“One thing you can never say: that you haven't been told.”
Related source » Newmark's Door: Four miscellaneous thoughts on the election: 'via Blog this'
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“4. And thinking about the Americans who voted to re-elect this administration brought to mind a few minutes of the absolutely best TV I have ever seen. Carmela Soprano is married to a criminal. She realizes that marriage to such a man is destroying her life. But she hasn't gotten close to the courage she needs to break with him. So she sees an elderly psychologist. She is full of self-pity and self-drama and she aches for someone to tell her how noble she is. But the psychologist doesn't play along. He tells her to divorce. Immediately. Now. Her husband has blood on his hands and she can never have a decent life until she leaves. She protests: that would be difficult, what about her children, what about her religious faith? The psychologist argues with her a bit but soon becomes resigned because he has heard similar rationalizations and excuses before. But before she goes he looks at her and, in the tone of an Old Testament prophet, says: 'One thing you can never say: that you haven't been told'.”
— Craig Newmark, November 08, 2012 (newmarksdoor.com)
It sucks to be a perfectionist, but not that there's anything wrong with that. The downside, of course, is that disappointment is a frequent companion. The upside is that the accompanying humility is character building, which is a good thing if you are into that sort of thing, to paraphrase Lincoln.
Having spent what seems like forever trying to convince anyone who was willing to listen to me that Obama is the worst influence on the best of American society that has ever come to light, I do in fact feel like shit that he has been reelected. It wasn't long before I saw evidence of the sort of execrable behavior that Obama influences in his admirers when, soon after he won, "f*ck white people" was trending on Twitter! Can you imagine, if Romney had won, that "f*ck black people" would trend on Twitter? I can't.
Then in the immediate aftermath, I saw images of crowds of people cheering the outcome. OK; I get that they are happy their guy won. But how, I wondered, will this improve the well-being of our society and our Nation to justify such wild enthusiasm?
I am not, I repeat not, looking forward to saying "I told you so", when it becomes more apparent that Obama will have become the most negative influence on American life, ever. Nevertheless, being in the kind of funk that I am currently in, it does help me to know that I fought the good fight to the best of my ability.
And, having survived a much worse crisis in my own life, namely the Holocaust, I will focus on getting on with what every person's first priority should always be: striving for more life.
Post 1,921 “On disappointment”
Having spent what seems like forever trying to convince anyone who was willing to listen to me that Obama is the worst influence on the best of American society that has ever come to light, I do in fact feel like shit that he has been reelected. It wasn't long before I saw evidence of the sort of execrable behavior that Obama influences in his admirers when, soon after he won, "f*ck white people" was trending on Twitter! Can you imagine, if Romney had won, that "f*ck black people" would trend on Twitter? I can't.
Then in the immediate aftermath, I saw images of crowds of people cheering the outcome. OK; I get that they are happy their guy won. But how, I wondered, will this improve the well-being of our society and our Nation to justify such wild enthusiasm?
I am not, I repeat not, looking forward to saying "I told you so", when it becomes more apparent that Obama will have become the most negative influence on American life, ever. Nevertheless, being in the kind of funk that I am currently in, it does help me to know that I fought the good fight to the best of my ability.
And, having survived a much worse crisis in my own life, namely the Holocaust, I will focus on getting on with what every person's first priority should always be: striving for more life.
Post 1,921 “On disappointment”
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