BarlowFriendz: Magnanimous Defeat

This deserves to be read and re-read. I already have. John Perry Barlow has owned a cattle ranch for 17 years and co-written songs with the Grateful Dead from 1971 to 1995. He pretty much coined the term "cyberspace" to refer to, well, cyberspace. He has written for numerous high-quality publications. He has also written what I wish I could write about the metamorphosis his anger had to take over this election and what has taken its place. This should help bring my friend, Annalisa, what she was seeking.

Boy, does this suck. Even with a couple of days of perspective, it still sucks. And it may suck for 4 more years.It may suck until sometime in late 2012, when the Mayans seem to think time and space will collapse and everything will suck everything into everything else. And that will really suck. But, for now, life goes on.

I feel as if half the people in America have just forced a fat crow down my gullet. I am compelled to admit that I am genuinely out of touch with half my country.

I feel like I'm suffering the death of a loved one. I'm not sure which of the stages of grief I've reached at this point, but I'm pretty well past denial. I'm mourning a number of losses, one of which is the belief that "my side" is actually a clear majority that would reveal itself if we ever shuffled off our disdain for politics and voted in any force. ( Actually, we may be a majority - I don't trust these results - but even if we are, our margin is very slender and we were too dumb, diffident and disorganized to prevent the other side from successfully gaming the system. I would be angry about that if it would do any good, but I see where anger has gotten us so far.)

I worked last night on processing all that wrath.
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