I am so disgusted with America.

[Philosoraptor]

I'm sorry, but I am. Jesus Christ just look at us. Look at our 'president'. Look at our world image and what we've allowed to happen. God damn its disgusting how low we've fallen.

Just look at our 'leaders' and despair. Look at our apathy to tyranny and torture. Look at our impotence to stop a tiny handful of dangerous maniacs. My God it is revolting.

I am so ashamed for us, we are universally hated for our government, and our lack of action in the face of global catastrophe, and now we are even hated as a people.

Look how easily they took over. Look how easily we were all duped. Look how we just sit around and do nothing about it. Look how all our power to change it has been seemingly taken away. Shame on America, I'm disgusted with us.

[Sperk]

1. I feel EXACTLY the same way. I still cant believe this is all happening

some "greatest nation on earth".

[schmuls]

36. It's like being in Superman's "Bizarro World" where the truth is false,

wrong is right, immoral is the right way and common sense is a joke.

[PADemD]

2. Now we know how the good Germans felt when Hitler and the

Nazi fascists took over their country. There WERE good Germans who were appalled at the Nazi regime. I always wondered how it could have happened. I wonder no more. I am a witness.

[madokie]

3. when we bounce back from this dark time in history

it will be a long time before we will have to worry about the likes of people like the bush* cabal. They will be dealth with in a way that not many will want to follow in their footsteps. Yes the day is coming when we can unite and drive this illegal misadministration out of washington and all the way to the Hague.

[marions ghost]

18. yes

we have to use this opportunity. America has received a punch in the guts from Bushco. Somehow that gets people's attention....

[calico1]

4. I can remember being in grade school back

in the 60's. Grade school! And we talked about current events! People were far more curious. They read the paper, watched the news (and it was real news) and people didn't just meekly accept whatever the politicians said. People today don't know and don't care what is going on. As long as they have their reality TV shows and sitcoms they are happy. Ask the average person who their congressperson is. Many have no clue at all and DON'T CARE. They happily accept whatever the politicans say. They are willing to take pay cuts, benefit cuts, etc. I have seen some people comment that generations before "had too much" and they don't really need that much. We've become a nation of idiots and I'm not sure we can turn the clock back.

[Waya]

9. Guess it's true what they say......

"The average age of the world's greatest civilization has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence.

From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance,
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency,
from complacency to apathy,
from apathy to dependency,
from dependence back into bondage."



~Professor Alexander Tyler - 1787~

We have come full circle.....

[Philosoraptor]

14. profound and apt

[mogster]

23. Splendid quote!

Nails it down.

[Blecht]

26. Great quote -- too bad it doesn't seem to be real

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp

The quote from "Alexander Tyler" is very likely fictitious. His name was actually "Lord Woodhouselee, Alexander Fraser Tytler," and he was a Scottish historian/professor who wrote several books in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

However, there is no record of The Fall of the Athenian Republic or The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic in the Library of Congress, which has several other titles by Tytler. This quote has also been cited as being from Tytler's Universal History or from his Elements of General History, Ancient and Modern, books that do exist. These books seem the most likely source of the quote, as they contain extensive discussions of the political systems in historic civilizations, including Athens. Universal History was published after, and based upon, Elements of General History, which was a collection of Professor Tytler's lecture notes.

Tytler's book, Universal history, from the creation of the world to the beginning of the eighteenth century, is available for viewing and searching on-line. The complete text was searched for each of the following phrases:

* Athenian Republic
* democracy
* generous gifts
* public treasury
* loose fiscal
* fiscal
* bondage
* 200 years
* two hundred years
* spiritual faith

In no case was text identified that was remotely similar in words or intent to the alleged Tytler quote.

[marions ghost]

15. OK and so where was the turning point?

I think it was the ' Don't worry, be happy' Reagan era. After the scars of Vietnam and the shattering of the Leave it to Beaver dream...people reverted to vegetative existence. I spent the whole decade in school, studying, teaching...and trying hard not to think about the consequences of Reagan. I was not watching sitcoms, but I was also strenuously NOT paying attention. Feeling powerless to change anything, I trained myself not to SEE. But I am not an idiot. And nothing that has taken place now is a big surprise. So I knew what was going on at some subliminal level.

We who were asleep in the poppy field are waking up. It took Boosh to do it, although Clinton was not an easy political joyride for anybody. But it's not productive to wail about how things used to be better in the good old 60's without acknowledging the forces at work producing the ostriches of the 80's.

People can't improve --if all you do is heap guilt on them.

[calico1]

16. Well obviously if you are posting on this

board you are a thinking person. I am referring to the many gullible sheeple out there. There just seem to be so many more of them now. Watching stupid TV, not reading or being informed or even interersted about anything that is going on in the world....as long as it doesn't directly affect them.

[marions ghost]

19. Y'know

it's easy to blame the sheeple...the people with no vision, the people who can't see how they are being manipulated, the people who are easily distracted. But that's how a group of people usually get hijacked--they are unsuspecting, trusting, naive. They allow others to instill fear and then give them "solutions" for their fears.

It doesn't help to call people "stupid" for not understanding that our country could be taken over by a bunch of thugs and run into the ground in a few short years. Who could imagine we would all end up riding on the Hindenburg? Especially those still feeling the glories of America as Savior--ie. the WWII generation--they have a very hard time believing this could be possible--their minds do not allow them to think that Hitlerian tactics happen here. The generation who fought in and against Vietnam have an alarming sense of deja vu...only it's even worse--and who wants to relive that mess twice in one lifetime? The Reagan-Clinton generation is reeling from the Bushian assault--it's enough to make anyone hide and bleat "tell me it ain't so."

You'd have to sort out all the pockets of denial and resistance if you're going to paint all these people with the big brush of "stupid." That's alienating, unproductive. In a sense, it's stupid to present it as "Us (smart people) vs. "them" (stupid people). Sure, there are some rigid people you can never reach. Let them go. There are a lot more others who can be reached.

[calico1]

22. I said "stupid TV"

asin the vast array of mindless Tv that is so popular today. I did not call anyone stupid. I did say gullible.

I am old enough to remember being in 7th grade and having student debates about current events. Forgive me if you find it offensive but I just find it frustrating to initiate a conversation about some current event and get a deer in the headlights look. And from a college educated person. Or when I make a comment about my rep. Simmons and get a "who is Simmons?" from someone who lives in my same district. What makes us more interested in what is happening in the world and other people totally indifferent unless it directly affects them? I don't know. But as others have expressed here it is damn frustrating.

[Tesha]

25. Yeah! "Gilligan's Island" was so much smarter!

Back then, people had just come out of WWII -- they understood
that their own individual actions mattered, and they stayed
informed.

And yes, my quip aside, there actually was information, at
least in the nightly news.

But in the 70s and 80s, they were distanced from reality and
bought into series of "pretty lies" fed to them by Republicans.
They could have it all, they "deserved" to have it all, and it
was only those darkies/Demorats/homos/godless commies who were
keeping them from having it all.

The masses lapped it up.

The result was Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Bush.

And the country we live in today.

Tesha

[calico1]

32. I'm a boomer. And you are right.

My generation is largely to blame for the state of things today.

BTW, aside from Gilligan, Green Acres, etc. there was also REAL news. The networks were not owned by corporations so they were much more objective. And there was a morning edition and evening edition of the paper which people read a lot more than they do today. And there weren't a million cable channels that allowed people to veg out all day in front of the TV. Or 24 hours "news" channels that have to fill up space so that Jennifer Aniston's latest doings are breaking news. That kind of shit would have never made it into the news cast. And aside from the draft, another reason why Vietnam was so unpopular is it was on the 6 o'clock news every night. And in the papers, and in Time and Newsweek. Unvarnished. No sugar coating.

[Tesha]

33. Absolutely. I agree with everything you said.

(And I'm a member of that same generation, more
than likely.)

Tesha

[hsher]

43. Boomers also to be praised for the good things

Sixties anti-war demonstrations led to the end of the Vietnam War and current questioning by the American people of all wars the U.S. gets into. Sixties culture created the current political left. Questioning of social norms by Boomers created feminism and gay rights. We're still fighting for them, but they exist now, and there is now at least a forum through which these can be discussed. Before you Boomers, there WAS none. Boomers spearheaded environmental activism, the new age movement, the peace movement, the Beatles, John Lennon, Woodstock, protest rock, rock festivals, and the fact that we now expect the right to be able to investigate and question a president's actions instead of blindly accepting his or her authority. If nothing else, the Baby Boomer generation gave us the question mark as a social and political tool. "Oh, really? Is that so?"

You guys gave us the power to ask that of authority.
No one did it before you.

This Generation X'er tips her hat to you. I recognize many of you slid off the idealism and embraced materialism, intoxication and self-obsession. Yes, that's true. But at least when it's all said and done you will have done more for the world and America than a certain OTHER generation I can think of, who may only leave behind a few cool snarky injokes, skinny glasses and a bitchin' collection of Charlie Brown cartoons by the time it's over...

UNLESS GENERATION X WAKES THE FUCK UP *NOW*.

I am not going to fit the "apathetic" mold others have designed for us. I am active, political, out in public, and aware. By the time they bury me, they will know my name. I will be at least one Generation X member who stood up and made noise like the Boomers did, because X'ers, consider: this regime came, lifted its skirt and took a dump right in the middle of our adulthood. If nothing else, that's just not fair and needs to be fixed. Think of what you're leaving behind for your future children. Do you want it to be a cool Vespa scooter and the recipe to make a Cosmopolitan?

Dammit, my generation, WAKE UP. Let me be the first to say it right here:

LOG OFF. GET UP. SPEAK OUT.

Let that be OUR "Turn on, tune in, drop out" and let's leave BEHIND something. Dammit, everyone: isn't anyone else WITH ME???

Thanks Boomers for the memories. Here's one X'er who doesn't criticize you. Until we've created a legacy equal to yours we need to shut our fucking mouths. Here's one X'er who plans to do it or at least die trying! Booyah!


www.yourmorningleibowitz.blogspot.com
The Daily Show as a comic strip

[nam78_two]

35. I agree with you

I am a little tired of the constant excuses for sheeple. I don't really paint everyone paying no attention with that brush, but there are certain classes of people who I am just ashamed of.

I have known some people with large families, working more than one job who JUST don't have the time and are barely making it..
But, I also see a lot of college educated people with enough and more time and money on their hands, yet they choose to not know whats going on in the world, spend their time playing video games and watching stupid tv, all their conversation is about dating, sex, interpersonal strife....

I just look at them and wonder...and they aren't freepers, fundies etc. -even mildly liberal in some cases. To look at them you would never guess the world isn't one big happy candyland.

I see this a lot in people in my age-group (25-30) and I find it very frustrating...If the students and youg people are not going to be those that bring about change, what hope is there for the future?

I really think that if nothing else, if you are an affluent person, young with time and money on your hands, you owe it to those less well off than you to get involved in something....
Good God man, you could at least take an hour away from video games a week to volunteer at the local homeless shelter....

I just don't get how in times like this, people go about life as usual talking about the most trite and banal garbage like who they are dating, what shows they like etc. and exclusively that....never anything else.

[orpupilofnature57]

5. IMPEACHMENT! there feel better? 11/08/06 a Beginning?

[Greeby]

6. You might as well be disgusted with the entire world

Truth is, most "democracies" aren't much different. Living here, I should know

[xchrom]

7. me too.

there are a lot of wonderful people on both coats -- but boy -- something AWFUL happens in the middle.

it's not that here aren't wonderful folk in the middle -- but the battle for littlest move forward -- or to keep from moving backward{i.e. kansas or s. dakota} is just breath taking.

btw -- i am an escape from the middle.

[katinmn]

8. I am too. I am especially horrified that we've allowed

the death and destruction of 655,000 Iraqis, the majority of them innocent children, with no end in sight.

We can't help people here or anywhere like we used to.

When I traveled frequently overseas in the '80s up till 2002 I always felt welcome and it seemed like people had a warm spot in their hearts for Americans. We used to do some good in the world.
But now we are defined by an idiot son and a state-run media, and greed and ignorance, all of which is earned.

Neuter the Bush Regime in 26 days.

[bronxiteforever]

10. I am physically exhausted by the continued disasters of the GOP

Everyday something happens that shocks me to the core-How can this happen here?
Yesterday it was a company wanting to send its workers to India for health care! That is just one day, everyday we are greeted with this attitude of SCORN from the White House and our leaders. I can't keep up with the scandals, the violence, the despair and the ignorance that spews from the White House. They have scorn for the people they are supposed to SERVE.
But you are right-Americans (the ones who voted for them) should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this cast of greedy violent people to make us look like fools.

I have to say the only comfort I get is reading posts and responses like these which confirms that others feel as I do and hope is alive.

[iamahaingttta]

11. And it's all going according to the plan...

You think this is all an accident?
The conservative agenda is and has been for a while to destroy government and privatize EVERYTHING.
Fuck everything up so that it all gets cheaper and the masses have no money left.
Then the big corps and the 1% can come in and buy up everything left at firesale prices.
Fuck the government up so that we abolish the whole notion.
Let the "Free Market" take over and build Utopia.

The corporate agenda has nothing to do with Americans, and the sooner we figure that out and stop buying all their cheap plastic crap that nobody needs anyway, the sooner we may save ourselves. And, we borrow their fucking money from them at high interest rates to buy that crap.

You want a revolution?
Stop using your fucking credit cards!
Stop paying interest!
Stop burning fossil fuels!

Of course, that's not going to happen, so plan on being disgusted by us forever...

[wake.up.america]

12. It is not that other countries do not have problems, but the

gullibility and sometimes just plain ignorance of many, is what I find appalling. A lack of sophistication, a lack of worldly awareness, a malleable populace whose lives are dictated by the latest trends and fashions, ruled by talk show hosts and Fox News. It's non stop entertainment, starting with the latest 18 year old svelte blond kidnapping to the latest photos of Tom Cruise's daughter. People in the States have a hard time connecting the dots because people like Rush Limbaugh take their crayons away from them and in turn laugh all the way to the bank.

[marions ghost]

21. well but

is this compliance American? Look at Germany, Russia, China...etc America doesn't have more naive people than anywhere else in the world.

Tyrants have even more sophisticated means of abuse today. The cruelist joke is that this has been perpetrated in a so-called Democracy. Other countries which oppress their people have at least not laid any claim to be "free."

What has happened to Americans is the ultimate unthinkable, unforgiveable betrayal in a Democracy. Can you blame people for denying it? They're not denying it so much now.

[cassiepriam]

13. I feel like I must be in a parallel universe.

This cannot be happening.

But it is, and we are going to be facing
some harsh consequences I am afraid.
Stupidity and evil can make for some very bad karma.

[area51]

27. Parallel universe.

I think this is the alternate universe we're in.

[cassiepriam]

41. OMG. Yes, Opposite World, Mirror World. We are in it! :(

Beam me up Scotty! Now.

[Mnemosyne]

17. It's completely surreal. knr n/t

[cap]

20. it's not just the abstract: its our neighbors, our co-workers

and family members....

[smoogatz]

24. I'm feeling a bit more optimistic.

I think the momentum is shifting our way, finally, as it becomes clear to even the most zombified among us that Republicans suck at governing and that so-called conservatives don't give a good goddamn about anything but corporate profits. The last time this happened was at the end of Herbert Hoover's presidency, and the change was generational. Can you say "groundswell?"

[bryant69]

28. Yeah but on the plus side, we have three law and orders

and two CSIs. Take that Ancient Rome!

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[nam78_two]

34. And a glut of reality shows

Or is that fad over?

[A wise Man]

29. I saw this Jackass speak

yesterday before the press in the Rose Garden. I am convinced that he is an insane, inept, unarticulant imbecile that acts as the reincarnation of Hitler with all his cronies at his side. He has disgraced and betrayed all of America as well as those KOOL-AID drinking idiots that continue to support him no matter what he does and say.

[Ezlivin]

30. "They're here!" from Invasion of the Body Snatchers comes to mind

With the passing of every day I feel like I'm going to end up reenacting Kevin McCarthy's actions at the close of the film, running through traffic and hysterically trying to get people's attention.

When did we get surrounded by these pod people?

I look into their eyes and see no knowledge; I look into their heart and see no passion.

[Bandit]

31. We have a country that feels it is better to be "Feared than Loved"

And we are...

[earth mom]

37. This is what happens when religion and prejudice and fear

take over instead of common sense.

I'm convinced that the people of this country have been systematically dumbed down for years and years and years; probably the last 50 or maybe even the last 100. They don't read; they don't look further then what's just past their nose. They believe everything some lying preacher tells them every Sunday while he greedily pockets a large chunk of their weekly pay. They have no idea what ethics are all about if the end justifies the means. They judgmentally think having morals applies to everyone else but themselves. They think that if people don't believe the same or look as they do then it's okay to hate and fear them. They think that the truth about the world is to be found on the evening news broadcast on network t.v. whose entire motivation is profit before all else. How can there be much, if any, truth from an entity that cares first and foremost about profit?!


This country would be a helluva lot better off its people simply used their brains!

[Imagevision]

38. I'm disgusted to expeience a corrupt administration out of control

with checks & balances thrown to the wind. But mostly to have such a total moron supposedly in charge is a bigger slap in the face!

[Brian Stevens]

39. Every action is needed

Be careful what you say, you might end up like Adam Gadhan.

[BluePatriot]

40. Yeah...

same here.

[hsher]

42. Then FIGHT for her

Don't you dare give up on Lady Liberty.
FIGHT for her. FIGHT for her!

I ain't giving up sh*t to these f*ckers. Don't you, either.


www.yourmorningleibowitz.blogspot.com