I'm an Optimist, really.

Several thinsg that caught my eye lately in the same theme. First this painful-to-watch-but-can't-tear-your-eyes-away video on Empire Burlesque. I got the link from UTI, an excellent site I visit often, though now I've added Empire to my bookmarks.
Then there was a bit on John Stewart last night, he was talking to Barack Obama, a guy I've heard might save the Dems down south- dunno about that, he seemed like a good guy on Stewart but that's a long way from being a guy who can save the USA from itself- anyway, Mr. Obama was talking about Iraq and used the analogy of a bus crash- what do you do when the bus crashes, well, first you fire the driver... anyway, it seems to me things are coming to a head in the Iraq situation, though I'd be surprised if Bush did anything as clever as pulling out, it seems likely that once he finally leaves office his successor will be find the fastest exit he can.

So why does all this mess and madness make me an optimist? Well, I've always felt that people who ignored reality so they could be cheerful were idiots, not optimists, but once you actually face reality if you can see the bright side of it, then you are an optimist, and that is me. I see this whole war mess and ugliness, and I don't like it, but looking back to Americas last debacle, it took a lot more years and a lot more body-bags before the impetus to keep fighting went away. The way I see it, no generation is really able to learn from the mistakes of others- each has to see war for itself before it can realize that yes, war is hell and best avoided. Sio the fact that this generation saw it quicker than the last- because of better technology mostly- means that maybe the next generation will require still less of a bodycount before it loses it's stomach for war. There will always be George Bushes to start wars, but the public pressure against them will dvelope faster and faster with each successive generation, untill the political masterminds behind people like Bush will no longer see any benefit to starting wars. Take away the ability of these people to benefit from war, and the wars will peter out. Or so I hope. Call me a dreamer.