Maggie's Farm

From Bruce Kesler -

My respected blog-friend Scott Johnson of PowerLine writes “Why I am depressed.”

“I feel utterly powerless to do anything about the fellow in the Oval Office who combines infantile leftism and adolescent grandiosity in roughly equal measures. It seems to me that every day he is responsible for assaults on the freedom and well being of the American people. I can't keep up and I can't stand to pay attention.

“His aim seems to be to reduce us to government dependents. His inattention to rehabilitation of the financial system in lieu of vastly expanding the size and scope of the government is a dead giveaway, as is his lack of concern over the vast destruction of wealth his policies are working (and will continue to work).

“Perhaps most depressing to me is the manifestation of his adolescent grandiosity in his stewardship of foreign policy and national security. He doesn't understand that the government of Iran is intent on acquiring nuclear weapons it can put to evil purposes. He thinks he can sweet-talk them out of achieving this objective.”

Scott Johnson also refers to Victor Davis Hanson’s “Thoughts About Depressed Americans.” 

“Why are Americans hesitant, bewildered after the arrival of the Messiah?

“Not for the reason our President attests about high unemployment or shaky GDP or the lack of national health care.  We simply are ashamed of our profligacy; we don’t trust those who should be trusted; we put up with the crass and honor the mediocre and ugly; and we fight and bicker over the distribution, never over a share in the creation.

Hope and change, indeed.”

Both Johnson and Hanson, in effect, point at frustration at both external events and at our own behaviors.  They are correct.  And, for me, they are incorrect.  Depression comes from frustration with non-attainment of unrealistic objectives and inadequate actions to overcome.

I’m not depressed.  Mostly because I’m a glass-half-full type, with the life experience that with difficulty and pain has seen and been shown that it is.

Depression implies a fixation upon the perceived negative forces at work, with a tendency toward paralysis of action to change them or our self.  These are unconstructive and self-defeating attitudes and behaviors.

Avoidance of or ending depressed feelings and behavior comes from attitudinal resilience and from engaging in efficacious actions.

No doubt, we’re in a mess, both of our own making and by others, and many in our political and societal elite are making it worse, with potential dire consequences.  Still, one must recognize the resilient strengths we have.  Forty-eight percent did not vote for Obama, despite a perfect-storm in his favor, and current polling shows him losing support, and even his allied media are having to take some notice of his excesses and lackings.  The US is emerging from this economic calamity relatively stronger than other countries.  The positive trend-line in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere that was hard-earned under Bush has not been abandoned by Obama, though it may become weakened.  Ordinary Americans are buckling down in their personal affairs and continuing to achieve for themselves, society, and our futures.    

Scott Johnson, however, seems to recognize the negative feedback felt by being ignored and powerless to be efficacious.  Those who’ve argued long and hard for greater sanity do not feel recognized with success or able to measurably change that.  Are they heading to a new version of tuning out?  I don’t think so.  But, what is needed instead is even more diligence and exertion, particularly in new ways – sane ways -- of engaging themselves and others.

Many are working at that.  Real change takes a while, in fits and starts, through trial and error, but relies ultimately upon faith in oneself, in one’s beliefs, in the decency and sanity of others, and thus in outcomes.

I’m not Pollyanna, but even prefer that to a depressed hole. So I’m not depressed, but energized. I know it works.