Opera Viva

Sorry that this is dull/strange. I needed to put this image somewhere on the web to be able to use it for Opera Viva's Box Office emails!

Ugh. School or something...

HAH. So I thought I would re-start a blog and actually tend to it. HAH.

Of course, school and life and sleep and a million things got in the way of me ever having the level of boredom/procrastination required to sit down and offer an update. So now I've decided that something will go up every day (or maybe every other, just so I don't lock myself into something ridiculous/unattainable.)

To you, my invisible and probably able to be counted on one hand readers, I offer the following random piece of Norwegian poetry:

by Tarjei Vesaas

Nattvakt	Night Watch
Den store pendelen	The large pendulum
er over huset.	Is over the house.
Den vesle messingpendelen svingar på veggen inne.	The small brass pendulum moves on the wall indoors.
Og det gamle trøytte hjarta i kråa	And the tired old heart in the bed
pendler på det siste	Makes its final moves
under vår vakt.	Under our watch.
Skugge over andleta	Shadow over the faces
Skugge over klokka	Shadow over the clock
-tre er ho blive.	-Now she is three.
alt er tunnsliti.	All is worn thin.
Pendlen glimtar	The pendulum twinkles
alt er tunnsliti.	All is worn thin.
Store pendlen	The large pendulum
står i hogg.	Ready to strike.
Andlet er tunne	Faces are thin
oppat og oppat	Upwards and upwards
andlet er tunne	Faces are thin
store pendlen	The large pendulum
store pendel	Large pendulum
i hogg-	Ready to strike-
der, inni dødstilla, talar	There, in deadly silence, she
ho so, har brukt opp sine stunder	Speaks so, has spent her moments
og no blir vakt ved i natta,	And is being watched in the night,
og alt heng tunt som i tråd.	And all hangs in a thin thread.
Ho som i dyktige hender	She who with able hands
samla kvar streng i huset,	Held each string in the house,
spør no i småe timar	Begs in these small hours
sakte om hjelp og råd.	Slowly for help and comfort.
---- og når han så høgg,	---- And when he hews,
utpå dagsida,	At dawn,
lyner han over land og hav	He flashes over land and sea
over mo og avgrunn,	Over fields and abyss,
og finn deg, flydd og bortgøymd	And finds you, flown and hidden
og forklædd	And disguised
i di ungdoms li,	In your valley of youth,
silande av overskot som eingong.	Brimming with the energy that was.

The New Yorker - Its Cartoons Never Cease to Amuse

How could I pass up this gem? Although the ability of the hippopotami to serve as the dominant species on the planet may be questionable, we seem to have wreaked a bit of havoc ourselves...

What Did We Expect?

My gut tells me that I should start off with a post about something a little less tricky to describe - but I read this article today on GoogleCrack (a pet name for Google Reader - Daniel's renaming to give credit where it's due) and it got me thinking.

In Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, Americans were promised an awful lot of things (a break-through in race relations, change, hope). To one of the most theocratic western capitalist democracies, Barack Obama looked like the messiah and miracles seemed probable. It didn't take long for the disenchantment to set in but now that we're halfway through his first term in office, it seems an appropriate time to assess. We are still at war, the environment is being oh so publicly threatened, true universal health care still seems a distant piece of science fiction, partisan politics are a harsh reality, the economy is a wreck, and we all still have to wake up to our everyday lives.

So whose fault is it, anyway? 
There are those who would turn up their noses at finger pointing, but the realities of campaign promises are something that this country has really got to learn to understand. After all, they're certainly nothing new - see Nixon's claim,  "I pledge that if the war isn't over [this year], the new leadership will end the war and achieve peace in the Pacific" as case in point. And if you want to fuss over the comparison to Nixon, feel free to google search "campaign promises" and the name of any political hopeful to have oodles of fun for yourself.

When it comes down to it, a candidate would be hard-pressed to win an election without a later unfulfilled campaign promise; in fact, those little white lies are part of the backbone of any well-run campaign. Let's consider, for a moment, your average constituent looking over all the candidates for a particular election (assuming said constituent, we'll call him/her Constituent X, has even gotten that far). Constituent X isn't going to be particularly interested in the candidate's ideological views or beliefs insofar as they remain theoretical; Constituent X is concerned with what's going to concretely affect him/her and his/her loved ones today, tomorrow, and maybe a couple years down the road. There are, of course, some major exceptions to this rule which always seem to stand on moral grounds (abortion, same-sex marriage, death penalty, etc). These topics aside, we're left with more "amoral," for lack of a better word, topics including the economy, diplomacy, the military, etc. So what would happen if all the candidates ran around like college professors spewing off theory on these "amoral" issues? They wouldn't get elected, that's what. Especially if they were running against someone who'd actually thought things through and said they'd affect concrete change. It's been done for a while and the practice isn't going anywhere - not when it's as effective as it is. (Historical case: How did the ridiculous and not-so-slightly harebrained Bolsheviks win the people's hearts? "Peace, Land, and Bread." That's how.) So, back to my original point: it's time for us to come to terms with campaign promises.

The Campaign: At Fault?
Obama's campaign did an absolutely stunning job of creating a cult of personality around him. Take the practically overused image of Obama and hope, for example:

This poster isn't your traditional kind of campaign promise, but it's a campaign promise nonetheless. It, along with the handy slogans used by the campaign, promised the country a mythical, unifying force for change, craved on both sides of the aisle. Strong support was thrown behind Hilary Clinton (another candidate for a watershed event in American politics), but her campaign never promised the sky with the heavens thrown in as Obama's did. Part of the problem may even be his demeanor - calm, poised, exacting, and thoughtful - represented fully in the pose chosen for the "Hope" poster shown above.

Our Lofty Expectations

It's as though the American public is a small child with a deceitful grandfather we know as politics. He gets us every time! You might think, that since campaign promises seem to simply come with the territory of democracy, we might have learned to be a bit more cynical. But no... hope springs eternal. I'm not saying that a little bit of optimism is a bad thing, but it's time for Americans to grow up - good ol' Grandpa Politics never actually has our nose between his fingers! 

So let's get a couple things straight: 

1) Barack Obama is a human being, not a god... not even a demi-god. 

2) Barack Obama is a politician. In fact, that's his job. 

3) Facts numbers 1 and 2 are true of all politicians.

There are a lot of people in this country, and most of the time they don't agree with one another. Yet they all have the right to elect whomsoever they please, which is one of the things we claim makes our system great. That same great aspect of the same great system makes progress, in any direction, a little tricky at times. So when I hear a campaign promise, I can't help but think about how the other politicians of the country will respond. After all, a balance of power between the branches of government (composed of groups of people, I might add) is fundamental to our country, preventing any one figure from drawing the entire country in tow. 

Let's also not forget that most of us, myself certainly included, are not policy experts. For the most part, I don't have the slightest idea what our country ought to do about this issue or that, purely because I'm aware that I don't know enough to have an educated opinion. Part of that is my own fault - I could spend a bit more time researching the issues on my own - but part of it is natural by virtue of the fact that we cannot know everything. (Both shocking and distressing, indeed.) As a result, complaints about the progress, or lack thereof, made in Washington have to be at least slightly suspect. Campaign promises are geared towards all of us, towards Constituent X as I mentioned earlier, but after that official politics take over. And thank goodness, too! I would much rather have people who do this for a living in those seats than, say, Constituent X. 

Buuuuuuuuuuut...

We shouldn't start ignoring candidates' campaign promises - doing so would swing us too far to the other side of the spectrum. Instead, we simply need to become more realistic in our expectations of politicians. Regardless of your particular brand of democracy (a topic into which I'll likely delve at a later date), compromises and slow movement come with the territory. Unless you'd like to advocate for another system of government, or have any brilliant ideas on reforming this one, it's time to face facts and love democracy for what it is. 

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For some interesting perspectives, check out the following:

The Obameter

The Promise Audit

Obama's Key Promises - The Washington Post

OR: Google any combination of "Obama" "campaign promises" "completion" "broken" etc

A Return

I can't say that I'm new to blogging - it was a favorite pastime in late middle school and early high school, a favorite dump for whatever emotional or mundane drivel I wanted to share with the world (or more appropriately, my closest friends). What I am new to is blogging about anything other than the details of my daily life. So we'll see how this goes!