Serenity… refocus – seek joy – thrive

1. JJS

   9:57 am on January 3rd, 2010 1

   Look forward to reading your thoughts, Nanette.

   I too disengaged from the blogosphere’s version of politics in the last year-plus, refocused my energies in 3D, and have been in watching mode.

   You put it really well here that “Obama’s presidency was declared a failure by some on the leftish end of the spectrum – before he’d even been inaugurated – ”

   So lately when I read year-in-review sorts of wholesale dismissals of him and his entire presidency from those same people – even when I’ve shared critiques of particular actions he appears to have taken or allowed – the “gotcha!” glee with which they set the torch to his history makes me pretty damn suspicious. There’s been open determination toward failure.

   There’s also been total refusal to hold corporate-owned Democracy accountable for the all-available-actions-suck problem: instead, it’s the much easier Obama-bashing. THAT is what causes me leave-the-country despair. Not Obama trying to govern in an ungovernable context (in whatever ways, whether I agree or not) – but the ungovernable context no one seems willing to fix.

   Detail arguments aside: it’s all problem and no solution, all refusal and no offering, all dismantling and no building.

   On the personal front, focusing back in the real world (vs. the all-talk ‘awareness’ or ‘critique’ world online) has re-focused me on this question: “What is the goal here?” (Too often followed by: “Do you HAVE a goal? Or is tearing down the sum of it?”)

   Product vs. endless process.

   And while I don’t have any more or less real clarity than anyone else about this world we’re living through right now, it’s been good for me to disengage from the talking and re-engage with the doing. It’s also only heightened my suspicion of the dismissive armchair pundits who seem to delight in their own cleverness far more than they care for real change.

   Anyhoo.

   Will be glad to hear what you have to say, Nanette. These are very strange times.

2. Nanette

   4:03 am on January 9th, 2010 2

   Strange times, indeed, Jessamyn.
   And suspicious ones. An “open determination towards failure” puts it very well.

   I am probably less disappointed in Obama than some, because I didn’t expect him to be anything but a cautious, small “c” conservative operator in the first place. He IS quietly reversing some very egregious policies of past administrations while all the hoopla over healthcare goes on, but people waiting for him to unleash his inner Jackson or Sharpton will be waiting in vain.

   And, for some (primary white folks), those are the only frames of reference they have for a “Black leader/politician”, not understanding that those two are not primarily grassroots but media/society created and imposed “leaders of the Black community”, who (though they have done good work at times) are both used for whatever agenda.

   I am happy you’ve been able to also disengage online – AND re-engage off. Seeing real people and real effects has a way of refocusing the mind on what is important and what is not.

   Anyway, I hope to get my thoughts together (and get a computer) soon, in order to start writing some stuff up. That’ll help me begin to understand dome things too, I think.

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