TOXIC OPTIMISM

"In a battle of wits, they would be unarmed." NYC adage

aloha,
BFD Capt.Compromise finally got Olympia Snow's single GOP vote after months of secret negotiating with THE GANG OF SIX and giving away SINGLE PAYER...SIGH.

BARBARA EHRENREICH has written another book and oddly enough it pertains to DISABILITY too. 'BRIGHT SIDED' is about the relentless American Pursuit of Optimism from Christopher Columbus to George W. Bush and Oprah.
think of it as the dumbassification/Disneyfication of America. LIFE ISN'T FAIR & HAPPY ENDINGS ARE RARE..friends die, children die, parents die, people betray & disappoint you, divorce, bankruptcy, our bodies age & die, our health fails,banks fail etc etc.

there is a kid on one of the commissions, a good kid, he broke his neck a year ago and is a full fledged Quad in a power chair now..he is convinced that he will walk again in 6 months...DEEP DEEP SIGH.
this is why many crips commit suicide, unreal expectations.
one of the many crip listservs i am on has a big tirade about CRIP EMPLOYMENT,really? have they not noticed that the economy is in the toilet and that software engineers are applying for temp jobs paying peanuts? too many people are looking for a neat sitcom happy ending, THINK POSITIVE ya bastids.YEAH RIGHT.

anybody watch THE SHIELD? a great and gritty cop drama with no neat tidy solutions, just like real life. okay okay i know we watch tv and movies to find sh*t we don't get at home, i have seen BUSBY BERKELEY movies of the Depression era but still TRANSFORMERS? SAW VI??
escapism has its limits, even now.
WHAT HAPPENS IF JESUS DOESN'T COME BACK & THE RAPTURE STILL AWAITS...?ARMEGEDDON HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST.

BTW i have spent two days trolling the bowels of DEEP PARANOIA (go to Alex Jones's Prison Plant and follow the links) the nutbag Right has nothing on the nutbag Left. did you know that Capt.Compromise is a tool of the BILDERBERGERS and has sold our birthright for a farthing ( hint-think Joseph in the Bible)? that the black helicopters of the NEW WORLD ORDER are warming up their engines even now and that the lizardmen of the UFOS cattle mutilation/alien abduction fame are behind the revival of the 70s TV series 'V'.
SIGH paranoid schizophrenics, if you find their bedrock delesuion they can be quite rational, often in dark & scary ways.TOXIC OPTIMISM? they have none. EHRENREICH SUGGESTS WE TRY "REALITY"..IT IS WHAT IT IS and if you don't like it get off your ass and change it.

that is my bedrock delusion FREE WILL and being an INFO SPONGE, TMI? not even close...I THINK A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE OTHERWISE I'D GO EAT A BULLET. WHAT KEEPS YOU GUYS GOING?

not off topic?
"INTERMITTENT REINFORCEMENT IS THE MOST PERSISTENT" this is one of the few things i learned in getting my useless Psych degreee, i beielve its from Behavioral Psych and the scary BF Skinner...now all i remember is this pertains to trans species tests,even pigeons. i think, my interpretation, is that even animals understand the concept of HOPE. these creatures live in the here and now and when they are rewarded they truly appreciate it and hope it happens again. i will not go into a long involved screed about the diff between Toxic Optimism & HOPE but to me, there is a difference.at my commission retreat a cat came to me to be petted, i like cats so i petted him, he came and climbed into my lap to be stroked which i did, then he purred and fell asleep in my lap. we were both happy.

BTW
SOUL MATE is recovering from her flu (she was cleaning and talking politics again) while my fall allergies are still running amok, despite homeopathy & colliodal silver.Capitola is in no danger of washing away altho we did lose power briefly.i have a joke sign on a corkboard nearby "MEMBER OF THE FRATERNAL & BENEVOLENT ORDER OF PESSIMISTS" that's me. i once had a co worker who asked me what i was doing THINKING sez i, DON'T DO THAT.IT'S BAAAAD FOR YAH! that depends...

namaste y'all
semper grumbly
mega