This Sickness Is Not Unto Death

The Blog

The blog’s not dead.  It’s been laid aside for awhile (far too long), but it’s being revived.  I had a conversation recently with my good friend Raquel and she convinced me that I need to write more.  She’s perfectly right, of course.  I’ve let my writing slide rather severely this last year or so and I desperately need to get back to it.  This blog is a convenient way to do that.

So the blog has been sick, but is being ressurected, Lazarus-like from the dead.

The Economy

Okay, a note to everyone out there.  The economy sucks, yes.  But this isn’t the end and, what’s more, you can’t even see it from here.  And despite the current government’s best efforts, things will recover.  The markets are still extremely volatile and projected government spending deficit is so staggering as to make numbers meaningless.  Still, in the short term inflation predictions suggest we’ll be at about 3% for this next year, which I’m lead to believe is average.

Of course, what the current currency printing and central planning campaigns that our government is engaging will do to the economy is hard to say.  I have my own predictions (severe long term inflation, weakening international competitiveness and a prolonged recession) but economies are complex things and messing with them often has myriad unintended consequences.

So sick, but not dead.

Politics

I attended the recent Spokane tea party and, while I was somewhat disappointed in the tone of the event here locally (lots of neo-conservative posturing from the speakers), I was heartened to see so many people there.  Many of them were folks who had never turned out for such an event in their lives, coming out to make their voices heard.  These people were inspired to come because they felt their country was going astray.  They were there because they cared and wanted to help make their nation better.

To then see these protesters vilified and insulted in the media and by many in the leftward parts of the political spectrum was profoundly disheartening.  This derision came from many of the same people who cheered anti-government protests during the Bush years.  Who were heartened and lauded by the spirit of dissent against what they saw as a government gone astray.  For them to so harshly condemn and mock that in their fellow Americans disappoints me.

Still, political discourse is alive and well in this country.  Admittedly it still seems frustratedly mired in the false dichotomy of a Democratic Left and a Republican Right, but I think even that’s changing.  Plenty of signs at the tea party advocated ousting both parties at the next election.  Even more expressed general pro-liberty sentiments.

So while I’ve not been impressed with either this administration (thus far) or the last, it seems that the necessary energy and belief in discourse and governance of, by, and for the people is still alive and well all across the political spectrum.  So while I think government is bloated, irritable, and ill now, I hold out hopes that it can be healed.

Us

I’m not really much of a fan of Kierkegaard, but one the things which I’ve taken away from him which really rings true for me is that there is only one true Sickness Unto Death: despair.  I firmly believe that so long as we all hold ourselves up from despair we’ll weather whatever national crises we may encounter.  The economic, political, and social climates in this country are variable and unpredictable things.  Sometimes they favor us and sometimes they don’t.  But we live in a country with enshrined freedoms and a history of exercising them for the better.  And I firmly believe that, as long as we don’t let ourselves give up in despair, than no sickness this nation may endure will be unto death.