Depression

Like many others I read Billmon's post yesterday with the silent scream of rage most all of you have also had repeatedly the last four and a half years (especially since the Fall of 2002 when Operation Start-a-War was launched).

If you haven't read it yet, please do so. It is a hard slog, not because it is poorly written, like Digby, Billmon is incapable of bad writing. It is a tough read because it is so goddamned depressing -- and accurate.

I think Greenboy summed it up best:

Billmon spends a lot of copy considering what the rest of the world would do if Shrubya assaults Iran with nucular weapons without provocation. The more salient question for me is - what am I going to do about it? If our 'other' elected officials and community leaders make no protest, does that mark the end of 'politics as usual?'

Just as he did with Iraq, Shrubya will have effectively destroyed the world we know with one action, and rebuilt a new, more wicked world where our individual lives and futures are seriously darkened. The moral calculus will lead each of us conscientous objectors down an inevitable path of direct action with only horrible consequences for us all. I sure hope Billmon is way off the mark on this one.

That is exactly the thing that has been turning around in my mind. Like most of you, I'm a relatively well-educated guy, who may have a decent future ahead for himself as I enter my so-called "economic prime". But if the President of the United States starts another preemptive war, let alone one with Nuclear Weapons, that is something that cannot be reacted to with a mere blog post. I've sort of cynically joked I'd be marching on Washington in such an instance with a pitchfork and torch.

I'm not so sure that some derivation of that would not occur. I'd certainly put my practice on some sort of hold while I took to the streets, like millions of other Americans until Bush resigned in shame and handed himself over for trial.

Well, at least I would like to think I would, but for all I know, I could be the mirror image of a 101st Keyboarder and just sit an my ass and kvetch about it.