2010: A Year of Mediocrity

One more year has come and gone, and by and large we as a society have absolutely nothing to show for it.  It was a brutal year in some respects – two ongoing wars, one vastly expanded; continued bailouts for those who need it least’ real unemployment hovering at 20%; the Republican mid-term massacre; the rise of the Teabaggers – the list could go on far longer than I care to remember.  Towards the end of the year we were told by our “liberal” president that we had entered a “season of progress,” during which a few pathetic crumbs were thrown to the masses, for which we were meant to be eternally grateful – the repeal of DADT, an extension of unemployment benefits (coupled, of course, with massive tax cuts for the rich).  Silly purists that we are, we demand far more than the real world allows.

As devastating as all of the above might seem, in most respects 2010 was an utterly forgettable year.  It represents but one more year in an endless stream in which the status quo of our plutocracy was not merely maintained but hardily reinforced.  The persistent trend of greater wealth for the rich and more devastating squalor for the poor – and lately, middle class – continued unabated, and the social paradigm which pits humans against humans in the name of the sacred god of free-market capitalism remained predominant.  The concept of “human rights” remains but a vague concept, while millions lack the basic necessities of health care, shelter, and adequate sustenance.

Human progress will remain in this state of stagnation as long as the masses remain so utterly distracted.  Even we on the left, self-professed members of the reality based community, bear our share of the guilt.   In many ways, our actions help to propagate the ignorance that spews forth from the corporate media, simply because many of us unknowingly accept the basic bullshit framework so carefully defined by the corporatocracy.