Ann Althouse wrote
a beautifully brain-dead piece yesterday, that ended with a little speech about how
being a woman drives her, and other "sensible people," into being deliberately blind (how many times I've repeated myself in that one sentence can be debated) and claims this self-imposed cluelessness gives them/her a truly massive level of political perspective - check her out:
I am one of the many people — sensible people, many of them women! — who naturally withdraw from the political debate. It's just not worth it. Life is short, and much of it is beautiful and full of love. I want to go somewhere else. But somewhere else for me has been writing — ironically, about politics. That's an odd thing about me, but it puts me in a position where I can see some things that typical political junkies don't see.
Amazing, isn't it?
That this Obama voter's
Maharishi-like ability to couple her willed-ignorance with such self-flattery that "it puts" her "in a position" she's
compelled to speak from - alone - is worthy of mention, if not an award. You go, Girl!
Fly, Baby, fly!
Now, I may not qualify as a "typical" anything, but I definitely "see some things" Ann Althouse doesn't seem aware of - her blonde bob
mocking those who don't/can't live in her "fun" bubble. Like why "life is short" for many, and why "much of it" isn't "beautiful and full of love," but ugly as Hell. And it's specifically because some ("
sensible people, many of them women!") are isolated from it, and "naturally withdraw" to "go somewhere else" where they never have to look upon what they can't bear to witness, but others have to endure as a fact of existence.
(BTW - I would place the actual videos of Cyndi Lauper's "
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and The Go-Go's doing "
Vacation" in this section, but I just can't bear it - watch them yourselves, if you must,...)
Don't get me wrong - I understand what Ann means - for instance, I can no longer read
Instapundit for the unrelenting (and completely unrealistic) bias he's adopted. But that's
*not quite* the same thing, is it? I mean I'm not
running from reality, as Ann says "women" are, but running from
what the unrealistic present and represent (Glenn Reynolds can be added under the heading of "women," can't he?) that, ultimately, is harmful to my own mental being and/or very survival:
Their vision of unrelenting self-delusion and deceit. You know, like this guy thinking he can rap:
Folks, when America gets this lame, I sincerely don't know what else I'm expected to do,....
Then I am proud to call myself an insensible woman!
ReplyDeleteI've heard similar from women (and men) with far fewer credentials than Ms. Althouse -- perhaps this is part of it: you reach a point where trying to get to the understanding of it all becomes such a task that you just shut down? Perhaps that's how it works.
For myself, my escape is to do the things I like to do, and remember what some of my old instructors used to always drum into me: try to do the best you can and then go further; aim for perfection in your craft and accept nothing less (even though you'll never be perfect); push yourself even when doing the lowest task.
I should probably be getting off my lazy ass and doing that more (although, when I do, I find myself more fired up about everything rather than tuned out...perhaps that's what they were trying to do for me as well as teaching me how to do the task at hand...perhaps that's the way it's supposed to work).
PW