Scattered complaints
Apr. 9th, 2003 02:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydyIs anyone else sick and tired of the word "regime"? I have not heard the government in Iraq (possibly now the former government in Iraq) called anything but a regime in months. Oh, very occasionally I think they have varied it with the word dictatorship, but usually in direct reference to Saddam Hussein, and not when speaking about the actual government. It does/did have a government, you know. Dictatorships do govern. Totalitarian regimes govern. All sorts of governmental forms, some of them quite horrible, are still governments. I get the feeling, though, that the embargo on the word government is to change and shape the way people think about Iraq. We're not overthrowing a government there, because they don't have one, they have a regime. Regime is a constantly negative description.
I am not saying that the government in Iraq doesn't deserve nasty words attached to it. I think that, in some senses, regime is really too mild. What I am saying is that I think that regime glosses over vital facts, like the fact that the Baathist party is deeply entrenched in the every day running of the Iraqi infrastructure. At various times, the Bush government has suggested that it will leave the bureaucrats (that is to say, the Baathists) in charge, targeting only "the regime," meaning Saddam. This is muddled thinking, or obfuscation, or both. Just as the Nazi party was part and parcel of Hitler's reign, so the Baathis party is part and parcel of Saddam's regime.
Look, I don't expect our Great Pretender to be able to use precise terms, and having struck upon the word regime, I can see why he might decide to stick with it. However, National Public Radio, for all its faults, is tolerably literate. So why is it that they also use regime with unvarying regularity? The network news, NPR, the papers, I think even the British press use that word and none other. It's beginning to feel like a conspiracy; no, what it's really feeling like is 1984. War is peace. We have always been at war with Eurasia.
======
I hate my job. Not more than I hate any other job, you understand, but I hate my job anyway. If you're a woman and you don't do something, you end up as a secretary. During the time in which I should have been doing something, I was busy having a nervous breakdown. Well, ok, it wasn't technically a nervous breakdown, it was probably a serious depressive episode with dissociation for spice. So, at 40, I have exactly the same job as my mother. Terrifying. Well, not precisely the same, I suppose, but we are both secretarial/admin support type persons for a large state university, she at the University of Iowa, and I at the University of Minnesota. Following in my mother's footsteps was never the plan. See what happens when you don't have a plan?
And to all of you wonderfully helpful people who want to advise me to go back to school, or find my bliss, or look for a job which challenges me: Just Don't. I could explain at length, and may yet, but I don't really want to discuss it just this instant. As an analogy: you know how, when people are depressed, their friends advise them to excercise, adjust their diet, regularize their sleeping hours, think about happy things, and go out with friends? I don't know if this works for people with "normal" depression, the type that really doesn't need medication. I can tell you, though, that if I could do those things I wouldn't be depressed in the first place. If getting up off the couch to get a glass of water is a major task taking a half-hour of gearing up, just how long do you figure it would take to haul one's ass out of the apartment for a quick walk around the block?
I truly believe that most people are doing the best they can with what they've got. If they're making a catastrophe out of their life, either they are very unskilled, or they have very little to work with, or they are incapable of imagining a better life. I don't think that "tough love" works on people who are at the end of themselves. What they need are more resources, clearer goals, and some reason to use them. Giving up on people in the name of compassionate conservatism makes me crazy. I'm an insurance policy away from not being able to support myself, and no amount of tough love will change that. Better living through chemistry!
===========
Just read _Prize in the Game_.
*SPOILER WARNING, JUST IN CASE*
Wonderful, extremely disturbing, and what the heck can I read to follow that, anyway? It's unbalanced, I think. I don't know if there's going to be another book to complete Emer's story or not. The time frame of PitG makes the story about Elenn, but the focus and emphasis is on Emer. I feel unsettled, and I think that is part of why. With the Sulien novels, both of them felt solid at the end. Still, if there is no sequel, it's still a hell of a good book and I'm really glad she wrote it.
=========
They All Lie. I don't know what they're lying about, but they're lying. I mean, their lips are moving.
Cheney was on the radio over lunch hour today, talking about freeing Iraq and how this is the greatest, best, most wonderful, smartest, slickest, greatest, best military campaign in world history. Iraq is going to be the freest, most wonderfulest, greatest country in all the middle east. Etc. DDB would get annoyed with me about now, saying that that's not what he said. It's not what he literally said. But people say more than just their words.
From Cheney's set speech to newspaper editors, we went to Rumsfeld's live press conference. I can't remember anything he said, because it all processed for me as lies, lies, lies. Everytime I hear the words "liberate Iraq" my brain shorts out. Colonial powers are not known for liberating anybody. Imperialism has even less savory aspects. I cannot believe that we are doing anything other than imposing an imperialist US on the Middle East at this time. Time may prove me wrong, I would like that. But for now, "free Iraq" sounds like a battle cry, not a policy goal.
===========
Did you know that too much NPR can cause depression? It's even worse when people start ranting about how "liberal" NPR is. NPR is about as liberal as my father -- who wept when that nice man, Mr. Nixon, was hounded out of office. Harumph.
I am not saying that the government in Iraq doesn't deserve nasty words attached to it. I think that, in some senses, regime is really too mild. What I am saying is that I think that regime glosses over vital facts, like the fact that the Baathist party is deeply entrenched in the every day running of the Iraqi infrastructure. At various times, the Bush government has suggested that it will leave the bureaucrats (that is to say, the Baathists) in charge, targeting only "the regime," meaning Saddam. This is muddled thinking, or obfuscation, or both. Just as the Nazi party was part and parcel of Hitler's reign, so the Baathis party is part and parcel of Saddam's regime.
Look, I don't expect our Great Pretender to be able to use precise terms, and having struck upon the word regime, I can see why he might decide to stick with it. However, National Public Radio, for all its faults, is tolerably literate. So why is it that they also use regime with unvarying regularity? The network news, NPR, the papers, I think even the British press use that word and none other. It's beginning to feel like a conspiracy; no, what it's really feeling like is 1984. War is peace. We have always been at war with Eurasia.
======
I hate my job. Not more than I hate any other job, you understand, but I hate my job anyway. If you're a woman and you don't do something, you end up as a secretary. During the time in which I should have been doing something, I was busy having a nervous breakdown. Well, ok, it wasn't technically a nervous breakdown, it was probably a serious depressive episode with dissociation for spice. So, at 40, I have exactly the same job as my mother. Terrifying. Well, not precisely the same, I suppose, but we are both secretarial/admin support type persons for a large state university, she at the University of Iowa, and I at the University of Minnesota. Following in my mother's footsteps was never the plan. See what happens when you don't have a plan?
And to all of you wonderfully helpful people who want to advise me to go back to school, or find my bliss, or look for a job which challenges me: Just Don't. I could explain at length, and may yet, but I don't really want to discuss it just this instant. As an analogy: you know how, when people are depressed, their friends advise them to excercise, adjust their diet, regularize their sleeping hours, think about happy things, and go out with friends? I don't know if this works for people with "normal" depression, the type that really doesn't need medication. I can tell you, though, that if I could do those things I wouldn't be depressed in the first place. If getting up off the couch to get a glass of water is a major task taking a half-hour of gearing up, just how long do you figure it would take to haul one's ass out of the apartment for a quick walk around the block?
I truly believe that most people are doing the best they can with what they've got. If they're making a catastrophe out of their life, either they are very unskilled, or they have very little to work with, or they are incapable of imagining a better life. I don't think that "tough love" works on people who are at the end of themselves. What they need are more resources, clearer goals, and some reason to use them. Giving up on people in the name of compassionate conservatism makes me crazy. I'm an insurance policy away from not being able to support myself, and no amount of tough love will change that. Better living through chemistry!
===========
Just read _Prize in the Game_.
*SPOILER WARNING, JUST IN CASE*
Wonderful, extremely disturbing, and what the heck can I read to follow that, anyway? It's unbalanced, I think. I don't know if there's going to be another book to complete Emer's story or not. The time frame of PitG makes the story about Elenn, but the focus and emphasis is on Emer. I feel unsettled, and I think that is part of why. With the Sulien novels, both of them felt solid at the end. Still, if there is no sequel, it's still a hell of a good book and I'm really glad she wrote it.
=========
They All Lie. I don't know what they're lying about, but they're lying. I mean, their lips are moving.
Cheney was on the radio over lunch hour today, talking about freeing Iraq and how this is the greatest, best, most wonderful, smartest, slickest, greatest, best military campaign in world history. Iraq is going to be the freest, most wonderfulest, greatest country in all the middle east. Etc. DDB would get annoyed with me about now, saying that that's not what he said. It's not what he literally said. But people say more than just their words.
From Cheney's set speech to newspaper editors, we went to Rumsfeld's live press conference. I can't remember anything he said, because it all processed for me as lies, lies, lies. Everytime I hear the words "liberate Iraq" my brain shorts out. Colonial powers are not known for liberating anybody. Imperialism has even less savory aspects. I cannot believe that we are doing anything other than imposing an imperialist US on the Middle East at this time. Time may prove me wrong, I would like that. But for now, "free Iraq" sounds like a battle cry, not a policy goal.
===========
Did you know that too much NPR can cause depression? It's even worse when people start ranting about how "liberal" NPR is. NPR is about as liberal as my father -- who wept when that nice man, Mr. Nixon, was hounded out of office. Harumph.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 04:37 pm (UTC)Hmm. That last is what I was going to say as a reply to this until I hit it in your own post. I don't think it's necessarily conspiracy, just laziness. Water taking the easiest route downhill. Of course, I've been called naive.
Giving up on people in the name of compassionate conservatism makes me crazy. I'm an insurance policy away from not being able to support myself, and no amount of tough love will change that. Better living through chemistry!
As you know, I'm with you here. I might call you later tonight or tomorrow if that's ok and you think it might help to actually, you know, talk.
Wonderful, extremely disturbing, and what the heck can I read to follow that, anyway?
I re-read the Sulien books.
I'm not going to even try to comment on the rest.
Hugs kiddo. Looking forward to seeing you soon. A week from tomorrow in fact!
MKK
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 06:40 pm (UTC)Wonderful, extremely disturbing, and what the heck can I read to follow that, anyway?
Mary Kay responded:
I re-read the Sulien books.
To which I wail:
But I just re-read the Sulien books!
Maybe I'll read some Bujold.
I'd love to hear from you, but I expect to be out tomorrow night, so unless you want to form a close emotional bond with my answering machine (which I advise against, since it is faithless, false, and untrue -- not to mention it lies) maybe another night would be better.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 11:08 pm (UTC)Word to all of that. Gads, I've been trying to get my stuff organized and my self in better shape for years and years now; I know what I should do or need to do, I just can't manage it no matter how hard I try. It's especially frustrating when people tell me all the stuff I already know as if I must not know or I'd've done it by now. Then I just end up feeling worse or else pissed off at them for simply Not Getting It. 'Course sometimes I'm very much envious of the people who don't grok depression.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-11 09:30 am (UTC)I am so there. I remember having a friend explaining to me, over her third or fourth beer, that I didn't need anti-depressants because I was a good person the way I was and she hated to see me try to change myself like that. I was tempted to ask her how she knew what I was like without meds, since I'd been on them for years before I first met her. The idea, though, that there's some essential "core" that is more important and should not be tampered with, is just plain annoying. Patrick's called it essentialism. I'm me. Me is a lot of things, including history, food cravings, and head chemistry. No one of those is the only me. If I change my diet, I'm not changing me, even though I'm making profound changes to my body.
People who haven't been through depression can be remarkably clueless in such an honestly helpful way that it makes me want to bite them. What it comes down to, in the end, is that they won't believe my self-reporting. They think that they know how I feel more accurately than I know how I feel. They think that their experiences generalize. If life were that simple, we'd all live in total harmony.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-10 06:28 am (UTC)*hug*
no subject
Date: 2003-04-10 02:43 pm (UTC)MKK
no subject
Date: 2003-04-10 06:47 am (UTC)As for Prize, yes, there ought to be a sequel, (SPOILERS for the Sulien books) in which Conal and Emer commit adultery, Conal kills Maga, Chanerig breaks the Ward and the "happy ending" is everyone invading Tir Tanagiri in hope of a better future. But I haven't written it and I'm not writing it right now. It's possible it will feel like a good plan to write it at some point. As you know already that that's what happens, do I actually have to put the words down one after the other and then deal with a copyedit and a proofread -- I'd have to write it, and then read it all the way through three times, and it would all be so grim, the only fun bit would be getting to kill Maga, bloodily and messily and permanently.
But you're right about the balance. I thought it was a book about Elenn with a happy ending, I thought it was a book explaining how it is that Elenn doesn't come out of Caer Tanaga, even though Sulien has insufficient sympathy for her to be able to see that. I didn't want to do Emer POV, but I had to, and yes, that isn't an end to that, it requires the "Conal kills Maga" novel. If I hadn't stupidly painted myself into a corner with time by writing the Sulien books first, I could have had him kill her at the end, him plus the bull, anyway, and then they couldn't have got married. But I had, and so I was stuck. Once things are published you can't tweak them, and the timing on Maga's death is crucial, dammit.
I've written a lovely cheerful book about dragons. It'll be out in the Fall, or I could email it to you. Or you could borrow some of Pamela's soothing Josephine Tey's, especially if you haven't read them, they always work for me as comfort reading.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-10 02:49 pm (UTC)Can I help? Please please please please please.
Changing topics
Almost all my comfort reads are murder mysteries, esp Margery Allingham (I'm in love with Albert Campion) and Ngaio Marsh. Mysteries, esp. those written by upper-middle class English ladies are all about the restoration of order to a disordered situation. So comforting when one is down in the mouth.
MKK
no subject
Date: 2003-04-10 02:41 pm (UTC)http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15414
MKK
no subject
Date: 2003-04-10 08:26 pm (UTC)Yes, but when the reckoning comes, people are permitted to fall back on their words.
B
no subject
Date: 2003-04-11 02:10 pm (UTC)Yes, but when the reckoning comes, people are permitted to fall back on their words.
Well, sure. But the thing that's currently driving me crazy is not what they're saying, but what they're saying. I can process the actual text at need, but it's the larger picture that leaves me breathless with despair.