Blub. Those kids look about the age I was when I first started paying attention to politics and the news. (Although, back then, it was all about Reagan and THE BOMB!!!) I can just imagine how exciting this must have been for them.
- Lemmissa McEeeewwwewwwwewwwwan, Shakenfartville
the kids look like they're 10-12 or so. maybe 8-12.
who the fuck was into politics at that age? I remember in 4th grade doing a fake class vote for President, and Bush 1 winning over Dukakis. 2 kids voted for Dukakis, and we all looked around and wondered who the fuck voted for THAT guy. all I knew at the time was that my parents were voting for the Bush guy, Dukakis was from Massachusetts and looked kind of mean on television, and I'd rather be outside working on my tree fort. and also: Massachusetts, especially their drivers, sucked (we were living in southern New Hampshire at the time). I voted how my parents voted anyway.
the only thing I recall from politics over my childhood or whatever is signs on front yards with lots of leaves and going to the school to watch my parents vote. all those stupid signs and their colors and the names and how important signs seemed to be to everyone left an impression. it wasn't until college that I started to form an opinion, or rather, was pressed into having to have one. like I was equipped to do such a thing. like I've improved over the years. not! I'm still a oddball asshole. kind of a jerk. so on and so forth. I put a circle A on my Converse all stars in the 7th grade. nobody thought that I could actually mean THAT. "rebellion." LOL.
I was too young to vote in the 1996 election while I was in high school. some of my friends could but I wasn't of age until April of 1997. I think one of my friends voted for Dole because he said that Dole seemed like a cold angry bastard. . .can't get better than an old angry man as President. besides, he wanted to reduce taxes! because Fuck the Man. whichever Man you set in your sights, right? we also made fun of Dole around that time. something about the pen in his hand. and I mean, we knew it and were right back then: who cares? these people aren't real to us. they're physical representations of our collective delusion. ugh. ick. why do we have these people in our society?
when pressed though, I voted for Nader in 2000 because he made sense and Bush and Gore just seemed to not say anything of any import. I think the Internet actually may have played a role in this. I remember signing up for a Nader email list or some such thing on the Internet. both Bore and Gush were skilled at the art of saying absolutely nothing. what Nader said made sense; he seemed real and prescient. Nader seemed like a viable alternative to the same stupid shit. only now do I realize that the same stupid shit is what the majority of the people in this country want. we don't really vote to change anything functional. taxes creep along no matter who is in charge. wars go on indefinitely somewhere. environmental regulations get slightly more strict until we don't recognize that things aren't as bad as they were, and have no basis for our fears. we only vote to change the talking heads and face of the government. Nader was and is delusional. you're better off not taking part in the process. I don't go to church to believe in something that doesn't exist, so why should I participate in or talk about something else that doesn't exist?
I need another tree fort to work on.
Environmental regulations have been getting steadily WEAKER for decades. Nixon was the last environmental President. Ain't that strange.
Things are better?????? Tell me where you live so I can move there.
Totally spot on about the masses, though. Sadly.
Posted by: Herr "Ausweis, bitte" | 23 October 2009 at 12:50 PM
Philly, yo.
I'm kind of fatalist about the environmental degradation thing. people bitched when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. people bitched when the Nashua River was different colors depending on the dyes being used upstate. those things were fixed. on a global level? who knows. in this country? we have enough sensitive people bitching to keep things honest. we have enough regulations to keep things clean enough. and in my little engineering field, regulations have become worse. just look at that PA DEP BMP Manual. unreal.
Posted by: Mr.Fun | 23 October 2009 at 01:10 PM
If when you jump out of a plane and your parachutes fail, you have basically three choices in preparation for what is probably going to be a bad experience, most likely fatal. First of all, you can continue to tog toggles and scream at fate until you auger in. You can turn yourself into a bird, assuming skydiving form and trying to glide/float/fly while telling yourself reassuring things. Or, you can turn yourself into a cannon ball and try to get it over faster. Depending on altitude -- and if you're jumping out of a plane, you're probably going to be high enough for what seems inevitable -- you're probably still going to die. Just a question of whether you consciously lose control of your bowels and bladder prior to or after the impact.
Cannonball it is!
Posted by: Crusader AXE | 24 October 2009 at 12:53 PM
Very nice post!... informative... thanks for posting and keep doing good work...
Posted by: movies | 05 November 2009 at 09:57 AM
Interesting post, but also disappointing. My image of you was a 55 year old man, angry at the world and those kids trespassing on your immaculate lawn! :)
You're just a kid!
Posted by: BrianM | 05 November 2009 at 10:27 AM
in the 8th or 7th grade we were asked to imagine ourselves as 40 year olds and either draw or write something. I don't even recall what class it was.
I drew a headstone. figured I'd be dead.
what kind of question *is* that, you know?
Posted by: Mr.Fun | 05 November 2009 at 12:47 PM
8 year olds is right.
And you can mark that frame an 8.
Politics is a world of pain: We're talking about unchecked aggression here, dude.
Posted by: art crown | 03 December 2009 at 07:28 AM
haha, when I was 8-12, I was watching Scud missile signatures over Israel on the TeeVee. And look at us now...
Those "careers" classes terrified me: I didn't know the fuck I wanted to do, yet suddenly I was supposed to have an idea? At age 14 or whatever? The tests said I should be a park ranger. lulz.
You're right though. Tree forts were where it was at.
Posted by: George Jones | 10 March 2010 at 01:52 PM