of places to hide bodies.

[mcmayhem.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I believe they claim they're happy with it, because there's a god-fearing regular Joe in charge...and how can you improve upon that? The world's a shambles, but them and their prez will be saved in the Rapture!

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

calli_thaala lives in Tennessee - if she's saying that the South isn't behind Bush all the way to perdition (or the Rapture) I'll take her word for it. Also, they've been getting a bit hit by the wrath of the alphabet lately. And we know how well Bush and Brown responded to hurricanes that didn't happen in Florida.

[mcmayhem.livejournal.com]

Ah- apologies, calli_thaala, you would indeed be more informed on the subject than I would. I've had some unsavory experiences with southerners lately that have negatively colored my perception of the entire region. Anyone who can exhibit the continued presence of intelligence there is most welcome in my world...I WANT to believe...

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

That was a hard realization for me -- that realistically, I will never significantly affect the course of American politics. But I got over the despair and disillusionment by saying, Fine, fuck the government, I'm going to work on a local level and make people's lives better that way. Volunteering, donating to nonprofits, etc.

Good luck with cheering up.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

I try to do that too. I mean, I don't do as much as you do by a long shot, but I try to live well and with responsibility and do what I can to change things - but it's discouraging as fuck when the government...well, continues to act as it has. Because, you know, we have to destroy America and the rest of the world to be American. I think that's in the Bible somewhere.

[lzz.livejournal.com]

I agree with lottelita: for me, it's a difficult line to tread without feeling like I'm trying to exonerate myself from doing stuff, but I think you have to work at the level which is appropriate for you and at which you can actually make a difference to real people's lives, and not worry yourself into an early grave by thinking about all the things you can't do. For example, I am unlikely to bring about world peace, but on the plus side there is a swathe of Cambridge youth which now thinks that books and librarians are cool.

I do know what you mean, though.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

Normally I can be happy with the small things I can do, but today it just feels absolutely futile.

I think I need to start volunteering somewhere, do something that has a concrete reaction.

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

I can't overemphasize the healing power of service. It's very hard to be unhappy when you know you're making others' lives better. (Probably why world religions are so in favor of it!)

[slytherat.livejournal.com]

Belgium drives me crazy at moments as well.
Every country has its bad and good points.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

America's bad points tends to be a bit more far-reaching than anyone else's. We've made ourselves the only superpower in the world - so of course we can destroy it.

[tacky-tramp.livejournal.com]

Indeed. The whims of the American electorate -- or the lack of whim -- have an incredibly wide-ranging impact. Scary.

[justaskfirst.livejournal.com]

I've been researching Canada and Switzerland. They're so lovely and moderate and socialist (medicine, food, and housing for EVERYONE!).

Switzerland would be a wonderful place to live.

[channonyarrow.livejournal.com]

I'd be gone in a minute but the problems we're causing are becoming increasingly global, and I'm getting the totally futile sense that there's nowhere to go that's actually going to be safe - though there are places to go that meet other of my needs, like health care.