Thursday, August 09, 2012

This Land Is Their Land

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," hoping the deities of yesteryear will be able to find work in this dismal economic climate.

I doubt that They will. Even though They are gods who can work miracles, heal the sick, send lightning bolts and good/bad weather, soothe the grieving, and protect the populace. Sadly, all of these positions are currently filled by a single deity, which makes Him the one percent.

Good luck saving those mountain gorillas, Chonganda. Maybe you can get an unpaid internship.

This billboard shocked commuters in the Las Vegas area today. Apparently it was a totally rogue action, done overnight by some happily employed, secure individual with a living wage and health care desperate out-of-work (but not out of ideas) American. According to the story on the Yahoo news feed, Nevada's legislature has cut funding for suicide prevention and intervention.

(Don't be alarmed. That's a mannequin. I would not call it a dummy.)

We are living in a nation where many people can't find work, but they can buy guns. Some of these people are deeply concerned with totally meaningless issues like gay marriage and abortion, while their usefulness as "units" disappears.

Others may be starting to re-think who the real villains are. The fact that these villains are not as clueless as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette will protect them for awhile. But as more and more people find themselves unable to feed their children (lower rungs), pay for their homes (my rung), or advance thanks to extra education and hard work (higher rung), the villains will no longer be safe.

If you add climate change to this mix, oh golly.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your post is right on target. At times, I despair of what I think will be coming in the future.
CLM

Debra She Who Seeks said...

That billboard and mannequin is political theatre/commentary at its best. Well done, anonymous member of the 99%.

Dancing With Fey said...

Nevada cut its suicide preventing funding? Really not good. No wonder that's where this popped up.

Also, I don't always agree with you, but I'm pretty shocked that you call gay marriage a meaningless issue. How is a human rights issue meaningless? I'd like to hear why you think so, if you don't mind sharing.

Anne Johnson said...

Gay rights is not necessarily a meaningless issue, but it is far less important than jobs with living wages, universal health care, reduction in funding for poor families, and the mortgage crisis. It is certainly less important than global climate change. I'm speaking here entirely about the number of people affected by the gay marriage issue vs. the number of people affected by the other issues above. Nevertheless, the headlines almost every day concern gay marriage. You're right, meaningless was the wrong word. Marginal might have been better.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for addressing this difficult topic, but addressed it must be.

It says something about our society (and others like Greece) when people choose to take their lives in the face of economic despair. I know the feeling well.

I'm 43 years old and I've never seen until now the U.S. in such a low emotional state with no apparent ability or plan to move ourselves forward. Our mood wasn't even this low after 9/11.

We have technology and anti-depressant drugs and yet why is our collective mood so low?

Why did the Greatest Generation respond to the Depression and World War II with courage and Rosie the Riveter while we respond with despair and cynicism? Is it because they had something to look forward to (victory, then economic growth) while our current generations sense that we've reached an end point?

We've got to get people back to work. When people have work and can pay their bills, then other issues can fall into place.