This was the title of a song copyrighted in 1929 by the composer Milton Ager and the lyricist Jack Yellen as published by EMI Robbins Catalog, Inc. and Advanced Music Corp. The most famous and repeated stanza is the following:
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
It was once the unofficial theme song for the Democratic Party and has been featured at almost every convention since Franklin Roosevelt was first nominated for President in 1932. Republicans prefer just scaring the living daylights out of people on a regular basis – all the better to manipulate them to act in ways contrary to common sense and their own best interests. However, both political parties are just fronts for our corrupt and powerful Oligarchy that actually controls much of the U.S. political and economic systems today.
Many people today advocate a new, simplistic, positive, and optimistic attitude might be just what this country needs to get us out of our current deep recession (economic and psychological) dysfunctional Washington politics, and general blues about a myriad of subjects, issues, conditions and challenges. Americans have always been a moronically optimistic group and the lack of positive thinking is plaguing us today in both the public and private sectors. (You can now just go up to a homeless family and tell them “Look on the bright side – you don’t owe any income taxes!”)
Some TMV readers have noticed that most of my posts over the past 6 months have become more and more cynical, negative, critical, pessimistic, and depressing screeds predicting an Armageddon-like dystopia for America that would warm the hearts of Malthusians and Hobbesians alike. (Finally, some people are picking up on my “shtick.”)
Probably many TMV readers (deep down optimists) have tired of reading my rants from sunny Arizona. I should look for the positive, sunny, and happy developments (green shoots), and simply disregard the bad news. (I thought that was the job of investment advisers and government officials.)
Perhaps on balance, things are not so bad and that we’re just a few more songs and dances away from perpetual growth and prosperity for all. It’s always convenient to overlook the glaring fact that we are undergoing major systemic changes in our economy, environment, culture and political systems that require a completely new way of living and thinking, plus a radical change in our domestic and international priorities. But thinking we’ll go back to some prior happy and carefree time is better than facing stark reality and the actual demands of the future.
Well, for those who thought I had changed my overall worldview, that’s not gonna happen. If you want irrational, reality-denying, delusional happy talk, you can read someone else on TMV or try another blog where they continuously churn out stupidity. If you are so sensitive and shallow that you only respond to endless praise and compliments, then my posts are not for you.
If you believe that most things (i.e. the free market, businesses of all sizes, government at all levels, consumers of all financial means, and everyone and everything in our society and on this planet) will miraculously correct and reset themselves, or that we’ll find a few magic bullets to solve all our problems, you are sadly mistaken and probably a complete fool. If my total readership declines to myself and the revolving TMV editor who is assigned to review my depressing posts, so be it.
Some TMV commentators have suggested that instead of just complaining about the problems, I should come up with solutions. There are plenty of decent solutions out there and I used to write about them in the silly hope that some people in power, influence, or interested in the public interest might actually think about them rationally and work to implement them. We’ve been discussing most of them for more than a decade and we’ll do so for another. But if we’re expecting real change in our country, you and I should live so long.
Our entire national political-economic system is completely paralyzed and gridlocked by fear, ignorance, anger, special interests, corrupting money, discredited ideologies, and partisanship, to name just a few of the many culprits. But it all starts with the lazy, ignorant, spoiled, greedy, narcissistic, fearful, and angry U.S. population and electorate whose collective mind is so ADHD and clouded from too many years of ingesting far too many illegal and prescription drugs that we can’t escape our national insane asylum. I’ve probably repeated these adjectives far too often in the past, but unfortunately they always are applicable. I certainly welcome a few new adjectives to use from TMV readers who yearn for more color.
Our national and local elections that occur every two years merely re-arrange the chairs on the Titanic. Few in our American society have outlooks that extend beyond the next quarterly business report. We simply have lost our will and interest to discuss anything rationally or make any hard decisions that might actually require that we take some personal and collective responsibility for our actions. Please don’t get me started on the utter lack of ethics and morality guiding most aspects of our public and private lives.
Prophets are generally not recognized in their own cities, by their own people, nor during their own times. My duty is to constantly repeat fundamental criticisms of society in the hope that someday, long after I am gone, some future generations might learn from our mistakes so long as they have those mistakes clearly delineated. That might not even occur in the future as this country is getting dumber and dumber with each passing decade, and most Americans are not interested in discussing anything of substance beyond celebrity gossip.
Perhaps these posts will survive until some future visit by Aliens from another planet as they wander around a lifeless and desolate earth wondering what happened. Due to their dispassionate objectivity, they might laugh and learn from my posts. However I don’t think much of anything will survive from our short human existence on earth after we render our species’ only home completely uninhabitable within the next century.
So my suggestion for today is to start boycotting everything. Stop paying your bills, debts, and credit cards, walk away from your worthless mortgage and home, don’t go to work or school, don’t spend money on useless crap, don’t pay any taxes, and definitely don’t bother to vote.
Our defunct Republic and greedy Oligarchy no longer deserve any semblance of legitimacy. However, most Americans are just stupid and scared sheep, and lack any courage or sense of civic duty to take a strong stand on anything. However more and more people will have their homes, jobs, assets and dignity taken away over then next 10 years. Then when they have nothing more to lose, they will finally find the freedom to act in ways that will really make a difference for their children and for posterity.
Some TMV readers might say why don’t I start this boycott first and set an example. My family and I fortunately don’t have any credit card debts or mortgages. We paid off our car a few years ago and have rented modest apartments over the past 4 years. We no longer eat out or spend much on entertainment. We take public transit when possible and will not purchase a second car. We have no new electronic gizmos or technology besides an Internet connection to an older computer. We live solely on my spouse’s very modest salary. Whatever I make from time to time on various small consulting projects is saved for emergencies or special needs. Our annual income is now so low that we do not pay any income taxes and the rest of America pays us an earned income credit. We have the minimal health insurance because we are all fortunately in good health. Finally, a boycott only works when the majority actually participates in it – not when a few people attempt the impossible.
So to all those TMV readers who started reading this post thinking I’ve changed my tune, did you really think that was possible? We are back to where I finished my last post. Are you and the rest of America about to change your stupid mindsets? Probably not. Now go download some more Internet porn and I’ll see you soon.
Marc Pascal, ranting happily from hot, sunny and dysfunctional Phoenix, Arizona. What calms the savage beast and soothes my soul is listing to music and playing the piano – generally including classical concert music of the 16th through 20th Centuries, Broadway Musicales, Jazz, Latin, and many different forms of pop and rock music from the early 1960’s through the early 1990’s. I am also of the opinion that Western Music in all its forms has essentially written itself out and the vast majority of music composed, performed and heard today is essentially cheap, uninteresting, banal, contrived, and worthless associations of various noises produced by humans and various electronic devices designed to make a quick buck and nothing more.