“Jumping the shark” is a popular phrase around Hollywood. It refers to the old tv series Happy Days, when the previously cool character Arthur Fonzerelli, “The Fonz,” resorts to water-skiing over a shark to prove his bravery. Although the series continued another seven years after that absurd episode, it never recovered.
On the day after the over-hyped Super Bowl with it's macho ads and lousy halftime show and reminder of the Katrina disaster, America seems to be in the same place as Fonzie. These past few weeks have been filled with a combination of moments that make it seem our country will never return to its former glory. A few of them:
--Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts took away the 6oth Democratic vote, dashing a filibuster-proof majority by winning the seat of Ted Kennedy, the icon who made a lifetime commitment to healthcare.
--Healthcare reform is on life support, with a weak endorsement from the president.
--Three top intelligence officers testified that it was “certain” our country would suffer an attempted terrorist attack in the next three to six months. Our intelligence is less effective than a google search and our security seems to be playing catch up with terrorists, depending on luck and citizen intervention.
-- The bank/finance industry continues offering gargantuan bonuses to the very ones who led us into this Great Recession.
-- The stock market has been dropping for four straight weeks and a double-dip recession seems imminent as Europe goes into economic crisis.
-- Foreclosures remain up; unemployment hovers at 10 percent; small businesses continue closing at a high rate.
-- With a projected deficit of 1.3 trillion dollars, Moody’s investor service may reduce the US government’s triple-A rating in the next decade without a major cut back of the deficit or a faster than expected recovery.
-- We remain in two wars, with no clear end in sight. Iraq has once again heated up with suicide bombers. Pakistan is tottering –with nuclear bombs at the ready -- and North Korea remains lethal and uncommunicative.
-- We seem unable or unwilling to broker a peace between Israel and Palestine.
-- The 24/7 media rarely digs beneath the headlines and focuses on sex and celebs du jour over meaningful reporting.
-- In a recent Daily Kos poll, much of the Republican party wants to secede, believes Obama is a socialist and not a citizen, and that he should be impeached.
-- The caliber of our leaders is astoundingly weak, and their beliefs are often faith-based rather than rational. Snarky Sarah ("palm points") Palin has not ruled out running for president in 2012 and has a steady fan base of maybe 20 percent of the Republican party. And the last two Democratic vice-presidential candidates (pre-Biden) are now reviled by their own party.
-- Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama has been able to hold up all the president’s 70 nominated government appointees because of his pique about local pork.
--The Republicans remain unwavering obstructionists; the Democrats, even with a broad Congressional majority and a still-popular president, remain spineless.
-- The Supreme Court’s surprising ruling that corporations can spend unlimited amounts on campaign financing assures that the spinelessness and debt to the corporate interests will not only continue, but increase.
Like Fonzie, America is careening on waterskis, wearing a life preserver over a leather jacket, jumping over a shark. Hell (or “heck” as possible President Palin would say), make that a whole bunch of sharks.
And seriously folks, the show may go on for years, the cast of characters may change, the plot lines may vary, but some of us are beginning to feel that our stable, safe, powerful Happy Days as a nation may be over.
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Comments
I am reminded of Yeats: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
If we could bottle up the hope we all felt after the last election....
R
Pilgrim, since the Massachusetts election I really lost hope in our electorate; it kind of corroborated what I've been thinking for the past months. Hope I'm wrong.
Greg, there's always a silver lining. It's just getting hard to see.
Gary, that's part of it. We had so much hope after the election.
Everyone wanted to have a beer with him - after twenty five years of machiavelian political lying, maneuvering and selling out of the middle class, Americans can only think of having a beer with an idiot. We like our politicians stupid and seemingly "like us".
Have we jumped the shark? Do bears shit in the woods? We've become the idiots we wish we could be. I wish I were an idiot. What I'm seeing worries the hell out of me. I'd like to be unworried and happy that something like Sarah Palin waits in the wings to lead me to the apocalypse.
Everyone assumes we'll pull through. How's THAT going to happen? We have sold out our manufacturing to a great global economic vision that benefits Wall Street and the few over the many.
We're a mindless mob waiting to happen. Maybe that will wake us up. But then what?
"may be" over to "are" over.
rated
Even locally I see lots of problems. Just in the local paper this morning is the story of Reader's Digest pulling totally out of Chappaqua and the owners of the old building say there is no company around to fill some 200,000 square feet of space that will be left after Reader's Digest's departure. The overall situation for residents and businesses used to be far better in Westchester in so many ways.
Sheila, the "good old days" were often bad, sometimes good. But the world keeps getting more dangerous. The stakes are higher.
Maria, that's part of it. Just part.
Foolish monkey, eloquent, sad comment. Thanks.
Markinjapan, I hope my usage is correct. You may be right.
Janie, you Canadians are certainly tied to us in so many ways. I have so many Canadian friends, including virtual friends, who shake their heads in disbelief at what has been going on down here. Many of you were too polite in the past to voice what you really think. But that is changing as things are so connected. We need a kick in the pants from our good neighbors, a friendly intervention.
`
William Butler Yeats
Upon a Dying Lady
Her Courtesy
With the old kindness, the old distinguished grace,
She lies,her lovely piteous heard amid dull red hair.
Propped upon pillows, rouge on the parlor of her face.
She would not have us sad because we are lying there,
And we she meets our gaze her eyes are laughter-lit,
Her speech a wicked tale that we may vie with her,
Thinking of saints and of Petronius Arbiter.
this line ...
Matching of broken-hearted wit against her wit.
`
off to watch game at Lea Lane. She shopped for alien cigars, striped candy cain, pearl ear rings, cheetas, bugles, diapers, and chickpea hummus.
And canned Spam.
Pit Bull BBQ winks.
Free hip-hop tunes.
Hopefully, one-by-one, we can solve these problems, but I'm of the belief that we are heading for a major reduction in our life style. (Rated)
What was the shark-jumping episode for us? Electing a black man as president? Or did we already jump it with W?
Caveats: I'm not sure I trust a Daily Kos poll about what Republicans think. And, as a Massachusetts voter, I'd say don't lose faith in us. That election was complicated by a whole bunch of factors, probably the most important being the blind eye Demo leadership paid to the anger people were feeling.
I agree with Maria. We say have to point fingers at the real bad guys: corporate chieftains and their WTF attitude. Then we'll get some issue-driven, righteous populism. Until then, the Dems--and President Obama--are doing just as much shark-jumping. Rated.
Harvey, that's what's new. Yes-- there are better things. But not in this post!
Art, maybe you could make sense of all this. Should we nominate you as poet laureate?
Lunchlady2, yes this is scary. Sharks are scary. But we still have a life preserver and are holding on to the ropes with both hands.
Roger, your satire is hitting at these things pretty effectively.
mypsyche, pretty scary comparison, but not that off.
Dorinda, I know. Just my reflections today.
Nationally, we have no clear direction and the mass of the population stands at loggerheads over the future course of the country. We have been manipulated by some powers that be into taking stands that do not allow us to hold one of the primary forces that made the U.S. prosper financially and spiritually for so long. That is our vision of a united country, one that did not agree on everything but at it's core recognized each of us as Americans first and all other labels a distant second. Without that unity of the citizens we are mired down in trying to hold primacy for one ideology or another at the expense of the country.
We have spent the last half of the twentieth century trying to legislate things that could have been done by an openly honest and fair minded supreme court. Each interest group has invested billions of dollars to influence legislation to be written in ways that could be interpreted to their favor, with no regard for what that meant to the balance of the nation.
A shift that took us away from the fundamental truth that in order for America to prosper Americans must prosper. We let charlatans mislead us to think that Wall Street is the gauge of our prosperity. We let men take away the industries that helped keep everyone growing and succeeding in an effort to make investors profits while destroying the average persons ability to purchase real goods that are made here by other Americans. Despite what those folks tell us, an economy cannot grow and prosper on the profits from investments. Our economy will never recover while American brands send jobs to second and third world countries and expect people who no longer have those jobs to buy them. The credit disaster is ample proof of that. Millions of people bought the lie that they would never lose money on a home. Banks who knew better kept lending people the inflated housing mortgages. All the while we hemorrhaged good paying jobs to offshore factories. While the companies showed great profits boosted by the sell off of their U.S. factories and the offset of labor costs. They had to keep prices up despite this in order to fuel investments. Generally when cost goes down so do price,s which in turn boosts sales which increases production, that generates jobs which pay well since a smaller labor pool makes wages grow, allowing more people to buy more of those real goods and it goes on in a cycle of continuous growth.
What we have done instead is make it easy and profitable for stock holders and private companies to close our factories, ship the jobs and the machines to make those products to places that do not trouble them with an advanced cost of living, pernicious pollution laws, or responsibility to those people who work for them. While for a time this could feed the investment community it is not sustainable since in order for even those goods produced offshore there must be markets. They made good that were out of reach in the markets they were built in and depended on the U.S. market to keep them producing. As wages and employment in general dropped the ability of Americans to buy these goods shrunk dramatically. For a time easy credit was the answer. People mortgaged their legacy and the inheritance of their children to buy the washers, dryers, cars, SUV's, trucks, T.V.'s etc. Sooner or later, like any soap bubble it had to burst. When it did, people could no longer pay the home loans, they could not meet even the minimum obligation on credit cards, They could not make the payments on a new car. The money wasn't there anymore, just like their jobs. What we replaced them with was inadequate at best. Low paying, part time and without any benefits to speak of.
Maybe this is better continued on my own blog space. You are correct in you conclusions here in my opinion.
I'm not by any means saying that we should just hope it gets better. Faith without works is dead. I AM saying that our view of the present, and how doomed we sometimes feel, is predicated on an incomplete perspective.
Melissa, we need your hopeful attitude. If everyone felt hopeless nothing much would get done -- even less than does get done now. And we need to work for the little ones.
Placebostudman, you may be right. It's just that we live in an age of nuclear terrorism now, so the stakes are higher.
Blair, we're not alone in bad politicians. But Canadians are so connected to us. If I were a neighboring country, I'd do my best to comment helpfully. Don't blame Canada. :)
bobbot, thank you so much for your extensive and well thought-out comment. You could certainly post it.
Lisa, I just did. I placed it under "politics" so it won't be that easy to have it stick with the plethora of postings there. But my home base is here.
R
Here you go. Jump this, Fonzie:
"I’m happy to tell you there’s very little in this world I believe in. Listening to comedians who comment on political, social and cultural issues, I notice most of their material reflects an underlying belief that somehow things were better once and that with just a little effort we could set them right again. They’re looking for solutions, and rooting for particular results, and I think that necessarily limits the tone and substance of what they have to say. They’re talented and funny people, but they’re nothing more than cheerleaders attached to a specific, wished-for outcome.
I don’t feel so confined. I frankly don’t give a fuck how it all turns out in this country—or anywhere else, for that matter. I think the human game was up a long time ago (when the high priests and traders took over), and now we’re just playing out the string. And that is, of course, precisely what I find so amusing; the slow circling of the drain by a once promising species, and the sappy, ever-more-desperate belief in this country that there is actually some sort of “American Dream,” which has merely been misplaced.
The decay and disintegration of this culture is astonishingly amusing if you’re emotionally detached from it. I have always viewed it from a safe distance, knowing I don’t belong; it doesn’t include me, and it never has. No matter how you care to define it, I do not identify with the local group. Planet, species, race, nation, state, religion, party, union, club, association, neighborhood improvement committee; I have no interest in any of it. I love and treasure individuals as I meet them, I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to.
So, if you read something in this book advocacy for a particular political point of view, please reject the notion. My interest in “issues” is merely to point out how badly we’re doing, not to suggest a way we might to better. Don’t confuse me with those who cling to hope. I enjoy describing how things are; I have no interest in how they “ought to be.” And I certainly have no interest in fixing them. I sincerely believe that if you think there’s a solution, you’re part of the problem. My motto: Fuck Hope!
P.S. Lest you wonder, personally, I am a joyful individual with a long, happy marriage and a close and loving family. My career has turned out better than I ever dreamed and it continues to expand. I am a personal optimist but a skeptic about all else. What may sound to some like anger is really nothing more than sympathetic contempt. I view my species with a combination of wonder and pity, and I root for its destruction. And please don’t confuse my point of view with cynicism; the real cynics are the ones that tell you everything’s gonna be all right. "
Max.
www.badflasher.com
Owl. you are indeed wise. But my fear is that the nuclear age makes the problems that occurred in the past even more grave. And we have become so partisan. The most I remember in my lifetime, and from what I have read, we are at a pretty low point historically when it comes to congress passing legislation.
Spudman, you are saying much of what I did, compressed. Alas I agree.
nana, your world view is unique -- but true.
Nancy, at least we live in Florida where there is some sand left to stick our necks into. I left out the whole global warming thing. Let's not go there.
Thanks, Lainey.
You know that "don't rest on your laurels" concept? Has anything ever rested on its laurels more than the self indulged "greatness" of the United States? It's mine, and I love it as much as the flag pin wearers, and I know you all do too, but if you step back and look at U.S. history in the world context, we became a world power financially and militarily because Europe destroyed itself with two wars. We held that dominance for 3, maybe 4 decades at most. So in 230 years of the nations history, maybe 30 to 40 of them matched the myth. Then if you look at world history, democracy and social justice are an even smaller portion. We talked about it, sang songs about it, but never really committed to it for long.
Does anybody even use the word pronto anymore?
We also need to deal with the military-industrial complex, as Ike warned so many years ago. Since the end of WWII, the U.S. has been involved in hot and cold wars on a nearly continuous basis. Our defense budget is larger than the rest of the world's combined. Militarily we've acted like an empire. Some of our actions we're necessary; many were not; some were disasterous long-term wastes of lives and treasure. No matter the consequence, defence contractors profited, Defense Dept. budgets increased. How many of those lost lives and spent dollars could've been used at home for any number of benefits to the general populace?
And I can see that my comment could go on for most of the day if I don't stop it now.
thebadflasher, Carlin was brilliant. He says it all, and would have been a clear voice today.
Bill, we may be too late for an intervention.
Deborah, I use it. But in Italy when I answer the phone. :)
http://open.salon.com/blog/xylocopa/2009/09/27/goodbye_to_all_that
I look at all of this as a good thing - as with all things human, we usually work at the speed of pain. I, like monkey, believe this is another opportunity at a wake up call. While every one can find a place to point a finger and some of our best op-ed columnists are doing so at this moment, I believe it essential to find our little part in this big machine and dig in. Simply voicing opposition to the status quo has been ineffective, voting leaders in who we wish to do our bidding is ineffective, and pointing fingers will enable us to divide up the blame but still leaves us holding the bag.
I see America as the great majority. Even with a daily Kos poll saying 20% of Americans would vote for Palin, that is still a minority. There was a huge ray of hope which came together behind the idea of Obama. I'm with mamoore, I hope we can bottle that up within each of us and find a way to do our part at what ever level we can be effective. It all adds up. We are America.
dynomyte, it's frustration. A summing up. A reality check. It's what the president has to see every day. Where to begin, and how?
sixtycandles, I hope too. But so I'm at the edge of giving up hope that the Democrats will get some ... spine. I did read Krugman's column after I sent this in, and he doesn't sound much more hopeful than this.
surly, didn't even get to that aspect. Thanks for one more shark in the water.
Yea Sparking. You and Melissa need to shore the rest of us up.
sophie, I'm sighing a big, big sigh too. And I felt some catharsis in writing this, and even more in sharing it.
Patrick, thanks for the link. Will go to it.
I am forever an optimist and think that no matter how bad things get, there are also many good thing about our country too.
And why can't I remember that Fonzie episode?? I loved Happy Days.
Occam, oh yes, the faith thing. Add that to the list. War is God's will or whatever.
dynomyte, our president is smart and likable. But excuse me Mr. President, please grow a pair and lead the Dems to get some health care reform passed, for starters.
Cranky, I could call you Funny Cuss.
Until we finally realize that career politicians only care about money and power and are in bed with corporations regardless of their claim to be dem or rep, we are doomed. Democrats aren't spineless, they are drinking from the same fountain as the republicans and kissing the same corporate ass. Good cop, bad cop comes to mind...
Most of us know all this, but in a scattered, unfocused way. Seeing it put together so coherently in stark contrast to the idea of Happy Days is just damn scary. If only our Damn Dumb Dems would wake up and smell the Teabags!
I really hope the chaos we see here are the throes of a paradigm shift which will usher in a return to the ideals of the enlightenment upon which our country was formed. If I believed in magic I would pray that is the case. I don't, so all I can do is try to encourage us in that direction and hope we can survive this religious drive towards oblivion.
Julie, that's how I feel, exactly.
Leonde, whatever the reason, it ain't good.
Sally, love it: "Wake up and smell the teabags!" Let's make some posters.
nitechance, great point, as another commenter pointed out. SO very important a part of the problem. Magical thinking. Faith over reason.
The system has become bribery and pay-offs -- but nowadays it's out in the open. And respectable. And expected.
So what did Gore do to piss off the Democrats? I missed that one.
skel, with the recent Supreme Court ruling the problem will grow worse. An awful decision for this country, and a harbinger of decisions to come in this Roberts court.
Sigh. I try not to be disappointed and jaded. Sometimes, I can't help it.
Seriously, Lea: how is Uruguay?
Frank, seriously Uruguay is quite democrat. Punte del Este is glam, Colonia is um, colonial. Are we going to find out something in your series?
Thank you Caroline.
R
We've just been in denial until now, when it may be too late to change it.
dynomyte, I'm not sure I'm quite as cynical as you seem to be here, but I am getting there.
Greg, you put an exclamation point on my point.
Runaway, definitely one of the sharks. Still there, too.
sweetfeet, damned if I know. Work for the "good guys." Email the president. March on Washington. Argue your point with the other side. Educate your children. And maybe just live each day to the fullest and try to not worry about things you can't change. Or maybe move to Uruguay.
junk1, or move to the Amazon (see above). I must say that I have traveled over the last 30 something years I have sometimes felt I wanted to stay somewhere else. If I didn't have family here, I might have.
The New Number Two, I am no longer in denial. I am in "What are we going to do about this?" mode.
I'm sooooo depressed. Spinelessness (spinelescity?) is a kind nomer for the Demz.
{sigh}
Connie, yes spinelessness is a euphemism for something lower down that comes in a pair, and I'm not talking feet.
At this point it looks like the term "Democratic political leader" means someone who is both able to see all sides of an issue and is unable to commit to one.
This needs an EP.
Patricia and Odetteroulette, thank you both for saying this post deserves an EP. Very kind of you. I'm proud that it hit a nerve.
denese, nice to see you here. Miss you. And yes, we are blowing it.
Seriously though, nice essay. Well said. Frankly, though, I think our biggest problem is cynicism and irresponsibility--- but that's another topic...
A Bridge Too FarI accused John McCain of "jumping the barracuda" by choosing Sarah Palin for his running mate. Hard to believe her star has ascended his in the political heavens -- check that, political hell.
People are foolish if they don't think Palin has a chance -- they need to keep in mind that nearly 60 million people voted in the last election for a doddering old man and a half-wit. Team Sarah with a centerfold like Scott Brown, and who knows what stupidity the voters are capable of?
"The Republicans remain unwavering obstructionists; the Democrats, even with a broad Congressional majority and a still-popular president, remain spineless."
...especially the second part. If the Dems had seized the moment in 2009 and really made progress on legislation, we could be in a lot better shape. But for a variety of craven reasons, enough of them have obstructed progress that not enough has happened. It's their internal obstructionism based on selfish concerns that angers me most.
I've felt incredibly depressed ever since Ted Kennedy's seat went to Brown. Of all seats. It's too symbolic not to trigger dark thoughts like yours (and mine).
Tom, you seem to have as much faith in the electorate as I do. And that means, not much.
Silk, beautifully put. We seem to be on the same page on most things, or at least many.
Some good will come from this rough period we've been in for awhile - I hope and pray.
Lisa, I waited until everyone had a big dose of good news Sunday. Hope you find this all wrong and have only good news, personally.
(Sadly, I must agree.)
Steve, I waited until after a nice dose of good news on Sunday before pushing update on this one.
Sandra, you could write a horror story from what I listed.
Jeanette, reeaaaallly interesting comment. I have to tell you that because I am older I have felt fortunate, because I have been through some wonderful times, and I worry for the next generations.
Perhaps I shouldn't lament the fact that time, seems to have gone into fast forward this past year. I still hope, things will change. ( it's those rose colored glasses )
old new lefty that US of A has an interesting ring to it.
-Rated-
Now I'm thinking that even being reduced to radioactive vapor would be preferable to life in these United States over the coming 30 years.
Cynical? Me? Nowhere near as cynical as a lot of our "leaders" are.
mary, you offer the hope that the commenter above seems to have lost. You have a great attitude about most things, as a matter of fact.
Silk - Absolutely right. Our country has rested on its laurels too long, and the Dems let a golden opportunity pass us all by.
But I do think that in every era it sometimes feels like the end, it feels as if "our best days are behind us," and "the world is going to hell in a handbasket."
I can't help but hope that, as in those previous eras, "the rumors of our demise have been exaggerated."
Then there's global warming. Big expenses will be necessary one of these days. Where's that coming from?
Maybe the country is finally unable to govern itself. Most Americans think they're overtaxed, yet the USA tax burden of 28% of GDP is way lower than the range of other modern economy democracies that average from the low to mid 40s. So how to raise money for more health care, education and pensions?
Honestly, if the country were a person, they'd be declared incompetent to manage their own affairs and someone else would have power of attorney over them.
(as if I really needed it).
As for the Republican South, I've had just about enough of the lot of 'em. They should really just go, and don't let the door hit them on the ass on the way out. Seriously. We won't even put up a fight over it this time.