I believe it’s becoming clearer and clearer, though it’s been apparent in the blogosphere for a long time, in my opinion.
It started in a different galaxy, long ago … (no, wait .. that’s another story).
The Tofflers suggested in their books The Third Wave, Future Shock and PowerShift that the collective ‘we" would undergo and experience massive change and dislocation. So have many other futurists. There is a plethora of books (and movies, and other forms of information) dating back at least twenty years foretelling fundamental transformation .. of society, of economics, of social, physical and spiritual relationships.
In the meantime, much of the western world (at least) has continued on pretending that there would always be an incrementally better and more satisfying affluent middle-class life. And, indeed, for the most part there is some real truth to that notion, materially if not metaphysically.
And we have seen much change … in music, culture, lifestyles, information technology, media, and so on. It can be argued that one of the attractive core elements of ideology to many of the supporters of conservative politicians and governments has been the forestalling of more change … that somehow these ideologies and the laws and policies these conservative governments propose and support will help us get back to a stable period where men are men, women are women, everyone has and knows their place, and the trickle-down economy will keep the people who deserve to be in charge in their rightful place(s).
Many bloggers over the past few years have proudly proclaimed themselves members of the "reality-based community". You know, that one that recognizes that humans come in all colours of the rainbow, and all sizes, that you can’t cure gay-ness, that marijuana is a useful herb that’s been known to humans for thousands of years, that war after war doesn’t create peace but does make a few war profiteers rich and that keeping p[eople askeered of "other" people or ways is a good way to gin up wars … and so on and so on.
Some day the adults may get back in charge .. reality based adults who recognize that the world isn’t black or white, with us or agin’ us, and that the USA is just another nation and society (albeit a rich and powerful one), and not God’s chosen people. the concept of god would just not, on principle, choose one set of people living inside some lines on a map over others. Hesheit just would not.
Now evidently more and more people are beginning to clamor for some intelligent and aware people to represent and lead them, in different ways under a different, more inclusive and more humanistic policy. Someone like Al Gore, or maybe Howard dean … somebody that’s not crazy, arrogant and drunk on power, someone serious and responsible.
The problems and issues of modern western society are too complex and intractable to continue pretending that simple slogans and "it’s hard wurk" will keep people from noticing sheer incompetence and criminal negligence. But what to do when the conservative base may no longer hold the reins of power ? Will there be a real culture war ? Will those people who want to forestall further change, or roll back the clock with respect to womens’ and minority rights and make plutocracy-favouring tax cuts permanent . Will they accept that the world continues to change and evolve around them ?
I do not think they will go gracefully into that good night. I think that there is much discomfort and turmoil on the horizon. Welcome to Pleasantville, writ large.
Read more on this subject over at the Firedoglake blog:
They used to mock him. Now they’re giving him the shrieking orc treatment. The bedwetting team is scared. . . witless. . . of Al Gore and his new movie, An Inconvenient Truth (which you can pledge to see here).
Search for blog entries mentioning Al Gore at Technorati to see how HUGE the buzz is around him now. You’ll see a lot of cheering, enthusastic welcoming of Gore back to the public scene, mixed in with heaping septic mountains of flying wingnut feces. I could provide you with links to show how unhinged and terrified the right wing is of Gore, but I don’t link to them. You know the usual sites and suspects. Technorati will help you see what I’m talking about.
Tags: cultural transformation, power shift, class war, Al Gore, paradigms
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