So your local politics is annoying ya, eh?

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

You guys in Amurrkka thought you're having it nasty around election time (i.e. in 99% of the time)? Well, to put that in perspective, here in SA we do other things around elections. Like dancing the toyi toyi, re-drawing the electoral map to suit this party's interests or that party's, splintering parties out of bigger parties and then merging them back in as if nothing had ever happend, and occasionally putting illegal immigrants in tyre "necklaces" and burning them alive. You know... entertainment!

And if you thought it's all for the bread and circuses... minor correction: no, it's not bread and circuses. Most people here are concerned about the "bread" part. I can understand how for Americans who've lived under the "let's have some circuses" lifestyle and mentality for too long and are having to discover the "bread" part just now, the above may be a bit difficult to comprehend. But there isn't a thing one can't get used to, so no worries.

I've always been amused when Americans complain about how nasty and divided their politics has become. Well sure it is nasty and divided. But, tell you what. I'd swap your politics for our politics any time and be happy about it. What some deluded moron who's a bought corporate puppet pretending to be a "visionary politician" has said on a speech or in a grotesque slander ad, is probably the worst you could worry about. A bloody massacre involving a mob of protesting miners armed with machetes and a police squad with real guns and bullets meeting them, is what we have to face here.

Now, granted, calling this sort of atrocity a chronic tool of the state here would (still) be something of an overstatement. Still, it is what happened at Marikana, to be sure. Does that incident turn this into a state practice? I doubt it; or rather, I hope not. But it did happen, and that's... um, "unfortunate" is too weak a word.

The point is, next time you think you're having tough times, or at least annoying times over there, think about what other people are having at their place, and count yourself fortunate that Rush Limbaugh, Rod Blagojevich and the likes of Rev. Terry Jones is what you're having to deal with on a daily basis.

/rantrant

Not saying one eviler evil being more evil than another, less evil evil, somehow makes the latter evil any less evil. But still, perspective is a valuable asset when looking at the bigger picture.

Comments

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this post. We always forget how good we actually have it over here. FWP.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I agree with this post. And it is a good one.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Dude, it's just a rant.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Rants can be good posts, dude. This one falls squarely into that category by reminding people in the USA of an obvious truth they tend to overlook.

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

Misery and desperation can drive people to do horrible things.

As for your point, every society has its problems that are serious enough for it. It's just that different societies have different circumstances, therefore different problems. I wouldn't rank them in terms of severity when related to other societies with different circumstances.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

Agreed. It's like that whole "first world problems" meme -- just because you're not starving to death in Ethiopia during a famine (because there's always famine in Ethiopia) doesn't mean that your problems aren't real.

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile I get the point of the OP. People tend to look at problems from a very narrow viewpoint, which is understandable but is still in no way useful for them.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Unemployment is real. Foreclosure is real. Politics being dominated by corporate interests at the expense of the people is real. Hate crime, xenophobia, racism and anti-intellectualism is real. Political spin and bias and deliberate polarization of the public is real. Incompetent and corrupt governance and disregard for the people's interests is real.

What isn't real is the artificially created "scandals" designed to either entertain and/or rile up the populace as a form of distraction from the above real problems, aiming to substitute them with fake ones that would occupy people to no end and no purpose, but to cause a bit more wind from a few mouths that just won't shut up and some fingers typing furiously somewhere behind a keyboard.

I'm not sure how more clearly to present the point. There are problems that are real for any society. And then, there are those that people seem to get really worked up about.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

It does, however, mean that they aren't comparable in the sense that the rhetoric that mandating health insurance is 'violence' would have it.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

The one annoying thing about US politics is the overt obsession to showtime*. But perhaps that not-taking-it-seriously thing directly derives from the prolonged times of a sense of pumped up prosperity, which is only starting to slip away noticeably in most recent times.

You know what they say about the curse of living in interesting times.

* (oh, and the endless election cycle)

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

both *showtime* and the endless election cycle are synonomous

\\\sigh///

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily. You can have 2 months of election cycle and still have a lot of showtime.

[marina-herriott.livejournal.com]

Experience the difference of problems: Russian teachers earn an average of no more than $ 3,600 a year. Chicago - $ 76,000. Questions: Who is on strike? Who live in a loan?
Is it possible to characterize "It's just that different societies have different circumstances, therefore different problems"?
Note: in Russia the prices of food are same.

Russian officials are stealing from the people, even resorting to murder. The U.S. administration takes the side of the Russian criminals. Is this not common problem?

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Yes, we heard that the first 10 times you said it.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

Simply comparing the two salaries is not an appropriate metric; it's apples and oranges. You have to compare the salaries relative to the cost of living. For example, Chicago is an expensive place to live, American teachers have to cover at least part of the cost of health insurance and their college education loans. When all is said and done, American teachers still make way less than they could get with the same qualifications in private industry. $76K in Chicago is a middle class salary with very little disposable income and certainly is nothing to write home about.

[marina-herriott.livejournal.com]

I said: In Russia the prices of food are same.
Condition of free medicine in Russia is at such a level that the reason to visit a doctor is to receive a paid holiday for the time of sickness, and for this you need to spend a long time in the queue (in the sick сondition!).

/ to cover at least part of their college education loans/
What reason to take loans if you are smart for learning? Russian teachers don't take loans.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Chicago - $ 76,000

I'm relatively sure this is incorrect. Do you have any factual citation for this claim?

Oh, and the Chicago teacher's strike wasn't really about money.

[marina-herriott.livejournal.com]

/the Chicago teacher's strike wasn't really about money. /
One of the requirements was the increasing wages by 30%.

/Chicago - $ 76,000/
It's true.

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Don't worry.

Once they've succeeded in illegalizing firearms and stripped us of enough rights to get away with it, the same things will happen in America.

Its only a matter of time.

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom and it is no longer a price we're willing to pay.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

A massive long-term conspiracy on Their part! They must be stopped, They!

[root-fu.livejournal.com]

Isn't that the type of attitude that led to south africa being in its current state?

Apathy [√]
An indoctrinated belief governments are incapable of conspiracies or evil [√]
Etc, etc. [√]

[telemann.livejournal.com]

You've been warned!

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Even if 'they' didn't, the only outcome of a modern-day rebellion against the US government is the same as the others: brutal application of overwhelming force means the rebellion is annihilated by any means necessary. It's never worked before and it never will.

[eracerhead.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to solve the problems of South Africa, nor any other country. I'm not even qualified to have an opinion about it. People are narrowly focused for a reason - the problems are so bad everywhere that if we didn't we'd just end up in total despair, or comatose. I have to focus on a small enough scope wherein I can make a difference.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The nice thing about America is that we have never experienced violence against striking miners. That incident (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre) at Rockefeller's mine was fabricated by the evil socialists to besmirch the pristine reputation of one of America's leading families.