2008: The year of the cultural hangover

I'm going to make a bold prediction, and Lord only knows how January 1st, 2009 will bear me out as a prognosticator. I might be totally wrong and maybe daring to be branded a "kook" for saying this.

But here it is:

2008 will be the year that a lot of Americans finally realize that the country they always thought they were living in doesn't exist anymore.

There was much more that I had started to write that was going to elaborate upon and build up my case for saying that. But it wound up being far too depressing a read. So I'm just going to post what is, at this point, far more than just a "gut feeling". It comes mostly from a lot of observation as a student of history.

I'll throw this much in for your consideration, though this isn't the biggest factor by a long-shot in my belief: this year's campaign for President, in the greater scheme of things, doesn't matter at all. Oh yes, I'm still going to be voting for Ron Paul for President (and he is the only candidate that I could cast a ballot for and not feel compromised about in the least bit). But I'm not so naïve as to believe that one person, even as good a man as Dr. Paul is, can do enough on his or her own to stop the rot at work in the timbers in this country.

Things are too far gone in America, and the current Presidential election is only so much bread and circuses by those in power to keep us too occupied to meditate upon the real problems... that they have caused us.

Heck, right now, in my mind, the Presidential election is about as interesting as this past season of American Idol. Meaning that it's not very interesting at all. Why should it be? I'm old enough to have seen this dog-and-pony show too many times. I know what's going to happen.We won't be a great country again until we stop thinking as they expect us to think, and we begin to take control of our own destinies. We won't be free again until we tell "them" that they've gone too far past a line that they should have never crossed. And that they would be wise to make for a hasty retreat.

No, I'm not a pessimist. I'm trying not to be one anyway. I'm just doing what I know to do right now: telling people that we shouldn't expect "the good times" to last, and to make the most of it while we still can. I do believe that better days can be ahead of us though, if we want them...

...but that's not going to be enough to keep us from going through some hardship first.