Diary: Contradictions Galore

[degringolade]

 
Red Tips

Feeling a bit punk today.  I actually cancelled a dentist appointment because I have a feeling that I am quite communicable and it is going to get worse.  

More and more, I have been thinking about the antics going on in DC and their sources and possible outcomes.  To put this into perspective, I am going to focus on the patron saint of Dreamwidth;  JMG.  The part that I specifically want to focus on is the First Frugal Friday.  Not because I disapprove, but because just how it has grown and fallen away.

Here in the land o' the free, the majority (I think I could safely use the word "supermajority) of the general population see frugality as a form of failure.  I would posit that this phenomenon increases as the age of the cohort decreases. The physical cost of what is considered an acceptable lifestyle has gone up well past the commensurate increase in monetary inflation.  This phenomenon is twofold, the first is that the money we use has decreased significantly in value, the second is that advertisements have sold a lifestyle that is now considered adequate but certainly is not affordable.  

So how does the previous paragraph tie into the one before it?  Simple, frugality is something forced upon a population by circumstance.  There is a subpopulation that certainly enjoys wearing their hairshirts (Truth be told, I do lean that direction) and preen with virtue, but the truth of the matter is that they are outliers.

What is happening in Washington bears on this.  The last five or six administrations in DC (aided and abetted by the clowns in the judiciary and the legislative branches) have painted us into a corner.  Simply put, there is no way back to the phony nirvana that the younger generations have imagined around the younger years of the boomers.  What most boomers will admit if you corner them is that those years weren't all that great.

Along comes the Donald and what he does is sell images, he sells what the woefully under-informed general populace thinks are the symbols of wealth.  He and the silent fools in the legislative branch have continued to follow the general principle of taking from other countries in order to keep the machinery running.

There is a reason for a 1 trillion dollar Department of War.  The choice of frugality is a argument against the image that the majority of the country hold in their minds as their birthright.